15 Popular Sites and Web Apps Powered by Python/Django

• What is Django?
• Why is Django the Best Choice for Web Development?
• When to Use Django?
• Who Uses Django?
• How to Choose the Right Django Company?
• Maintaining Websites Built with Django
• Conclusion
• FAQ

When you visit well-known websites that are stable and can withstand high loads, you will find that many of them have been created with Python and solutions based on it such as Django. In this article, we will explain why Python/Django technologies are so widespread, and reveal which popular major sites and applications keep them under the hood.

What is Django?

Django is one of the most popular open-source Python web frameworks in the world. Python’s leading role is evidenced by the numerous authoritative high rankings given to it in terms of both ease of use and learning of programming languages. It was ranked first in the TIOBE Index for example, and the PYPL Popularity of Programming Language Index, which defines Python as both the most popular language, and also confirms that it is the programming language which has seen the highest growth over the past 5 years.

According to SimilarTech, 66.5% of sites built in the Python programming language are Django websites, with 81,922 of them online currently. Thanks to its open source code and the endeavors of a large expert community, there is continuous development and updating of this Python-based framework.

Why is Django the Best Choice for Web Development?

Django’s main purpose is to help developers take an application from ideas and concepts to completion as quickly as possible. Among the advantages of Django are:

• Speed: You can create a fully-fledged web application or MVP in a matter of hours
• Out-of-the-box tools: such as user authentication, a sitemap, a feed syndication framework, an object-relational mapper (ORM), database schema migrations, dynamic administrative interface and URL routing, etc
• Security: Built-in protection against network attacks and hacking
• Scalability: Django adapts well to high traffic
• Versatility: the framework allows you to implement any project, from content management systems to scientific computing platforms.

When to Use Django?

The Django framework is used by large IT companies for various purposes, both to create sub-projects and to build entire websites. It is renowned for its simplicity, speed, reliability, and flexibility. Therefore, Django can easily be adapted to any project and used to build high-load websites with huge traffic.

This framework can be thought of as a self-sufficient toolkit. Its structure and comprehensive compatibility with ready-made solutions minimizes the need for developers to use external libraries and tools. Django’s strengths are keenly felt in long-term projects, where priorities range from reliability, information protection, and the possibility for further scaling.

Who Uses Django?

Companies that use Python/Django represent very different sectors and target a wide range of audiences. Let’s take a look at some projects powered by Python/Django, where the information provided is taken from open sources, as well as from official company blogs.

1. Instagram

The fastest growing photo and video sharing app Instagram was created in 2010 and purchased by Facebook (now Meta Platforms) for $1 billion in April 2012. By 2018, Instagram’s audience had passed the one billion user mark, with traffic reaching over 500 million people per day.

From the very beginning, Instagram has been completely and entirely powered by Django. The Django framework helped scale the application, and has made it possible to process huge amounts of data and manage ever increasing numbers of user interactions per second.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React, Redux
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL, Redis, Memcached.

2. Mozilla

Mozilla is primarily known for its browser, Firefox, although the company is also involved in other projects. In particular, with the help of Django, Mozilla developed its MDN Web Docs service and the Mozilla support site (support.mozilla.org).

Mozilla has been on the market since 1998, making it one of the oldest Internet companies. As of 2020, Mozilla products have been used by over 500 million people, and by the end of 2019, the company’s revenue totaled $826.6 million.

Technologies used (taking MDN as an example):

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL, MySQL.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest is very similar to Instagram. Here, users can also share photos and search for photos and images that match their interests.

Pinterest was launched in 2010, and at first a request or an invitation was required to register on the site. By 2020, the company’s advertising revenue reached $1.7 billion, and as of 2021 had 478 million users every month.

Django is popular among social networking platforms as it processes huge amounts of data and simultaneously handles thousands of user requests. Django allows Pinterest to deliver excellent performance and scalability, as well as handle growing numbers of new users.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, Memcached, Redis, Hadoop.

4. Disqus

Disqus is one of the most significant projects developed using Django. It allows you to manage a comment section on your website, analyze audience activity and customize ad serving.

Disqus was launched in 2007 and had raised $10 million by early 2011. As of 2020, the community had about 500 million unique visitors per month, and more than 750,000 websites use the Disqus comment service.

The Disqus team uses Django for almost all of their web traffic and actively leverages the framework’s features to improve performance.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL, Memcached, Redis.

5. Spotify

Founded in 2006, Spotify is a huge worldwide music library available across a vast array of devices. This digital music service had 406 million monthly active users as of Q4 2021, a marked increase from 345 million in 2020.

The Spotify team uses Python extensively in their projects, mainly for backend services and data analysis. Whilst Spotify does not apply Django as its main backend, it does use it for other services.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React, Next.js
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL, Hadoop.

6. Bitbucket

Launched back in 2008 and acquired by Atlassian back in 2010, Bitbucket, a Git repository, has attracted millions of developers. Programmers actively use the service to create somewhere in the region of 6 million repositories a year.

The Bitbucket team chose Django because “it’s a great tool that offers a lot of ready-to-implement solutions like URL pattern matching and web form creation/validation.” Another reason is its support for the DRY principle (Don’t Repeat Yourself).

Technologies used:

• Frontend: HTML + CSS
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL, Redis.

7. National Geographic

National Geographic is a popular TV channel and monthly magazine featuring educational content about science, culture, and history.

National Geographic Partners is a major joint venture between the Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Company has six magazines, seven television channels, and National Geographic Travel.

An average of 11.9 million users per month visit National Geographic’s main Django-powered website according to SimilarWeb. National Geographic’s educational website is also a Django website example because it is built on one of the Django-based content management systems (CMSs) — Django CMS.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: PostgreSQL.

8. Udemy

Udemy is a massive open online course platform aimed at professional adults and students. As of April 2021, more than 40 million students used Udemy. The platform offers 155,000 courses with 70,000 instructors.

Since the beginning of this educational resource in May 2010, over 480 million people have enrolled in different courses. Django helps the platform to handle huge amounts of content as quickly as possible so that information is instantly available to students at any time.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, Redis, Memcached.

9. Coursera

Coursera is an online educational platform founded in 2012. As of 2020, the platform offered 3,800 courses accessed by 70 million students.

Coursera uses Django because the framework provides fast user interactions and security, and, due to its scalability, is able to adapt to a growing number of courses and students.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL.

10. Indeed

Indeed is an employment website launched in November 2004. Today, Indeed is available in 28 languages in more than 60 countries.

As of June 2021, the Indeed site was visited by more than 250 unique visitors per month. It contains close to 175 million resumes, and 10 new job offers are added to the portal every second.

Django allows Indeed to easily handle the huge flow of job inquiries, vacancies, and responses from job seekers and employers alike.

Technologies used:

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

11. Opera

One of the top Django websites belongs to the well-known multi-platform web browser Opera, which, with 153.2 million monthly visits, eloquently testifies to the relevance of using Django for resources with high traffic. Concurrently, visitors to a website made with Django can not only familiarize themselves with the capabilities of the browser but also download its new versions. As Opera is one of the top 5 browsers in the world, its safe to say that its more than 320 million active users require a reliable, fast, and secure site.

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

12. YouTube

This online video sharing and social media platform was launched in 2005 and is currently owned by Google. It should be emphasized that YouTube has the world’s second most visited website, behind only Google Search. YouTube has over 2.5 billion monthly users. More than one billion hours of video are watched on the platform every day.

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

13. NASA

One of the Django website examples is the official NASA website. The importance and popularity of this site derives from the level of significant public interest in the civil space program, aeronautics, and space research carried out by The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Data security is also a priority for an area like space research.

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

14. Dropbox

About 700 million registered users store their documents, videos, and graphics in the Dropbox cloud service, relying on the security protections available and their ease of access to their information. This popular product offers cloud storage and file synchronization and also uses Python and Django capabilities.

• Frontend: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

15. Clubhouse

Another Django website example that clearly demonstrates how diverse web solutions can be created using this Python-based framework. Clubhouse, a website and social application for mobile users, features a unique feature whereby communication is carried out exclusively by voice in audio chats featuring the participation of thousands of people.

• App: React
• Backend: Python/Django
• Database technologies: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached

How to Choose the Right Django Company?

The success of your future website or application depends not only on the technology itself, but also on the people who use it. Consider the following factors during the process of selecting a contractor specializing in websites built in Django:

• Achieve confidence that the development team has expertise in Python/Django. Pay attention to the contractor’s readiness to use all the capabilities of this programming language and framework, including libraries, extensions, and APIs. Make sure developers follow best practices and official guidelines. Primarily referring to MDN Web Docs, naming conventions, and coding conventions like PEP 8 — Style Guide for Python Code
• Get to know the contractor’s portfolio of implemented projects, including feedback from prominent clients. This will help to facilitate dialogue
• Schedule an information exchange meeting to get to know the management of the company and the project. The very first conversation you have about your project will show you just how ready the developers are to understand and implement your concept. You are on the right track if the contractor’s representatives not only demonstrate their competence, interest in the project, and communication skills, but also generate their own ideas and suggestions. Alignment of views on product functionality and quality standards also matters
• Check the contractor’s availability for a full cycle of web development. The project team should consist of specialists capable of performing UI/UX design, web design, front-end and back-end development, QA testing, and integration, as well as managing the deployment of the created product. The involvement of project management, business analysis and DevOps professionals is also important across all phases of the web development process
• Evaluate the contractor’s readiness to support and further develop the site or application. A company that is not interested in the future of the developed product is hardly worthy of attention. It is important to find out how the project team plans to organize maintenance and debugging, and ensure stability and scaling. Ongoing maintenance of websites built in Django is so essential
• Gain confidence in pricing transparency. A reliable and experienced company adequately estimates the working time for project implementation, and the exact approach of the contractor’s team to costing will reveal a lot. For example, using the decomposition of complex problems to estimate costs will show how deeply the project participants have delved into the subject of development. It is often difficult to evaluate the refinement of an existing project, especially in the absence of documentation. However, an experienced team should certainly provide the client with at least a rough estimate based on a code audit
• Discuss the intended cooperation model and workflow. The degree of managerial maturity of the company should be assessed. Interaction with a contractor that has already systematically adjusted its internal business processes will be significantly easier. Readiness to regularly inform the customer about the progress of the project, general regular communication, and NDA conclusion should also be considered. Without question, you will also evaluate compatibility in values and management cultures between the companies involved in the project.

By following the steps above, you will surely find the right company to bring your ideas to life with Python and Django. At the same time, it should be taken into account that, as a rule, websites are created for an unlimited period of time.

Thereby it follows that when you initiate web development, you embark upon a very long journey. In this regard, it is certainly worth carefully choosing the most suitable travel companion possible to accompany you and your website on this adventure.

Maintaining Websites Built with Django

The high-load Python/Django sites discussed above are stable, glitch-free, and error-free. This is achieved through impeccable maintenance and up-to-date technical conditions.

An effective development company can be trusted to maintain a website designed by someone else. Moreover, establishing such a cooperation can give web projects a second wind as the process is all about improving the quality of the code and eliminating previously made mistakes, like, for example, code smell. Your project may have incurred technical debt (code debt), which is the result of postponing fixing defects to speed up product delivery.

The fresh perspective and expertise that comes with a new company allows it to plan and carry out code refactoring, i.e. restructuring existing code. As a result, it is possible to increase the reliability, convenience, and usability of the site.

Full maintenance of existing projects, including consultancy on project transfer, project analysis, and further development planning, is feasible with the presence of the following conditions:

• A qualified dedicated team of developers, the core of which consists of senior specialists
• State-of-the-art technology stack and constant updates of used frameworks and libraries
• High-quality documentation that should describe all parts of the site, the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) used, deployment procedures, etc
• Proper configuration of the server, including, in particular, such settings as monitoring, automatic reboot, auto-renewal of certificates, access and security, and support for the necessary data formats and protocols
• Source code management with the creation of a Version Control System. Correct use of this software tool allows developers to manage changes in the source code, and prevent change conflicts or other user inconveniences
• Efficient testing system. Unit testing is key, performed using developer-written unit tests to ensure that one or more program modules with associated data and procedures are usable. Other automated tests are also applied, in particular with the help of a special Selenium test framework. Manual testing, in turn, continues to be an integral part of such a system
• Correct server architecture. This protects the users of a website or application from eventual failures related to development and testing. The server architecture, implemented according to the dev-test-prod (development-test-operation) principle, increases system reliability and guarantees convenience for both users and developers. In this case, the production (prod) server, which works for the needs of site visitors is not used for development and testing. Only tried and tested processes are transferred to it. New processes are developed and tested on separate servers. For final testing and debugging of the software, a preview environment (Preprod Env) is created, which is identical or as close as possible to the parameters of a real working system
• A detailed Service-level agreement (SLA) that lays out, among other things, uptime, average speed to answer, turn-around time, mean time to recover, scheduled maintenance windows, etc. When concluding an SLA, the customer determines its priorities regarding the functioning of the website, which the contractor adheres to during further cooperation.

It is advisable to remember that site or application maintenance is not only a matter of technical support or debugging. Changing requirements and enriching functionality require a constant updating of the web product, writing, and deployment of its more advanced versions. Remember that this will also be done by the company that will maintain your websites built with Django.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you will most likely agree that Django is very well suited to web development. You have also learned that some of your favorite websites are built using this framework. This may have indicated that it is time for you to follow their successful examples.

At SECL Group, we specialize in Python/Django development and know all of its nuances and subtleties. We truly appreciate these technologies and enjoy using them to write and maintain many complex projects.

Start bringing your ideas to life by entrusting the development of a website or web application to our team of Python/Django experts. Do so, and maybe your project will be on the next list of the most popular web apps and websites built with Django and Python.

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