Angular vs React vs Vue: Which is the Best Choice?

by Silvia Mazzetta Date: 11-06-2020 javascript coding programming react vue angular

With the growing popularity of Vue, Angular and React as frameworks and libraries for the web and app development, a constant doubt is which of these 3 we should learn, in which we should invest our time, which has a greater future or simply which is the best.

First I want to start by saying that there is no wrong answer, although each has different implementations, the basis is very similar, reactive programming and development based on components. This means that no matter which one you decide to specialize in, the fundamental knowledge of the use of these libraries is interchangeable, knowing Vue means that it is easy to move to React, or from React to Vue, or to Angular, this does not mean that if you know one you know all, but rather that by mastering one it will be easier to move to another in case you need it.

Having said that, let's clarify the comparative points.

 

Learning Curve

 

Let's start by approaching the learning curve, one of the most important considerations when starting a new technology. When we talk about the learning curve we are referring to a graph that describes how complicated it is to learn something and how soon we can obtain benefits and results from the effort we are dedicating to learn something.

Regarding these 3 frameworks, Angular is the one that separates from the other 3 because it is a technology that takes more time to master and in which perhaps you feel comfortable may take more time, later we will talk about the robustness of the technologies and what are the benefits of investing time in a technology like Angular that is more difficult to digest.

React and Vue in this area are very similar, with a small advantage for Vue because it is a much more uniform ecosystem. Although there are many very good libraries for React, Vue has the advantage that the same team that develops the framework works in the most popular and useful libraries of the Vue ecosystem, in terms of learning this means that Vue and its libraries are very similar so feeling productive in this technology is much easier.

Winner: Vue

Loser: Angular

 

Large scale applications

 

Second point, robustness. This point has a lot to do with large-scale applications. As in many of these points, the competition is even, with each of the 3 frameworks have been created large-scale products in companies such as Facebook, Google, Uber, Walmart, Airbnb, Netflix, among many others.

Here I believe that the first to fail will be Vue, because although internally is used in Netflix and even Facebook uses Vue, does not have the big names that come with Angular and React.

As for Angular and React, the competition is much more intense, starting with the strong impulse they receive from Google and Facebook respectively. Both bookstores are used both on Google and Facebook itself, in addition to other huge companies such as Uber, PayPal, The New York Times, among others. However, I will declare Angular the winner of this point, simply because the framework is conceived for this kind of tasks, large-scale applications and large code bases.

We have to remember that Angular is an entire development platform that includes of course Angular for the browser, terminal tools, Universal Angular, graphical interface libraries, and much more. Unlike React which is a library, which although the community has built an incredible platform around React, Angular wins because from the core it is made to interact with all these components.

Winner : Angular.

Loser: Vue.

 

Development experience

 

Third meeting, development tools. As you gain experience and work on more projects, you begin to create a special affection for the tools that allow you to program faster, detect errors early, debug problems, work in teams, maintain the code, etc..

In this area, like the mature technologies that are, the 3 have very good tools for development, good integration with the most popular text editors and of course tools designed to improve your workflow.

I would like to give positive points to Angular because all frameworks are created using Typescript, a language that considerably improves the experience of developing JavaScript applications such as Angular, however, development using Typescript is also very popular in React and Vue, although it is not a standard as in Angular. In fact, for Vue 3.0 we will have a better Typescript support, so in this section they are very even with a slight advantage to Angular.

In this area I believe that React takes the battle for the development of tools such as React Developer Tools, an extension for the browser that precisely extends the support for debugging applications created with React. I want to clarify that like the React Developer Tools, there are similar ones for Angular and Vue, but we give the advantage to React because it is Facebook itself who creates this tool.

Bonus points for React because in Facebook they also develop Jest, a library for automated tests that you can use with React.

Winner : React.

Loser: Vue.

 

Expressivity

 

For the next point to consider, I want to compare them in terms of expressiveness and how easy it is to maintain the application code.

This has a lot to do with the previous point for debugging tools, but also with how the framework works internally.

In programming we have a concept that we call the black box, the black box is a reference to a piece of code to which we can deliver data and will give us an answer, but, it is not clear how it works internally or what is producing this data.

Black boxes are closely associated with productivity, because you don't need to configure a lot of things or go into depth to get the results you expect, however, once something breaks or the box doesn't deliver the results you expect, you have a very big problem, because now you have to try to understand a piece of code that is normally complex to know why it is failing.

As your experience grows, you're going to want to get away from these patterns and better use tools where it's clear what's happening, how the information flows, where the changes come from and what elements of the code affect the execution of a solution.

hese points greatly benefit the experience of maintaining an application, detecting bugs, anticipating it and of course solving them. In this section I think Angular is doing worse because while the dependency injector or double data binding are magical and incredible, they can be difficult to understand and become your black box when it comes to finding a bug. On the other hand, Vue and React are distinguished by being much more expressive frameworks, I particularly like that React has functional components and that there is no data binding because well, the flow of information is very clear and detect a possible error easier.

So I declare both React and Vue winners of this point, while the loser would be Angular.

 

Work environment configiration

Now let's talk about the environment needed to use these applications, which is also very important. While a large, large-scale JavaScript application will always be accompanied by a complex, custom-designed development environment, usually involving tools such as Webpack, Babel, Linters and more, we don't always want to have to download 200mb of libraries in order to start a hello world.

Also, if you are a simple project where you want to take advantage of your knowledge in these libraries, integrating so many tools can be too much for small solutions, which is why sometimes it is important to consider the flexibility that these frameworks can have to adapt to small solutions as well as to large scale solutions.

At this point Vue and React definitely win, because you don't need anything more than to import some libraries and that's it, you can use them without problems, in fact, I think Vue stands out much more because unlike React, it is designed to work in any environment as long as you import the Vue library. And although React can do it too, you have to bring at least some tools like JSX, because without them it would be very rare to write React code.

If you want to add a little magic to a static page, Wordpress or an existing project, the winner is definitely Vue and the loser is Angular as it is a much more robust framework that you have to commit much more to take advantage of.

Winner: Vue,

Loser: Angular

 

Conclusion

 

Well, after these considerations you might still want an answer as simple as you use Vue, or use Angular or use React, but well, it's not as simple as that, the correct answer is, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each library, use the one that best suits you. I personally use Angular for projects that I will start from 0 and where everything will go through the framework, I use React for React Native, for tools like Redux and JSX that make it a wonder when developing, really the React development experience is incredible, and I use Vue considering the last point, when I go to work with an existing project, when only some of the components of the website require the benefits of these libraries, there I love Vue.

If you have another election process, leave it in the comments I'll be happy to read it.

 
by Silvia Mazzetta Date: 11-06-2020 javascript coding programming react vue angular hits : 7498  
 
Silvia Mazzetta

Silvia Mazzetta

Web Developer, Blogger, Creative Thinker, Social media enthusiast, Italian expat in Spain, mom of little 9 years old geek, founder of  @manoweb. A strong conceptual and creative thinker who has a keen interest in all things relate to the Internet. A technically savvy web developer, who has multiple  years of website design expertise behind her.  She turns conceptual ideas into highly creative visual digital products. 

 
 
 

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