Hmmm any specific syntax examples of pain points in Sqlalchemy? Having used both, they feel similar to me so I’d love your view!

We could probably do with a "SQLAlchemy for Django users" article. SQLAlchemy is much more powerful and flexible than Django. After using SQLAlchemy it's hard to even consider an active record style ORM like Django an ORM at all. SQLAlchemy can truly map relational data onto objects and uses the unit of work pattern to coordinate updates. Django just feels like writing raw SQL but in nicer Python syntax. The details of relational models leak directly into the business logic and there isn't really much you can do about it. In short, SQLAlchemy is a different beast. If all you need is Django then you're probably only doing CRUD and you should just use Django.