React vs. Angular vs. Vue — which JavaScript framework to choose for your project?
Tags: Angular, Vuejs, Javascript Frameworks, Javascript Development, React

JavaScript is a key programming language in today’s technology landscape. It’s surrounded by a profusion of different frameworks and libraries that make web development faster and easier. Just a few years ago, developers were debating whether React was better than Angular. Today, the growth of Vue makes this discussion a little more complicated.

In this article, we take a close look at React, Angular, and Vue to help you understand what they are, what their pros and cons are, and when they may match the needs of your project best. If you’re wondering which frontend JavaScript framework you should be using in your development project, this is an article for you.

React.js

Developed by Facebook and released in 2013, React has garnered a lot of popularity over the years. That’s also due to the fact that Facebook uses it extensively throughout its product range on Instagram, WhatsApp, and, naturally, Facebook.

Pros:

React offers a simple design and highly detailed documentation, which makes it easy to learn.

When using React, developers actually spend more time writing JavaScript and less worrying about the framework-specific code, which makes them more productive.

React is really fast thanks to virtual DOM implementation and different rendering optimizations.

React offers great support for server-side rendering, making it a powerful framework for content-focused applications.

React supports the Progressive Web App (PWA) technology, which is now gaining popularity.

It enables mobile app development because the skills developers learn in React can be applied to React Native development.

Cons:

React is an opinionated framework and allows developers to make many choices about the best way to build applications with it. That’s why it requires good processes and strong project leadership.

React is currently moving away from class-based components — this could be a barrier for developers who are more comfortable with object-oriented programming.

Mixing templates with logic might be confusing for developers at the beginning.

Angular

Built by Google, Angular was first released in 2010. It’s a Typescript-based JavaScript framework that burst into popularity upon the release of Angular 2 in 2016.

Pros:

Exceptional support for Typescript.

Detailed documentation allowing developers to get all of the necessary info about this framework, making the learning curve gentle.

Minimizes risks of possible errors thanks to one-way data binding that allows singular behaviour for the application.

The MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) approach allows developers to work separately on the same section using the same data set.

Angular supports project scalability really well thanks to its structure and architecture.

Cons:

The number and variety of different structures such as pipes, modules, components, and injectables make Angular a bit harder to learn in comparison with Vue and React.

Angular results in slower performance according to different benchmarks.

Vue.js

This is the youngest member of this set of JavaScript frameworks. It was developed by an ex-Google employee in 2014. During the last few years, Vue rose into popularity even though it doesn’t have a backing of a large company yet. It’s an excellent technology for building sophisticated Single Page Applications and highly adaptable user interfaces.

Pros:

Detailed documentation accelerates the learning curve for developers and allows them to save lots of time when building apps using only basic knowledge of JavaScript and HTML.

It empowers HTML. Vue shares many similarities with Angular and helps to optimize HTML blocks handling with various components.

Vue is highly adaptable and offers developers the option of rapid switching from other frameworks to Vie, thanks to the similarity in terms of design and architecture.

It comes with a host of integrations. Vue can be used for building Single Page Applications or more complex web interfaces.

Scalability. Thanks to Vue, developers can build large reusable templates really fast.

Tiny size — Vie can weigh around 20 KB to help developers keep speed and flexibility, achieving great performance.

Cons:

Fewer resources. Since Vue still has a small market share in comparison to React and Angular, the knowledge sharing this framework is still in its infancy.

Over-flexibility can be risky. Sometimes, Vue experience issues when integrated into large projects, and there’s still no experience in the community about possible solutions (but they’re bound to come around soon).

React vs. Vue vs. Angular

Angular is definitely the most mature of the frameworks we’re comparing here. It has a lot of backing in terms of the number of contributors, and it’s a complete package. However, it has a steep learning curve, and concepts of development might discourage some developers. Angular is a great choice for companies that have large developer teams.

React is relatively mature, has a lot of contributions from the community, and gained widespread acceptance on the job market. The future of this framework looks bright. React is a good choice for companies getting started with frontend JavaScript frameworks that value flexibility. The fact that React integrates with other frameworks seamlessly is another great advantage.

Vue is a newcomer to this arena, and it doesn’t have a backing of a major company. However, its popularity rose during the last few years, and it has become a strong competitor of Angular and React. Change Giants like Alibaba and Aliexpress use Vue as their primary JavaScript framework. Vue is a good choice for companies that prefer simplicity but like to stay extra flexible.

If you’re looking for more information about those frameworks, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We have experts on board who have years of experience in projects using all of these technologies. They will know which one works best for your project goals.