django-ninja
Shares rank 33 of 63 web frameworks by recommenders
People recommend it as a thin, typed way to build APIs in Django, with input validation and OpenAPI docs included, and it works well alongside the Django ORM.
People recommend it as a thin, typed way to build APIs in Django, with input validation and OpenAPI docs included, and it works well alongside the Django ORM.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Thin alternative to DRF
“django-ninja is a great alternative to DRF, precisely because it's so thin, unlike DRF.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Notes on Starting to Use Django” “Django with DRF or django-ninja works really nice for that use case.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Notes on Starting to Use Django” Works well with Django
“Django with DRF or django-ninja works really nice for that use case.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Notes on Starting to Use Django” “It plays nicely with all parts of Django, including the ORM.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Notes on Starting to Use Django” “it's the best thing happen to my 12 years Django career”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Django 6” Input validation and OpenAPI included
“I found it to be a big help personally and always wanted something for fastapi.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Oxyde – Pydantic-native async ORM with a Rust core” “give you input validation and OpenAPI for free”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: 15 yrs of Django in prod: patterns I keep using (agent skills)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy dependency footprint
“Ninja is quite a heavyweight in terms of dependencies”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “What I love about Django”
Other web frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other web frameworks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby on Rails | 337 | 145 | 70% | 12 | 14 yrs38 owners | Approved |
| Django | 277 | 97 | 74% | 12 | 15 yrs38 owners | Approved |
| Next.js | 127 | 256 | 33% | 12 | 3 yrs6 owners | — |
| Phoenix Framework | 85 | 11 | 89% | 12 | 8 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| django-ninjaThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“static typing ensures my view doesnt emit unrepresentable data”
“Ninja is quite a heavyweight in terms of dependencies”
“give you input validation and OpenAPI for free”
“I found it to be a big help personally and always wanted something for fastapi.”
“development accelerated massively”
“It plays nicely with all parts of Django, including the ORM.”
“Django with DRF or django-ninja works really nice for that use case.”
“django-ninja is a great alternative to DRF, precisely because it's so thin, unlike DRF.”
“it's the best thing happen to my 12 years Django career”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.