1. Django REST Framework (DRF)

If you want to create a REST interface and make sure that the process is fast and flexible, using Django REST Framework is the way to go. This tool is based on Django, which means that much less code is needed to create REST interfaces. What’s more, if you already have any Django project created, DRF will help you easily add an API functionality to it.

Django REST Framework makes serialization easy as it allows you to format your data in any way you want. This translates into the flexibility of this package. It’s also one of the friendliest to use. In addition, thanks to its huge user community, DRF applications are well documented and easily manageable.

2. Django Tenants

Django Tenants is a great tool if you want to create Software as a Service (SaaS) applications in Django. If you have several tenants in your project and want to create a schema-separated database for them, Django Tenants will be the best solution.

With Django Tenants, building edutech platforms, sales monitoring tools, platform management systems, and multi-vendor ecommerce systems is very intuitive and effective. One of its great advantages is also allowing you to create a multi-tenant architecture in your application without having to introduce a lot of changes to the code.

3. Django Import Export

Django Import Export provides you with solutions to back up your database. This package allows you to import and export data from Excel, CSV, JSON, or YAML files as well as add new data to an existing table.

While Django has the capability to export/import data from CLI, this package provides a more convenient admin panel. Applying it only requires making a few changes to admin.py and adding import and export buttons to the admin dashboard.

4. Celery

Experienced Python developers certainly know that some applications are long-running so they require working outside the request–response cycle. This is when Celery comes in handy as one of the best task queue systems, supporting such message brokers as RabbitMQ, Redis, Beanstalk, or MongoDB.

Although basic, it is a powerful tool used for asynchronous processing. It relieves your Python application of some of the work as it “absorbs” time-sensitive tasks. Used widely in production systems and hit applications such as Instagram, it can process millions of tasks daily.

5. Django CKEditor

CKEditor is a WYSIWYG-rich text editor with its core code written in JavaScript. Used for writing content directly inside web pages or online applications, it’s known for its flexibility and a variety of customization options. It offers you a whole array of features that enhance your text input, including media upload or an option of editing the source code in HTM format.

Its well-designed UI and UX help you navigate both media and table management as well as more advanced features. Additionally, Django CKEditor is compatible with operating systems on mobile devices, such as iOS, Android, and Electron.

6. django-filter

Django-filter is an indispensable tool used for filtering query sets based on parameters that users of the application provide. Django-filter enables adding filters to the Django REST Framework and saves you time while creating some simple view code.

Django-filter is a reusable and generic application where filtering down query sets is based on model fields; the application displays a form that shows the users how to do this. It’s a user-friendly and time-saving tool, fully compatible with the supported versions of Python and Django.

7. Cookiecutter Django

Cookiecutter Django is a framework you might need if you want to set up a new, production-ready Django project. This project template comes with a variety of generation options as well as optimized development and production settings.

You can configure it for Celery and Flower and run tests with unittest or pytest. You can also integrate it with MailHog for local email testing, as well as with Sentry for error logging. Moreover, the ready-to-go custom user model makes jumpstarting new Django projects smooth and intuitive.

8. Django Debug Toolbar

You may know Django Debug Toolbar quite well as it’s included in the development configuration of many projects. This package is used to debug Django applications and is equipped with a configurable set of panels that will help you do just that.

By displaying various debug information about the current request/response, it gives you a general insight into potential problems. What users consider particularly useful is the panel that displays all SQL queries that are executed for a page load.

9. django-allauth

Django-allauth is a Django application used for local and social authentication. Authentication schemes it supports include login by username or email and a variety of other account verification strategies. It can connect several social accounts to a local account, create a primary email address, as well as multiple email addresses.

The features of django-allauth also include forgot password flow and email address verification flow. In addition, it has a system that constantly stores all access tokens and allows you to publish wall updates. Required consumer keys and secrets for interacting with other platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, make django-allauth a comprehensive authentication tool.

10. Django ImageKit

If you need to incorporate certain modifications of the already uploaded images into your models, ImageKit will make the process easier. These image variations called “specs” can include pictures of various sizes, such as thumbnails or black-and-white versions.

The greatest strength of ImageKit is its processors, which may be used in many different ways: to rotate, resize, or change the colors of photos to produce various iterations of the original image.

11. Django Baton

Django Baton is a fully responsive Django application for admins, based on frontend technologies: Bootstrap 5 and Font Awesome Free 5. The aim of its creators was to include templates in the ChangeForm and ChangeList pages as easily as possible.

The flexible sidebar menu and configurable search field in Django Baton make it convenient to use. You style your templates using mainly CSS, but the package also provides modification options for recompiling the JavaScript app.

12. django-extensions

Django-extensions has become quite popular with developers thanks to its runserver_plus and shell_plus commands that make Django development much easier. The first one lets you open a Python shell in any desired place of your code and start writing commands, while the second lets you open a better shell, if found, and import your models.

The package also includes some useful management commands like an admin generator, which builds an admin.py for your app quickly, and a graph model, which exports your models as Graphviz DOT files.

Final thoughts on the best Django libraries and packages

Dozens of the largest businesses and organizations like Eventgenius choose Django and look for helpful libraries and packages, and they do so for good reason—websites and applications built with Django are versatile and really easy to develop.

Django libraries and packages offer you simplicity and clarity of the code, which is why their popularity is constantly growing. On top of that, the Django community offers a lot of tutorials, reference guides, and documentation that will help you explore and use its functionalities on your own even more.

Having said that, if you’re not sure which Django framework will be the best for your project, we hope that this article will help you decide on the right one for you.

And should you be interested in reading some more on the subject, here are a few resources that you may find useful:

If you need any help in choosing your tech stack, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Having successfully delivered over 400 Django projects, we will surely be able to recommend solutions tailored to your needs.

As Python experts with 18+ years of experience, we can show you how Django makes the most of Python itself, leveraging the numerous advantages of the #1 programming language in the world as of 2022.