Django is a powerful and popular web framework that allows you to create dynamic and scalable web applications with Python. Whether you are new to web development or want to level up your skills, many books can help you learn Django from scratch or improve your existing knowledge. In this article, we will review some of the best Django books that can get you from a complete beginner to a professional back-end developer.
These are books I’ve read myself and I think they are the best to learn Django from. Some of them are for beginners and others for professionals. They are, however, not arranged in any particular order. You’ll have to check the more information table below each one of them to know what I think the book is best for. There may be a lot of Django books out there and for sure I haven’t heard of some. So if you happen to have a Django book that is not on this list but you think actually qualifies to be on the list of best Django books, then let me know about it in the comments section at the bottom of this blog.
Let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
- Quick List.
- Django for Beginners: Build Websites With Python & Django.
- Django for Professionals: Production Websites with Python & Django.
- Django for APIs: Build Web APIs with Python & Django.
- A Wedge Of Django – Known Previously As Django Crash Course
- Two Scoops of Django 3. x: Best Practices for the Django Web Framework.
- Frequently Asked Questions On The Best Django Books.
- Conclusion: Best Django Books.
As you already know, Django is a Python web development framework. This means that before you can start learning Django, you have to get a basic understanding of the Python programming language. We have compiled the best Python programming books for beginners which you may find helpful to start your Python journey. Python Crash Course even includes a web development project with Django where you build an online journal system with authentication and other cool Django things. Check it out if that sounds interesting.
Quick List.
Here is a quick list of the best Django books that I’ll cover in this post:
- Django for Beginners: Build Websites With Python & Django.
- Django for Professionals: Production Websites with Python & Django
- Django for APIs: Build Web APIs with Python & Django
- A Wedge of Django once called Django Crash Course
- Two Scoops of Django 3. x
Django for Beginners: Build Websites With Python & Django.
Django for Beginners is one of the best books to learn Django from if you’ve never built a website backend before. The 317-page book takes you from the very beginning (which is installing all the required dependencies, i.e. python, virtual environment, Django, etc) and then walks you step by step into the intermediate parts of Django. By the end of the book, you’ll have built 5 projects with the Django web development framework and each project is built in complexity from the previous.
This means if you’re a professional Django developer, don’t bother yourself getting this book. You might want it for reference but for the most part, you’d better get the next book in the sequel called Django for Professionals.
Here is a list of the projects that you’ll build in the Django for Beginners book:
- Hello, World app. In this project, you’ll learn the basics of Django like installation and the basic Django architecture.
- Pages app.
- Message board.
- A Blog App
- A Newspaper app.
At the end of the book, you’ll also learn how to deploy a Django web app to the web. This all is broken down into 16 well-written chapters with colorful code snippets and high-quality snapshots.
The only drawback is that the book dwells too much on CBV (Class-Based Views) without any reference to FBVs(Function-Based Views) whatsoever. For beginners though, you don’t really have to worry too much about this. It’s actually a good place to start.
| Amazon Rating: | 4.5/5 | My Rating: | 5/5 |
| Author: | William S. Vincent | Number of Pages: | 317 |
| Year Published: | 2020 | Publisher: | WelcomeToCode |
| Best For: | Best Project-Based Django Book for Beginners. |
Django for Professionals: Production Websites with Python & Django.
Django for Professionals is the follow-up book to the Django for beginners book. You definitely have to get this book if you have made yourself through the first one. It builds from the knowledge and skills you’ve gathered in the first book. Much like the first one, Django for beginners, the book is project-based. You will build one production-ready website from the ground up to its deployment. This will be divided into 19 chapters. Let’s have a look at what each one will cover as you build the project.
- Chapter 1 introduces the reader to Docker and how to use it with Django.
- In chapter 2 you’ll learn how the Docker environment can now be used to run PostgreSQL, a production-ready database.
- Chapter 3 introduces the book’s main project: an online bookstore with a customized user model, payment options, search functionality, picture uploads, permissions, and a slew of other features.
- In Chapter 4, you’ll learn how to create a Pages app that displays a simple homepage, as well as testing the app so far.
- In Chapter 5, the built-in auth app is used to create a comprehensive user registration process from scratch.
- In Chapter 6, you’ll learn how to properly configure CSS, JavaScript, and images, as well as how to use Bootstrap for styling.
- In Chapter 7, you’ll add more to the user registration by learning about social authentication using django-allauth.
- Chapter 8 teaches the reader about environment variables and chapter 9 about email and how to add a dedicated third-party provider.
- Chapters 10 to 18 will focus on the features that are specific to the Bookstore website like models, reviews, payment system with Stripe, search functionality, security and finally deployment.
As you can see you will cover a lot in this book. After finishing this book, you’ll be ready to build your own production ready websites with Django.
| Amazon Rating: | 4.4/5 | My Rating: | 5/5 |
| Author: | William S. Vincent | Number of Pages: | 288 |
| Year Published: | 2020 | Publisher: | WelcomeToCode |
| Best For: | Best Project-Based Django Book for Professionals. | * |
Django for APIs: Build Web APIs with Python & Django.
Yet another book by William S Vincent. I would not want to call this book a sequel to the above books. It is a standalone book that teaches the reader more about Django APIs using the Django Rest Framework. You can get the contents of the book whether you’re a beginner or a professional. Yet again, the book will introduce you to the knowledge and skills you need by guiding you step by step into building real-world projects. In this very book, you’ll build three projects as follows.
- Chapter 1 introduces you to the world of APIs and the HTTP protocol.
- In chapter 2, you’ll build an online Library website and add an API to it.
- Things get really interesting in Chapter 3 and 4 where you build a Todo API and connect it to a React front-end. You can use this same process for any other front-end like a different JS UI framework(Angular, Vue, etc), Android, iOS, desktop, etc.
- In Chapter 5 you’ll cover in-depth topics like authentication, permissions, routers, etc, by building a production ready Blog API that includes a full CRUD operation.
By the time you finish reading this book, you’ll have gained enough knowledge to build your own APIs from scratch using the Django Rest framework.
| Amazon Rating: | 4.3/5 | My Rating: | 5/5 |
| Author: | William S. Vincent | Number of Pages: | 208 |
| Year Published: | 2020 | Publisher: | WelcomeToCode |
| Best For: | Depth Discussion of Django APIs. | * |
A Wedge Of Django – Known Previously As Django Crash Course
A Wedge of Django is a Django book by Daniel and Audrey Roy Greenfeld. The couple used to travel all around the world giving lectures on Django which cost about $3000 an attendance. Now all the contents of the lectures have been compiled into a book which you can buy from their website. As their lectures were, this book is not only meant for total beginners who know nothing about backend web development but also professionals will also benefit a lot from reading this book as it covers every Django feature in detail.
This book is divided into 4 parts which are:
- First, the introduction tells the back story behind the creation of the book and some motivation on why you should learn Django.
- Then the second (which actually is the first real section) is called The Ultimate Django Setup which details the reader on everything he/she has to prepare on the computer before starting to use Django. This includes the installation of Python, Django, Conda, Code Editor, etc.
- The next part from this is called Hello, World In Django. This section walks you through building a simple Django project that displays a simple greeting on a page. Although it is as simple as that, after finishing this project you’d have grasped all the basics of Django.
- The next part called EveryCheese gets you into real-world Django development. In this section, you’ll build a full CRUD application covering all other Django advanced topics.
Apart from colorful code snippets and high-quality snapshots, Daniel and Audrey make the reading as enjoyable as possible by adding some humor along.
This book alone will get you from absolute beginner to advanced Django developer.
| Amazon Rating: | My Rating: | 5/5 | |
| Author: | Daniel and Audrey Roy Greenfeld | Number of Pages: | 280+ |
| Year Published: | 2021 | Publisher: | Two Scoops Press |
| Best For: | * |
Two Scoops of Django 3. x: Best Practices for the Django Web Framework.
Yet another Django book by Daniel and Audrey. Unlike Django Crash Course, this book assumes that you are already familiar with Django. As the subtitle goes, Best Practises for the Django Web framework, the book focuses more on Django best practices for those who already are familiar with it. Instead of taking you step by step on building projects with Django (as most on this list do), it just lays out all the information to the reader.
With that being said, you do not have to read this book chronologically as you would with others on this list. You can best use it as a reference book where you can jump to the topic that you want to understand at that particular time.
What’s interesting about this book is that its forward is written by William Vincent, the author of the first three books on this list where he explains how this book came to his rescue back when he still was learning the Django framework.
| Amazon Rating: | My Rating: | 5/5 | |
| Author: | Daniel and Audrey Roy Greenfeld | Number of Pages: | 540+ |
| Year Published: | 2021 | Publisher: | Two Scoops Press |
| Best For: | The Best Django Book To Use As Reference. | * |
Frequently Asked Questions On The Best Django Books.
Is Django Documentation Good For Beginners?
Absolutely. The Django documentation is a great resource to learn Django. If you’re a beginner, however, I’ll not recommend you use it as your primary source of information. Get a book or a course as your primary source of information, then use the Django documentation to expand your knowledge of what you’ve learned from the book or course. This is because some books (in fact most of them) will not cover everything about Django, but they provide you with a beginner-friendly approach to learning Django. For example, a project-based book will only cover the concepts that apply to the project being built. But if you’ve reached a point where you want to build a Django project on your own, the Django documentation can also work as a great reference.
Is Django For Beginners A Good Book?
Yes, Django for Beginners by William S Vincent is one of the best books (if not the best) to learn Django with. It is a project-based book that takes on a journey of building 5 projects. By the end of reading Django for Beginners, you’ll have acquired enough knowledge to build your own Django projects from scratch. It is an amazing tutorial book for beginners and a wonderful refresher for professionals.
What is the best book for Django?
It depends on your experience level with Django. Here are a few options based on your experience:
For beginners:
- Django for Beginners: Build Websites with Python and Django by William S. Vincent: This book is a great choice for beginners who want to learn Django from scratch. It’s very hands-on and teaches you how to build five Django apps. It also includes lessons on Django best practices.
For intermediate/advanced developers:
- Two Scoops of Django by Audrey Roy Greenfeld: This book is a comprehensive guide to Django that covers everything from the basics to advanced topics. it is a great resource for learning best practices and how to build complex Django applications.
- Django for Professionals by William S. Vincent: This book is designed for developers who want to take their Django skills to the next level. It covers topics like performance optimization, security, and testing.
Conclusion: Best Django Books.
Those were the best Django books you can read both to learn and to advance your Django skills. I don’t think you’ll ever need any other Django book apart from the ones in this list. However, I might be wrong, so if you have got any other Django book that you’ve read and you think it’s worth being on this list, then let me know in the comments section down below.
You can also check out our guide on how to read programming books so that you can get the most out of the ones that you choose. Otherwise, see you in other Coding Gear resource guides.
