We are currently developing two applications at Okapi; one with Ruby on Rails, and one with Django. While Ruby on Rails the most popular Web Frameworks these days, there is a ever growing Django following, which was open sourced about a year after Ruby on Rails was.

I found Django thanks to Kristopher Tate, CTO & Founder of Zooomr.com. I was looking for a framework that was FAST, and I had been on Zooomr.com quite a bit and really liked how fast the pages rendered. I was also looking for something that was built on Python, because a large part of Google and Facebook use Python. They too are some of the fastest sites on earth. So I pinged Kris one day on Skype and we had a nice chat about web frameworks. In the end, I was sold on Django; I had never heard about it before, but if this 18 year old hacker genius recommends it, I better get on board.

The main differences between Ruby on Rails and Django is simply the languages behind them. Rails is (obviously) built on Ruby, whereas Django is built on Python. Rails was born out of BasecampHQ.com, Django was born out of Lawrence.com. When put to speed tests, Django clearly beats Rails.

I think one of the main reasons Ruby on Rails took off and Django really hasn’t is because of how much better Rails has been marketed. 37signals, the company responsible for creating Rails, is a design studio that is famous for simple, elegant, usable design. Django never really had a innovative design studio/person loudly backing it. Zooomr is very innovative, but I have never once read an article talking about Zooomr’s use of Django.

As I said earlier, Okapi is currently building two applications. The one using Ruby on Rails is a simple time tracker for freelancers and small design studios. People will be able to use this to track all of their invoices, instead of wasting time with an Excel spreadsheet every time they are done for the day on a certain client. More on this application soon. The one using Django is a Client Management System for Moreno & Associates; a client of ours that we are currently rebranding. We have been talking about modifying the application and commercializing it, we will let people know if we do.

Overall, the two frameworks have been nothing but amazing for everyone on the team that is using them in development. We look forward to using Ruby on Rails and Django in the future for clients.