ReactJS vs AngularJS: Which Front-end Is Best For Your Upcoming Project?

Overview: This article gives you a clear opinion about both the debatable Javascript frameworks: React VS Angular. Get to know about the brief knowledge of them with key differences that helps you choose the right framework for your upcoming enterprise app development.

Introduction

The frontend developer community strives under the constant debate of two powerhouses- React Or Angular? Which is ideal for developing a successful business application?

Are you confused between Angular and React? Well, each of the frameworks has extensive features to offer. This is why it becomes even more difficult to select the appropriate one among the two.

However, this guide is all about the key differences between React and Angular Javascript. By the end of this guide, you will be able to analyze which of the framework will be best for your business app development. Read on to know the primary differences.

Let’s start with a basic understanding of both.

Brief Introduction of React and Angular

React is defined as a javascript library that is advanced by Facebook. This particular library helps you to build certain UI components. It eases the user interface, thereby making the code clear to analyze and launch. React JS makes use of a server-side that offers adaptable and execution-oriented solutions.

Features of React JS:

• Permits you to make use of 3rd party library.
• It is time-efficient.
• It is user friendly and can be assembled.
• It is entirely supported by Facebook.
• Great user experience and swift performance.

Angular is defined as a systematic framework in order to develop or advance dynamic and single page web apps. Here, HTML is used as a template language by the developers. Angular JS helps the components of the application to come out clear and brief by the HTML syntax.

Features of Angular JS:

• It possesses built-in support for observables and HTTP.
• It has a huge community hold up.
• It is extremely stable with technology.
• As it is a typescript, it provides efficiency.
• It has an enhanced support feature. This helps in handling all the errors.

AngularJS Vs ReactJS: Learning Curve

React Js is quite easy to understand if you already are acquainted with Javascript. It is a minimalistic framework with no dependencies, complex features, or classic templates.

However, if your React JS project has no predefined structure, then you might need some time to understand the project. Most of the React applications use the Redux library for handling state management. Hence, to learn React JS, you should also learn the Redux library. Moreover, to undertake a React Js project development, you must learn certain React JS best practices.

Compared to React, Angular Js has a steep learning curve because you need to learn all concepts of this library. Angular has associated syntax to learn which is quite unnecessary and complex. The component management in Angular JS is also very intricate and requires keen participation while learning.

AngularJS Vs ReactJS: Performance

React uses the virtual DOM which drastically improves a React app performance because the DOM trees are built on the server and are lightweight. Thanks to the unidirectional data-binding in React, there is no further workload and your app performance is up-to-the-mark.

When building complex and dynamic web apps with Angular, you are prone to poor app performance. The blame goes to the bidirectional data-binding that runs in loops to watch the associated data values. However, the recent releases of Angular JS have worked amazingly to improve the performance of your Angular app.

AngularJS Vs ReactJS: Popularity

As per Google trends, React is a more-searched term over the past year, as compared to Angular JS. However, with upcoming readymade solutions becoming available for Angular, both are almost equally popular in the community of developers. React has a huge community worldwide (161k GitHub stars) whereas Angular is less admired (68.6k GitHub stars).

ReactJS vs AngularJS: Data binding

The React framework uses unidirectional data-binding for the synchronization between the model and the view. This enables easy debugging and your react framework should be combined with the Redux library.

On the contrary, Angular uses bidirectional data-binding and mutable data. This is how data-binding in Angular works:

ReactJS vs AngularJS: State Management

Each component in React has its individual unique state and the developers can assign special components to hold a particular state. The global state of your application is retained by Redux and other libraries like MobX. React JS handles state management in the following manner:

In Angular JS, each component their properties within their data, and the parent components can pass their data to the children. There are several state management libraries available in Angular like RxJs and NgRx. It makes the data-flow unidirectional in the below manner:

Angular Vs React- The Comparision Table

Parameters	AngularJS	ReactJS
Type	Framework	Javascript Library
Language	HTML + Typescript	Javascript + JSX
Learning Curve	A steep learning curve; needs time and training to learn Angular.	A shallow learning curve; easier to learn than Angular.
Community support	Viable and dependable	Small community
Installation time	Easy to set up	Higher installation time
Data binding	Two-way data binding	One-way data binding
Testing & Debugging	Avails complete testing and debugging of your project.	Set of tools required for testing your application.
Documentation	Slower documentation because of the development.	Regular
Type of Apps	Single Page Application SPA & mobile apps	Native, hybrid, and web apps
Update policy	Every 6 months	Simple regular updates that help in migration.
Companies using	Mesh, Beam, Auto Trader, Wepay, etc.	Netflix, Uber, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
GitHub Stars	59.6k stars	160k stars

Key differences: Angular vs React

• Angular JS develops dynamic and single webpage, whereas React JS builds UI components.
• React is entirely contingent on Virtual DOM, whereas Angular JS is conditioned with MVC (Model View Controller).
• Angular is completely based on Typescript and React is contingent on javascript.
• Angular JS does not permit you to add javascript libraries with the source code. On the other hand, React provides permission to add javascript libraries to the source code.
• Testing becomes easier in the case of Angular JS, as it provides a single tool. But, in the case of React, you need several tools to go ahead with various kinds of testing or debugging.

React OR Angular- Which to use when?

The answer to your question, “When should you go for React?” is simple.

You should go for React framework when,

• You are looking for an applications that has multiple events.
• Your app development group has proficiency in CSS, Javascript, and HTML.
• You need a customized app solution.
• You wish to create components in your project that are designed for sharing.

Now, you might want to know, “When should you go for Angular?”

You should go for Angular framework when,

• You demand a readymade solution with high productivity.
• You need an extensive feature-rich app.
• Your team has exposure to Java and the early version of Angular.
• You wish to create components in your project that are designed for sharing.

Conclusion

Looking at the above discussion, you must be clear by now that both Angular and React are impressive in terms of the single-page app.

Nevertheless, both of them are quite different from each other and serves different advantages. Each element on earth has disadvantages. But that does not change the fact that it has a plethora of advantages to offer.

However, it is always about perception and needs. On that note, this discussion on React Vs. Angular comes to an end. Being entirely different instruments, both have their pros and cons. Therefore, it is on you to channelize your requirements and needs to make the best suitable choice for you.