Flask Vs FastAPI

­Flask and FastAPI are frameworks that help you make websites or programs using Python. These two frameworks are good for building programs with data science or machine learning.

When you want to build a Python application, you can build your application using Flask or FastAPI. Both frameworks have similar features, but the way of implementation is different.

People usually use Flask for making applications for the web or phones, while FastAPI is not used as much for building websites or programs.

Flask

Flask is a framework that makes it easy to build a web application using Python. Flask is a small framework and does not have a lot of features. This makes it easy to use for many different projects.

Flask is also called a micro framework because it does not have as many features as a full stack framework. Flask is built using other tools called Werkzeug and Jinja2, which help to make a web application that uses fewer resources.

Flask can create URLs and templates. It also works with WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface), which is a way to run Python web applications. Flask can be extended with other tools, and it is easy to understand how it works.

Some practical examples and scenarios for using Flask:

1. Building a simple web service that serves up a JSON API.
2. Building a prototype of a web application quickly.
3. Building a server-side component of a web application that needs to serve dynamic HTML, XML, or JSON responses.

Pros of Flask framework

Scalable: In scalability you can use modern methods in this framework, like containers or cloud computing with auto-scaling, to make it easier to put the application on the internet and manage more users. It is easier to put a smaller application like Flask on many servers to handle more traffic.

Simple Development: If you are familiar with Python, you will find it easy to work with Flask and make changes to a Flask application. Flask is less strict, so there are fewer rules to learn.

Flexibility: There are a few parts of this framework that cannot be easily and safely changed because of its simplicity.

Performance: Flask is closer to the basic tools that are used to build web applications, like the database and cache. This means it is faster than a full-featured framework like Django. There are fewer layers between the application and these tools, so the app will perform better right from the start.

Modularity: Modular code is divided into smaller parts, each with a specific function. This makes it more effective. With Flask, you can create multiple Flask applications or servers and distribute them across a network of servers.

Each can be designed for a specific task, which makes the entire system more efficient, easier to test, and faster.

Cons of Flask framework

Not Standardized: Flask is simple to use and does not have many rules. This makes it easier for Python developers to learn and use. However, because it is not very opinionated, it may take longer for a Python developer with no experience with Flask to get used to it.

On the other hand, Django is more popular and has a larger community of developers who are very familiar with it. A Python developer with experience using Django will find it easier to get used to a new Django project than a Python developer with experience using Flask will find it to get used to a large Flask project.

Developers writing worse code: Assume that companies usually hire good developers.

However, if you have a younger developer who is still learning or if you had developers who wrote lower-quality code in the past, then it will be easier to see and fix the bad code if you use a larger, more standardized framework like Django. This is because it is easier to follow the rules of such a framework.

Fewer Tools: When you use Flask, you don’t have all the tools you might need. This means you might have to build your tools or Search for other extensions or libraries from the community.

Pricing

Flask is currently used by companies such as Uber, Microsoft, and Explosion AI.

FastAPI

FastAPI is a framework for building serverless APIs in Python. FastAPI provides lots of features that make it easy to create and use APIs.

FastAPI works with a technology called ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) and can also use Jinja2 for templates. You can use FastAPI with any type of database and any library for working with databases.

Practical examples and scenarios for using FastAPI are:

1. Building a production-ready API for a machine-learning model.
2. Building a high-performance API for a large organization with strict performance and security requirements.
3. Building a real-time API for a video streaming service.

Pros of FastAPI

Performance: FastAPI is a very fast Python web framework. It is one of the best options for building a website or application using Python.

It is faster than most other Python web frameworks, with only Starlette and Uvicorn being faster. FastAPI can also handle many tasks at the same time and has special tools to deal with tasks that take a long time to finish. These features make it better than Flask.

Built-In Documentation: The documentation generated by FastAPI is helpful for many things. It helps developers explain the software to other people. It also makes it easier for people who build the front end of the software to use the back end. And it makes it simpler to test the software that let different application communicate with each other.

Cons of FastAPI

Inadequate Security: FastAPI does not provide built-in security, but it does offer the fastapi.security module for handling security tasks. This module supports the OAuth2.0 protocol for authentication.

Small Developers Group: FastAPI is a relatively new framework, so there are not as many people who use it or make learning materials for it. There are few books, guides, or lessons about FastAPI right now. But if FastAPI becomes more popular, this may change in the future.

Pricing

FastAPI is currently used by companies like Netflix, Lyft, and Zillow. It is a very popular choice among people who are new to Python development.

Conclusion

FastAPI is better than Flask for creating APIs, especially microservices. However, if you are already familiar with and heavily interested in using Flask, it may be a good choice for you.

Flask is a good tool for making small microservices with a few parts for connecting different applications.

Flask is good for building models to predict things and for making prototypes of web applications that use data. Flask is a good choice if you want to make a simple application that can change and grow easily.