Introduction

What is JavaScript Framework?

Before diving into the features of Angular and React, let us first understand what a JavaScript framework is. A JavaScript(JS) framework is made up of JavaScript code libraries containing pre-written codes used in daily programming tasks. It acts as a template that assists you in creating web applications by shortening those extensive processes. 

Creating a web application or website is not an ordinary task. It requires thousands of lines of codes and sometimes even more. And some of these codes are repetitive. JavaScript frameworks eliminate this repetitive process, allowing web application development to be more efficient. 

Popular JavaScript Frontend Frameworks

As we know JavaScript is the most popular and widely used programming language. It is used for both client-side as well as server-side coding. Hence, it is equipped with more frameworks than any other programming language. Such as Angular, React, Vue, Ember, jQuery, Semantic-UI, Svelte, and others.

However, today we will discuss the two most popular frameworks and which one to use in web application development.

• Angular

Created by Google, Angular is a full-fledged open-source JavaScript framework with the best-integrated JavaScript libraries and features. Therefore, it is a popular choice for developing large-scale and complex web applications. 

The practical uses of Angular mostly dictate to development of web and mobile apps along with web pages. Developers use this framework to build progressive web applications, single-page web applications, and hybrid apps. 

Big brands like Xbox, Forbes, BMW use the Angular framework for their web development.

• React

React.js is an efficient and flexible open-source JavaScript library built using JSX. Although technically it is a JS library it is commonly mistaken as a web framework.

Facebook created React to build a richer and more responsive user experience using its predictable and easy-to-debug JS code.  So that developers can easily create interactive and complex UIs using their component-based and declarative traits. 

Its Virtual-DOM (Document object model) feature allows faster updates without having to rewrite the HTML doc.

Besides Facebook, other tech giants such as Netflix, Uber, Dropbox also use React for building user interfaces.

Angular vs React: Comparison

Both Angular and React have their specific characteristics which make them fundamentally different. Let’s compare these two over some common ground factors  

• Componentization

The ideal goal of componentization is to confine front-end features into encapsulated components. React used the same principle in its component-based web-development revolution back in 2013. It demonstrated that websites and mobile apps can use a component-based architecture at scale. Soon this componentization feature was embraced by Google to revamp Angular JS into Angular 2. 

Both the frameworks use componentization but they differ on one single note.

Angular is a full-fledged development framework. The components are functions that allow modification of service, directive, or filter before its usage. They allow us to pull necessary metadata by identifying modules from components.

In contrast, React components are JSX files containing both JavaScript and HTML coding in a single file. And depending on the need of the developer, the components can be either class-based or pure functions. 

• Performance

On the basis of performance, both of them are great for front-end development. But there is one major difference between these two. 

React uses a virtual Document Object Model (DOM). It allows changing document layouts, contents, etc without rewriting the entire HTML document. Besides virtual DOM being lightweight, the binding process in React is unidirectional. As a result, the load on the browser is significantly less and the performance is better.

Whereas the performance of Angular is slightly slower due to its bidirectional data binding. The real DOM feature slows apps when it deals with a large number of data requests. However, due to its constant upgrades, the performance of Angular has improved than it was before.  

• Language

React uses JavaScript ES6+ which is integrated with JSX script. React can be augmented with Babel, a code translation tool, to compile JSX code in a browser. 

Whereas Angular uses Typescript which is a superset of JS. TypeScript is more compact and easier in detecting typos and navigating the code. Additionally, typescript codes can be directly debugged within a web browser.

• Universality

React Framework is used for both single-page and multiple-page web applications as well as mobile application development. However, for mobile application development React uses an additional framework called React Native. 

Angular also shares the same features as React in this category. It is used for both web and mobile app development. However, in Angular, most of the work is done by Ionic. Similar to React Native, Angular also uses a mobile development framework – NativeScript.

• Self-Sufficiency

Angular is a full-fledged framework capable of web development without the support of any additional libraries. Functions like data binding, project generation, component-based routing, form validation, and dependency injection are implemented within the Angular package. 

However, with React things are a little bit different. React needs additional libraries like Redux, React Router, or Helmet to implement the above-mentioned functions.   

• Learning Curve

As we have already discussed, Angular is a full-fledged framework. Therefore, to use Angular developers need to be well acknowledged in TypeScript, MVC, and several concepts. Moreover, it is harder to understand due to complexities like intricate component management and unnecessary syntax. 

Whereas React provides learning and building apps is comparatively easy. All you need to know for React is JavaScript. Hence, it is more preferred by beginners.

• Community

The React community is more supportive than Angular on GitHub and GitLab. Due to its active community, finding solutions to any problems is much easier. However, since the framework is constantly updated with its massive community. Developers also need to constantly update themselves with the latest changes.

On the other hand, Angular has a higher number of developers on StackOverflow. So more or less both frameworks have the same amount of community support. 

• App Structure

In React developers have the option of freely choosing with the app structure. Since the app structure is designed at the beginning of every project, it takes longer to get started. Moreover, a React application’s architecture is based on its components. With the render method, React components, rendered with the React DOM library are directed in two ways: functional and class-based. 

Angular on the other hand has a more fixed and complex structure, which is appropriate for experienced developers. Its application code is made up of different components each written in four separate files. A typeScript file, an HTML file, a CSS file, and a special testing file. 

• UI Component

Another distinction is the UI component between Angular and React. React’s UI tools are developed by the React community, which includes several paid and free UI components. Whereas Angular comes with an in-built Material UI library which includes already built components for material designs.

• Mobile Solutions

As we know Angular provides an Ionic framework for developing mobile apps. It is pre-packed with a Cordova container and a UI component library. Therefore, when viewed on a mobile device, the developed application will appear as a web within a native app container.

Whereas React offers a native UI experience. Thereby, allowing developers to create their own components and bind them to native code.

• Data Binding

With React, data binding works unidirectionally in which UI components can be altered after changing the model state. Developers will not be able to change UI components without updating the model state.

However, Angular’s two-way data binding approach ensures that the model state is automatically changed without altering the UI component. As a larger app project, React’s approach differs from Angular in terms of an organized and better data overview. 

• State Management

There are multiple instances of a state in an application. At any given time, a component determines how an application’s UI will appear. Whenever the data changes, the framework rerenders the UI for the entire component. Thereby, the application ensures data is updated. Unlike Angular, React uses Redux as a solution for state management. 

• Popularity 

If we consider Google Trends, then React has a higher number of searches compared to Angular. Angular is popular in big companies due to its ability to build large-scale applications. So overall both the frameworks are equally popular.