My first experience using Django REST Framework (DRF) in a project was almost a decade ago. I've defeneded DRF philosophy it in code reviews, taught it to juniors, and built production systems that still run today. But in recent years, after trying FastAPI in different projects, I started feeling bored. Not of Django. I still love Django. I felt it from the verbose boilerplate, layers of abstraction that solved problems I no longer had amde me ask myself if I need this much complexity in one place?
Then I found Django Ninja. And after two years of using it in production, I finally understand what I was missing.
This post isn't about "DRF is dead" — it's not. It's about understanding where each tool shines, and why Ninja has become my default for most new projects.
Let me walk you through the landscape honestly.
1. Django in 2026
