With Python being such a popular programming language, it should come as no surprise that there are some excellent web frameworks available to help you develop your next project, whatever it may be. To help you navigate through the multitude of options out there, I’ve assembled this list of the top 10 Python web frameworks you should be aware of when designing your next web application or project in Python. Let’s take a look at each one individually!
Django
Django is a high-level web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites. It takes care of much of the hassle of Web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel. Best known for its batteries-included approach, Django comes with many features out of the box. These features make it possible to build an entire website in just one file. If you're looking for a lightweight solution that's free (in terms of both money and licensing), look no further than Django.
Flask
Flask is a microframework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jinja 2 and good intentions. It’s small, it’s simple, and it works. The syntax is intended to be minimalistic and readable. It was developed by Armin Ronacher in 2010 as a way of bringing together several great ideas that makeup what we now call microframeworks. At its core, Flask relies on Werkzeug for everything except serving HTTP requests. For that task, it uses either WSGI or Gunicorn (depending on whether you want a process or single-threaded server). To add functionality to your application, you simply need to install extensions. Extensions are stored in an extensions directory inside your application folder and can be enabled by modifying your configuration file. Extensions are written in Python and are typically very lightweight. Some extensions may require additional dependencies which will be installed automatically if they aren't already present in your system.
Pyramid
Pyramid is a free and open-source web application framework, written in Python. Pyramid is component-based and so its success depends on how extensible it is through third-party plug-ins. As such, if you are new to programming or web development, it might be a good choice as it offers thorough documentation and many users guides available online. With great APIs already built-in, Pyramid also provides a wide range of modular frameworks that can make developing websites significantly easier for new users. In terms of performance and security, Pyramid has been under continuous development since 2005 which gives you peace of mind when using or recommending it as an option for your next project.
Falcon
Falcon is a minimalist WSGI library for building speedy web APIs and app backends. It's very similar to Flask but tries to do as little as possible while remaining helpful. From an API perspective, it's pretty much a micro-framework. Beyond its use in APIs, Falcon is also intended for more general-purpose use as well - i.e., you can use Falcon on top of SQLAlchemy or ORM like ActiveRecord if you choose to go that route.
Bottle
The bottle is a fast, simple, and lightweight WSGI micro web framework for Python. It is distributed as a single file module and has no dependencies other than the Python Standard Library. On top of that, it's very easy to install and can be used with ease in your projects or in any of your scripts. Its simple, clean design allows you to focus on writing reusable web applications without worrying about including separate frameworks that exist only to take care of trivial things like URL routing or CSRF handling.
Falcon for microservices
Falcon is a popular choice for microservices. It's minimalistic and has a performance focus. The community is strong, but its documentation leaves something to be desired. If you're interested in using Falcon, try it out with a simple project first. Otherwise, it might be worth avoiding if you aren't prepared for some trial and error along your journey.
TurboGears
TurboGears is a full-stack web framework, with models and forms on the server-side, and JavaScript on both client-side (through Dojo) and server-side. Although it's not a true MVT framework, it can be used for rapid application development (RAD). However, TurboGears is also considered an MVC framework that adheres to many software development principles such as DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself), KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), etc. If you already have experience in Ruby on Rails but want something that works well with other languages like Java or .NET and can interoperate seamlessly with existing backend codebases then try checking out TurboGears.
Sanic
Sanic is a Flask-like Python 3.5+ web server that's written to go fast. Weighing in at only 145KB of code (145 times smaller than Flask), Sanic provides you with an incredibly small and blazing-fast server perfect for your next project. It doesn't do much, but what it does, it does well: HTTP protocol support via async io and WSGI; server-sent events support via pusher; Quick web applications prototyping (it was made for microservices); Any other use case that doesn't need a full web server like Apache, Nginx or Lighttpd.
Tornado
Tornado is a lightweight web framework and asynchronous networking library, originally developed at FriendFeed. It is written in Python, which allows it to be deployed on Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD variants, Solaris, AIX, and more. Because of its use of non-blocking network I/O and threading, Tornado scales exceptionally well — performance does not drop when you’re serving thousands of requests with it. Tornado also comes with an interactive development tool called Tastypie; a web test utility called Bunt; and modules for using popular template engines such as Jinja2.
Deap
Deap is an open-source framework designed for rapid prototyping and development of reinforcement learning algorithms. In Deap, you can combine deep reinforcement learning agents with existing libraries such as TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, and OpenAI Gym in a few lines of code. A growing number of academic research papers have used Deap and are available at our repository on Github. By popular demand, we have released Deap v1.0 which features new design improvements based on user feedback. We hope you will love it!