[trumpeta]

Personally,I strongly prefer light libraries over comprehensive frameworks. Yes, you have to build up your app, but at least you understand what you're doing. And when something goes wrong you know how to fix it. You can follow the code. This is super hard with a framework like Django.

[nik_s]

I totally understand the sentiment, and generally, when I do solo projects or projects with small teams, I also prefer light frameworks.

In my experience, frameworks like Django and Rails shine when you have to collaborate with large teams on solutions though - the fact that there's comprehensive documentation, best practices, and clear standards make it so much easier to work together on a project. I do think Rust brings a lot of assets through its type systems when collaborating, but rolling your own auth/admin dashboard/orm is a hefty investment for most mid-size companies.

[pmontra]

I agree. Admin can be complicated but the breadth of authentication is surprising when you start enumerating the features. "I forgot my password" and "remember me" are the easiest ones and yet they're not a hour's job. Authentication is not where a company should invest its money. Use a well proven library and keep solving problems that bring home money.

[square_usual]

Yes - plus, something like Rails is great for getting people on board. If the first experience of a new language is being able to get shit done at record pace, it really motivates you to learn more about it as well.

[gomoboo]

I’ll add in a datapoint from someone that’s used Django almost exclusively for web work over the last 5 years. I’ve had to debug Django many times and most of the code following has been my own. When I have had to dig into Django’s internals their extensive test suite and clear code structure has made it easy enough to find the issue.

Where I do find issue is that the lifecycle for their generic view API can be opaque. The docs have been improved there lately though.

I’ll echo other comments in that Django allows new developers with no experience in Django to be productive quickly. The docs are the MVP there and cover everything from tutorials to in-depth feature write-ups with examples and best-practices.