Python, Ruby, and Golang: A Web Service Application Comparison

After a recent comparison of Python, Ruby, and Golang for a command-line application I decided to use the same pattern to compare building a simple web service. I have selected Flask (Python), Sinatra (Ruby), and Martini (Golang) for this comparison. Yes, there are many other options for web application libraries in each language but I felt these three lend well to comparison.

This is a guest blog post by Kyle Purdon, a software engineer from Boulder.

Library Overviews

Here is a high-level comparison of the libraries by Stackshare.

Flask (Python)

Flask is a micro-framework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jinja2 and good intentions.

For very simple applications, such as the one shown in this demo, Flask is a great choice. The basic Flask application is only 7 lines of code (LOC) in a single Python source file. The draw of Flask over other Python web libraries (such as Django or Pyramid) is that you can start small and build up to a more complex application as needed.

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return "Hello World!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Sinatra (Ruby)

Sinatra is a DSL for quickly creating web applications in Ruby with minimal effort.

Just like Flask, Sinatra is great for simple applications. The basic Sinatra application is only 4 LOC in a single Ruby source file. Sinatra is used instead of libraries such as Ruby on Rails for the same reason as Flask – you can start small and expand the application as needed.

require 'sinatra'

get '/hi' do
  "Hello World!"
end

Martini (Golang)

Martini is a powerful package for quickly writing modular web applications/services in Golang.

Martini comes with a few more batteries included than both Sinatra and Flask but is still very lightweight to start with – only 9 LOC for the basic application. Martini has come under some criticism by the Golang community but still has one of the highest rated Github projects of any Golang web framework. The author of Martini responded directly to the criticism here. Some other frameworks include Revel, Gin, and even the built-in net/http library.

package main

import "github.com/go-martini/martini"

func main() {
  m := martini.Classic()
  m.Get("/", func() string {
    return "Hello world!"
  })
  m.Run()
}

With the basics out of the way, let’s build an app!

Service Description

The service created provides a very basic blog application. The following routes are constructed:

GET /: Return the blog (using a template to render).
GET /json: Return the blog content in JSON format.
POST /new: Add a new post (title, summary, content) to the blog.

The external interface to the blog service is exactly the same for each language. For simplicity MongoDB will be used as the data store for this example as it is the simplest to set up and we don’t need to worry about schemas at all. In a normal “blog-like” application a relational database would likely be necessary.

Add A Post

POST /new

curl --form title='Test Post 1' 
     --form summary='The First Test Post' 
     --form content='Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur ...' 
     http://[IP]:[PORT]/new

View The HTML

GET /

View The JSON

GET /json

[
   {
      content:"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur ...",
      title:"Test Post 1",
      _id:{
         $oid:"558329927315660001550970"
      },
      summary:"The First Test Post"
   }
]

Application Structure

Each application can be broken down into the following components:

Application Setup

Initialize an application
Run the application

Request

Define routes on which a user can request data (GET)
Define routes on which a user can submit data (POST)

Response

Render JSON (GET /json)
Render a template (GET /)

Database

Initialize a connection
Insert data
Retrieve data

Application Deployment

Docker!

The rest of this article will compare each of these components for each library. The purpose is not to suggest that one of these libraries is better than the other – it is to provide a specific comparison between the three tools:

Flask (Python)
Sinatra (Ruby)
Martini (Golang)

Project Setup

All of the projects are bootstrapped using docker and docker-compose. Before diving into how each application is bootstrapped under the hood we can just use docker to get each up and running in exactly the same way – docker-compose up

Seriously, that’s it! Now for each application there is a Dockerfile and a docker-compose.yml file that specify what happens when you run the above command.

Python (flask) – Dockerfile

FROM python:3.4

ADD . /app
WORKDIR /app

RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

This Dockerfile says that we are starting from a base image with Python 3.4 installed, adding our application to the /app directory and using pip to install our application requirements specified in requirements.txt.

Ruby (sinatra)

FROM ruby:2.2

ADD . /app
WORKDIR /app

RUN bundle install

This Dockerfile says that we are starting from a base image with Ruby 2.2 installed, adding our application to the /app directory and using bundler to install our application requirements specified in the Gemfile.

Golang (martini)

FROM golang:1.3

ADD . /go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-blog
WORKDIR /go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-blog

RUN go get github.com/go-martini/martini && 
    go get github.com/martini-contrib/render && 
    go get gopkg.in/mgo.v2 && 
    go get github.com/martini-contrib/binding

This Dockerfile says that we are starting from a base image with Golang 1.3 installed, adding our application to the /go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-blog directory and getting all of our necessary dependencies using the go get command.

Initialize/Run An Application

Python (Flask) – app.py

# initialize application
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

# run application
if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0')

$ python app.py

Ruby (Sinatra) – app.rb

# initialize application
require 'sinatra'

$ ruby app.rb

Golang (Martini) – app.go

// initialize application
package main
import "github.com/go-martini/martini"
import "github.com/martini-contrib/render"

func main() {

    app := martini.Classic()
    app.Use(render.Renderer())

    // run application
    app.Run()

}

$ go run app.go

Define A Route (GET/POST)

Python (Flask)

# get
@app.route('/')  # the default is GET only
def blog():
    ...

#post
@app.route('/new', methods=['POST'])
def new():
    ...

Ruby (Sinatra)

# get
get '/' do
  ...
end

# post
post '/new' do
  ...
end

Golang (Martini)

// define data struct
type Post struct {
  Title   string `form:"title" json:"title"`
  Summary string `form:"summary" json:"summary"`
  Content string `form:"content" json:"content"`
}

// get
app.Get("/", func(r render.Render) {
  ...
}

// post
import "github.com/martini-contrib/binding"
app.Post("/new", binding.Bind(Post{}), func(r render.Render, post Post) {
  ...
}

Render A JSON Response

Python (Flask)

Flask provides a jsonify() method but since the service is using MongoDB the mongodb bson utility is used.

from bson.json_util import dumps
return dumps(posts) # posts is a list of dicts [{}, {}]

Ruby (Sinatra)

require 'json'
content_type :json
posts.to_json # posts is an array (from mongodb)

Golang (Martini)

r.JSON(200, posts) // posts is an array of Post{} structs

Render An HTML Response (Templating)

Python (Flask)

return render_template('blog.html', posts=posts)

<!doctype HTML>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Python Flask Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    {% for post in posts %}
      <h1> {{ post.title }} </h1>
      <h3> {{ post.summary }} </h3>
      <p> {{ post.content }} </p>
      <hr>
    {% endfor %}
  </body>
</html>

Ruby (Sinatra)

erb :blog

<!doctype HTML>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Ruby Sinatra Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <% @posts.each do |post| %>
      <h1><%= post['title'] %></h1>
      <h3><%= post['summary'] %></h3>
      <p><%= post['content'] %></p>
      <hr>
    <% end %>
  </body>
</html>

Golang (Martini)

r.HTML(200, "blog", posts)

<!doctype HTML>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Golang Martini Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    {{range . }}
      <h1>{{.Title}}</h1>
      <h3>{{.Summary}}</h3>
      <p>{{.Content}}</p>
      <hr>
    {{ end }}
  </body>
</html>

Database Connection

All of the applications are using the mongodb driver specific to the language. The environment variable DB_PORT_27017_TCP_ADDR is the IP of a linked docker container (the database ip).

Python (Flask)

from pymongo import MongoClient
client = MongoClient(os.environ['DB_PORT_27017_TCP_ADDR'], 27017)
db = client.blog

Ruby (Sinatra)

require 'mongo'
db_ip = [ENV['DB_PORT_27017_TCP_ADDR']]
client = Mongo::Client.new(db_ip, database: 'blog')

Golang (Martini)

import "gopkg.in/mgo.v2"
session, _ := mgo.Dial(os.Getenv("DB_PORT_27017_TCP_ADDR"))
db := session.DB("blog")
defer session.Close()

Insert Data From a POST

Python (Flask)

from flask import request
post = {
    'title': request.form['title'],
    'summary': request.form['summary'],
    'content': request.form['content']
}
db.blog.insert_one(post)

Ruby (Sinatra)

client[:posts].insert_one(params) # params is a hash generated by sinatra

Golang (Martini)

db.C("posts").Insert(post) // post is an instance of the Post{} struct

Retrieve Data

Python (Flask)

posts = db.blog.find()

Ruby (Sinatra)

@posts = client[:posts].find.to_a

Golang (Martini)

var posts []Post
db.C("posts").Find(nil).All(&posts)

Application Deployment (docker!)

A great solution to deploying all of these applications is to use docker and docker-compose.

Python (Flask)

Dockerfile

FROM python:3.4

ADD . /app
WORKDIR /app

RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

docker-compose.yml

web:
  build: .
  command: python -u app.py
  ports:
    - "5000:5000"
  volumes:
    - .:/app
  links:
    - db
db:
  image: mongo:3.0.4
  command: mongod --quiet --logpath=/dev/null

Ruby (Sinatra)

Dockerfile

FROM ruby:2.2

ADD . /app
WORKDIR /app

RUN bundle install

docker-compose.yml

web:
  build: .
  command: bundle exec ruby app.rb
  ports:
    - "4567:4567"
  volumes:
    - .:/app
  links:
    - db
db:
  image: mongo:3.0.4
  command: mongod --quiet --logpath=/dev/null

Golang (Martini)

Dockerfile

FROM golang:1.3

ADD . /go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-todo
WORKDIR /go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-todo

RUN go get github.com/go-martini/martini && go get github.com/martini-contrib/render && go get gopkg.in/mgo.v2 && go get github.com/martini-contrib/binding

docker-compose.yml

web:
  build: .
  command: go run app.go
  ports:
    - "3000:3000"
  volumes: # look into volumes v. "ADD"
    - .:/go/src/github.com/kpurdon/go-todo
  links:
    - db
db:
  image: mongo:3.0.4
  command: mongod --quiet --logpath=/dev/null

Conclusion

To conclude lets take a look at what I believe are a few categories where the presented libraries separate themselves from each other.

Simplicity

While Flask is very lightweight and reads clearly, the Sinatra app is the simplest of the three at 23 LOC (compared to 46 for Flask and 42 for Martini). For these reasons Sinatra is the winner in this category. It should be noted however that Sinatra’s simplicity is due to more default “magic” – e.g., implicit work that happens behind the scenes. For new users this can often lead to confusion.

Here is a specific example of “magic” in Sinatra:

params # the "request.form" logic in python is done "magically" behind the scenes in Sinatra.

And the equivalent Flask code:

from flask import request
params = {
    'title': request.form['title'],
    'summary': request.form['summary'],
    'content': request.form['content']
}

For beginners to programming Flask and Sinatra are certainly simpler, but for an experienced programmer with time spent in other statically typed languages Martini does provide a fairly simplistic interface.

Documentation

The Flask documentation was the simplest to search and most approachable. While Sinatra and Martini are both well documented, the documentation itself was not as approachable. For this reason Flask is the winner in this category.

Community

Flask is the winner hands down in this category. The Ruby community is more often than not dogmatic about Rails being the only good choice if you need anything more than a basic service (even though Padrino offers this on top of Sinatra). The Golang community is still nowhere near a consensus on one (or even a few) web frameworks, which is to be expected as the language itself is so young. Python however has embraced a number of approaches to web development including Django for out-of-the-box full-featured web applications and Flask, Bottle, CheryPy, and Tornado for a micro-framework approach.

Final Determination

Note that the point of this article was not to promote a single tool, rather to provide an unbiased comparison of Flask, Sinatra, and Martini. With that said, I would select Flask (Python) or Sinatra (Ruby). If you are coming from a language like C or Java perhaps the statically-typed nature of Golang may appeal to you. If you are a beginner, Flask might be the best choice as it is very easy to get up and running and there is very little default “magic”. My recommendation is that you be flexible in your decisions when selecting a library for your project.

Questions? Feedback? Please comment below. Thank you!

Also, let us know if you’d be interested in seeing some benchmarks.