Highlights from the Django Developer Survey 2024

Django has been a leading “batteries included” Python web framework for more than a decade. The fifth major release, which arrived in December, brought even more power and ease to Django.

Curious about the latest Django development trends? JetBrains’ PyCharm team, in collaboration with the Django Foundation, surveyed over 4,000 developers worldwide to analyze framework usage. Here’s what we found:

• Django remains the top pick for 74% of developers.
• One in three Django developers also uses Flask or FastAPI.
• Django is commonly used for full-stack and API development.
• Developers are shifting to HTMX, Alpine.js, and Tailwind for front-end development.
• GitHub Actions leads in continuous integration (CI) adoption.
• 39% of Django developers implement infrastructure as code (IaC).

Prefer to watch? View the discussion video featuring Django Board Member Sarah Abderemane, Django Fellow Sarah Boyce, and JetBrains Developer Advocate Paul Everitt as they explore the findings from the Django Developer Survey.

Dive into this post to explore more about these trends and check out infographics on Django development.

Django popularity shifts slightly

Django continues to be the preferred framework for 74% of Python developers, down from 83% last year. This slight decline indicates that Django developers are exploring alternative frameworks, likely to utilize specific features or adapt to changing project demands.

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Web developers mix Django, Flask, and FastAPI

One-third of web developers who work primarily with Django also use Flask or FastAPI, showing diverse back-end skills. FastAPI retains its appeal with 25% of developers, while Flask’s usage dipped slightly from 29% in 2022 to 26% in 2023.

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Only 11% of Django developers use all three frameworks, suggesting a preference for Flask and FastAPI in similar contexts, with a shift toward FastAPI for its asynchronous features. Explore detailed comparisons between Django and Flask and Django and FastAPI to determine which framework best fits your project needs.

Django leads for full-stack and API development

This year’s survey shows Django is preferred for full-stack (74%) and API development (60%), with a notable shift towards API work among employed developers. The rise of HTMX may steer more developers back towards using Django for full-stack projects.

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Interested in API development? Check out this tutorial on building APIs with the Django REST Framework.

Rising popularity of HTMX, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS

Django developers are increasingly favoring newer, simpler frameworks like HTMX and Alpine.js, with HTMX usage rising from 16% in 2022 to 23% in 2023, and Alpine.js growing from 6% to 10%. Despite still-prevalent use of established JavaScript frameworks—Vue at 19%, jQuery at 31%, and React at 35%—overall adoption has declined.

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The popularity of Tailwind CSS has surged, doubling over the past two years, while that of Bootstrap continues to fall. This trend indicates a growing preference for Tailwind CSS’s customizable, less prescriptive styling approach in web projects. For a comprehensive introduction to using Tailwind CSS in Django, check out this article by Tailwind CSS creator Tim Kamanin.

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GitHub Actions: The go-to CI tool for Django developers

The adoption of continuous integration tools among Django developers is on the rise, highlighting a growing appreciation for their role in enhancing development practices and productivity.

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GitHub Actions, in particular, has seen significant growth, from 35% usage in 2021 to 45% in 2023. Its integration with GitHub for source code management, the use of simple YAML files for pipeline setups, and the ability to customize hardware configurations make it a preferred choice for automating software workflows within GitHub’s ecosystem.

Django developers embrace infrastructure as code

39% percent of Django developers now use infrastructure as code (IaC), reflecting a trend towards automating and managing infrastructure through code. IaC offers more reliable, repeatable, and scalable setups for large projects. Terraform leads this space, preferred by 20% of respondents, making it the top choice for IaC provisioning.

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Start developing Django apps with PyCharm

Do you work with Django? PyCharm, our popular IDE (integrated development environment) for Python, helps you code faster with Django-specific code insights, code completion, and highlighting. It lets you navigate your project easily, connect to your database in a single click, and work with TypeScript, JavaScript, and front-end frameworks. PyCharm also supports Flask and FastAPI out of the box.

Survey methodology

The Django Developers Survey 2023 gathered approximately 4,000 responses during September and October 2023 via official Django Software Foundation channels, including djangoproject.com and the DSF’s X (formerly Twitter) account, independently of JetBrains.

• 44% of participants are from Europe.
• Most respondents fall within the 21 to 49 age range.
• 32% have more than 11 years of professional coding experience.
• 79% of respondents are involved in programming, software development, or software engineering roles.

For more details, view the full survey data in the Django Developers Survey 2023 Infographics.

Valeria Letusheva is product marketing manager at JetBrains.

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