Django or Zope?

Question

I want to create a website and I am confused which web framework to use. Please recommend me which framework is better: Django or Zope. I am using Python.

Answer 1

I have no idea what sort of website you're trying to create, so it's hard to recommend a specific framework. I'd recommend getting through some tutorials to see which one you like best (There's also pylons and TurboGears to pick from).

Django seems to be the most popular starting kit these days though.

Answer 2

If you mean plain Zope2 by zope then I'd go for Django. Most interesting stuff in the Zope world takes place with either Plone or Grok (which is Zope3, which is actually quite different from Zope2).

Grok works nice with relational databases, Plone doesn't really, so if you depend on an RDBMS, either go with Grok or Django.

Zope and Plone have a rather steep learning curve so you'll get started more quickly with Django.

The largest downside about Django is, in my opinion, that it tries do do everything by itself (templating, object publishing, ORM, and so on) while there are many excellent existing components out there. If you want to be able to use your code / knowledge outside of the web framework you're using, consider Pylons or BFG

Many options, no clear answer, sorry :)

Answer 3

If your website is very hierarchical and needs fine grained permissions, I'd use Zope. (Don't use Zope if you intend to store your data almost exclusively in an SQL database.)

If you have large datasets that can be put into (sql)tables and need many forms, I'd use Django. (Don't use Django if you need very fine grained access control, and hierarchical data)

You see: both have their weaknesses and strengths (although I am only developing in Django these days. The Zope community seems to be a bit in dispute these days about the way it should develop)

Answer 4

Here is a good comparison of Django and Zope (and Rails)

http://cd-docdb.fnal.gov/cgi-bin/RetrieveFile?docid=2715;filename=Comparison.html;version=3

They preferred Django. I, personally, use Django too, so I don't know much about Zope.

Another good thing about Django is that they have very good documentation (though I don't know that of Zope). Many people praise that very much.

Also I found Django quite easy to use, and also they have a ready 'administrator panel', which allows quick web-oriented site management from the first steps. More important for me, however, is its fine integration with python and the simple organisation (in the link above they complained that Zope uses very much of its own features, while Django is closer to pure Python).

Answer 5

Zope is dead. As is TurboGears, Pylons, BFG, Repoze, CherryPy etc.

Active and popular Python web frameworks include:
* django
* flask
* bottle

Big, medium and small. Take your pick.

Answer 6

If you are starting from scratch I will suggest you should go for Django. You will get lots of features and suppost from django. Easy to debug and best suited for rapid developement. In the other hand, You should only choose Zope, if you have experienced developers familiar with Zope or have existing projects based on Zope and the cost of switching is too high for the potential value gain.

In zope's website it self it is written, It is no longer recommended to start new projects based on it, unless you are intimately familiar with the technology stack.