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Flask vs Spring: What are the differences?
Flask vs Spring
Introduction
Flask and Spring are both popular web development frameworks that provide support for building web applications. However, there are several key differences between these two frameworks in terms of their architecture, development approach, and usage.
Structure: Flask is a micro-framework, while Spring is a full-fledged framework. Flask allows developers to have more flexibility in terms of choosing components and libraries to build their application. On the other hand, Spring comes with a predefined structure and conventions, providing a more opinionated approach to web development.
Language: Flask is primarily used with Python, while Spring is commonly used with Java. Python is known for its simplicity and readability, making Flask a popular choice for small to medium-sized projects. Java, on the other hand, is a more versatile and widely used language, making Spring a preferred framework for large-scale enterprise-level applications.
Development Philosophy: Flask follows the "Do-it-yourself" philosophy, where developers have more control over the development process. It allows developers to choose and integrate various components as per their requirements. Spring, on the other hand, follows the "Convention over Configuration" philosophy, providing a set of predefined configurations and conventions to simplify development. This can speed up development but may limit flexibility.
Community and Ecosystem: Flask has a smaller community compared to Spring, but it is highly active and growing rapidly. Flask has a wide range of third-party extensions and libraries, making it easy to find solutions for specific needs. Spring, on the other hand, has a larger and more mature community with extensive documentation and support. It also offers a comprehensive ecosystem of tools and frameworks.
Learning Curve: Flask has a relatively low learning curve due to its simplicity and minimalistic approach. It is easy to get started with Flask and build a basic application quickly. Spring, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features and complexity. It requires a more thorough understanding of Java and the Spring framework.
Suitability: Flask is well-suited for small to medium-sized applications, prototyping, and rapid development. It is ideal for projects that require flexibility and customized solutions. Spring, on the other hand, is better suited for large-scale enterprise-level applications with complex requirements. It provides extensive support for security, scalability, and integration with other enterprise systems.
In summary, Flask and Spring differ in terms of their structure, language, development philosophy, community support, learning curve, and suitability for different project sizes. Flask offers more flexibility and simplicity, while Spring provides a comprehensive framework with extensive enterprise-level features.
Is learning Spring and Spring Boot for web apps back-end development is still relevant in 2021? Feel free to share your views with comparison to Django/Node.js/ ExpressJS or other frameworks.
Please share some good beginner resources to start learning about spring/spring boot framework to build the web apps.
Java in general, in my opinion, is somewhat outdated in 2021. C# is a better language, and therefore, I think ASP.NET (Core/.NET 5) should be used over it. Node.js isn't bad if you are getting started, or if you need to prototype an app. I use Node in production because of TypeScript, but .NET is a really good framework that has excellent performance.
I am provided with the opportunity to learn one of these technologies during my training. I have prior experience with Spring and found it tough and still haven't figured out when to use what annotations among the thousands of annotations provided. On the other hand, I am very proficient in Java data structures and algorithms (custom comparators, etc.)
I have used Node.js and found it interesting, but I am wondering If I am taking the risk of choosing a framework that has a comparatively lesser scope in the future. One advantage I see with the node.js is the number of tutorials available and the ease with which I can code.
Please recommend which path to take. Is Spring learnable, or should I spend my energy on learning Node.js instead?
I do not know Spring or your company/specialty. Of course it must be learnable and I won't tell you to give up on anything. Java is and will remain valuable.
Regardless, I don't think "lesser scope" is a valid strike against Node.js here. Node.js fulfills JavaScript's original vision of an everywhere language and can run anywhere that Java can. It serves webpages, communicates with hardware, powers command line tools, and builds desktop applications. A huge complexity-saver for teams running many environments (my biggest regret is that it cannot run a microcontroller).
Node.js' biggest practical weakness is that JavaScript is less structured than Java. Luckily, the large influx of Java developers has been helping with this: gaps like constants and private properties are gradually filling in, and TypeScript firms up the types to the point where JavaScript looks a lot like Java.
Probably more potential competition from the larger pool of JS developers, but the compensation is allegedly similar so I guess there is a similar supply/demand situation.
hi this depends where you want to advance . If you want to work for an big aged company with a lot of legacy go the spring way (banks, insurances netflix etc ) if you want to go the new agile fast cloud way learn node js it is much more suited for cloud and micro service even spring cloud can do that as well but it is much more heavier
I am a graduate student working as a software engineer in a company. For my personal development, I want to learn web development. I have some experience in Springboot while I was in university. So I want to continue with spring-boot, but I heard about Django. I'm reaching out to the experts here to help me choose a future proof framework. Django or Spring Boot?
Thanks in Advance
Kamrul Hasan, Don't choose dying technologies with small communities. How many startups do you think use Spring and Django? Use Google Trends to compare technologies. Study the StackOverflow developer survey and job websites to see what technologies are wanted. Few teams can afford to train you to get up to their level so be a life-long learner. Embrace the dawn of a new industry and become an expert.
I recommend you stick to Java Spring as you already have experience with the technology, i suggest you master this technology and then if Django seam to be very interesting to you, django is a framework you can easily pickup as python is also easy, you have to probably be able to manage the context switching between a static typed language like Java to dynamic language like python
Hi Kamrul,
It really depends on the kind of project and whether you feel more comfortable with Java or Python. Both are excellent frameworks, with a huge community and learning material. I've been working with Spring Boot since I started coding almost and I can assure you it's the perfect combination for Java. The learning curve may be harder that Django, but once you know the basics you're good to go. I can't tell you much about Django but you must now by now that it has a great reputation with Python users. In any case I don't think you can go wrong with any of these two. My advice is, if you are already familiar with the Spring framework, give Spring Boot a try, because you're going to find out that it just makes the whole Spring experience so much easier. Let us know what you chose!
It depends on what you want. Spring is Java-based whereas Django is Python-based. The question rather is Java vs Python. I personally recommend Python as it's shorter and easy to learn. But Java has advantages in really big systems.
Both are in active development and had huge community support. It really depends on you what you are comfortable with. Both are married to their respective languages. I choose Python over Java because of its simplicity and readability. To develop in java you need to write a lot of code. That's how java is. The best part I love with Django is its synchronization with Databases.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pros of Flask
- For it flexibility10
- Flexibilty and easy to use9
- Flask8
- User friendly7
- Secured6
- Unopinionated5
- Secure2
- Customizable1
- Simple to use1
- Powerful1
- Rapid development1
- Beautiful code1
- Easy to develop and maintain applications1
- Easy to setup and get it going1
- Easy to use1
- Documentation1
- Python1
- Minimal1
- Lightweight1
- Easy to get started1
- Orm1
- Not JS1
- Perfect for small to large projects with superb docs.1
- Easy to integrate1
- Speed1
- Get started quickly1
- Open source0
- Well designed0
- Flexibilty0
- Productive0
- Awesome0
- Expressive0
- Love it0
Pros of Spring
- Java230
- Open source157
- Great community136
- Very powerful123
- Enterprise114
- Lot of great subprojects64
- Easy setup60
- Convention , configuration, done44
- Standard40
- Love the logic31
- Good documentation13
- Dependency injection11
- Stability11
- MVC9
- Easy6
- Makes the hard stuff fun & the easy stuff automatic3
- Strong typing3
- Code maintenance2
- Best practices2
- Maven2
- Great Desgin2
- Easy Integration with Spring Security2
- Integrations with most other Java frameworks2
- Java has more support and more libraries1
- Supports vast databases1
- Large ecosystem with seamless integration1
- OracleDb integration1
- Live project1
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Cons of Flask
- Not JS10
- Context7
- Not fast5
- Don't has many module as in spring1
Cons of Spring
- Draws you into its own ecosystem and bloat15
- Verbose configuration3
- Poor documentation3
- Java3
- Java is more verbose language in compare to python2