Angular vs React: Which JavaScript framework should you use? To answer this question, we’re going to take a look at two of the most popular frameworks on the market today: Angular and React. What are the differences between these two frameworks? And how can you make an informed decision about which framework to use? You’ll find all your answers in this detailed side-by-side comparison of Angular vs React JS.
Key Differentiators
If you’re trying to decide between Angular and React, there are several key differences that will help you narrow your decision. First, consider speed. Many people cite performance as one of their main motivators for choosing Angular over other frameworks.
Flexibility and Scalability
Angular is a web application framework created by Google and is designed to address complex client-side application development. Angular was born out of Google’s need for a framework that could handle their incredibly large, enterprise, client side applications. By focusing on flexibility and scalability, Angular was able to meet these needs while also creating one of most popular frameworks available today.
Data Binding
Angular uses two-way data binding while React uses one-way data flow. What does that mean? In Angular, when you change a variable in a parent component, Angular detects it and updates all child components to reflect those changes automatically. That’s two-way data binding—the view and model are seamlessly synced together. In one-way data flow, there is only one way to update things—the model must be updated first and then information can be passed down to any view elements that need it.
Components Architecture
In Angular and in React, there are two different ways to organize code. One is based on components architecture and other one is based on templates architecture. In a component-based architecture, everything that relates to an object’s behavior and its visual representation should be encapsulated in a single component.
Templates
What’s an Angular? Let’s say you’re building a web application. You probably want that application to be dynamic and interactive, which is where JavaScript comes in. You write your code with JavaScript, which is run on a browser.
Server Rendering
When comparing Angular and React, you’ll find that both are excellent in terms of how they render UI in a browser—but if your app has high traffic or is more complex, then it’s worth considering using server rendering. Server rendering optimizes for search engine crawlers (SEO) by pre-rendering content so search engines can crawl it as if it were a standard HTML site.
Tooling and Developer Experience
Both Angular and React can be used with a tool called webpack, which enables you to bundle all of your JavaScript code into one file. Angular uses its own set of tools called angular-cli; while it was new, these tools had some rough edges. Over time they’ve been streamlined and are getting better, but if you’re used to using npm and webpack for building your apps then you might want to consider using create-react-app instead.
Learning Curve
Both Angular and React are fairly easy to learn, but you should expect to spend more time with Angular than with React. This is because Angular is considerably larger and more complex than React. You can learn all of Angular on YouTube in less than 5 hours, but that’s only scratching the surface of what it has to offer.
Popularity in Job Marketplaces
Angular vs React JS has been a topic of hot debate for quite some time now, especially within niche communities that are focused on developer technologies. However, it seems to us that there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding these two frameworks in regards to how they differ from one another and which one is better than the other (especially in terms of their popularity).