Let’s talk about two popular JavaScript frameworks; React and Angular. Introduced in 2013, React is a JavaScript library for UI development. It is managed by Facebook and an open-source community of developers. Angular is an open-sourced JavaScript framework for web and mobile development, and was launched in 2016. It is TypeScript-based and managed by Google’s Angular Team and the Angular developer community.
Web vs Mobile
React is a framework used in both web and mobile development. For mobile development, it needs to be incorporated with Cordova and an additional framework, React Native.
Angular is used for both web and mobile development as well. In mobile development a lot of work is done by Ionic. Similarly to React, Angular has an additional mobile development framework called NativeScript.
React and Angular can be used for both single-page and multiple-page web apps.
All or Nothing
React is a framework for UI development which means apps written with React need additional libraries. For example, Redux, React Router, or Helmet manage state, routing, and interaction with the API.
Angular is a complete framework for software development, which generally does not require additional libraries.
Sink or Swim
React is known to be quite easy to pick up if you already know JavaScript. However, there is no pre-made, magical project structure, so it can take some time to set up. You will need to learn Redux, which is used in many React applications for state management. In addition, React is particular, there are several best practices to learn.
Angular is an extensive library that will take much more time to learn than React. Angular is more complex, there is a lot of unnecessary syntax, and component management is intricate. There are many complicated features that you cannot avoid learning and a lot of ways to solve a single issue. Plus, don’t forget you’ll need to learn TypeScript.
Cool or Fool
React framework is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks out there, and the community supporting and developing it is huge. Working with React, you have to be a learning feen since the framework is updated frequently. Keeping up with all the updates is not that easy, which leads to documentation being behind sometimes.
Angular is less popular than React due to the framework being overly complicated and requiring a lot of study time. Being developed by Google helps though. Google provides the long-term support of the framework and constantly improves it. The updates pop up so fast though that the documentation often falls behind as well.
Hit or Miss
React’s performance is enhanced by the virtual DOM. Since all virtual DOM trees are lightweight and built on server, the load on the browser is reduced.
Angular is said to be worse, with respect to complex and dynamic web apps. However, Angular has been updated to improve its performance, and does not fall short to React anymore. In addition, the size of an Angular application is slightly smaller than the size of a React app.
Language Alike
React is based on JavaScript and JSX script. JSX makes JavaScript code resemble what’s written in HTML. This makes the code easier to understand and typos are easier to find. JSX code must be compiled in a browser using Babel, a code translation tool.
Angular can use JavaScript or TypeScript, which is a superset of JavaScript developed for larger projects. TypeScript is more compact than JavaScript, the code is easier to navigate, typos are easy to find, and code refactoring is quick and easy.
Structure Function
The structure of React provides developers with the freedom to choose. There is no one way with React apps. The downfall comes with the necessity to design the app structure at the beginning of each project, making it more difficult and longer to start.
The structure of Angular is fixed, complex, and great for experienced developers.
Key Take Aways
Angular is a complete mobile and web development framework. React is a framework only for UI development, but can become complete by incorporating libraries.
React can be simpler and it takes less time to initiate a React project. However, React becomes less simple since you have to work with additional JavaScript frameworks and tools.
Angular is more complex and takes more time to master, but is more powerful and offers a complete development solution.
In general, as a novice programmer, it’s been said React is a great starting point, but once you are experienced you can decide which framework work best for you.