A Web API is a set of defined protocols and tools for building software applications that allow different systems to communicate over the web, often used to enable web services to fetch data or perform operations. While [[Django]] provides a comprehensive backend framework called [[Django's Object-Relational Mapping (ORM)]], many developers pair it with Web APIs to serve data to frontend frameworks like [[React.js]], which allows for more interactive and dynamic user interfaces than traditional server-rendered pages. Alternatives to this approach might involve using other backend frameworks, full-stack platforms, or serverless architectures.