Angular vs React – Which One To Consider For Web Development

Before starting any Web Development project, every developer definitely thinks of the framework trio- Angular vs React vs Vue (popularly available) and which will be the most appropriate choice for their project.

Usually, due to the lack of enough knowledge about them, they end up choosing a framework that may make them feel excited at the beginning of the project but they in the middle, developers get stuck while developing a simple application.

Here I’m going to discuss Angular vs React, and out of these two, which one is well-developed and is more appropriate- A framework i.e., Angular and the other which is a library that deals with the view of an application and can be turned into a framework by combining a few more libraries to it i.e. React.

Before comparing the different web development frameworks available in the market, let’s take an overview of each of them.

Angular
It is a full-fledged JavaScript Framework developed and maintained by Google, whose architecture is based on components.
It allows web pages to render fastly and efficiently rather than instructing servers to reload the entire HTML page.
This framework is capable of developing both mobiles as well as web applications.

React

It is a powerful JavaScript library developed and maintained by Facebook and its community and its architecture is also based on components.

ReactJS is a lean framework, as it consists of only a few tools, that are necessary for dropping components onto the webpages and doesn’t consist of the heavy and complete packages of tools like Angular. ReactJS is also used for making single or multi-page web and mobile applications.

Now that we have come to know about these frameworks, we can head out to start the comparison between them. But before diving deeper into their comparison, let us have a look at some basic facts about them such as their initial release date, supporting programming languages, and so on.

Angular vs React: Brief Description

Framework For Your Project: Angular vs React

So far we have discussed a brief description of  Angular vs React JS in which we looked at who developed them, their release date, and some of their key features. Now, let’s explore those important features in detail so that you become capable of selecting the best framework that suits you and your project’s requirements.

1. Universality

Angular: This framework is suitable for developing both webpages as well as mobile applications. It is capable of developing both single-page as well as multi-page web applications.

However, most of the tasks of developing mobile applications using angular are done by the Ionic itself. For mobile development, angular has an additional framework also.

React: This framework is also capable of developing websites or mobile applications with only a few necessary tools, required for dropping components on the pages.

For developing mobile applications, ReactJS needs to get integrated with Cordova. It also has a separate framework for developing mobile applications i.e., React Native.

2. Self-Reliance

Angular: Since Angular is a well-developed software framework, with a complete package of tools required for developing an application, it rarely needs any additional libraries.

With the help of available tools and packages, Angular is capable of implementing different features such as project generation, component-based routing, data binding, dependency injection, form validation, and so on. 

React: As we know ReactJS is just a JavaScript-based library used for UI development, so it will surely require additional libraries for developing a complete web application. Some of the libraries like Redux, Helmet, React Router, etc help in optimizing the processes of state management, API’s interaction, routing respectively.

For implementing features such as project generation, form validation, data binding, dependency injection, component-based routing, etc in ReactJS additional libraries and modules are needed to be installed.

3. Community Worldwide

Angular: Due to the disregard of Angular 1.0, it has faced lots of uncertainty among the developers. Google’s support behind Angular is the only trust due to which it remains in the race of the best web development framework.

Many of them also declined to use Angular by considering it as an extremely complicated framework because it consumes more time in learning than other frameworks. Apple, Microsoft, McDonald’s, Nike, Adobe, AT&T, HBO, etc are some of the companies that work on the applications based on the Angular framework.

React: Since React is a lightweight framework and to start working on it doesn’t require lots of learning, that’s why it is much popular among the experts as well as novice developers. But for working with React continuously you need to be a constant learner because the framework updates regularly.

Facebook, PayPal, Netflix, The New York Times, Twitter, Yahoo, Airbnb, Walmart, Microsoft, and Uber are some of the companies that work on the applications based on the React web development framework.  

4. Learning Curve

Angular: Since Angular-based applications use TypeScript, which is syntactical – a superset of JavaScript, so the learning path of it is steep and full of stones.

Learning Angular is tougher than the React due to the presence of its vast collections of libraries. Since the architecture of Angular Framework is based on the component, so understanding them is also very difficult. The most confusing thing with Angular is that there are multiple ways of solving an issue in it.

React: The learning curve of React moves from moderate to steep, because we need to learn very little to start working with it but as we dive deeper into the concepts, the learning curves start getting sharp.

As you start implementing features like state management, API interaction, routing, etc you will need to learn about their respective libraries also. Despite all this, learning React is much easier than Angular, if you have a better knowledge of JavaScript.

5. Programming Language

Angular: For Angular-based applications both JavaScript or TypeScript can be used. But Typescript is preferred more than JavaScript for larger applications as TypeScript code is more concise than the JavaScript code so, it will be easier to navigate the codes.

By using TypeScript, typos can also be spotted easily. The process of Code Refactoring also becomes easier and faster by using TypeScript. 

React: React-based applications use JavaScript ES6+ along with JSX script. JSX script is a combination of JavaScript and HTML code. By using JSX script, it becomes easier to understand the code and identify errors of the code. A code translation tool called Babel is used by React for compiling JSX code in the browser.

If you are interested to know more about which programming languages you should choose, you can refer to our article on Best Programming Languages at SocialMirror.

6. Directives

Angular: Directives are used for sending attributes from one template to another for setting the object’s attributes. Using directives in Angular is not at all easier, even for experienced users. Then how we can expect a novice to be capable of using it.

React: In React there is no concept of directives as templates and logics, all are written together at one place and there is no need of sending attributes from one template to another. This makes users capable of understanding the code even without knowing much about the framework.

7. Dependency Injection

Angular: It has its own dependency injection framework mainly used for upgrading the efficiency and modularity by designing the Angular application. It offers hierarchical dependency injection which doesn’t let the classes depend on each other.

React: React doesn’t require a separate container for offering dependency injection as it has an in-built dependency injection container in the form of a JSX script. In React we can inject more than one dependency on an element. And we able to do this because of these two reasons:

• There can be more than one child of an element.
• We can also inject dependency to an element by using props.

8. Data Binding

Angular: It uses bidirectional data-binding which provides the best synchronization between different two elements. So while updating any value of the model (table), as the input value of it changes on the HTML pages, it also updates the values in the backend.

React: It uses unidirectional data-binding along with bidirectional data-binding helpers so that it can manage both extensive data manipulation and bulky parsing work altogether. Strengthening React with the Redux library allows data to flow in one direction while working with immutable data.

Angular vs React JS: Which One To Be Considered 

As we have discussed above some of the important features of  Angular vs ReactJS, there are many more that can stand in the list such as DOM, state management, architecture, performance, UI components, project folder structure, and so on.

To know about those features click here.

Now I’m going to tell you about  Angular vs React JS and which one to be considered for developing the project based on certain criteria.  

When To Consider Angular For Project Development

• If your team members have experience with JAVA, C#, or any earlier version of Angular.
• When the complexity of application ranges from low to a medium level only.
• Using Angular is appropriate when you and your team want to regulate the size of the application.
• When you require a large scale and feature-rich applications.
• When you are ready to grasp readymade solutions provided by this full-fledged framework.

When To Consider React For Project Development

• If your team members are experts in using HTML, CSS, JavaScript.
• If the team members have a better understanding of the project folder structure.
• Used for developing highly customized applications.
• The components are required to be shared among other components when the project enlarges.
• When the complexity of an application ranges from medium to high-level since React is considered for developing projects because it is a lean framework.

Comparing Vue JS vs Angular JS and React JS 

Here we will compare Vue js based on the features discussed above for Angular JS and React JS. But before comparison let’s have a look at Vue js.

Vue.js is an open-source, progressive JavaScript framework used for developing a single page application along with UI designing.
It was developed by Evan You and maintained by him and his team members working in different companies, by combining different features of both Angular and ReactJS.

The initial release of it came in February 2014 and the latest stable version of it is Vue.js 2.6.11 released on December 13, 2019.  Some of the properties used for comparing Vue js vs Angular js vs React js are:

• Universality: Vue.js is a well-developed lightweight framework used for developing single-page applications and designing user interfaces.
• Self-Reliance: As Vue.js is a lightweight JavaScript framework and it’s core library mainly focuses on developing view layer of n application.
  For using the advanced features such as state management, routing, building tools, etc it requires support from its officially maintained  Nuxt.js library. 

• Community Worldwide: Since Vue.js is an open-source framework, it is completely maintained by the open-source community.

• Learning Curve: Learning path for Vue.js is completely straight as compared to any other web development framework available in the market.

• Programming Languages: Vue.js applications are based on JavaScript and HTML. Using Vue.js is as easy as adding an import statement into your HTML code. But it becomes complex when we move toward developing complicated applications.

• Directives: Directives in Vue.js are the attributes that are added to the HTML pages to extend it.

• Dependency Injection: In Vue.js, dependency injection can be implemented using two instances- Provide and Inject, when the parent components are unable to scale properties to their deeper child components.
• Data Binding: Vue.js has a reactive data binding in which data is kept synchronized in the DOM without doing anything. 

Conclusion

Every web development frameworks available in the market have some advantages along with the disadvantages. None of the frameworks is exactly perfect for every project. Talking about Angular vs React and which one is better, we know-

Angular is a well-developed JavaScript framework used for building both mobile as well as web applications. But not preferred by most of the population due to its complex learning path and heavy collections of libraries.

Whereas ReactJS is just a JavaScript library that becomes a framework by combining a few more libraries to it such as Redux, React-Route, Helmet, etc. Since ReactJS is a lean framework, it is popular among the experienced as well as novice developers.

Vue JS is also a full-fledged, lightweight JavaScript framework used for building single-page applications along with UI designing.

Selecting a framework for developing an application is based on different criteria. Some of them are: 

• Universality
• Self-Sufficiency
• Community
• Learning Curve
• Language
• Directives
• Dependency Injection
• Data Binding

As I have discussed enough features about each of the frameworks Angular vs React vs Vue JS, now it’s your turn to decide which of the framework is suitable for your project based on their requirements.

If you are interested in knowing about ongoing or upcoming changes in the field of technologies through such interesting articles get them here at SocialMirror.  

If you have any queries regarding the content shared above, feel free to ask me in the comment below!