Angular vs React: Which One Should You Choose in 2023

When it comes to web app development, JavaScript frameworks have become a preferred choice of developers worldwide. Angular and React are the two of the most popular JavaScript frameworks. 

The real challenge is to identify the correct one between them that can cater to your project-specific requirements. You need to choose the framework that successfully aligns with your vision and end goals. 

Today’s blog will walk you through a detailed Angular vs React comparison that can help you make the right decision for your project. The discussion highlights the key differences between both frameworks and the value they bring to the table. So, let’s start. 

Table of Content

• All About React: History, Advantages & Disadvantages, When to Use
• All About Angular: History, Advantages & Disadvantages, When to Use
• Angular vs React: Detailed Comparison
• Angular vs React: What’s the Future?

All About React

History

React is an open-source JavaScript library developed by Jordan Walke, a software engineer at Facebook (now Meta) to create user interfaces based on UI components. It was designed to avoid the complications of the MVC model while simplifying web development. 

Meta first used it in 2011 followed by Instagram in 2012. Later, in 2013, Meta announced the public release of React. Since then, its popularity among developers has been growing by leaps and bounds. 

React is managed by Meta and a community of individual developers and companies. With advanced versions launching year after year, there have been many bug fixes, performance improvements, and feature additions to the React ecosystem.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Indeed, React brings an array of advantages to the table that simplifies the process of building a single page application (SPA) or a complex digital solution. But there are a few limitations that you need to understand. Let’s take a look at them one by one. 

Advantages of React

• Powered by reusable components, each having its own logic and controls.  
• Improves application performance and scalability.
• Consists of a handy set of tools.
• Enables smooth navigation on various search engines to enhance SEO efforts.
• Enhances the scope of testing code with native tools.

Disadvantages of React 

• The development environment continually changes.
• Developers need to regularly upskill to keep up with all the updates.
• Unavailability of proper documentation.
• Only covers the UI Layers of the app.
• JSX proves to be a barrier for new developers.

When to Use

• To build cross-platform mobile apps via React Native.
• To create SPAs, ecommerce web apps, social networking apps, dashboards, data visualization tools, and more. 
• While working on a frontend UI that demands high user interaction.
• To deliver uninterrupted services to your target audience.
• To remove lag related to unresponsive pages.

All About Angular

History

Angular 1, also known as AngularJS, is a JavaScript framework that was released by Google in 2010 to create superior single page web apps. However, there were some limitations to its usage and execution.

In 2016, Angular 2 was introduced as a complete rewrite of AngularJS to overcome this scenario and deliver good performance and stability. Angular 3 was skipped to avoid confusion concerning the misalignment of Angular 2’s router package version. 

Angular is maintained by Google and a community of individuals and corporations. After Angular 2, many versions have been introduced to accelerate the software development process including Angular 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and more.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Like React, Angular also has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Let’s check them out. 

Advantages of Angular

• Backed by MVC architecture that supports app logic from the UI layer.
• Helps Angular developers locate and write code easily. 
• Covers global function exploitation by limiting the scope of functions to the module.
• Comprises custom directives suitable for dynamic client-side app development. 
• Has its own dependency injection (DI) framework.

Disadvantages of Angular

• Many developers consider it verbose and complex.
• The current state of CLI documentation lack dedicated information.
• Building a simple app may require boilerplate code. 
• Migrating legacy apps from AngularJS to Angular requires time.

When to Use

• To design dynamic web apps, enterprise-grade apps, SPAs, PWAs, and more.
• While working on an app that focuses on delivering native-like performance.
• For introducing user interfaces with engaging animations.
• To make the best out of third-party components.
• To cater to complex, cross-platform app development requirements.

Angular vs React: Detailed Comparison

Now that you know all the basics, we can move forward to understanding the key differences between React and Angular. Here’s a quick comparison table to help you choose the right one for your project.

The above comparison parameters clearly explain the difference between Angular and React and their unique capabilities. We have discussed these and many other parameters in more detail below to give you a better idea.

• Popularity

According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022, Angular is the first choice of 23% of software developers, while React is the second most commonly used web technology by 44.31% of professionals worldwide.   

Another research by Stack Share says that 7K+ companies and 47K+ developers are using Angular for their development requirements. Whereas the number of companies and developers using React is more than 11K and 126K.

Altogether, we can say that the Angular vs React popularity comparison stays neutral with both frameworks gaining traction slowly and steadily.

• Components

Angular and React both encourage component-based architecture. They can be used to set up MVC (Model, View, and Controller) or MVVM (Model, View, and ViewModel) style architectures. 

With its framework approach and inbuilt routing, Angular nudges the developer to use MVC, whereas React leaves it completely to the developers. Depending upon the project requirements, they need to identify what works best. 

Angular pushes for a ‘module’ pattern to achieve code-splitting. React, on the other hand, can be used to achieve code-splitting. However, it completely depends on how your developers embrace it. 

• Templating

Another important parameter of React vs Angular comparison is templating for web applications. Templates are a must to create desired applications with intuitive user interfaces.

Angular templates are more like traditional HTML with snippets of Angular-specific expression evaluators. In React JSX, though it looks similar to HTML but has some quirks as they are embedded as strings inside JS code.

React doesn’t offer any division among the directives, templates, and template logic. In Angular, the users are allowed to make their own directives which can be inserted into the templates later.

• Data Binding

You will get a more clear idea of the Angular vs React differences if you have a good understanding of their data binding capabilities and how they work in a pre-defined environment. 

Angular is backed by two-data binding, where the model state automatically changes with specific alterations in the interface elements. React uses one-way data binding, where your developers need to first update the model state in order to modify interface elements.

Moreover, Angular also prefers one-way data binding similar to React, but the programmer can choose to enable two-way data binding in a particular situation if needed.

• License

When it comes to licensing, there is no any React JS vs Angular debate as both are open-source frameworks, offered under an MIT license.

• Rendering

When you compare Angular vs React on the basis of their rendering capabilities, you may come across results that are similar or may fluctuate depending on what your project requirements are. 

Rendering is the process of binding the data variables to template strings to produce the HTML DOM to display components. Both React and Angular mainly use client-side rendering. However, they can support mature options to enable server-side rendering if required.

• Performance

The Angular vs React performance comparison shows that apps built with Angular behave differently as compared to the ones built on React. Angular represents a bidirectional data flow structure where monitoring changes are mandatory and continuous (for all watchers and their values). 

On the flip side, React offers a stable and performant runtime environment as its virtual DOM trees are lightweight and built on the server. It is driven by a unidirectional data flow structure that increases processing power while reducing the workload.

• Language

One of the most important parameters of the Angular vs ReactJS comparison is the programming language. Angular is based on TypeScript, which helps developers find typos quickly and effectively.

On the contrary, React can be written in JavaScript ES6+ with the help of JSX. This gives it an HTLM-like appearance. It can also use TypeScript but lacks the required native support.

Angular vs React: What’s the Future?

There are many advantages of React over Angular and vice versa. But both of these JavaScript frameworks are here to stay and thrive. They are going to positively disrupt the web development landscape in the coming times.

Angular 16 will bring in new CDK primitives, token-based theming APIs, 2D drag-and-drop, ergonomic component-level code-splitting APIs, and many other usability improvements to help developers create efficient applications.  

On the other hand, React will keep standing amongst the biggest libraries used by developers and businesses across the globe. The recent changes focusing on reliability, stability, and consistency suggest that React will surely introduce new features and tools in the near future.

Conclusion

The above Angular vs React comparison clearly explains that both frameworks have their own uniqueness and capabilities. While React represents simplicity and scalability, Angular is comprehensive and enterprise-capable.  

Whether you choose React or Angular, you will be able to create almost any kind of web application. Just make sure you are well aware of your app development requirements and have a brief idea of your key objectives.   

Mobisoft can help you build a feature-rich application backed by modern tools and technologies. Connect with our dedicated developers to start your app development project right away. 

Author's Bio:

Pritam Barhate