Flask vs Streamlit: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Both Flask and Streamlit are popular frameworks used for developing web applications. While Flask is a micro web framework written in Python, Streamlit is a Python-based framework specifically designed for building and sharing data apps. Although they both have similarities, there are key differences between Flask and Streamlit that distinguish them from each other.

1. Development Purpose: Flask is a versatile web framework that can be used to develop a wide range of web applications, including both simple and complex projects. It provides a solid foundation with various extensions and features, making it suitable for building custom web applications tailored to specific requirements. On the other hand, Streamlit is specifically designed for creating data-driven applications. It focuses on simplifying the process of creating interactive and visually appealing data apps, enabling users to easily explore and present data.

2. Ease of Use: Flask requires more manual configuration and setup compared to Streamlit. Flask provides a flexible environment that requires developers to define routes, templates, and more, allowing for greater control over the application's behavior. Streamlit, on the other hand, is designed to be extremely easy to use, requiring minimal setup and boilerplate code. It provides a simple and intuitive API that allows developers to quickly build data apps with minimal effort.

3. User Interface: Flask is more flexible when it comes to designing the user interface of a web application. It allows developers to choose from various templating engines and front-end frameworks to create visually appealing user interfaces. Streamlit, on the other hand, is designed to provide a consistent and streamlined user interface for data apps. It simplifies the process of creating interactive dashboards, data visualizations, and widgets without requiring extensive knowledge of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.

4. Deployment: Flask provides more flexibility in terms of deployment options. It can be deployed on various platforms such as traditional web servers, cloud platforms, containerized environments, etc. Flask offers more control over the deployment process, allowing developers to fine-tune the application's performance and scalability. Streamlit, on the other hand, is primarily focused on deploying applications to the Streamlit sharing platform. While it simplifies the deployment process for data apps, it limits the deployment options compared to Flask.

5. Extensibility and Ecosystem: Flask has a mature and extensive ecosystem with a wide range of third-party extensions and libraries available. It allows developers to easily integrate additional functionality into their applications, such as database support, authentication systems, caching, and more. Streamlit, being a relatively new framework, has a smaller ecosystem and fewer third-party integrations available compared to Flask. However, Streamlit's ecosystem is rapidly growing, and it offers built-in support for common data manipulation and visualization libraries.

6. Development Community: Flask has a large and active development community. It has been around for a longer time and has gained popularity among developers, resulting in a vast amount of documentation, tutorials, and resources available. Streamlit, being a relatively newer framework, has a smaller but growing community. While it may have fewer resources available compared to Flask, it benefits from a passionate community focused specifically on data visualization and exploration.

In summary, Flask is a versatile web framework suitable for various web applications, providing more flexibility in terms of design, deployment, and extensibility. Streamlit, on the other hand, is a specialized framework specifically designed for creating data-driven applications, offering a simpler and more streamlined development experience focused on data exploration and visualization.