---
title: 'FastAPI, Flask or Django - Which Should You Use?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNlJCQHSmbE'
video_id: 'cNlJCQHSmbE'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 589
---

# FastAPI, Flask or Django - Which Should You Use?

> Source: [FastAPI, Flask or Django - Which Should You Use?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNlJCQHSmbE)

## Summary

This video compares Flask, Django, and FastAPI, three popular Python web frameworks. It breaks down their ease of learning, performance, use cases, community, and job demand to help viewers choose the right one for their needs.

### Key Points

- **Flask Overview** [00:16] — Flask is a lightweight WSGI framework, easy to start with, highly customizable, and great for small to medium apps and microservices.
- **Django Overview** [00:31] — Django is a high-level framework with built-in features like ORM, forms, authentication, routing. Ideal for complex, data-driven applications.
- **FastAPI Overview** [00:51] — FastAPI is a modern, high-performance framework for building APIs with Python type hints, async support, automatic data validation, and OpenAPI docs.
- **Ease of Learning** [02:29] — Flask is easiest to learn; FastAPI is intermediate (requires async and Pydantic knowledge); Django is most complex due to many built-in features.
- **Performance Comparison** [03:51] — FastAPI is fastest due to async; Flask has good performance but synchronous; Django is slowest but reliable for large apps.
- **Use Cases** [04:52] — Flask for quick prototypes and simple apps; Django for large monolithic apps with built-in features; FastAPI for high-performance APIs.
- **Community and Ecosystem** [07:34] — All three have large communities and many extensions. Community size should not be the deciding factor.
- **Job Demand** [08:27] — Django appears in most job listings; Flask and FastAPI are growing, especially in startups. Learning all three is beneficial.

### Conclusion

Choose Flask for simple apps and prototyping, Django for complex data-driven applications, and FastAPI for high-performance APIs. Learning all three is recommended for career growth.

## Transcript

flask Django or fast API this is the
question you should be asking yourself
if you're interested in Python web
development in this video I'm going to
break down everything you need to know
about these three different Frameworks
and tell you which one you should pick
depending on your use case now let's get
started with flask this is a lightweight
wsgi web application framework that's
easy to get started with and highly
customizable it's a minimalist framework
with extendable features and it's great
for building small to mediumsized apps
like micro Services next we move on to D
Jango now this is a highlevel python web
framework that comes with a ton of
features out of the box it includes an
omm forms authentication routing and
more Jango is ideal for handling complex
web applications because of its
conventional project structure and all
of the features that are built into the
framework saving you a ton of time
lastly we move on to fast API now this
is a modern high performance web
framework for building apis with
standard python type it has support for
asynchronous programming automatic data
validation and generation of open API
documentation this is great for quickly
building apis that are self-documenting
and really fast in performance so now
that we have an overview of these
various Frameworks I'm going to start
going through some very specific
comparison criteria so you can
understand exactly which one to pick
depending on your use case however if
you are going to build out a project
using one of these Frameworks you're
probably going to want to be utilizing
an IDE and not not just because idees
can make your life so much easier but
because experience with them is actually
something a lot of recruiters are
looking for now there's all kinds of
basic code editors to pick from but if
you really want to get to the
professional level then you should
utilize Jeet brains IDE which is the
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the description so let's start comparing
these Frameworks beginning with ease of
learning now we start with flask this is
by far the easiest to learn and in just
a few minutes you can have a fully
functioning API or website it's very
simple and easy to use there's not a lot
of setup or a ton of settings that you
need to go through and if you're just
trying to build something very simple I
definitely recommend sticking with flask
moving on from that we go to fast API
now fast API is more of an intermediate
difficulty there are more Concepts that
you need to learn you need to understand
asynchronous programming and it's
helpful to also understand pantic and
how you use the python type hint system
fast API is a lot more powerful and it
can provide automatic documentation and
data validation which can be really
really helpful but it does take a little
bit longer to set up and can be slightly
more complicated lastly we move on to D
Jango now this is by far the most
complicated because it has so many
features built in that means just to get
a simple D Jango website set up can
actually take 20 or 30 minutes if you're
learning this completely from scratch
it's definitely going to take you a few
days or a few weeks to really understand
all of the different features and how
all of the components work together that
said D jeno is definitely worth learning
and if you're going to be building
something more complicated and with a
lot of data I definitely recommend going
down that path just understand it will
take you a little bit longer as there's
a lot of things you need to learn to get
started with Jango so now we can get
into performance starting with flask now
flask has good performance overall but
it's not the best for high load
applications the reason for that is it's
built in a synchronous context meaning
it's not going to handle multiple
requests at the exact same time like
some other web Frameworks next we have
fast API now fast API out of all of the
Frameworks here is by far the fastest
it's Superior to all of them and the
reason for that is it's built
asynchronously meaning it can scale and
it can handle multiple requests at the
exact same time lastly we move on to D
Jango now Django is the slowest of the
three Frameworks due to its
comprehensive nature however it is still
very reliable for large applications and
a lot of huge companies still use Django
despite the fact that it's not the
fastest out there in summary if you're
really looking for the absolute best
performance and you're building
something like an API then definitely
choose fast API but for most of you this
isn't going to matter a ton so simply
pick the one that's easiest to use or
best suited for your project so now
we're going to dive into the use cases
starting with flask now flask for me is
what I use when I want to build
something really quickly and I don't
want to deal with a ton of configuration
or spend a lot of time setting up a
server if I need a really fast web
server if I want to get something done
in just a few minutes I'll definitely
turn to flask and even for slightly
larger hobby projects flask is still
totally fine personally for me it's not
something I would use in production
unless it was doing a really simple task
and that's because there are better more
performant options out there but a lot
of times in my development environment
I'll need a simple API and I'll turn to
flask because I know it's the fastest
for me to get something set up with it's
great to start with if you're a complete
beginner it's good for prototyping and
you can really use it to learn the
fundamentals of web development next we
move on to D Jango now Jango is best
when you're building a large monolithic
application and you need a lot of
built-in features like a CMS
authentication and om Etc now it's worth
noting that with a framework like flask
you can actually have extensions or
additional python packages they provide
some of the same functionality but it's
not as conventional to use them and it
can get a a little bit messy when you're
building a really large app so that's
personally why I prefer D Jango Django
has a lot of settings and configuration
built in a lot of things you already
know how to do because it's simply built
into the framework when you start
building something larger and you maybe
have multiple developers on your team
it's a lot easier to work with something
that has the conventions built in like d
Jango and all of the features already
wrapped into the framework Jango is
really good when you're dealing with a
lot of data it has again something
called an OM which is an object
relational mapping and it allows you to
utilize databases just like a normal
python object which can make it really
easy to do development and manage large
amounts of data that said it also has
all of that data that you can add to an
admin panel so you have a built-in CMS
and overall it's just better when you're
dealing with a lot of data and you have
these larger applications now lastly we
move on to fast API fast API is really
the choice to go with if you're trying
to build a high performant API now with
both flask and Django you can build API
as well or you can just build a normal
website where you're rendering HTML and
pages but really if you want the fastest
API you can possibly have then fast API
is the one to go with it has automatic
data validation automatic documentation
which is super super helpful especially
as you scale up and it has asynchronous
programming built in which is really
what provides it all of that speed so
overall flask for something simple
prototyping getting a hobby project up
and running Jango for something a little
more professional where you need those
built-in features and then fast API when
you want a high performance scalable API
so now we move on to community and
ecosystem now all three of these are
very large well-known python Frameworks
they have a huge Community behind them
and all of them have additional
extensions add-ons plugins Etc that you
can add to have additional functionality
in each framework for example something
like flask even though it doesn't have a
ton of features built in there's all
kinds of packages you can install they
provide that additional functionality
for example you want authentication in
flask you can simply install a package
and now you have flask authentication
you just need to do a little bit of
configuration same thing for Django same
thing for fast API so I wouldn't pick
one of these three packages or one of
these three Frameworks sory simply
because they have a larger Community or
ecosystem all of them are very wellknown
all kinds of resources on the internet
and they're used for very large projects
some of which you've probably interacted
with so now we're going to get into job
demand and which of these you should
learn if you are looking to land a
developer role now bluntly Django is
going to be the most popular here and
it's going to show up in the most job
requirements that's because this is the
larger of the Frameworks it's used for a
lot of larger or midsize companies and
this is really just what a lot of people
go to when they're trying to build a
website or some kind of backend service
with python so if you are looking to
land a roll simply learn Jango that's
going to be your best bet not to say
that flask and fast API don't have some
demand in the market they do and they're
increasingly popping up especially for
the smaller companies or startups but
most of the time you're going to be
seeing Jango listed as that primary
framework overall I would say it's worth
it just to learn them all D Jango will
definitely take you the most amount of
time but picking up something like Fast
API or flask is going to be pretty fast
and it can have an added benefit when
you are applying to jobs so there you
are that's my breakdown of flask Jango
and fast API flask for simple web apps
where you're prototyping or building
something quickly D Jango for more
complicated dated driven applications
and fast API for building that fast
scalable API with python if you enjoyed
this video make sure you leave a like
subscribe to the channel and I will see
you in the next one
[Music]