Angular vs. React vs. Vue: A 2021 comparison

Last year saw the emergence of React as the front-runner of the front-end frameworks competition, leaving Angular way behind. But more importantly, Vue emerged as the one with the largest gain. It increased its share in the market with good growth and a high number of downloads.

What does the year 2021 have in store for them? Will we have the same result or will there be a massive change about to happen??

Read more to find out:

Before starting the comparison between the frameworks, let us have a quick review of Javascript. Javascript is a programming language. It is the most preferred language for web development. The user interface of websites is made by using Javascript. People have a higher chance of recruitment if they have knowledge of Javascript as well as Javascript frameworks.

Javascript Frameworks are of two types:

• Front end Frameworks
• Back-end Frameworks.

Now that you reviewed the basic definition of the Javascript Framework, we shall initiate the comparison of the frameworks by describing each one:

Comparison between frameworks

1. Angular

Angular is an open-source, free-for-all Javascript Framework developed by Google. It is the oldest framework available in the market right now and is considered the best framework when it comes to front-end frameworks.

Angular was launched for the first time by AngularJS way back in 2010. But it lacked a lot of essential features due to the changing trends of the markets. Hence, a major change took place in 2016 when Angular2 was launched with major modifications to the previous versions.

The latest version of Angular is Angular 8 which has reduced the lag and prompted the faster compilation of the Angular apps by using Ivy, a new compiler for Angular apps. It has also reduced its bundle size.

Since the release of React, it has faced some competition and due to the increasing popularity of Vue, it has grown slowly compared to previous years. Although, it has enjoyed the number one position for a long time in the past

Advantages of Angular:

1. It is very easy to develop applications in Angular.
2. Angular can distribute a single block into multiple blocks. Hence, gives the developer the ease to act on the components individually.
3. Angular enjoys large community support since it is the oldest framework available.
4. Since it has a component-based structure, its components can be used again.
5. The programming quality of Angular is very high, thus it gives good programming feel to the programmers.
6. It consists of built-in functionalities.

Disadvantages of Angular:

1. It requires a lot of learning and study because of its complex syntax.
2. Angular consists of a steep learning curve.

2. React

React is a Javascript library developed by Facebook and maintained by a large community of users and developers that was released in 2013. React became famous among the masses from the day it was released.

It was constantly giving tough competition to Angular and the breaking point came in November 2019, when it recorded the highest number of downloads. It has been the market leader from its day of release.

Many companies use it as their primary framework tool. One of the primary features of React is the use of the Virtual Document Object Model(DOM). DOM is the basic representation of nodes in terms of HTML. It uses an extension known as JSX(Javascript XML) which allows the user to write HTML in React, which makes it easy to write applications.

React is simple to code if you know the basics of Javascript and alternate versions of React such as React Native is used to develop mobile applications. Additionally, these Javascript libraries help in improving performance through the implementation of reusable code.

Advantages of React:

1. It has many tools that allow the developer to play with it and make changes.
2. React enjoys good community support and developers and users keep contributing to it to maintain its relevance.
3. React has an easy learning curve and it doesn’t require complex study for coding it.
4. It has high efficiency and flexibility. Due to this, its performance improves.

Disadvantages of React:

1. React doesn’t have an easy programming style so it is not understood by many.
2. React uses JSX, instead of HTML.
3. React focuses on creating UIs. Thus, you’ll need third-party libraries to make it.

3. Vue

Vue is one of many front-end frameworks of Javascript Frameworks used for improving web page interfaces. Vue was released six years ago and is developed by Evan You, a former developer at Google.

While working on Angular, he noticed how heavy Angular was as it consumed a lot of power. This resulted in poor performance, so he thought of developing a lighter framework that yields higher performance.

He turned his expectation into reality. At 20KB, Vue is the lightest framework and it results in a bloat-less experience.

Advantages of Vue:

1. Vue is the lightest framework at 20KB and is simple to work with.
2. It integrates with other programming languages very easily.
3. It is easier to work on Vue since it has an easy learning curve.
4. Vue gives faster performance due to its small size.
5. Users have started switching over to it over other options.
6. It has good documentation.

Disadvantages of Vue:

1. It has a small community of users and developers in comparison to React and Angular.
2. It is not very flexible when teaming up with large projects.
3. Vue has very limited features.

Comparison between React vs Angular vs Vue

• The number of downloads– For comparison based on downloads, we would need to refer to a graph.

As is visible from the graph, React is the most downloaded framework of the three. These many downloads show the confidence of users in React. Vue comes second by a long distance, surpassing Angular.

Also, it shows that users are moving towards Vue very fast and Angular comes a distinct third. This shows that new users are not keen on using Angular and they are preferring Vue and React over Angular.

• Learning Curve – The Learning curve is defined as the basic study you need to do before starting a framework. For Angular, the learning curve is steep because you need to learn about concepts like Model View Control(MWC). You need to know about TypeScript. It is necessary to know these concepts for advanced coding. React requires a less steep curve than Angular since it works on Javascript. It supports third-party libraries, which eases the curve. But it requires a study about JSX to do coding. Vue has an easy learning curve. This is because it is simple and doesn’t have complex code.
• Framework Size – When it comes to the framework, the size of the libraries becomes an important characteristic. This is because runtime depends on the size. Angular consists of the framework of the largest size at 500KB. React comes second at 100KB. Vue is the lightest at 80KB(Bundle size).
• Community Support – React and Angular have the largest community support because of the support from Facebook and Google respectively. They are regularly updated with one major update in six months. Vue, on the other hand, doesn’t have a huge community like React or Angular.
• Configuration – Angular is a framework based on TypeScript. React consists of Javascript libraries. Vue is a convenient, simple-to-code Javascript framework.
• Languages used – Coding on Angular is done through TypeScript whereas Vue and React work on Javascript.

Conclusion

All three frameworks compared are good but what you prefer is entirely up to you as per the specific needs of your project’s needs. Each framework comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages and their usage depends on how you want to use these front-end frameworks.

So, to make the framework selection easy for you, we have made some quick short points for you:

1. If you love coding in Javascript, then React is the best option for you.
2. If you love good performance and a bloat-free experience, then you should go for Vue.
3. Angular would be preferable for you if you like (OOPs) object-oriented programming.

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