difference between Flask and FastAPI

[piouspradhan]

Course

machine-learning-zoomcamp

Question

Question: What’s the difference between Flask and FastAPI for model deployment?

Answer

• Performance: FastAPI is built on ASGI and supports asynchronous execution, making it faster than Flask (which runs on WSGI).
• Type Hinting & Validation: FastAPI uses Pydantic and Python type hints for automatic request validation and serialization. Flask requires manual validation.
• Auto Documentation: FastAPI provides Swagger UI and ReDoc out of the box for API documentation, while Flask needs external extensions.
• Development Speed: FastAPI reduces boilerplate with built-in validation, dependency injection, and async support, improving development efficiency.
• Community & Maturity: Flask has a larger, well-established community; FastAPI is newer but rapidly growing, ideal for modern ML API deployments.

Checklist

• I have searched existing FAQs and this question is not already answered
• The answer provides accurate, helpful information
• I have included any relevant code examples or links

[github-actions]

✅ FAQ UPDATE proposal created in PR #28

Please review and approve the changes.