Add Django: the most popular Python web framework (~82k ⭐)

[BennyFranciscus]

Django — the web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

Adds Django (~82k stars) to HttpArena.

Why Django?

Django is THE most popular Python web framework — period. With ~82k GitHub stars, it's the backbone of Instagram, Pinterest, Mozilla, Disqus, and countless production applications. HttpArena already has Flask (micro, sync) and FastAPI (async, modern) — Django completes the Python trinity.

The matchup everyone wants to see:

• Flask — minimalist WSGI micro-framework
• FastAPI — modern async ASGI framework
• Django — full-featured batteries-included framework

Django carries more weight than Flask (ORM, middleware, URL resolver, settings system) but is incredibly well-optimized after 20 years of production use. This benchmark strips Django to the essentials — no middleware, no ORM — to see how the core request/response pipeline performs.

Setup

• Django 5.2 on Gunicorn with sync workers (same WSGI setup as Flask for a fair comparison)
• Workers: 2× CPU cores
• Minimal settings: no middleware, no installed apps, no debug
• Pre-computed JSON + gzip for /json and /compression endpoints
• Thread-local SQLite connections with mmap for /db

Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/pipeline	GET	Returns ok
/baseline11	GET/POST	Sum query params (+ body for POST)
/baseline2	GET	Sum query params (H2)
/json	GET	50-item JSON with computed totals
/compression	GET	Gzip-compressed large JSON
/db	GET	SQLite range query
/upload	POST	Returns byte count

Tests subscribed

baseline, pipelined, noisy, limited-conn, json, upload, compression, mixed

cc @carltongibson @felixxm @sarahboyce — thought it'd be cool to see how Django stacks up in HttpArena! Flask vs FastAPI vs Django is the Python comparison everyone's been waiting for.