Why I've gone back to Django for my new thing

I recently wrote how I'd turned my back on my favourite web framework, Django, to use Next.js for my next product.

Well, after moving very slowly over the past month and a half, I got frustrated with my development speed.

Momentum and speed is crucial at the beginning of a new project. You don't want to be bogged down having to learn a new framework and coding paradigms when all you want to do is get something out to customers to see if it's something they want.

I'm starting again in Django.

The main benefits of the Javascript ecosystem and the potential for selling to a wider pool of acquirers in the future just isn't worth the tradeoff right now.

As I wrote on Twitter,

I could have just built the thing in the same amount of time as I have spent researching and learning.

I'm taking things a bit further towards the JavaScript ecosystem than I would usually.

This time I'll be incorporating React into the front-end in certain pages where it makes sense.

My typical way of building is using vanilla JS for interactive parts of my apps, with every view and template powered by Django. The simplest and easiest way to build.

If I use React instead, I'll be able to move towards a full React front-end in the future if I wanted. And I get all the benefits of using React over vanilla JS like state management and re-usable components.

I read through this great guide by Cory Zue, which explained some ways to add React and Vue to a Djago project, and now have everything set up, ready to go!

I started on a new Django build just yesterday. In one evening I almost got to the same place in the app than I had got to in Next.js. That took me multiple days' work over the span of five weeks. (I even copied over some of the React-based components I'd written for the front-end right into my new build! 🔥)

You can't stop me now.