What happens when you take the speed and simplicity of a modern Python framework and combine it with the kind of built in backend functionality developers usually have to assemble themselves?
That is the question behind Sillo.
Sillo 0.1.0 is now publicly available, marking the first public release of the framework.
Sillo is an async Python backend framework built around a simple idea: Python with the pieces already in place.
Python already has some incredible options for backend development. FastAPI made building high performance APIs with Python incredibly enjoyable, while Django demonstrated just how much a framework can provide when it takes a more batteries included approach. Both have their strengths, and both have influenced how Sillo is being designed.
Sillo takes inspiration from both approaches while trying to explore a different balance.
The framework is designed to provide the performance and async architecture expected from a modern Python backend framework while also providing many of the things developers commonly need when building a complete application.
That includes routing, Pydantic validation, authentication, the Record ORM, background queues, task scheduling, caching, WebSockets, sessions, mail and admin functionality. These aren't intended to be a random collection of packages bundled together. The goal is for them to feel like parts of one framework, sharing the same configuration model and working naturally with each other.
Performance is also a major part of the project.
Sillo is designed to be as fast as FastAPI, and in some workloads even faster, while providing significantly more built in backend functionality than Django. The benchmark results are still something that will continue to be tested and improved as the framework develops, but performance has been a first class consideration from the beginning.
The bigger idea, however, isn't simply to build a framework with a long feature list.
It's about reducing the amount of backend infrastructure developers have to assemble before they can actually focus on their application.
With a typical backend project, the framework might handle HTTP requests while the rest of the application depends on a collection of additional libraries and services. That approach works extremely well and is one of the strengths of the Python ecosystem. Sillo simply asks whether there is another way.
What if more of those pieces were designed together from the beginning?
That is what Sillo is trying to explore.
Sillo 0.1.0 is still an early release, and there is a lot of work ahead. APIs will evolve, performance will continue to be tested, features will mature and the framework will inevitably change as more developers use it.
But it is now public.
If you build backend applications with Python, work with FastAPI or Django, or simply enjoy experimenting with new frameworks, I'd love to see what you think of Sillo.
You can explore the framework, read the documentation and get started here:
This is only 0.1.0.
Let's see where it goes. 🚀
