Django made me fall in love with programming. I built 2 decent-sized side projects with Django. They didn’t gain traction, but I loved using the framework.

Then I went through a couple of (depressing) years of using Java/Spring professionally, and recently I made the choice to move to Elixir/Phoenix. It’s going great, and I don’t think I would go back to heavy OOP if I didn’t have to.

Some things I really miss from Django:

- Models with more centralized validation logic. In Phoenix (and somewhat similarly in Rails), you need to edit your migration, schema, and changeset. In Django, you edit your model and the migration can usually be made automatically with no need for a 3rd-party package.

- Django REST Framework. You can get pretty far with an app just by leveraging ModelSerializers and ModelViewsets. It’s ridiculously elegant, simple, and powerful.

- The Admin layer is fantastic and unparalleled.

Some things I wish Django would add/enhance:

- Making it more clear when you’re going to hit the database (explicit is better than implicit).

- True async up and down the stack. Not a small task within the Python ecosystem, but I think for folks who are not already invested, looking at Elixir/OTP/Phoenix is too tempting. If you don’t have kids to transport with you, a Lambo looks much more fun than an S-Class Sedan.