Django is renowned for its ability to accelerate web development by providing a robust framework that emphasizes efficiency and reusability of components. Here are some compelling reasons why it stands out:

1. Rapid Development: Django’s batteries-included philosophy allows developers to build web applications quickly, significantly reducing the time to market.
2. Scalability: As your application grows, Django makes it easy to scale without compromising performance.
3. Robust Security: With built-in protections against common threats like SQL injection and cross-site scripting, security is a priority in Django.
4. Versatile Framework: Whether you're building a simple blog or a complex e-commerce platform, Django offers the tools necessary to make your project successful.
5. Strong Community: The large support community means that help is readily available, and there are numerous third-party packages to enhance functionality.

Additionally, Django promotes good development practices, allowing developers to focus on writing clean, maintainable code. This framework stands out for several reasons:

1. ORM (Object-Relational Mapping): Django's ORM provides a powerful interface for databases, allowing developers to work with database records as Python objects.
2. Admin Interface: The auto-generated admin dashboard simplifies backend management, giving developers more time to focus on front-end features.
3. Flexible URL Routing: Django’s URL dispatcher allows for clean and meaningful URLs, improving the user experience.
4. Built-in Authentication: Offering user authentication right out of the box streamlines the login and registration processes.
5. Strong Documentation: Comprehensive documentation ensures that developers, regardless of their experience level, can effectively utilize Django's features.

Getting started with Django can be an exciting journey for any aspiring web developer. Django is a powerful web framework that promotes rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. To begin building your first web application, first, install Django by using the command pip install Django in your terminal. Once installed, you can create a new project by running django-admin startproject projectname. This command sets up the necessary files and structure, making it easy to organize your code and manage your application effectively.

Next, it's crucial to understand the fundamental concepts of Django. Key components include models, which define the data structure, views, which handle the business logic, and templates, which render the user interface. As you progress through your first project, consider breaking your work into manageable steps. Here’s a quick checklist to help you stay organized:

1. Define your models in models.py
2. Create views in views.py
3. Set up URLs in urls.py
4. Craft your templates in the templates directory

By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to developing a fully-functional web application with Django.

When starting with Django, new web developers often fall into the trap of overlooking the importance of proper settings. One common mistake is failing to configure the DEBUG setting appropriately. While DEBUG = True is useful during development for easier debugging, deploying an application with this setting enabled can expose sensitive information to users. Therefore, ensure that DEBUG is set to False in your production environment and always define the ALLOWED_HOSTS list to prevent host header attacks.

Another frequent error is the misuse of query sets and database access. New developers often don't leverage the power of Django's ORM and end up making inefficient queries. For instance, it's essential to utilize methods like select_related and prefetch_related to optimize database access and reduce the number of queries made. This not only enhances the performance of your application but also minimizes the load on your database server. Remember, being mindful of how you interact with your database can drastically improve the efficiency of your Django applications.