title: flask-based REST api: marshmallow vs flask-restful
body: <p>I have gone thru a tone of <code>flask</code> tutorials the last couple of weeks.</p>
  
  <p>From my understanding, to build a simple REST api based on <code>flask</code>, there are (among others) two ways:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>adopting <code>flask-restful</code> and using it to create <code>Resources</code> that you then expose via the appropriate url/routes and bind them with <code>sqlalchemy</code> models</p></li>
  <li><p>use plain <code>sqlalchemy</code> for the model, and then <code>marshmallow</code> for de/serialization and object serving in <code>json</code> format.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Is there a comparison among these two approaches? I 'm kinda new in the field and the <code>marshmallow</code> approach seemed to be quicker and perhaps easier to follow. </p>
  
  <p>Are there any benefits when it comes to adopting <code>flask-restful</code> compared to the de/serialiation layer of <code>marshmallow</code>?</p>