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Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

djangoforge.dev

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Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#51

Post by davegaeddert »

systemvoltage wrote: post #49
tony wrote: post #36

I think this makes sense. Ideas: - Showcase your reciprocal contributions you make back to django community packages (e.g. Jazzband packages). - Release a permissively licensed django package (with no catches) under your GH's org and brand name and have it take off. (e.g. django-forge-admin) - The holy grail would be contributions to django itself. Example: Adding more CSS variables in django admin to font-size and f…

I wonder if this creates more problems than it solves. For example, imagine there are a bunch of startups trying their hardest to shoe-horn contributions in Django main branch. It puts a lot of load on core developers at Django to reject frivolous features and unnecessary bloat. The end effect would be that we get features no one asks for and Django becomes even more bloated. Django is already a very popular framewor…

Yeah I could see that argument too. Lots of hard decisions and interesting questions in terms of how to navigate what people want/need. Honestly I don't envy their situation. It has even made me think crazy things like what a Django fork would look like... the thing has some bloat that could stand to be removed too. And some legacy decisions that are super hard to change, but also need to be changed.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#53

Post by tony »

systemvoltage wrote: post #49
tony wrote: post #36

I think this makes sense. Ideas: - Showcase your reciprocal contributions you make back to django community packages (e.g. Jazzband packages). - Release a permissively licensed django package (with no catches) under your GH's org and brand name and have it take off. (e.g. django-forge-admin) - The holy grail would be contributions to django itself. Example: Adding more CSS variables in django admin to font-size and f…

I wonder if this creates more problems than it solves. For example, imagine there are a bunch of startups trying their hardest to shoe-horn contributions in Django main branch. It puts a lot of load on core developers at Django to reject frivolous features and unnecessary bloat. The end effect would be that we get features no one asks for and Django becomes even more bloated. Django is already a very popular framewor…

I wouldn't limit django patches to just being new features. Ample room for incremental improvements.

There are some parts of django core that are stable, but fundamentally broke for non-trivial apps. Let's just take /admin:

- Can inline admin models be paginated? Searched? Both? Asynchronously?

- Use autocomplete_fields by default via ID/PK lookup / when `search_fields` exist. Right now related fields will load the whole table into a box. This is an absurd default.

Other opportunities that'd be universal:

- Integrate channels into admin

- AJAX form validation

- Revision history that includes actual values / diffs / undo

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#55

Post by yunohn »

davegaeddert wrote: post #25
vincentmarle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The project seems really well put together but until you figure out your ideal target customer (and their needs) I would hold off on pricing it too high. Maybe offer it for free, get some learnings and as you add more value and get more clarity on your target group, you can then ramp up the price?

Yeah I've been considering that. Probably more likely that I'll lower the price, learn some things, then ramp it up. Free feels hard to reverse and the difference between "I wouldn't pay at all" vs "I'd pay less than that, but something" is pretty big (and important to me unless I figure out another way for the project to get paid for).

> Free feels hard to reverse

Absolutely true. I remember the amount of hate HN spewed at Docker for making their desktop app /paid/ for Corp users.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#57

Post by systemvoltage »

tony wrote: post #53
systemvoltage wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this creates more problems than it solves. For example, imagine there are a bunch of startups trying their hardest to shoe-horn contributions in Django main branch. It puts a lot of load on core developers at Django to reject frivolous features and unnecessary bloat. The end effect would be that we get features no one asks for and Django becomes even more bloated. Django is already a very popular framewor…

I wouldn't limit django patches to just being new features. Ample room for incremental improvements. There are some parts of django core that are stable, but fundamentally broke for non-trivial apps. Let's just take /admin: - Can inline admin models be paginated? Searched? Both? Asynchronously? - Use autocomplete_fields by default via ID/PK lookup / when `search_fields` exist. Right now related fields will load the w…

Good response, I agree that these changes would benefit Django.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#58

Post by czue »

davegaeddert wrote: post #48
czue wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the support and let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make Pegasus better! :)

Kudos to czue and Pegasus! I haven't used it before, but if that's a better fit for what you want, go buy it! Honestly I feel a little weird "competing" directly with something like this, but such is life. Thanks to everyone who has made something similar (in any ecosystem), which is part of what got me over the hump of thinking it was even possible. I'm glad Django is getting some options and new ideas!

Hey, competition is what it is. If there was no competition you'd be in a bad market!

In this case there's probably room for a handful of small players at least, and certainly many people will have different opinions about what the "right" way to build a Django SaaS should be, so it makes sense there would be multiple products in the space.

At first glance Forge looks like it's trying to be more upmarket and more opinionated than Pegasus, while Pegasus is more price-accessible and flexible. Certainly there are pros and cons to both positions.

Good luck! I'm sure we'll see each other on the battlefield. :)

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#59

Post by davegaeddert »

subsaharancoder wrote: post #54

How is this different from Pegasus https://www.saaspegasus.com/ which is a fully basked SaaS?

I haven't actually tried Pegasus, so I can't say exactly. In a lot of ways I'm sure they're similar. Some differences with Forge might be the removal of options: - Pegasus looks like it supports multiple CSS frameworks, Forge only comes with Tailwind - Pegasus talks about multiple deployment options, Forge focuses completely on Heroku - Pegasus talks about creating venvs or using virtualenvwrapper (+ pip-compile?), Forge uses Poetry

From what I understand, the update process for Pegasus is also a little bit more manual? Forge is intentionally set up to be a git remote, with directories and stuff named so that an update is essentially `git merge django-forge/main`.

Probably lots of little differences when you get into it — just different decisions from different people. Hoping to document more of Forge soon!

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#60

Post by andi999 »

I think I might be your target audience (oggling with the idea to create as SaaS, and good background in python). And let me be blunt: your promo material sucks

The docs show me what words to type to get your product, but not what your product gives me. From what I figured out it gives me a lot of django stuff. So should I go away now to learn all that djange stuff (probably yes), but then why do I need django forge?

The best explanation is the heading of the video. But still, what is the benefit. How difficult is it to build a SaaS with vanilla django, and how much easier is it with django-forge. I couldnt figure that out.

Can you make a video, where you show how to make a full fledged SaaS with django-forge and deploy it? How long would that video be?

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