Django

Man, this debate is getting freaking tired.

I don’t know what’s worse. This one or the Prototype vs jQuery debate.

Anyway, the questions shouldn’t be Rails or Django.

The question should be When Rails and When Django.

I’m not going to set here and debate the merits of Rails’ magic or Django’s performance.

The fact of the matter is, there are projects better suited for Rails and projects better suited for Django, and they’re both really good frameworks.

I’ve dived into Django Nonrelational for Google App Engine. We host my company’s site on App Engine and recently moved it to Django.

It’s been great.

We use it as a CMS and CRM tool, and it was fast to setup, and the Django admin application was an answered prayer.

But, the user interaction is limited to simple questionnaires that don’t require sign in or authentication or many of the other aspects of a ground up, custom-built web app.

If I were to build, say, a social-bookmarking site or a social network or some other user-focused project, I would go with Rails.

Rails, in my experience, allows for more rapid prototyping and pivoting.

And finally, consider your talent. Don’t go with Rails if you’re loaded with Python talent and don’t go with Django if you’re loaded with Ruby talent.

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