Laravel Blade vs Django Template: Which is better for your project?

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I want to compare Blade, the template manager in Laravel known as Blade, against Django Template, the template system in Django called Django Template.

Remember that Django Template is quite similar to Jinja, used in frameworks like Flask or FastAPI, which do not have their own template system.

Laravel Blade innovates, Django Template is conservative

Laravel is always looking to innovate. One example is the introduction of conditional classes, which allow you to easily apply styles based on conditions.

I find this much more expressive than what we have in Django, where we previously had to stick with only basic conditionals. Furthermore, this syntax is quite reminiscent of modern frameworks like Vue or Angular, while Django and Jinja follow a more traditional approach:

<span @class([
    'p-4',
    'font-bold' => $isActive,
    'text-gray-500' => ! $isActive,
    'bg-red' => $hasError,
])></span>

Clarity in Django Template

What I like about Django is that it's very clean and expressive with its tags and filters. When we don't have a filter available, we simply create a tag in the corresponding folder and then load it into the template:

djangoshopping/store/templatetags/check_if_exists.py

from django import template
from django.template.loader import get_template, TemplateDoesNotExist

register = template.Library()

@register.simple_tag
def check_if_exists(template_name):
    try:
        get_template(template_name)
        return True
    except TemplateDoesNotExist:
        return False

And an example of using pipes to perform dynamic operations in Django:

{{ value|add:"2" }}

However, I encounter a problem here: there's a strong separation between what we do in views (controllers in Laravel) and what we can do in templates. Many operations are very different from how they would be done in pure Python. For example, the same concatenation or addition mentioned above is done in Python:

2+2

Unlike what we're talking about, it doesn't closely resemble Python's syntax.

This frustrates me because everything is more straightforward in Laravel.

Practical comparison

This comparison comes about because I'm creating the same online store in Laravel and Django.

I wanted to load a different template for a product listing and allow different styles.
In Laravel, with Blade, it's a matter of a couple of lines:

    @if ($productType && View::exists('livewire.store.product.partials.list.' . $productType->slug))
        @include('livewire.store.product.partials.list.' . $productType->slug)
    @else

In Django, I had to create a custom tag (the one shown above) to check if the template exists, return a boolean, and then use it in the template:

{% load check_if_exists %}

    {% if template_path %}
        {% check_if_exists template_path as exists %}
        {% if exists %}
            {% include template_path %}
        {% endif %}
    {% else %}

This works, but I find it more labor intensive.

Advantages and disadvantages

In Django Template, we have a more organized and closed layout, but this makes some operations more complicated.

In Blade (Laravel), everything is more free, although the syntax may seem less expressive or "uglier" in comparison.

Conclusion

• In the end, it depends on each programmer's style and preferences.
• I like Laravel's versatility, which lets me decide if I want to solve something quickly in the view, without so much hassle.
• It's also possible in Django, but it requires more steps.
• That's why these comparisons are necessary: ​​to see which technology is best suited for the project.