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Flask vs Tornado: What are the differences?

Introduction

Here are the key differences between Flask and Tornado:

  1. Execution Model: Flask is built on a traditional threaded model where a new thread is created for each request, allowing multiple requests to be processed simultaneously. On the other hand, Tornado is built on a non-blocking asynchronous model with an event loop, allowing it to handle many simultaneous connections efficiently.

  2. Web Server: Flask does not include a built-in web server and requires a separate web server, like Gunicorn or Apache, to handle HTTP requests. Tornado, on the other hand, comes with a built-in web server and can handle HTTP requests without the need for an additional server.

  3. Scalability: Flask is better suited for smaller applications and websites with low to medium traffic, as it relies on multiple threads for handling requests. Tornado, with its asynchronous model, is better suited for high-performance applications that require handling a large number of concurrent connections and real-time functionalities.

  4. Framework: Flask is a micro-framework that provides just the essential tools for building web applications, allowing developers to have more control and flexibility. Tornado, on the other hand, is a full-featured web framework that provides a wide range of tools and functionalities, including support for websockets, authentication, and templating.

  5. Compatibility: Flask is written in Python and can be used with any Python web server or deployment option. Tornado, on the other hand, is also written in Python but is specifically designed to take advantage of non-blocking I/O and can be used as a standalone web server or integrated with other Python frameworks.

  6. Learning Curve: Flask has a simpler and more straightforward learning curve, making it easier for beginners to get started with web development. Tornado, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve due to its more advanced and asynchronous nature, making it more suitable for experienced developers or those who require high-performance applications.

In Summary, Flask is a micro-framework focused on simplicity and flexibility, while Tornado is a full-featured asynchronous web framework with high-performance capabilities.

Advice on Flask and Tornado
kristan-dev
Senior Solutions Analyst · | 8 upvotes · 372.1K 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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Rafael Torres
Technical Lead at 4Agile · | 9 upvotes · 362.2K 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 · 294.7K views
Needs advice
on
BottleBottleFlaskFlask
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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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Recommends
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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 · 317.3K 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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Needs advice
on
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TornadoTornado

I have a microservice architecture where I have multiple storages and services and it will be expanding on the go adding more microservices and each microservice will be contained in a docker container and for microservices orchestration, Kubernetes is going to be used but I'm not sure if I should do them in flask or tornado

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Replies (4)
Srikanth Gopalakrishnan
Founder at TheDatingClub · | 3 upvotes · 8.6K views
Recommends
on
FlaskFlask

I would choose flask over tornado if you want to create easy back ends. Once you are looking for scalability, tornado offers great async operations like nodejs.

If in doubt, go with flask.

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SeungWon Jeong
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Speed: tornado Large community & documentation + easy: flask

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Jelena Dedovic
Recommends
on
BottleBottle

But what are you building??? It really depends on that, if you are building an web app I would recommend you Flask, If you are building RESTful service that heavily relays on I/O then Tornado as an async framework, but if you need sync you can use Bottle. If you can provide us with more details about your service we could give you better advice.

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Gergely Polonkai
Lead developer at Benchmarked.games · | 2 upvotes · 8.3K views
Recommends
on
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Without knowing your exact requirements, Iʼd recommend Flask. Tornado is excellent when it comes to async stuff, but Flaskʼs extension ecosystem is much broader. Unless you can afford developing some small but significant parts of your app, you will have an easier life with Flask.

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Pros of Flask
Pros of Tornado
  • 10
    For it flexibility
  • 9
    Flexibilty and easy to use
  • 8
    Flask
  • 7
    User friendly
  • 6
    Secured
  • 5
    Unopinionated
  • 2
    Secure
  • 1
    Customizable
  • 1
    Simple to use
  • 1
    Powerful
  • 1
    Rapid development
  • 1
    Beautiful code
  • 1
    Easy to develop and maintain applications
  • 1
    Easy to setup and get it going
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Documentation
  • 1
    Python
  • 1
    Minimal
  • 1
    Lightweight
  • 1
    Easy to get started
  • 1
    Orm
  • 1
    Not JS
  • 1
    Perfect for small to large projects with superb docs.
  • 1
    Easy to integrate
  • 1
    Speed
  • 1
    Get started quickly
  • 0
    Open source
  • 0
    Well designed
  • 0
    Flexibilty
  • 0
    Productive
  • 0
    Awesome
  • 0
    Expressive
  • 0
    Love it
  • 37
    Open source
  • 31
    So fast
  • 27
    Great for microservices architecture
  • 20
    Websockets
  • 17
    Simple
  • 14
    Asynchronous
  • 11
    Python
  • 7
    Lightweight
  • 3
    Handles well persistent connexions

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Cons of Flask
Cons of Tornado
  • 10
    Not JS
  • 7
    Context
  • 5
    Not fast
  • 1
    Don't has many module as in spring
  • 2
    Event loop is complicated

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What is Flask?

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

What is Tornado?

By using non-blocking network I/O, Tornado can scale to tens of thousands of open connections, making it ideal for long polling, WebSockets, and other applications that require a long-lived connection to each user.

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What are some alternatives to Flask and Tornado?
Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
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.
Node.js
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
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.
Bottle
It is distributed as a single file module and has no dependencies other than the Python Standard Library. It has fast and pythonic built-in template engine and support for mako, jinja2 and cheetah templates.
See all alternatives