Beyond {% include %}: Bringing a Component-Based Mindset to Django Templating

I've been building web apps with Django for years, and while its templating system has been a reliable workhorse since the framework's early days, it’s starting to show its age. As a Django developer, I love the simplicity of embedding template tags in HTML to keep my logic separate from my presentation; it’s a far cry from the tangled mess of PHP or JSP I’ve seen in legacy projects. But as frontends have evolved, especially with React’s component-driven paradigm taking over, I’ve found myself wanting a more modern, reusable way to structure my Django templates.

In this post, I’ll share why I think a React-inspired, component-based approach can level up Django projects, how I’ve started rethinking my templates as components, and some practical techniques I use to modernize my Django codebase without abandoning its server-side roots.

Why Django’s Templating System Feels Dated

Django’s templating engine is built on a clean separation of concerns: I write my business logic in Python views, and my templates focus on displaying the results. With control structures like {% if %} and {% for %}, plus a solid set of filters and tags, it’s functional for most projects. But as my apps grow, I keep hitting the same pain points:

Template Sprawl: My projects often end up with a mess of template files, header.html, footer.html, nav.html, and countless snippets. Tracking down where a specific UI element is rendered feels like a scavenger hunt.
Clunky Reuse: Using {% include "snippet.html" %} or template inheritance works, but passing contextual data through nested templates gets messy fast. I’ve spent too much time debugging why a variable didn’t make it to the right include.
No True Encapsulation: Unlike React components, which bundle their logic and styles, my Django templates rely on shared context variables and external state. This makes it tough to treat a UI element as a standalone unit.

Why I’m Drawn to a Component-Based Mindset

React’s popularity exploded because of its reusable, self-contained components. I can build a button, a card, or a nav bar once, pass it explicit props, and reuse it across my app. This approach brings:

Consistency: Update a component in one place, and it’s reflected everywhere.
Maintainability: Smaller, focused code chunks are easier to test and refactor.
Scalability: New team members can jump in faster when the UI is broken into logical pieces.

As a Django dev, I want to bring this clarity to my templates. I’ve started imagining UI elements like a user profile card or a search form as self-contained components with clear inputs and outputs. While Django’s templating engine wasn’t designed for this, I’ve found ways to approximate it using native features and third-party tools.

My Approaches to Component-Driven Django

Here are the techniques I’ve been using to make my Django templates feel more like components.

1. Template Snippets + Custom Template Tags

My go-to method for simple projects is combining reusable HTML snippets with custom template tags. Here’s how I do it:

Create a Snippet: I write a small template, like profile_card.html, that renders a user’s name, avatar, and bio.
Build a Custom Tag: In a templatetags module, I create a Python function that takes arguments (e.g., a user ID) and returns a context dictionary with the data I need.
Render It: In my main template, I use the custom tag to fetch the data and pass it to the snippet with {% include "profile_card.html" with user_data=user_data %}.

Here’s an example I’ve used:

# myapp/templatetags/my_tags.py
from django import template
from myapp.models import User

register = template.Library()

@register.inclusion_tag('profile_card.html')
def profile_card(user_id):
user = User.objects.get(id=user_id)
return {
'name': user.name,
'avatar_url': user.avatar_url,
'bio': user.bio,
}

<div class="card">
<img src="{{ avatar_url }}" alt="Avatar">
<h3>{{ name }}</h3>
<p>{{ bio }}</p>
</div>

Then in my main template:

{% load my_tags %}
{% profile_card user.id %}

Pros:

Sticks to Django’s built-in tools, no external dependencies.
Keeps logic out of templates and in Python where it belongs.

Cons:

Passing lots of parameters can get verbose.
Doesn’t fully isolate the component from the parent template’s context.

2. Embracing Third-Party Libraries

For bigger projects, I’ve experimented with libraries like django-components. It feels closer to React by letting me define a component as a Python class with its own template and context logic. Here’s how I set up a profile card with it:

# myapp/components.py
from django_components import component

@component.register("profile_card")
class ProfileCard(component.Component):
template_name = "profile_card_component.html"

def get_context_data(self, user=None, **kwargs):
return {
"name": user.name,
"avatar_url": user.avatar_url,
"bio": user.bio,
}

<div class="card">
<img src="{{ avatar_url }}" alt="Avatar">
<h3>{{ name }}</h3>
<p>{{ bio }}</p>
</div>

In my template:

{% load component_tags %}
{% component "profile_card" user=current_user %}

Pros:

Feels like React with a clear “props” model.
Encapsulates logic and UI in one place.

Cons:

Adds a dependency, which I need to maintain.
Might clash with my existing template structure.

3. Hybrid Front-End Solutions

Sometimes, I go beyond templates and use Django as an API to serve data to a JavaScript-driven frontend. For smaller projects, I’ve found libraries like HTMX or Alpine.js let me add interactivity without a full React setup. I still use Django templates for the initial render but sprinkle in dynamic behavior where needed. This isn’t purely component-driven, but it modernizes the frontend while keeping Django’s server-side strengths.

My Best Practices for Component-Based Django

Here’s what I’ve learned to make this approach work:

Define Clear Inputs: I treat my components like functions with explicit parameters (e.g., user, theme). This is my “props” contract.

Avoid Global Context: I steer clear of relying on session data or inherited context variables. Each component gets what it needs explicitly.

Keep Logic in Python: I put complex logic in views, models, or template tags, not templates. Django’s template language isn’t built for heavy lifting.

Reuse Aggressively: Once I build a component, I use it everywhere. A single profile_card can serve user profiles, team pages, or dashboards.

Name Intuitively: I name files like profile_card.html or search_form.html to make their purpose obvious.

Document Everything: I add docstrings to my template tags or components, listing expected parameters. This saves me (and my team) headaches later.

Is This Django’s Future?

As a Django dev, I appreciate the framework’s “server renders everything” roots, but the web has moved toward component-driven UIs. Django’s templating system hasn’t caught up, and I don’t expect a full overhaul anytime soon. Still, I can make my projects more maintainable by adopting these React-inspired patterns.

Whether I’m using custom tags, libraries like django-components, or a hybrid frontend, I’m building reusable UI blocks that make my codebase cleaner and more scalable.

For data-heavy or content-driven apps, Django’s still my go-to. By blending its strengths with component-based thinking, I’m creating UIs that are easier to maintain and extend. It’s not React, but it’s a step toward the clarity and reusability I’ve come to admire in modern web development. And in a world where deadlines are tight and codebases grow fast, that’s a win I’ll take.