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Overview
Django REST framework is a Web API toolkit for Django. It combines serializers, authentication and permissions, generic views, ViewSets, routers, and a browsable API for APIs backed by Django ORM or non-ORM data sources.
Features and best fit
Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:
Key features
Serialize Django models or arbitrary data into API representations
Serializer and ModelSerializer define input validation and response serialization for model-backed and non-ORM data sources.
Sources: [2]
Compose endpoints with ViewSets, routers, authentication, and permissions
ViewSets and routers can generate URL routing, while applications can fall back to generic or function-based views when needed. Django authentication and permission policies integrate with the browsable API for development workflows.
Sources: [2]
Best fit
Fits Django applications adding a structured REST API layer
It is well suited to applications already using Django models and authentication that want shared serializers and permission rules around JSON APIs.
Sources: [2]
Before adoption
DRF 3.18.1 requires Python 3.10+ and supports Django 5.2, 6.0, and 6.1
Version 3.18.1 targets Python 3.10+ and Django 5.2/6.0/6.1. It fixes duplicate validation errors, OpenAPI integer format detection, unique constraints, and non-finite FloatField values, so serializer error formats and schema generation deserve upgrade regression tests.
Official sources
- [1]encode/django-rest-framework — GitHub repository(2026-10-06)
- [2]Django REST framework 3.18.1 — README(2026-10-06)
- [3]Django REST framework 3.18.1 — pyproject.toml(2026-10-06)
- [4]Django REST framework 3.18.1 release(2026-10-06)
- [5]Django REST framework BSD-3-Clause license(2026-10-06)
Supplemental curator note
DRF is powerful when Django models and authentication already exist, but choose ViewSets and routers versus more explicit generic views according to API complexity to keep behavior maintainable.
Try it in 3 steps
- 1
Install DRF 3.18.1 and a supported Django version
Pin DRF and install Django within the officially supported 5.2 through 6.1 range.
python -m pip install "djangorestframework==3.18.1" "Django>=5.2,<6.2" - 2
Create a minimal Django project and API endpoint
Enable rest_framework and create a read-only GET endpoint that does not require a database model.
django-admin startproject example . && python - <<'PY' from pathlib import Path p = Path('example/settings.py') s = p.read_text() s = s.replace("INSTALLED_APPS = [", "INSTALLED_APPS = [\n 'rest_framework',") p.write_text(s) Path('example/urls.py').write_text('''from django.urls import path from rest_framework.decorators import api_view from rest_framework.response import Response @api_view(["GET"]) def hello(request): return Response({"hello": "drf"}) urlpatterns = [path("", hello)] ''') PY - 3
Run the development server and check the API
Run the Django development server on localhost and confirm the JSON response. Use a production deployment setup outside local verification.
python manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8000 # In another terminal: curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Growth
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30,201 Stars
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Categories and tags
Categories
GitHub data
GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
GitHub Topics
- api
- django
- python
- rest
- Stars
- 30,201
- Forks
- 7,086
- Watchers
- 604
- Open issues
- 49
- Contributors
- 386
- Owner type
- Organization
- Primary language
- Python
- License
- BSD-3-Clause
- Repository last updated
- Oct 5, 2026
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