Pros of starlette

• More actively maintained with regular updates
• Larger community and ecosystem
• Better documentation and examples

Cons of starlette

• Potentially more complex due to additional features
• May have a steeper learning curve for beginners
• Slightly larger footprint

Code Comparison

starlette:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.responses import JSONResponse
from starlette.routing import Route

async def homepage(request):
    return JSONResponse({"message": "Hello, world!"})

app = Starlette(routes=[Route("/", homepage)])

starlette>:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.responses import JSONResponse

app = Starlette()

@app.route("/")
async def homepage(request):
    return JSONResponse({"message": "Hello, world!"})

The code comparison shows that both repositories use similar syntax and structure for creating a basic Starlette application. The main difference is in the routing approach, where starlette uses a more explicit Route definition, while starlette> uses a decorator-based approach. Both methods achieve the same result, but the choice between them may depend on personal preference or specific project requirements.

Pros of FastAPI

• More comprehensive feature set, including automatic API documentation
• Built-in data validation and serialization using Pydantic
• Larger community and ecosystem, with more extensions and plugins available

Cons of FastAPI

• Slightly higher learning curve due to additional features and concepts
• Potentially slower performance for simple use cases due to added overhead
• Larger codebase and dependencies compared to Starlette

Code Comparison

FastAPI example:

from fastapi import FastAPI

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/")
async def root():
    return {"message": "Hello World"}

Starlette example:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.routing import Route

async def homepage(request):
    return JSONResponse({"message": "Hello World"})

app = Starlette(routes=[Route("/", homepage)])

FastAPI builds upon Starlette, adding features like automatic OpenAPI documentation and request/response validation. Starlette provides a more lightweight foundation for building ASGI applications, while FastAPI offers a more opinionated and feature-rich framework. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements of your project and your preference for simplicity versus additional built-in functionality.

Pros of Flask

• Mature and well-established framework with extensive documentation
• Large ecosystem of extensions and plugins
• Simple and intuitive API for beginners

Cons of Flask

• Slower performance compared to more modern ASGI frameworks
• Lacks built-in async support (requires additional libraries)
• More boilerplate code required for larger applications

Code Comparison

Flask:

from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def hello():
    return 'Hello, World!'

Starlette:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.routing import Route

async def hello(request):
    return PlainTextResponse('Hello, World!')

app = Starlette(routes=[Route('/', hello)])

The code examples show that both frameworks offer a straightforward way to create a simple "Hello, World!" application. Flask uses decorators for routing, while Starlette uses a more explicit routing configuration. Starlette's example demonstrates its native async support, which is not present in Flask's basic implementation.

While Flask has been a popular choice for Python web development for many years, Starlette offers a more modern, async-first approach with potentially better performance for certain use cases. The choice between the two depends on project requirements, developer familiarity, and performance needs.

Pros of Django

• Full-featured web framework with built-in admin interface, ORM, and authentication
• Large ecosystem with extensive documentation and third-party packages
• Follows "batteries included" philosophy, providing tools for most common web development tasks

Cons of Django

• Steeper learning curve due to its comprehensive nature
• Can be overkill for smaller projects or microservices
• Less flexibility in choosing components compared to more modular frameworks

Code Comparison

Django:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def hello_world(request):
    return HttpResponse("Hello, World!")

Starlette:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.responses import PlainTextResponse

app = Starlette()

@app.route("/")
async def hello_world(request):
    return PlainTextResponse("Hello, World!")

Django provides a more traditional function-based view, while Starlette uses an async function with a decorator. Starlette's approach is more aligned with modern asynchronous web development practices.

Django is better suited for large, complex applications that benefit from its comprehensive features. Starlette, being a lightweight ASGI framework, is ideal for building high-performance asyncio services or smaller applications where flexibility is key.

Pros of fastapi-users

• Specialized for user management in FastAPI applications
• Provides ready-to-use authentication and authorization features
• Supports multiple database backends (SQLAlchemy, MongoDB, Tortoise ORM)

Cons of fastapi-users

• More complex setup compared to Starlette's simplicity
• Limited to user-related functionality, less flexible for general-purpose web applications
• Potentially steeper learning curve for developers new to FastAPI ecosystem

Code Comparison

fastapi-users:

from fastapi_users import FastAPIUsers
from fastapi_users.authentication import JWTAuthentication

fastapi_users = FastAPIUsers(
    user_db,
    [JWTAuthentication(secret="SECRET", lifetime_seconds=3600)],
)
app.include_router(fastapi_users.get_auth_router(JWTAuthentication()), prefix="/auth/jwt")

Starlette:

from starlette.applications import Starlette
from starlette.routing import Route

async def homepage(request):
    return JSONResponse({"message": "Hello, World!"})

app = Starlette(routes=[Route("/", homepage)])

The code comparison highlights the difference in focus between the two libraries. fastapi-users provides a more specialized, feature-rich solution for user management, while Starlette offers a simpler, more flexible foundation for building web applications.