9+ Best Python Frameworks For App Development

According to Stack Overflow’s 2019 Developer Survey, Python is the most wanted programming language, surpassing JavaScript and Go! The growth and popularity of this general-purpose, high-level programming language can be judged by the fact that over 152,000 websites are built using Python, including some of the world’s most successful tech companies such as Netflix, Instagram, Dropbox, and Pinterest. With Python gaining so much traction among the community of developers, there has been a tremendous rise in the number of Python frameworks to ease the web application development process. Through this blog post, we'll get acquainted with the top twelve frameworks that you can use as a Python web developers to achieve more with fewer lines of code. Let’s get started!

Django

Built by experienced developers, Django is a free and open-source high-level Python web framework designed to help developers build complex data-driven websites and web applications quickly and effectively. Following the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle, takes out much of the hassle involved in web application development so you can concentrate on developing the app, instead of reinventing the wheel every time. In short, Django is: • Ridiculously fastrn • Reassuringly securern • Exceedingly scalablern • Incredibly versatile

Flask

Developed by Armin Ronacher, an Austrian software programmer, Flask is a lightweight yet powerful micro-web application framework which is highly suitable for developers to build a standalone app. It is called micro-framework because it doesn’t contain the following elements: • Specific tools and librariesrn • Database abstraction layerrn • Form validation As compared to Django, this Unicode based Python framework is best suited for small and easy projects. Some other notable features of Flask include: • Built-in development server and a blazing fast debuggerrn • Support for unit testingrn • RESTful request dispatchingrn • WSGI 1.0 compliancern • HTTP request handlingrn • Compatible with Google App Engine

Pyramid

Pyramid is a full-stack Python framework with a primary goal of achieving as much as possible with minimalistic complexity. The most striking thing about this framework is its ability to work equally well with both small and large-scale projects. Moreover, with a multitude of resources available, you can extend it to meet your requirements. Some of the Pyramid’s great features include: • URL generationrn • Function decoratorsrn • Single-file applicationsrn • Extensible configurationrn • Templating and asset specificationsrn • Flexible authentication and authorization

CherryPy

CherryPy is an object-oriented, minimalist micro web-framework that allows developers to incorporate the CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update and Delete) functionalities into their applications. You don’t need Apache server to run apps built using this fabulous framework as it comes packed with a reliable multi-threaded web server and runs apps on any OS that supports Python. Some of the key features of CherryPy include: • A powerful configuration systemrn • A flexible built-in plugin systemrn • Ability to run on PyPy, Jython, and even Androidrn • Ability to run on multiple HTTP servers simultaneouslyrn • Built-in support for coverage, profiling, and unit-testingrn • Out-of-the-box tools for encoding, caching, authentication, etc

Bottle

Another interesting Python framework is Bottle, which falls under the category of WSGI micro web-frameworks. Originally developed for building web APIs, this simple, lightweight, and fast framework is distributed as a single file module with no dependencies other than the Python Standard Library. Bottle is best suited for building small web applications with at most 500 lines of code and no special requirements. Some of the key features of Bottle are: • Built-in HTTP serverrn • Single-file deploymentrn • No external dependenciesrn • Plugin support for different databasesrn • Support for forms, headers, cookies, and file uploads.

TurboGears

Built on the top of several next-generation web frameworks such as Django and Rails, TurboGears is an open-source full-stack web application framework designed to help developers overcome the limitations presented by various web frameworks. Using this easy-to-set-up framework, one can quickly develop data-driven, extensible web applications in Python. Some of the key features of TurboGears include: • Command-line toolsrn • MVC-style pluggable architecturern • A designer-friendly template systemrn • Built-in support for database shardingrn • Support for SQLObject and SQLAlchemyrn • Integration with the MochiKit Javascript libraryrn • A powerful and flexible ORM with real multi-database support

Web2Py

Initially started as a hobby project, Web2Py is another open-source full-stack framework that allows developers to quickly build portable, secure, and scalable database-driven web applications in Python. Following a zero-dependency approach, this cross-platform framework neither has any special requirements nor requires anything to install. The main objective of Web2Py is to simplify the web application development process through a full-featured Web-based editor, a web server, and a SQL database. Some nice features of Web2py include: • Follows MVC patte • Pure-Python templatingrn • Virtually no learning curvern • A pleasant and consistent APIrn • Ability to read multiple protocolsrn • Role-based access control and internationalizationrn • Ability to run on any platform supporting Java or Python

Falcon

Falcon is a bare-metal Python web API framework best suited for blazing fast, responsive app backends and large-scale microservices. Encouraging the REST architectural style, this amazing micro-framework is well-known for speed, making the development of microservices and backends a breeze for developers. And, one of the best things about Falcon is that it comes with several add-ons, templates, and complementary packages to ease application development. Some notable features of Falcon are: • Idiomatic HTTP error responsesrn • Highly-optimized, extensible codebasern • Upfront exception handlingrn • REST-inspired resource classesrn • Unit testing via WSGI helpers and mocksrn • URI templates for intuitive routines

CubicWeb

Developed and maintained by Logilab, CubicWeb is an open-source, semantic full-stack web application framework that follows the well known object-oriented design principles and allows developers to reuse components to build web applications quickly and efficiently. Unlike other frameworks, this framework is based on the explicit data model and uses reusable components, called cubes, instead of separate views and models. Some of the main features of CubicWeb are: • Supports OWL/RDFrn • Embeds RQL to simplify data-related queriesrn • A library of reusable components called cubesrn • Supports SQL, LDAP, Subversion, and Mercurialrn • Support for multiple databasesrn • Good security workflow In addition to the above-mentioned Python frameworks, you can also give Sanic, Zope, and Tornado frameworks a try, which also offer you some really fantastic features to build highly secure and functional web apps!