Stop Using Django REST Framework: We Did, and Here's What We Learned

Stop Using Django REST Framework: We Did, and Here's What We Learned For years, Django REST Framework was the default answer whenever someone asked "how do I build an API in Django?" No questions asked. You just pip install djangorestframework and move on. We did it too — on project after project at Gerus-lab, across Web3 dashboards, AI platforms, SaaS tools, and GameFi backends. Then we stopped. This is the story of why we ditched DRF, tried django-ninja, got burned, and what we actually use now for production APIs. The DRF Problem Nobody Wants to Admit We've built 14+ production projects at Gerus-lab — from TON blockchain integrations to AI-powered SaaS platforms. Across all of them, DRF showed the same cracks every single time. One serializer to rule them all. DRF's design decision to use the same serializer for both input and output is... bold. In theory it sounds clean. In practice, you spend half your time writing read_only=True everywhere or creating two separate serializer clas