Django is one of the most powerful and developer-friendly web frameworks ever built. Yet, a surprising number of Django projects fail—or struggle badly—once they reach production.
The reason isn’t Django.
It’s how we use it.
After working on multiple production Django applications—job portals, eCommerce platforms, APIs, and internal tools—I’ve noticed the same mistakes repeated again and again. Let’s break them down and, more importantly, fix them.
1. Treating Django Like a Tutorial Project
Many developers build production apps the same way they built their first Django tutorial.
Common symptoms:
All logic inside views.py
Fat models with business logic everywhere
No clear app separation
Hardcoded values and settings
✅ The Fix
Think in layers, not files.
Use services for business logic
Keep views thin (request → response only)
Separate apps by responsibility, not features
Move configs to environment variables
Production Django is architecture-first, not feature-first.
2. Ignoring Security Until It’s Too Late
Security is often treated as a “later problem”.
Until:
User data leaks
Admin panel gets brute-forced
Payment flow is exploited
Common Mistakes
DEBUG = True in production
Weak password validation
No rate limiting
No CSRF checks in APIs
✅ The Fix
At minimum:
Disable DEBUG
Use strong password validators
Enable SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT
Add rate limiting (e.g., django-ratelimit)
Separate public and admin permissions clearly
Security is not optional—it’s a feature.
3. Poor Database Design from Day One
Your database schema will outlive your code.
Bad decisions here are expensive to undo.
Red Flags:
No indexes on frequently queried fields
Overusing TextField
No soft deletes
No audit fields (created_at, updated_at)
✅ The Fix
Design models based on queries, not forms
Add indexes early
Use select_related and prefetch_related
Plan for data growth from the beginning
Scaling problems usually start in models.py.
4. Not Preparing for Scale
Your app may start with 10 users.
It won’t end there.
Typical Issues:
No caching
Blocking tasks in views
Slow API responses
One server doing everything
✅ The Fix
Use caching (Redis / Memcached)
Move heavy tasks to Celery
Optimize queries before adding servers
Separate concerns: web, workers, database
Scaling is not about servers—it’s about design.
5. No Testing Strategy
“If it works locally, ship it.”
This mindset kills products.
What Goes Wrong
Features break silently
Refactoring becomes terrifying
Bugs appear in production only
✅ The Fix
You don’t need 100% coverage.
Start with:
Model tests
Critical business logic tests
API endpoint tests
Even basic tests save hours of debugging later.
Final Thoughts
Django doesn’t fail projects.
Short-term thinking does.
If you:
Design for production early
Respect architecture
Take security seriously
Plan for growth
Django will reward you with stability, speed, and scalability.
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