Question from a Rails developer

Using Django Getting Started
1

Hello fellow Django users,

For a new side project, I’m debating between Django and Ruby on Rails. I have experience with both frameworks, but I’ve worked more with Rails recently. At the moment, Rails feels like a more complete, batteries-included package — though I’m not sure if that’s still true given how the Django ecosystem has evolved lately.

Project overview

Public website

  • Static marketing pages (SEO is important)

  • Venue listings containing multiple events, managed via an admin backend

    • SEO for public listings is important

    • Listings must be linked to a customer

  • Blog with admin-managed articles (SEO is important)

Client area

  • Customers receive updates about events (text, images, or both)

  • Customers can access all documents linked to a venue

  • Customers can sign documents

  • The client area should also be available as a wrapped mobile app (iOS & Android)

My current thoughts

From a backend perspective, I feel both frameworks are largely on par.

Where Rails really shines for me is the frontend experience with Hotwire / Stimulus. My understanding is that a similar approach is possible in Django using HTMX + Alpine.js, which seems promising.

Where I start to have doubts is the mobile app side.
In the Rails ecosystem, there’s Hotwire Native, which makes wrapping a web app as a native iOS/Android app relatively straightforward.

What is the Django equivalent here?
Is Capacitor the recommended approach for wrapping a Django-powered web app? I haven’t found much concrete information or real-world experiences/examples around this, and I’m curious how others are handling it.

One reason I’m leaning toward Django is to further improve my Python skills. It’s also appealing that many SDKs and tools tend to launch first for Python or JS/TS.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences — especially from people who’ve built similar setups.

Happy New Year to everyone, and all the best! :tada:

1 Like
2

@NiVanc

I have been using Hotwire with Django for the past years and I believe it is indeed better than HTMX + Alpine.js in many cases (many Django devs does not like to touch frontend stuff)

I chose Django because I love to write Python than Ruby, but I really appreciate ROR.

  1. You can find some useful packages which help you use Hotwire with Django Rails Inspire Django · GitHub
  2. Or you can take a look at Combining Rails Hotwire with Django to Ship your SaaS Faster
  3. I have also helped some people build web apps using Hotwire + Django, then wrap the apps into Android and iOS apps using Turbo Native, the stacks indeed work.

Please ask if you have any question.

2 Likes
3

I’ve been in a similar spot, deciding between Django and Rails. For backend and SEO-heavy sites, Django is rock solid, and HTMX + Alpine.js can give a modern, reactive frontend experience similar to Hotwire. For wrapping web apps as mobile apps, Capacitor or Tauri are popular approaches with Django, though the Rails Hotwire Native experience is a bit more streamlined. Personally, I leaned Django to sharpen my Python skills and leverage Python-first SDKs — it worked well for a project with public listings and client areas.