A “web framework” is a collection of tools that abstract away much of the difficulty–and repetition–inherent in web development. For example, most websites need the same basic functionality: the ability to connect to a database, set URL routes, display content on a page, handle security properly, and so on. Rather than recreate all of this from scratch, programmers over the years have created web frameworks in all the major programming languages: Django in Python, Rails in Ruby, and Laravel in PHP among many, many others.
This approach allows web developers to focus on what makes a web application unique rather than reinventing the wheel every time.
In contrast, some web frameworks like Flask adopt a microframework approach of providing only the bare minimum required for a simple web page. Flask is far more lightweight than Django and allows for maximum flexibility, however this comes at a cost to the developer. To build even a basic website requires adding a dozen or more third-party packages, which may or may not be up-to-date. And the resulting Flask project structure often varies widely, making it more difficult to move between projects and maintain best practices within the community.
Django remains under active development with a regular release schedule of monthly security/bug fixes and a major new release every 8 months. Millions of programmers have already used Django to build their websites. It doesn’t make sense to repeat the same code–and mistakes–when a large community of brilliant developers has already solved these problems for us.
The Django community is also constantly adding new features and security improvements. And best of all, it’s written in the wonderfully readable yet still powerful Python programming language. In short, if you’re building a website from scratch Django is a fantastic choice.