Python web framework

Django, from zero to first page

A short, plain-language guide to what Django is, how to spin it up in a browser without installing anything, and how to build your first data model. A live sandbox is embedded below.

Your private Replit sandbox

Django needs Python and a shell, so the sandbox provider is a browser-based IDE. Replit and Gitpod both boot a Django project in about 30 seconds. Save your Replit URL below and this page will reload your sandbox next time.

Launch on Replit
Preparing your session...

If nothing loads here, the sandbox host does not allow being framed by other sites. That is a common, sensible security setting for live admin interfaces — use the "Open in new tab" button above.

Launch the sandbox

How to put it into the sandbox

Django is not a hosted CMS — it is a framework you run. A sandbox for Django means a browser IDE where the Python + Django server runs for you, so you can code and see the live site without installing anything on your machine.

  1. 1. Open the sandbox provider

    Click replit.com/templates and pick the Django template, or open Gitpod with the Django repo. Either gives you an IDE, a terminal, and a live URL.

  2. 2. Fork the template

    On Replit, click Fork template (sign in with GitHub or email if asked). Replit clones the project into your account and boots a container in a few seconds.

  3. 3. Wait for the environment to build

    The first boot runs pip install -r requirements.txt automatically. Watch the terminal on the right — when it prints "Starting development server at 0.0.0.0:8000" the site is up.

  4. 4. Open your live URL

    A tab appears on the right showing the running Django site. Click the Open in new tab icon to get a full-page URL — that is your sandbox link. Paste it below so this page reloads it next visit.

  5. 5. Create the admin user

    In the Replit shell run python manage.py createsuperuser. Enter a username, email and password. Now visit /admin/ at your live URL and log in — you have a working Django Admin.

  6. 6. Add an app and a model

    In the shell run python manage.py startapp blog. Open blog/models.py, add a Post class with title and body. Register it in blog/admin.py. Run makemigrations then migrate. Refresh /admin/ — a new Posts section appears.

  7. 7. Wire up a URL

    Create blog/urls.py mapping '' to a view that returns Post.objects.all(). Include it from the project urls.py with path('blog/', include('blog.urls')). Refresh — your posts render.

  8. 8. Save what you want to keep

    Replit keeps your fork for as long as your account exists, so you can come back to it. To take the code with you, click the three dots and export as a ZIP, or connect a GitHub repo and push. Do not put secrets in the code — use Replit Secrets instead.

Step-by-step guide

  1. 1. What Django is

    Django is a free, open-source web framework written in Python. It is not a CMS out of the box — it is a toolkit for building web apps quickly. It ships with an ORM (a Python way to talk to a database), a URL router, a template engine, forms, users and permissions, and a very good auto-generated Admin site that behaves like a CMS. Instagram, Pinterest, Mozilla and NASA have all shipped production sites on it.

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  2. 2. Try Django without installing anything

    Two easy paths: Replit gives you a browser IDE with Python and Django pre-installed and a live URL for your app; or Gitpod opens a full VS Code in the browser with Django ready to run. Both are free for small projects and disposable — perfect for a first tour.

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  3. 3. What you need to run it yourself

    Python 3.10 or newer, and pip (Python's package manager, ships with Python). That is really it. For a database Django uses SQLite by default (a file, no server), and only needs PostgreSQL or MySQL if you go to production or want features SQLite lacks. Optional but recommended: venv (built into Python) to isolate project dependencies.

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  4. 4. Install Django locally in one minute

    Open a terminal, then run python -m venv .venv, source .venv/bin/activate (or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows), pip install django, django-admin startproject mysite, cd mysite, python manage.py migrate, python manage.py runserver. Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 and you see the green rocket welcome page.

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  5. 5. First run — the Admin site

    Create an admin user: python manage.py createsuperuser. Answer the prompts. Restart the server, open /admin/, and log in. Django's Admin is a full CRUD interface auto-generated from your data models: it looks like a CMS out of the box and is where most Django projects start.

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  6. 6. Apps and models — the core idea

    A Django project is a collection of "apps" — self-contained features (blog, shop, forum). Create one with python manage.py startapp blog. In blog/models.py declare a class per table (for example Post(title, body, published_at)). Then run python manage.py makemigrations and python manage.py migrate. Register the model with the Admin site in blog/admin.py and it appears in /admin/ as an editable content type — no HTML needed.

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  7. 7. URLs, views and templates

    Every URL is mapped to a Python function ("view") in a per-app urls.py. The view fetches data from the ORM and renders a template (an HTML file in a templates/ folder). Django's template language is simple: {{ post.title }}, {% for post in posts %}. Global URL wiring lives in the project's root urls.py.

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  8. 8. Users, authentication and permissions

    Django ships with a full auth system: User model, sessions, login/logout views, password reset, and per-model permissions (add, change, delete, view). Just add path('accounts/', include('django.contrib.auth.urls')) and you get every auth URL for free. Superusers can create staff users and grant them per-app admin rights inside /admin/.

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  9. 9. Add features with reusable apps

    The Django ecosystem calls plugins "apps". Install with pip: for a REST API use Django REST framework (pip install djangorestframework); for search use django-haystack; for a full CMS UI use Wagtail or django CMS; for background jobs use Celery or django-q; for forms use django-crispy-forms. Add each to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py and run any migrations it ships with.

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  10. 10. Publishing your site

    Set DEBUG = False in settings, generate a strong SECRET_KEY, add your domain to ALLOWED_HOSTS, switch to PostgreSQL, run python manage.py collectstatic, then deploy. Easiest hosts: Fly.io, Railway, Render, Heroku, or a VPS with gunicorn + nginx. Set environment variables for the secret key and database URL — never commit them to git.

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One-page cheat sheet

Create a project and app

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install django
django-admin startproject mysite
cd mysite
python manage.py startapp blog
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserver

Data model workflow

# edit blog/models.py, then:
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

Deploy checklist

# settings.py
DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["example.com"]
# environment
python manage.py collectstatic
python manage.py migrate
gunicorn mysite.wsgi --bind 0.0.0.0:8000

Useful manage.py commands

python manage.py shell     # interactive Python + ORM
python manage.py test        # run tests
python manage.py dumpdata    # export data as JSON
python manage.py loaddata    # import data from JSON