ReactJS, Angular And Vue: A Comparison

When it comes to building interactive web applications, ReactJS is a well-established framework and a popular choice among developers. But what about its competitors? The two main ones are Angular and Vue, both robust frameworks that come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look at how these other frameworks shape up next to ReactJS.

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces for web applications. Developed and maintained by Facebook, it is used by many well-known online businesses such as Netflix, Airbnb, Dropbox, and Microsoft.

Angular is a cross-platform JavaScript MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) framework for building interactive web applications. Developed and maintained by Google, it is also used by a variety of major online businesses such as Upwork, Paypal, and Udemy.

Vue is a JavaScript framework that aims to be more approachable, versatile, and performant than its competitors. A relatively new challenger, it is growing rapidly in popularity. It was created by Evan You, an ex-Google developer who worked on Angular wanting to create a better, more lightweight framework. It is used by Alibaba, Grammarly, and Adobe, amongst others.

Performance and Capability

React is a very performant, flexible, and responsive framework, particularly due to being heavily JavaScript-based. It features a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) which makes updating the application as a result of changes in data and state more performant. It also supports native development with React Native.

Angular is very performant with similar characteristics to React, although for large, data-heavy applications it can be significantly slower. This is because it features two-way data binding between source and view, whereas React and Vue are one-way. Two-way data binding also makes it more difficult to debug errors in the application.

Vue is a very flexible and modular framework that makes it easier to develop a wide range of different applications. Like React, it features a virtual DOM to improve performance.

All these frameworks are component-based, which means that developers can create small, versatile components that can be combined in different ways to produce complex UIs.

Learning Curve

Applications written with React are written in JSX, a syntax extension to JavaScript which requires developers to have JavaScript knowledge. Because it is a very flexible framework, it is also one which offers little structural guidance for developers when creating an application. Due to its depth, it takes a relatively long time to master and requires competence in integrating user interfaces into an MVC framework.

Angular is much more opinionated on how an application should be structured, which makes it easier to grasp. However, it offers a fatiguing number of tools for developers to learn, as well as requiring developers to use TypeScript, which is relatively niche compared to JavaScript and is, therefore, less dependable as a long-term choice for companies. Angular is also more bloated in features compared to its counterparts, which results in a significant learning curve.

Vue is the easiest and most approachable of the three, and some companies have switched to it specifically because of how easy it is for new developers to learn. Its syntax is based on HTML which is easier to learn than JavaScript. It also features compatibility with React’s JSX. In order to allow developers to take advantage of the more powerful JavaScript when necessary.

Development and Support

Because React is backed and used by Facebook, it is very well maintained with frequent updates, and being open-source, many programmers from all over the world contribute to the codebase. Because of its widespread popularity, there is a range of resources and learning materials through Q&A sites, blogs, and guides, making it easier for new developers to get up to speed. Facebook is also developing the next generation of React called React Fibre, which will be 100% backward compatible.

Angular is backed and used by Google and comes with comprehensive documentation as well as a variety of learning materials and tutorials. Angular is a recent evolution of AngularJS, the framework originally released in 2010. This means that Google is hard at work improving Angular and making it a better choice for developers.

The Development and Maintenance of Vue are led by Evan You, who has a small team of engineers developing the framework, relying on sponsorships and donations. Despite these humble beginnings, Vue is growing very fast and is already experiencing strong uptake with new companies and developers.

Conclusion

The choice of framework for your project depends on the specific requirements of the project; the skills you have on your team. Despite differences in the way that applications are developed in these three frameworks. All are robust and performant options that are well worth considering. To know more Connect with well-known Node JS Development Company California