--- title: 10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer | daily.dev description: A curated list of 10 best practices for Django developers covering debugging tools, testing frameworks, leveraging Django Admin, choosing packages wisely,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/10-essential-freedoms-for-every-django-developer-4wunlp9ty twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: 10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer | daily.dev og:description: A curated list of 10 best practices for Django developers covering debugging tools, testing frameworks, leveraging Django Admin, choosing packages wisely,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/10-essential-freedoms-for-every-django-developer-4wunlp9ty og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4WunLp9Ty.png og:image:alt: 10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer **[django](https://daily.dev/sources/djangoarchitects)** · [@sizan5](https://daily.dev/sizan5) · 3 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A curated list of 10 best practices for Django developers covering debugging tools, testing frameworks, leveraging Django Admin, choosing packages wisely, using the ORM effectively, managing environment variables, separating business logic, documentation practices, utilizing built-in security features, and knowing when to seek help from the community. ## Content Hey Django devs! In our daily grind, it’s easy to get boxed in by routines, technical debt, or "the way we've always done it." But true productivity and growth come from claiming certain developer freedoms. Here are 10 liberties you should grant yourself to write cleaner code, ship faster, and enjoy your craft more in the Django community. 1. The Freedom to Use a Debugger Stop relying solely on print(). Liberate yourself with Django's built-in debugging tools or use PDB, PDB++, or the excellent visual debugger in your IDE. Step through code, inspect variables live, and slay bugs in minutes, not hours. 2. The Freedom to Write Comprehensive Tests Free yourself from the fear of breaking things. Use Django's robust TestCase framework. Write tests for models, views, and APIs. This liberty allows you to refactor with confidence and deploy with peace of mind. 3. The Freedom to Leverage the Django Admin Don't rebuild basic CRUD interfaces. Claim the freedom to customize and extend the powerful Django Admin. Use list_display, search_fields, custom actions, and even third-party packages like django-jazzmin to make it a true admin powerhouse. 4. The Freedom to Choose the Right Package You don't have to build everything from scratch. Liberate your time by using well-maintained, community-vetted packages. Need REST APIs? Django REST Framework. Async? Django Channels. Forms? django-crispy-forms. Audit dependencies, then use them wisely. 5. The Freedom to Say "No" to Raw SQL (Initially) Django's ORM is incredibly powerful. Grant yourself the freedom to use its query expressions (F(), Q()), aggregates, and annotations for 95% of your needs. Optimize with select_related() and prefetch_related() before even considering raw SQL. 6. The Freedom to Use Environment Variables Never hard-code secrets again. Claim the freedom to use python-decouple or django-environ. This separates configuration from code, keeping your settings.py clean and your credentials safe across all environments (dev, staging, prod). 7. The Freedom to Keep Business Logic Out of Views Liberate your views from becoming bloated monoliths. Move business logic to model methods, custom managers, or separate service layers. This freedom leads to more testable, reusable, and maintainable code. 8. The Freedom to Document Your Code (Especially the "Why") Free your future self and your teammates from hours of head-scratching. Write clear docstrings, comment on why a complex piece of logic exists, and maintain an updated README.md. Good documentation is an act of kindness. 9. The Freedom to Use Django's Built-in Security Don't roll your own auth, password hashing, or protection against common exploits. Claim the freedom offered by Django's battle-tested security features. Use @login_required, @permission_required, and let Django handle CSRF, XSS, and SQL injection protections. 10. The Freedom to Step Away and Ask for Help Your ultimate liberty. When stuck for more than an hour, step away. Take a walk. Then, use the incredible Django community. Ask on Django Forum, Stack Overflow, or your local meetup. Sharing the problem is often the fastest path to a solution. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Five ways to discover Django packages](https://daily.dev/posts/five-ways-to-discover-django-packages-1skdt0wg2) · Django · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Django Quiz 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/django-quiz-2025-uwduv0wai) · Adam Johnson · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [10 Useful Tools and Web Hosting Tricks Every Developer Should Know](https://daily.dev/posts/10-useful-tools-and-web-hosting-tricks-every-developer-should-know-qhldtfycu) · SitePoint · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Some notes on starting to use Django](https://daily.dev/posts/some-notes-on-starting-to-use-django-piqautomn) · Julia Evans · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What I love about Django](https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-love-about-django-7gnjuqa7b) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#django](https://daily.dev/tags/django) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/10-essential-freedoms-for-every-django-developer-4wunlp9ty) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/10-essential-freedoms-for-every-django-developer-4wunlp9ty","headline":"10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer","text":"A curated list of 10 best practices for Django developers covering debugging tools, testing frameworks, leveraging Django Admin, choosing packages wisely, using the ORM effectively, managing environment variables, separating business logic, documentation practices, utilizing built-in security features, and knowing when to seek help from the community.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/10-essential-freedoms-for-every-django-developer-4wunlp9ty","datePublished":"2026-01-15T09:32:41.704Z","dateModified":"2026-01-15T09:32:55.020Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sizan","url":"https://daily.dev/sizan5","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---KvezVKr--/f_auto/v1766567089/avatars/avatar_e33fy3bK4JcfNy1i6g7YY?_a=BAMAK+ZW0","description":"Crafting full-stack solutions with Next.js, FastAPI, Django, and containerizing them with Docker.","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":560}},"interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/djangoarchitects","name":"django"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"django","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/djangoarchitects"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer"}]} ```