---
title: 'FastAPI vs. Django REST Framework: Which One Should You Choose?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=bGw9An9rI18'
video_id: 'bGw9An9rI18'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 357
---

# FastAPI vs. Django REST Framework: Which One Should You Choose?

> Source: [FastAPI vs. Django REST Framework: Which One Should You Choose?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bGw9An9rI18)

## Summary

This video compares FastAPI and Django REST Framework (DRF) across three key areas: performance, ease of learning, and community support. The presenter conducted benchmarks and analyzed data to help developers decide which framework to learn and use.

### Key Points

- **Performance Benchmark Setup** [00:46] — Identical API endpoints with CRUD operations were deployed on the same server. Locust was used to simulate thousands of requests per second, measuring requests per second and latency.
- **Requests per Second: FastAPI Wins** [01:40] — FastAPI handled ~1000 req/s vs DRF's ~300 req/s, attributed to FastAPI's lightweight ASGI framework and native async support.
- **Latency: FastAPI Wins** [02:13] — FastAPI averaged 50ms latency vs DRF's 200ms, indicating faster response times.
- **Ease of Learning Depends on Background** [02:40] — DRF is easier if you know Django; FastAPI is easier if you know Python type hints and Pydantic.
- **Community Support: FastAPI Gaining Traction** [04:03] — Django has 78.6k GitHub stars, FastAPI 74.8k, DRF 28k. FastAPI is growing rapidly and may surpass Django soon.

### Conclusion

FastAPI outperforms DRF in performance and is gaining community traction, while DRF remains strong for full-stack Django developers. Choose based on your background and project needs.

## Transcript

all right in this video we're going to
be discussing three main points for
comparing fast API to the Jango rest
framework and to know which one is
better and which one you want to learn
and use in the future this entire
comparison comes from sitting across
from a colleague of mine and we were
discussing the rapid development of
Frameworks and libraries and when you
really start analyzing different
Frameworks and libraries you notice a
slight Trend in the similarities between
them but what you don't see as easy is
per performance ease of learning and the
supportiveness from the community so I
spent hours and hours analyzing data
points from these three main subjects
and we'll be using them as the data for
this video starting with performance let
me walk you through how I set up the
performance Benchmark I wanted to create
a realistic testing environment so I
designed two identical API endpoints one
using fast API and the other using Jingo
rest framework both endpoints were
tasked with performing similar
operations which included just basic
crud operations on a simple database
model and then returning Json responses
to ensure overall fairness I deployed
both applications on the exact same
server with identical hardware specs I
used a popular load testing tool called
Locust to simulate thousands of requests
per second to these endpoints I chose
requests per second in latency as my
primary metrics for comparison as these
are crucial indicators of just overall
API performance after running The
Benchmark for a consistent period I
gathered the data and compiled it into a
graph that you see here let's start with
the requests per second fast API
significantly outperform Jango rest
framework handling around 1,000 requests
per second compared to D Jango rest 300
requests per second now this wasn't too
surprising given the tools in the
infrastructure of both fast api's
reputation for being lightweight and
optimized for high performance due to
the ASG framework that fast API is
ultimately built on along with its
native support for asynchronous
operations gives it a slight Edge in
being able to go against requests per
second now when it comes to latency
though is where I was a little bit more
surprised because fast API also came out
ahead with an average latency of just 50
milliseconds where drf's latency was
around 200 milliseconds this lower
latency means that fast API can respond
to client requests very quick in both
latency and requests per second so when
it comes to Performance I'm going to
have to say fast API is the winner but
now let's switch to point number two
which is ease of learning now the ease
of learning Factor largely depends on
your current background and experience
Jingo rest framework is built on top of
like the full Jingo framework you can
kind of think of Jingo rest framework as
like an attachment to the larger Jingo
project so if you already have
experience with Jingo you will be able
to quickly pick up jeno rest framework
as there are a ton of similarities when
navigating around the project jeno is
also considered to have a steep learning
curve but if you already have that out
of the way and you already know D jeno
then picking up drf is going to be easy
as the framework has a lot of those same
batteries and building blocks fast API
on the other hand doesn't have the D
jeno or backend experience you know
bonus points that you get if you already
know Jingo um it was designed with the
idea of being easy to use in being
developer friendly especially if you are
really good at python because it comes
with python type hints fast API um
leverages Python's modern features like
type annotations to provide better error
messages and automatic validating with
pantic so if you're familiar with pantic
and you're familiar with python typend
then that just makes the overall process
of learning fast API just quicker
because you can add in data validation
with pantic you can add in exception
handling you can add in a lot of things
very quick cuz it's all based off of um
python typend now the third point is uh
quite interesting in my opinion I I love
this third point and that's the
supportiveness and the community behind
each project um the best way to do this
analysis in in my opinion is kind of
checking out the GitHub stars jeno is a
leader with
78.6k stars with fast API right behind
it at 74.8k stars and then jeno rest is
quite far behind both of them at 28k
stars if we broke down the application
into a pie chart so here we can see this
we can see that fast API is more
comparable to like jeno when it comes
into popularity but D jeno is
significantly older than fast API right
so when you're talking about popularity
in the community behind it the best way
is really seeing like the last few years
and seeing how the last few years have
caught up with either one of the
projects and we know that fast API is
gaining a ton of traction right now like
it is shooting up and be I wouldn't be
surprised if fast API passed jeno in
another year or two like it is growing
at a significant speed when it comes to
just people starring the repository jeno
has been around for a very long time so
there's going to be more Legacy projects
and just projects in general using the
entire D jeno battery pack and and drf
sits on top of that right so you can now
call end points throughout your jeno
application but when it just comes to
just creating microservices or API
endpoints or just the back end and the
responsibility that the back T fast API
probably has a bigger supportive group
when it comes to just back in
development while jeno probably has a
bigger supportive group when it comes
into the framework that can build the
entire web application but if we're just
going to compare drf to fast API I'm
going to have to give that win to fast
API so now that you have all this
information you can use it to make um a
better framework decisions and better
Library decisions for you and your
future applications so with that cheers
friend