Laravel vs Django: Explore Their Features, Performance and Scalability

Picking the right web development framework is all about catering to your business needs and requirements.

If you want your app to function perfectly offering a delightful user experience to your target audience, it is important to pick the right web development framework that can facilitate the process. 

Multiple popular frameworks are running the backends of the world.

Two of these frameworks are Django and Laravel. It has always been a toiling task to determine the better one. Since it is pivotal for your app’s success, making the right decision for your business is a must. 

So, which one to pick from? Before we can answer this question it is important to know your way around their places in the world of web app development. 

According to Statista, 7.58% of developers around the world prefer to work with the Laravel web framework while 11.47% of the developers are inclined towards Django.

When it comes to website development, Laravel accounts for 20% of the market share in web app development. Django on the other hand has captured more than 30,000 companies globally. 

Understanding Laravel

With a framework this popular, it is bound to have some lucrative attributes attested to it. These attributes are the reasons why Laravel became as popular as it is today. Some of these attributes are mentioned below.

Features of Laravel Framework

Template Engine

It also offers multiple resourceful widgets that integrate CSS and JS code seamlessly through solid frameworks. 

Authorization Technique

The Laravel-integrated coding techniques aid in limiting extortionate time wasted on writing superfluous codes.

It is all because of the application reasoning attribute that developers can exercise their freedom and flexibility to work individually on, on multiple projects of varying sizes. 

Robust Application Security

The security of Laravel is one of its strongest suits. Laravel frameworks provide the developer with permission to access robust and advanced security features.

The addition of salted and hashed passwords utilized by Laravel’s security features eliminates the need for plain old text passwords and their storage in user databases.

Artisan Tool for Automating Programming Tasks

With this feature, Laravel developers can part ways with the repetitive and regurgitating coding tasks. The Artisan command-line tool assists in developing the database’s fundamental structure as well as coding.

Maintaining different database systems becomes a walk in the park through its usability when it comes to migration job management. 

Competitive and Effortless Unit Testing

Laravel’s unwavering support of its unit test features of the code makes it one of the best choices for web & Mobile app development. Such testing ensures that the more recent additions to the program do not disrupt the functionality of the existing unit.

Every time Laravel detects new issues in the app, it will regulate frequent updates. It also helps in creating unit test scenarios for the developer. 

Helpful Tutorials

There is much to learn through Laravel’s helpful tutorials for novices and newbies in the world of web app development. There is always something to learn in Laravel, be it a free video lesson or a premium service.

The training material is quite simple and convenient to understand which makes this learning process all the more fun for the newbies. 

Performance Optimization

Optimization in Laravel enhances the user experience, curtails prices, and eliminates server load. It can optimize queries through caching and reducing resource-intensive tasks. This delivers improved content delivery speed and limiting page load duration.

Laravel app optimization also increases server efficiency to manage more traffic without exorbitant updates. 

Resource Utilization and Scalability

An app’s ability is truly tested when it receives a high input of demands and traffic. To make sure it functions smoothly regardless of the workload it encompasses is the purpose of scaling Laravel-based applications.

Designing and incorporating an app that can handle a gargantuan amount of users, data, and requests is how scalability plays out in this framework.

To achieve such scalability, make sure to perform:

• • Caching- Use Laravel’s in-built caching mechanisms or even third-party caching services such as Memcached or Redis. Caching enhances the app performance by limiting the inordinate computations and amount of database queries. 
    
    

• • Load Balancing– A load balancer facilitates incoming requests by dividing them across different application servers. This aids in offloading the workload and makes sure that no single server faces a bottleneck.
    
    

• • Horizontal Scaling– Adding more servers to your infrastructure can help in scaling your application horizontally. This can also be accomplished by utilizing cloud apps like Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS offering auto-scaling services.
    
    
    

Understanding Django

Django is a Python-based web framework that focuses on developing high-level, secure, and manageable websites.

It takes care of the web development side of things so that the developer can focus on writing the app without worrying about the outlook of the website.

It has a large community, free and open-source, highly-documented, and provides multiple options for paid and free support. 

Features

There are multiple features from which both the developer and the client can benefit by developing their app on this framework. Some of them are listed below:

• • Documentation– Django entails complete documentation which is meticulously detailed and incredible to use helping in learning and leveraging it.
    
    

• • Security– Built-in security features like user authentication and protection against nominal attacks like SQL injection are provided by this framework which makes it an ideal choice for developers to code in. 
    
    

• • Large Community– One of the best things about Django is its active community that participates in solving and rendering issues and bugs in the framework. Hence, a lot of resources and support is available to the user.
    
    

• • Convenient Usability– It is an easy-to-learn and use framework which makes it suitable for developers who are both beginners and professionals. 
    
    

• • Scalability– The framework is wired to handle high-demanding web applications making it ideal for projects that require efficient scalability.
    
    
    

Performance Optimization

High performance for an app is fairly appreciated by its target audience.

According to Statista, 16% of the users are willing to wait for 3 seconds before leaving the website and 26% are willing to wait for 5 seconds.

Hence, it is evident from these numbers that loading speed and performance are important factors that determine the user retention rate of an app. 

Below mentioned are a few ways in which you can enhance the performance of your app in Django:

Database optimization

In the SQL server you need to maintain the creation and functionality of stored views, stored procedures, database triggers, and functions. 

Also to tackle the issue of creating requests every time the app addresses a database, make sure to enable a persistent connection.

This will boost the user experience by limiting the response time of the app.

Code optimization

Knowing what part of your code needs to be optimized is an incredible strategy to have.

This can be achieved by any one of the analyzing and profiling tools.

The profiling side will offer you insight into monitoring specific function lines and aid in locating any hotspots that can be difficult to find through the source code. 

Laravel vs Django: A Comparative Study

Now that you understand the features and what makes either of these two frameworks unique that drives engagement, it is time to deconstruct them based on criteria that make people choose one over the other.

Language and Ecosystem

Laravel is a PHP-based open-source framework that is a blessing for things such as server-side processing, HTML authentication, as well as templating.

It follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) Architecture to develop multiple applications and services. The widespread utilization of this PHP-based framework is the reason for its popularity and success.

Django on the other hand, is a Python-based open-source framework that helps in developing quick and clean code.

This is possible due to its MVT (Model-View-Template) Architecture. It also includes in-built support for SQLite databases and is considered to be scalable, safe, and flexible. 

Performance

Laravel is quite robust and incorporates plenty of in-built features. Due to this, it tends to work slower and more retarded. Hence, developers must find better ways to develop well-optimized apps.

However, PHP 7 has brought much change in the framework when it comes to speed and efficiency to compete with its counterparts in the market. 

Django, in this case, has diametrically opposite standards. Since it utilizes Python, it is high-functioning providing incredible speed and performance.

Not just that, it also provides high-speed code execution and compilation boosting the web development process. You can also detect and resolve issues expeditiously in this framework. 

Scalability

Laravel provides decent scalability as it is supported by the PHP development language to help businesses grow. Horizontal scaling can be achieved effortlessly if you can pair a good load balancer and database.

To meet your ongoing requirements you can also scale your Laravel-based apps by leveraging MySQL, AWS, and advanced caching. 

Django provides high scalability due to its Python-based roots including its ML and AI capabilities. It can run smoothly on multiple technologies by supporting optimal loading times as well as performance.

Django will assist you in everything whether it is developing apps by using decoupled and independent components or utilizing ML models. 

Learning Curve

The learning curve differs for every developer while understanding Laravel or Django.

Django specifically has no learning curve as it is simple and convenient to understand. It becomes even simpler if you have a basic understanding of Python’s syntax. Code readability is promised as well since it is easy for newbies to learn and implement. 

Laravel on the other hand, offers a steeper learning curve to its users. Although, it can be simplified by utilizing different tools such as Laracasts and other documentation offering tutorials and lessons. 

Successful Case Studies of the Laravel Framework

When it comes to web app development, the Laravel framework is preferred by a significant group of developers around the world. Let us take a look at some of the best implementations of this framework resulting in some of the best applications:

1. Barchart

For financial specialists and industrial leaders, Barchart was developed through Laravel as one of the best apps for business owners around the world.

For stock markets of the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia it helps in gaining the latest insights and data. The backend services offered by this framework are enough to power an app of this caliber.

2. MyRank

Laravel’s flexibility made this app possible. It leverages flexibility and integrates the framework’s features with amazing aesthetics.

Due to the nature of Laravel’s quick development, releasing products effortlessly has never been quicker. 

This framework also permits the user to maintain a growing database. The layout elements of the app are portrayed seamlessly to demonstrate a visually pleasing effect on the screen.

This app also helps in teaching students other features like course summaries, ask-your-queries, video classes, and other features.

3. Neighborhood Lende

This app helps in facilitating the process of getting home loans. It was developed on the Laravel framework wherein users can benefit from a mortgage calculator and leverage loan preferences through it. 

Successful Case Studies of the Django Framework

1. Instagram

The world needs no introduction to this app. Instagram is built on the Python-based framework Django as it is required to process massive amounts of data and hold interactions between millions of people around the world. 

2. Spotify

The most popular music streaming app in the world was once an idea that began its course of development on Django. Due to its capability of holding a wide library of songs that can be accessible on every device, Python was used.

It also handles the backend services and machine learning abilities of the framework integrated with Spotify. 

Conclusion

Now that you understand the features and similarities along with the differences of these two frameworks, it is fairly obvious which one is the winner. You guessed it correctly.

Although the scales might be tipped slightly more towards Django, it does not mean that Laravel is not suitable for your business.

The crux of this article is to make you realize that specific situations demand specific solutions. While Django might be the more popular kid in the class, Laravel has equivalent benefits and offers world-class services, specific to your project.

It is up to you to decide according to your business needs and standards, which one suits your app the best. 

Frequently Asked Question’s (FAQ’s)

1. Which framework is better for beginners?

Due to its clear syntax and immense documentation, Laravel is considered to be more beginner-friendly. It offers a simple learning curve, making it preferable to developers who are not familiar with web development. 

2. How do Laravel and Django handle database management?

Laravel facilitates interaction with databases due to its Eloquent ORM which provides a convenient and intuitive way to do it. Django contains its ORM system that can abstract its database layer and allow developers to communicate with databases using Python code. 

3. Which framework is more customizable?

Django is the more customizable of the two since it offers developers only the necessary components. The modular design it incorporates provides developers with fine-grained control over project structure as well as its features. 

4. Can Laravel be used for enterprise-level applications?

Absolutely. Laravel is utilized by many enterprises due to its clean and elegant syntax with a huge variety of available packages that qualify it as an ideal choice for developing scalable and manageable apps.