React vs. Angular: Which One Offers the Best UI Component for Your App?

Choosing the proper JavaScript UI framework to build your app can be challenging, and if you go with something that isn’t web standard-compliant, you may not reach the biggest audience possible.

There are plenty of options available, and two of the most popular frameworks that stand out are Angular and React. Both provide essential features in creating great apps, but they also come with their limitations.

In this article, we’ll discuss the main differences between Angular and React so that you can find the right solution to match your project needs.

What is Angular?

Angular is an open-source web application framework released in 2010 and has since become the most popular JavaScript-based front-end framework on the market.

Its popularity includes:

• Dependency injection
• Two-way data binding
• HTML as the template language
• It has an easy-to-learn syntax that compiles into JavaScript code

If you’re considering using AngularJS for your project, it’s important to weigh both pros and cons before making your decision and contact a top Angular development company.

Pros of using Angular

• Comparing Angular with standard JavaScript development provides an excellent platform for developers to develop applications quickly. Moreover, coding is far more efficient, and user experience is also enhanced.
• With data-binding capabilities, Angular manages data interaction between controllers and views. Thus, it offers a higher degree of testability and support for cross-compatibility with other libraries or frameworks.
• Its model-view-controller architecture makes it easy to build web apps that run smoothly on all platforms supported by Chrome or Firefox browsers.
• The online documentation provides clear instructions on using its essential features and relevant application examples so developers can write complex applications faster.

Cons of using Angular

• It’s difficult to significantly migrate old code into Angular if multiple components are modified simultaneously.
• The learning curve can also be steep depending on your previous experience with web development — and it’s not always intuitive when something goes wrong.

What is React?

React, short for ReactJS, is an open-source JavaScript library developed & released by Facebook in 2013. Created to power Facebook’s mobile client app, the company used it to build other apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, with more than 1 billion users combined. Since its launch, React has become one of the most popular frameworks for creating user interfaces on the web today.

Pros of using React

• This open-source framework offers solutions for developing complex applications with clean UIs that are portable across several platforms.
• Using Javascript and HTML, and CSS makes it simple for developers to create single-page apps that work without reloading a page or refreshing one part of an app while viewing another.
• It also has built-in functionality that allows developers to design user interfaces based on data stored on a server in real-time.
• Developers don’t have to reload a page to view changes they make.
• It has a one-way data flow, which means any changes made in one part of your application reflect everywhere else automatically.
• Many developers find writing React code easier than coding in traditional HTML files or even using templating languages such as Handlebars or Twig.
• There are fewer bugs with less code needed, primarily if you use well-structured components.

Cons of using React

• The learning curve of React is not gentle.
• It is a library, so the number of features is somewhat limited compared to a framework.

That was a concise go-through of Angular & React. I hope by now you have a straightforward idea of what they are and how they prove beneficial for developing a JavaScript project.

Let us now have a detailed comparison of these two Javascript UI components:

When Should you Choose Angular over React?

Angular is a great web framework with tons of exciting features. To name a few, it helps you create reusable components that are accessible across apps. Angular also provides modularity and reusability with its modules. It maintains an application state which makes it predictable and offers a well-defined architecture.

What’s more? It also enables two-way data binding, which means that whenever data in an application changes, every component of an application will get updated automatically without any effort from your side.

It saves a lot of time and effort because you don’t have to update each component manually whenever there are changes. The only con of using the Angular framework is that they come with loads of documentation, making learning difficult.

Ultimately it is well suited for developing large-scale, feature-rich functional apps. So, when you want to access the following aspects of web development, you can go for Angular.

• Multiple Features
• Lower Memory Footprint
• Smooth Testing
• Bidirectional Data Binding

When Should you Choose React over Angular?

React offers a logical way of breaking complex UIs into smaller, reusable components. Moreover, it is a lightweight library, so it doesn’t take up much room in terms of memory. It also means it can be integrated with many other libraries and frameworks.

The social media giant Facebook uses React on its website, so you can be sure that its developers know what they are doing. They have used their expertise & creativity to create an easy-to-use and well-documented framework that anyone can use.

React is well suited for developing modern web apps. Overall, you can go for React with the help of React development companies to access the following aspects of web development.

• A limited number of features
• Easy to use
• High rendering performance
• Unidirectional data binding

Final Words

Both React and Angular have many overlapping features and some significant differences. While React is great for working on small apps with a handful of developers or designers, Angular will help large teams collaborate better and deliver faster results.

However, since both frameworks are constantly evolving, it’s hard to make predictions about their future. I hope the blog proves helpful in letting you choose the most compatible one for your project.

FAQs

Question: What are UI Frameworks?

Answer: A UI framework, also known as a front-end framework, is an extension of or complement to a programming language that aids developers in implementing and assembling user interfaces for their applications.

Using a JavaScript front-end framework, you can build a functional interface without needing special training in HTML or CSS. Many frameworks offer utilities for building mobile apps and desktop sites.

Most are open-source, meaning that you can use them free of charge. Since dedicated experts and enthusiasts maintain them, they typically receive regular updates with new features and bug fixes.

Question: What other UI frameworks can I consider for my project?

Answer: While React and Angular remain at the top of the list, the other prominent ones include the following:

Vue.js: It is a renowned progressive framework for building user interfaces that can run in any modern browser and work seamlessly with Node.js. It features component-based architecture, two-way data binding, computed properties, and much more out of the box.

Thanks to good documentation and a substantial amount of starter kits available on Github or Vue School, the learning curve is super gentle. For developers used to frameworks like Angular or React, Vue.js will feel similar while easier to grasp without sacrificing performance. If you’re looking for a framework that lets you prototype quickly and easily, Vue.js might be just what you need!

Ember.js: It is an open-source, client-side JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web applications that easily handle large traffic volumes. It offers several advanced features and robust tools, such as a command-line build system and automated dependency injection, that set it apart from other popular frameworks like Backbone.js or AngularJS.

Because of its powerful features and strong backing by experts, it’s an excellent choice for developers looking to create high-volume applications with rich user experiences.

Aurelia: It is a free, open-source JavaScript framework for mobile, desktop, and web platforms. Aurelia comes with ready-to-use features and has extensible HTML templates which are easy to customize. It also supports Web Components standards.

Aurelia offers many popular libraries like TypeScript, RxJS, etc., charts out of the box, and an easy way to create custom plugins by extending existing classes or creating new ones.

Many ready-to-use patterns are available via aurelia-pal, aurelia’s pluggable library that adds packages without having them shipped with core files. Using aurelia can reduce development time up to 90%, and it has support from companies like SAP, Pivotal Software, or Scania.

Further Reading

Extendable UI Components

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