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ExpressJS vs Flask: What are the differences?

ExpressJS and Flask are two popular web application frameworks for JavaScript and Python, respectively. Let's discuss the key differences between ExpressJS and Flask:

  1. Routing and Request Handling: ExpressJS uses a simple and flexible routing system where routes can be defined with various HTTP methods and parameters. It allows for greater control over URL routing and request handling. On the other hand, Flask uses Decorators to define routes, which is a more concise and Pythonic way of handling routing and request handling.

  2. Language Support: ExpressJS is primarily designed for JavaScript, making it a popular framework for Node.js applications. It benefits from the extensive JavaScript ecosystem, allowing developers to leverage modules, libraries, and tools built specifically for JavaScript. Flask, being a Python framework, provides seamless integration with Python libraries and tools, offering access to a wide range of functionality and module support.

  3. Scalability and Performance: ExpressJS is known for its performance and scalability, especially when used with Node.js, which is built on asynchronous, event-driven architecture. This makes it ideal for handling large-scale applications with high traffic and real-time data requirements. In comparison, Flask performs admirably for medium-sized applications, but it may not have the same level of performance and scalability as ExpressJS for handling high loads.

  4. Community and Ecosystem: ExpressJS has a large and active community with a vast ecosystem of plugins, modules, and frameworks built specifically for it. This makes it easy to find solutions and resources for various application requirements. Flask also has a vibrant community, but the ecosystem might be relatively smaller compared to ExpressJS. However, Flask benefits from the wider Python community, which provides a wealth of support and libraries for various web development tasks.

  5. Learning Curve and Flexibility: ExpressJS is known for its simplicity and ease of use, which makes it an excellent choice for beginners and developers who prefer a more straightforward framework. It also offers great flexibility, allowing developers to structure their applications as per their preference. Flask, on the other hand, may have a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its Pythonic nature. However, it provides a lot of flexibility and control over the application structure, making it suitable for complex applications.

  6. Integration with Databases and ORM: ExpressJS has excellent support for various databases and provides several libraries and modules for Object-Relational Mapping (ORM). This makes it easy to work with different databases and define database models in JavaScript. Flask, being built on Python, has access to a wide range of database libraries and offers seamless integration with popular ORMs like SQLAlchemy, making it a great choice for handling database-related tasks.

In summary, ExpressJS is a minimalist and flexible Node.js web application framework that simplifies the creation of robust and scalable server-side applications, emphasizing a "middleware" approach for handling HTTP requests and responses. On the other hand, Flask is a lightweight Python web framework that follows a micro-framework design, providing simplicity and extensibility for building web applications with a focus on modular components and ease of use.

Advice on ExpressJS and Flask
Muhammad Waleed
The Community Management · | 3 upvotes · 137.2K views
Needs advice
on
Django REST frameworkDjango REST framework
and
FlaskFlask

Hey! So I am planning to make an e-commerce website with React Native as my frontend technology stack and MongoDB as my database. I was wondering what will be the best REST framework to use for my backend that will simply serve the frontend. Is Django rest framework a good option or should I go with Flask? I am currently leaning towards flask as the development team is well versed in it. Please help!

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Replies (2)
Preeti Yuankrathok
Software Consultant at CODIUM · | 2 upvotes · 63.4K views

If the application is simple such as less endpoint or simple logic, I'd suggest Flask. But what you're building is quite a large system that contains many logics and a lot of models. So I'd suggest you with Django and Django REST framework. Django ORM is also one of the best ORM in the world as well.

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Mayur Borse
Software Engineer at hyphenOs · | 2 upvotes · 66.9K views
Recommends
on
FastAPIFastAPIfastapifastapi

FastAPI is modern microframework. If you haven't used any of them, I'd suggest FastAPI. Django REST is also good if you have previous experience with it.

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kristan-dev
Senior Solutions Analyst · | 8 upvotes · 343.9K views

My journey to developing REST APIs started with Flask Restful, and I've found it to be enough for the needs of my project back then. Now that I've started investing more time on personal projects, I've yet to decide if I should move to use Django for writing REST APIs. I often see job posts looking for Python+Django developers, but it's usually for full-stack developers. I'm primarily interested in Data Engineering, so most of my web projects are back end.

Should I continue with what I know (Flask) or move on to Django?

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Replies (1)
Rafael Torres
Technical Lead at 4Agile · | 9 upvotes · 334.4K views

If you want to be a Web developer with knowledge in another frontend and NoSql technology, maybe continue with Flask. However, if you want to create very fast solutions to grow up with a new business and merge these with data analysis and other tools, Django is the answer. Basically read more about the service architecture where you feel more comfortable, Microservice or Monolithic, but please will not married with any because they solve issues to different contexts.

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Girish Sharma
Software Engineer at FireVisor Systems · | 6 upvotes · 272.5K views
Needs advice
on
BottleBottleFlaskFlask
and
NamekoNameko

Which is the best Python framework for microservices?

We are using Nameko for building microservices in Python. The things we really like are dependency injection and the ease with which one can expose endpoints via RPC over RabbitMQ. We are planning to try a tool that helps us write polyglot microservices and nameko is not super compatible with it. Also, we are a bit worried about the not so good community support from nameko and looking for a python alternate to write microservices.

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Replies (1)
Recommends
on
BottleBottle

Bottle is much less bloated and fast. Its built-in templating system is one of the fastest as it compiles the templates in bytecode. Also Bottle has no depenencies, preventing dependency bloat.

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Saurav Pandit
Application Devloper at Bny Mellon · | 6 upvotes · 289.2K views

I have just started learning Python 3 weeks ago. I want to create a REST API using python. The API will be used to save form data in an Oracle database. The front end is using AngularJS 8 with Angular Material. In python, there are so many frameworks to develop REST APIs.

I am looking for some suggestions which REST framework to choose?

Here are some features I am looking for:

  • Easy integration and unit testing, like in Angular. We just want to run a command.

  • Code packaging, like in java maven project we can build and package. I am looking for something which I can push in as an artifact and deploy whole code as a package.

  • Support for swagger/ OpenAPI

  • Support for JSON Web Token

  • Support for test case coverage report

Framework can have features included or can be available by extension. Also, you can suggest a framework other than the ones I have mentioned.

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Replies (1)
Recommends
on
FlaskFlask
at

For starters flask provides a beautiful and easy way to create REST APIs. Also its supported by excellent beginner docs as well as a very active community. Another good thing with Flask is its widely available list of plugins which allow you to build as you go. Its also good in performance and can scale to a quite decent level. However, if you are sure your project is going to be fairly big, it would be better to start with Django as it provides a lot of features out of the box and is extremely stable in performance. Both these frameworks have support for Swagger, JWT, Coverage Report although you have to install plugins for them. Deploying both of these are fairly simple and there is huge documentation available. Django has one of the best documentations I have come across. I hope I was able to answer your queries.

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Decisions about ExpressJS and Flask

We decided to expose our small machine learning (ML) pipeline as a REST API. This allows us to nicely separate concerns from the rest of the codebase. There are two very popular choices in Python for building APIs: Flask and FastAPI. We have experience with both, but find that FastAPIs use of static type hints and validation with Pydantic allow us to build better APIs faster.

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Pros of ExpressJS
Pros of Flask
  • 380
    Simple
  • 336
    Node.js
  • 244
    Javascript
  • 193
    High performance
  • 152
    Robust routing
  • 73
    Middlewares
  • 71
    Open source
  • 59
    Great community
  • 37
    Hybrid web applications
  • 16
    Well documented
  • 9
    Sinatra inspired
  • 9
    Rapid development
  • 7
    Socket connection
  • 7
    Isomorphic js.. superfast and easy
  • 5
    Light weight
  • 4
    Resource available for learning
  • 4
    Npm
  • 3
    Event loop
  • 3
    Callbacks
  • 2
    Data stream
  • 14
    Flexibilty
  • 10
    For it flexibility
  • 9
    Flexibilty and easy to use
  • 8
    Flask
  • 7
    User friendly
  • 6
    Secured
  • 5
    Unopinionated
  • 3
    Orm
  • 2
    Secure
  • 1
    Beautiful code
  • 1
    Easy to get started
  • 1
    Easy to develop and maintain applications
  • 1
    Not JS
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Documentation
  • 1
    Python
  • 1
    Minimal
  • 1
    Lightweight
  • 1
    Easy to setup and get it going
  • 1
    Perfect for small to large projects with superb docs.
  • 1
    Easy to integrate
  • 1
    Speed
  • 1
    Get started quickly
  • 1
    Customizable
  • 1
    Simple to use
  • 1
    Powerful
  • 1
    Rapid development
  • 0
    Open source
  • 0
    Well designed
  • 0
    Productive
  • 0
    Awesome
  • 0
    Expressive
  • 0
    Love it

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Cons of ExpressJS
Cons of Flask
  • 27
    Not python
  • 17
    Overrated
  • 14
    No multithreading
  • 9
    Javascript
  • 5
    Not fast
  • 2
    Easily Insecure for Novices
  • 10
    Not JS
  • 7
    Context
  • 5
    Not fast
  • 1
    Don't has many module as in spring

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What is ExpressJS?

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

What is Flask?

Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind.

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What are some alternatives to ExpressJS and Flask?
Koa
Koa aims to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Through leveraging generators Koa allows you to ditch callbacks and greatly increase error-handling. Koa does not bundle any middleware.
React
Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.
Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
Golang
Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.
NGINX
nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.
See all alternatives