# Django REST Framework

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Django REST Framework and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for building REST APIs on Django quickly and productively. The most common caveat is that its serializers feel too abstract to some developers.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well for APIs and SPAs (2 comments): "Django with DRF or django-ninja works really nice for that use case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46794791)) "I use Django + DRF for SPA." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46156571))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ruby on Rails](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruby-on-rails.md): 337 recommend
- [Django](https://hackerapproved.com/p/django.md): 277 recommend
- [Next.js](https://hackerapproved.com/p/next-js.md): 127 recommend
- [Phoenix Framework](https://hackerapproved.com/p/phoenix.md): 85 recommend
- [Laravel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/laravel.md): 71 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Django REST Framework", https://hackerapproved.com/p/django-rest-framework/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).