Angular vs React Comparison : Which Framework to Choose for Your App?

Are you starting a new app development project and couldn't decide which framework to use for the project? Well, you are not alone. The majority of developers, freelancers, and even experienced programmers find it very difficult each time they start a new project. If you are confused between React vs Angular Frameworks, this post is for you.

If you think that you will get an answer to your dilemma of whether to choose to React or Angular for your project, this post does not do that. It is not possible to give a black or white answer to this question. What I have done is I have compared both the frameworks to give a clear idea as to which framework is suitable for your project. Believe me, by the end of the article, you will be able to decide which framework is best suitable for your current project.

Before we start the comparison between React and Angular, let's discuss both of these frameworks in brief.

Technology Overview

Angular

Angular is an open-source, JavaScript programming framework developed by Google, and it has been the beloved framework of Google since it has launched. It is termed as "Superheroic JavaScript MVWFramework" on its webpage, and believe me; Angular development has carved a niche for itself since its inception by offering some unparalleled advantages and benefits to the developers. The angular framework has been widely used to create highly-functional, user-friendly, and scalable web applications. Even Google Hangouts uses Angular. What more proof do you expect to realize the importance of Angular for Google?

Angular is written in typescript and has been one of the most used frameworks for single-page applications. Angular without “JS” refers to Angular 2 and the above versions. Whereas AngularJS refers to Angular 1.x versions. The latest version of Angular is 10, released on June 24, 2020. However, Google still supports AngularJS. Some of the applications were built with Angular Upwork, Google, Nike, and Forbes.

React

React is a JavaScript library that is developed and maintained by Facebook. Released in 2013, React is the biggest bet of Facebook. It is termed as "a JavaScript library for building user interfaces." Some of the React applications are WhatsApp, Instagram, Airbnb, Facebook, Uber, and Netflix. As per the inside sources, Facebook uses React far more than Google uses its Angular. It indicates that Facebook is relying very much on React.

Technology Features: Angular vs ReactJS

As far as Angular vs React is concerned, there are significant differences between both the technologies, but comparing their features would not be fair. Having said that, Angular is a full-blown, feature-rich framework while React is a UI component library. It allows devs to figure out how their app will look and also used for building native-rendered web apps as well as mobile apps.

On the other side, Angular offers a full-fledged toolkit that consists of everything needed to develop large-scale apps. So, let us check out the exclusive features of Angular and React individually;

Angular

Dependency Injection (DI): Used in the design for enhancing efficiency and modularity of Angular applications;

Templates: Angular HTML templates represent a view of an Angular application;

Components: It defines a class containing application data and logic and works as a building block to control HTML views to be displayed in the targeted environment.

Routing, provided by @angular/router: Offers a service to define a navigation path among the various states and view hierarchies in your app.

Ajax requests using @angular/common/http: ”Asynchronous JavaScript and XML” allows to update any part of a web page without refreshing the entire page;

@angular/forms for building forms: Allow applications to handle user input data in two different approaches: reactive and template-driven;

Component CSS encapsulation: To encapsulate component CSS styles into a component’s view without affecting the rest of the application;

XSS protection: The Cross-site scripting attacks inject malicious code into web pages and steal the user data. Angular’s XSS protection automatically escapes values and prevents XSS vulnerabilities on the server.

Code splitting and lazy loading: In complex web apps, large JS files delay app interactivity. Code Splitting allows you to divide such files without compromising app features. Whereas a design pattern, lazy loading keeps initial bundle sizes smaller that helps decrease load times.

Test runner, framework, and utilities for unit-testing: Angular offers a lot of efficient tools for testing Angular applications.

React

Unlike Angular’s classic templates, React has JSX- JavaScript Syntax Extension that lets you describe how UI should look, for example; const element = <h1> Hello, world! </h1>;

Function and Class components: Components are reusable and individual building blocks of React apps more like JavaScript functions. Each accepts subjective inputs (“props”- properties) and returns React elements.

State management using setState and hooks: State is an object that can store and manage multiple properties of components. The setState() method is used to update the State object in response to event handlers, prop changes, or server responses. Hooks allow you to use the state object without writing a class.

XSS protection: Everything is converted into a string before being delivered that helps prevent cross-site scripting-XSS attacks.

Code-Splitting and Lazy Load: React apps have their files merged into a bundle using Webpack, Rollup, or Browserify like tools. When the app scales up, the bundle will grow, too, so you can use the code-splitting feature supported by bundler tools.

It splits your bundle into multiple that can be dynamically loaded at runtime. The practice enables lazy-loading things needed by users on runtime and improves overall performance without reducing code amount.

Error handling boundaries: Such boundaries are React components that catch JS errors during rendering, in lifecycle methods, and constructors of the whole component tree below them.

Utilities for unit-testing components: React open-source ecosystem offers a few tools and libraries to test React applications.

After an overview of popular features for React vs Angular, now, let's dive into the advantages of React and Angular in a specific manner.

React JavaScript library benefits

Superior user experience

When it comes to user experience, React uses Virtual DOM, which is the abstract of the real DOM. It makes it very easy for developers to incorporate and update changes made by the users in the application without disturbing other parts of the app interface. It offers an excellent user experience due to a very dynamic UI.

Time effective

With React development, the components are completely isolated. Developers can use code components at any given time, making it easy for developers to make any updates or changes. Here, changes made in one will not affect others. It makes the whole app development process quicker, more comfortable, and efficient too.

Quick Development

One of React’s most alluring characteristics is that developers can use existing code again, and it makes development fast and quick. Not just that, it also improves overall app performance.

Testing is quick and efficient

If you are using React, the testing will be as smooth sailing as you don't need to store and manage large-sized component states with dynamic elements. Hence, when you test the app, you don't need to involve child components as you can add an application state in each component of the single object. In the end, the testing of the app is simple, flawless, and quicker.

Benefits of Angular front end development framework

Clear, cleaner, and conscious code

Here, Typescript is used by Angular for coding, which is a superset of JavaScript. For developers, it becomes straightforward to find and process different issues while coding. The result is a clear and cleaner code that contains no errors. When you are dealing with an enterprise Application Development, the code must be cleaner and error-free.

High performance

Angular mobile applications perform better than other frameworks as it has a hierarchical dependency injection that ensures that classes are not dependent on each other. It improves the performance of the app to a great extent by turning classes to external sources.

A material design like interface

One of the most useful angular development qualities is that it has prebuilt material design components for almost every element, such as navigation, form controls, layouts, pop-ups, and data tables. It improves the interface of the product and makes it more user-friendly and scalable.

Better error handling

Also, one of the most critical aspects of Angular is that it has a better error handling process, such as an upgraded error handling process for output.

The Main Comparison between Angular and React

Before you can go more confused between React and Angular, let's discuss various parameters to find the difference between Angular and react by comparing both the frameworks.

Popularity

If we have to believe Google search results, React has been searched more than Angular. However, Angular has its popularity that is increasing with each passing day due to the superior performance and security it offers to the applications. When it comes to popularity, both the frameworks win here.

Architecture

Both angular and React have component-based architecture, but angular uses typescript while React uses native JavaScript. When it comes to compact and error-free architecture, the Angular framework works fine here.

Learning Curve

If you want to make an app with Angular, you need to be a master of the craft. You not only have to learn just AngularJS, but also other programming languages, concepts, templates, pipes, dependency injection, and other crucial elements and concepts such as Typescript. In addition to that, it also has a complicated and complex component management system. Another fact is that the framework is continuously evolving with time, and developers have to check updates in the new version continually and hone their skills and expertise accordingly.

It is not the case with React. If you know JavaScript thoroughly, you can quickly develop an app with the React JS framework. In addition to that, there are various new resources and online support from the community available for you and for developers who are just beginners.

Development Speed and Productivity

Developers love to develop apps with Angular, thanks to the CLI, that allows developers to create components and services with one command line and make it easy for them to develop applications effortlessly. In addition to that, Typescript allows no coding issues and provides error-free and clean coding.

Unfortunately, it is not the case with React. Due to the presence of third-party libraries, speed and performance are affected hugely. Also, the toolkit for React will change from project to project, and when handover within the organization happens, it might create issues.

In the comparison for speed and performance between React Vs Angular, Angular wins.

Flexibility

When you start a new app development project, you must have the freedom and flexibility to choose the tools, libraries, and other aspects such as architecture. React allows such freedom to the developers. It is not the case with angular as it offers a limited amount of flexibility to the developers to choose from. Even the latest Angular 7 version does not allow you to use components other than Angular.

Document Object Model

One of the drawbacks of Angular is that it uses real DOM in which a single change or update on the version will change the whole tree data structure. On the other hand, virtual DOM allows developers to change a particular part of the app version without disturbing other parts of the tree.

Mobile solutions

The ionic framework offered by Angular has a Cordova container that does not provide a native UI experience to the users as it makes users feel a browser-type feeling.

It is not the case with the React JavaScript library. It offers the best UI experience to the users by binding different components to native code written in Java, Kotlin, and Objective-C.

When to Choose to React?

When you have a good command over HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Your project needs a specific, customized app solution.

If your development process involves components with different and variable states, such as active/inactive navigation items, user login, as well as access permissions, dynamic inputs, enabled/disabled buttons, etc.

When to Choose Angular?

When you are well-versed with Java, C#, and former versions of Angular.

Your app complexity extends from Low to Medium level.

You like to embrace ready-to-use solutions and require higher productivity.

If your app requires to regulate the app size, as performance budgets in Angular CLI monitor and ensure parts of your application don’t exceed the pre-decided boundaries.

You are required to develop a large-scale and feature-rich application.

OR, try answering the following questions about your project that will lead you to compare Angular vs React. By matching the details mentioned in the blog, you can get the answer simply.

How big can your project be?

How long will it require to be maintained?

Do you have defined all of the functionality already, or you want it to be flexible?

What capabilities would be required for the project features?

If the domain model and business logic are complex?

Platforms will you be targeting: Web, mobile, desktop?

If server-side rendering & SEO are essential to you?

How many real-time event streams will the product need to handle?

What is the strength of your team? Are they experienced in these technologies?

Do you wish to use any ready-made component libraries?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jigar Shah

Java Developer