Differences between webapp and web.py

Question

Webpy.org - Who uses web.py?

\"[web.py inspired the] web framework we use at FriendFeed [and] the webapp framework that ships with App Engine...\"

Answer 1

web.py experience:
I started to use web.py three years ago when I decided to learn some Python web frameworks.
The first thing I loved of web.py was its simplicity; I was searching for an essential microframework without all the batteries that you can find in other bigger projects like Django or Web2py for example.

So I developed a couple of projects (deployed with fastcgi) and learned all of the web.py library features, Templetor included.

Then I discovered Google App Engine and started to use Webapp; it was a boring process because instead of using python (like Templetor or Mako), it forces you to learn a new templating syntax that it is very restrictive by default.
While Developing StackPrinter I found that Google App Engine was supported by web.py so I removed Sqlite, made some minor tweaks and started to use GAE datastore.

Web.py was my first love in term of Python web frameworks and it's fair to say that I'm a little biased to talk about it.
I'm sticking with web.py for my pet-project on GAE because I'm fluent with it and templetor is lightning fast.
I like the fact that I can use Python for templating and the easy way to share some data or functions globally to the views, I like also the rich toolset of utilities for encoding, markdown and so on.

Webapp vs web.py:
I think it's not fair to compare them because Webapp is a simple framework that just provides the minimum easy tools to get started; many features are missing like I18n, validation, processors or even the basic cookies handling.
Check Webapp-improved for something better.

My recommendation:
If your focus is mainly on developing for Google App Engine, I would recommend you to go with some framework made specifically for GAE like Tipfy.
If you are searching for a pythonic web framework to play with on your side-projects, web.py is a good project to study and to follow.