JavaScript development frameworks have grown up significantly over the last decade, with some of them brought revolution into the frontend development space.
The most common dilemma every developer and project manager faces before initiating a project is, “Which frontend development framework or technology I should use next?”
Whenever we look for an option, these two promising frontend technologies come to our mind, Angular and Vue. Each of these is equipped with its own set of pros and cons.
In this blog, we will share a fair contrast of both the JavaScript Frameworks and cover how Angular and Vue can suit your project requirements.
This blog is not just a comprehensive guide on Angular vs Vue but aims to offer a fundamental structure to assist you to make the right decision while selecting the suitable one for your project.
Let us get started.
Angular is a complete rewrite of 2010’s Angular JS, it was released in 2016. It has been developed by the Angular team at Google under the supervision of Misko Hevery. This team is still managing this framework along with numerous external developers and contributors.
Angular is a Typescript-based JavaScript frontend development framework that enables the developer to build complex and scalable web apps. Angular is equipped with a library and numerous built-in tools that enhance the app’s speed while adding several capabilities.
Angular offers development prospects across all platforms via its reusable code, which can be used for rapid deployment.
It offers dynamic UI binding at a property level or plain object, and a two-way data binding which is an integral of its architecture.
It is a flexible and lightweight JavaScript-based frontend development framework that offers advanced tools to build modern SPAs and web applications. Vue was initially released in February 2014 by an ex-Google employee Evan You.
It has amassed massive popularity and is considered one of the most rapidly growing JavaScript frameworks, which does not have the backing of any big company.
Vue inherits most of the capabilities and features from both Angular and React, and that is the reason why techies consider it an unofficial child of Angular and React.
Vue is a progressive and versatile progressive JS framework because it enables change creation in an app code without influencing any core feature built. This capability of Vue allows developers to build progressive user interfaces.
With high decoupling, Vue is capable to extend the functionalities of the web apps with visual components and customized modules.
Let us explore the best features and limitations of both Angular and Vue.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| High Performance – It offers high performance to the developers due to Ivy renderer, AOT compile, hierarchical dependency injection, Angular Universal support, and differential loading. | Complexity – It lags in repetitiveness and component management even with its component-based architecture. It also creates additional complexity for the developers. |
| TypeScript – Angular uses Typescript, which is a superset for JavaScript, it offers better navigation and refactoring services. It also eliminates code errors while building scaled and complex apps. | Migration to Angular Versions – It is quite difficult to migrate from AngularJS to Angular for the developers. The learning curve for each version is also too steep, which diminishes its popularity. |
| Robust support of Google – It enjoys strong support from Google-backed with comprehensive documentation, upgrades, and innovative developmental features. | Heavily weighted framework – Angular framework can make your apps bloated because of their need for abstractions, boilerplate codes, and other features. |
| Seamless 3rd party Integrations – Angular offers easy integration of 3rd party apps and tools, that provide more flexibility and capabilities to the developers. | Performance Issues – Due to its two-way data binding and DOM manipulation, you may experience performance lag since the browser will consume more resources while manipulating the DOM elements. |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Progressive: It is easy to integrate and migrate to Vue as one can introduce the framework into the code without wasting any development time. | Lack of Vibrant Community: Vue does have developer communities, but it lacks language understandability. It is most popular in regions around China, hence most of the community discussions take place in Chinese, which makes it difficult to understand for English-speaking developers. |
| Conventional: Vue uses some built-in solutions to make writing boilerplate code easy for the developers. Its conventional approach ensures the overall app development process is faster. | Code Reactivity: The two-way binding feature helps in creating and syncing the components across an app. However, the same feature results in the rendering of data chunks and features invoked by the DOM. |
| Effective Size: Contrary to its competitors, the size of the Vue package gets lighter with each new version. The optimization capability of Vue enables developers to remain focused on feature addition instead of tweaking and debugging. | Lack of Support: Vue is still a young framework, and since its developer community is small, you may face challenges while working on a scaled project, as less experienced developers will not be able to handle complex problems that arise for scaled and complex projects. |
| Functional Extension: It provides various API features that allow the incorporation of component logic in an app to be extensive and flexible. It makes the app components more extensible and readable. | Risks with Flexibility: Vue offers unprecedented flexibility, which sometimes over-complicates a development project and may cause code irregularities and errors. |
Angular offers some valuable features that enhance the business applications and overall development lifecycle. Some of the most popular features of Angular are explained below.
It helps developers to employ the best industry-wide practices for building websites with distinctive capabilities such as routing and SCSS support. Furthermore, the Angular CLI, makes it easy for developers to explore fully organized features.
Angular uses a two-way binding method, which ensures data preservation across multiple levels without any hassles. It allows bidirectional data transmission between distinct components by using the ngModel directive.
It stands for Model-View-Controller, where the Model handles the application data, whereas the View ensures data is displayed effectively. MVC model architecture generally enables developers to split their apps into different components and write code to join them.
Angular is indeed a low-code framework if we compare it with its competitors. Developers do not need to write additional code to join the MVC levels. It also ensures clear demarcation between directives and application code. These features reduce the development time up to a great extent.
Vue is a progressive JavaScript framework, that offers numerous features that can transform your enterprise application. Some of the most popular features of Angular are explained below.
Vue uses the Virtual DOM, which is an imitation of the DOM element accessible in the form of JavaScript data structures and captivates all DOM changes. The real DOM displays the final updates to the viewers. It is an innovative solution that is cost-effective and could be implemented quickly.
This feature offers various functions to accomplish a transition when HTML components are launched, updated, or expunged from the DOM. It is equipped with a built-in transition element that encloses the item liable for the return of the transition effect. It also allows developers to use 3rd party animation libraries to improve the user experience.
Vue uses a binding directive, which is also known as v-bind. It enables developers to assign and edit the values to HTML properties, assign classes, and make changes in the formats.
Vue offers numerous HTML-based templates that join the Vue instance data with the DOM. It transforms the HTML templates into Virtual DOM Render functions. Vue enables developers to utilize the template of a render function, while the render function could also be used as an alternative to the template.
| Parameters | Angular | Vue |
|---|---|---|
| Known As | Full-Featured JavaScript framework | Progressive JavaScript Framework |
| Dependencies | Developers need to import the necessary modules to get started | Vue does not offer in-built features like Angular |
| Popularity | It is unarguably the most popular based frontend development framework | It is slowly gaining momentum and gradually placing itself as a worthy competitor for Angular |
| TypeScript | To begin with Angular, developers must have adequate knowledge of TypeScript | Developers can easily write the codes via Codepen using the CDN library |
| Compatibility | Solutions built with Angular cannot be converted to and compatible with Angular 2 due to fundamental differences | It offers better backward compatibility when compared with Angular |
| Complexity | It is slightly difficult to start with, it demands additional learning efforts from the beginners | The learning curve is marginally easy, and a beginner can start coding with the help of a CDN library |
| Performance | Performance wise it is good, and it enables rapid front-end development | It is lighter and faster than Angular |
| Application | It is more adapted to industrial requirements and suitable for a larger team developing front-end solutions | It is more preferred for the development of small and middle-sized applications |
| Browser Rendering | It uses Shadow DOM | It uses Virtual DOM |
| Error Handling | At Compile time | At Runtime |
| Angular | Vue |
|---|---|
| eCommerce apps | Progressive web apps (PWA) |
| Real-time data apps | Single-page apps (SPA) |
| Video streaming apps | Small project apps |
| User-generated content website | Scaled enterprise apps |
| Dynamic content websites | Desktop apps |
| Progressive web apps (PWA) | Apps functionality extension |
| Native mobile apps | Web interfaces |
| Single page apps (SPA) | Mobile apps |
Here we have listed some popular apps built with both Angular and Vue.
It is a single-page mailing app that utilizes Angular to offer a dynamic user interface. The app renders the data on the front end and allows offline access to the cached data while incorporating numerous SPA benefits.
Gmail is available on both Android and iOS for free.
Microsoft made a strategic move when it migrated the renowned MS Office to an online platform using its innovative Office 365 API. The MS Office offers a captivating interface via the use of Angular.
Microsoft Office is available on both Android and iOS for free.
This is an online edition of the USA’s popular magazine; it uses Angular 5 to offer a brilliant user interface. Angular equips it with the capability to respond to more than 70 million monthly users per month.
Forbes is available on both Android and iOS for free.
This popular payment processing solution uses Angular to offer seamless user transactions and spectacular website performance. It is Angular that enables PayPal to offer features such as a faster checkout page and few-clicks authorization.
PayPal is available on both Android and iOS for free.
It uses the capabilities of Vue to support the communities to enhance their administration, reporting and analytics, and code management. GitLab performed a smooth migration of Vue, that allows community members to build advanced components without much effort.
Gitlab is available on both Android and iOS for free.
Adobe used Vue to migrate from the conventional framework without incurring any data loss and other risks. Adobe has used Vue to develop customized tools that enable users to build modern websites using Adobe creatives.
Adobe Portfolio is available on Android for free.
It is Vue that offers immaculate functioning of front-end apps on the client-end. It provides absolute control over SaaS apps, which is made possible by enhancing custom-built Vue elements and features for the client version of Laravel Spark.
Laravel Spark is available on Android for free.
It offers a neat and clean interface with an editor-wrapped design and contextual layout. It uses the template engine syntax and data binding features of Vue to offer seamless services.
Grammarly is available on both Android and iOS for free.
Here we have listed some fundamental factors you must consider while choosing the correct framework for your project.
We are hopeful that this blog will help you understand various aspects of both frameworks and choose the suitable one for your project. Angular is the best fit for those who deal with both client and server-side modes simultaneously. Angular is an ideal choice for those who are planning to build complex web apps with complex requirements and components.
On the other hand, if you are looking for an easy and faster web development solution, then you must opt for Vue. It is also preferred by those who are not strong with JavaScript fundamentals.
If you are using the Laravel community as the front end, then you should not choose anything except Vue. It will help you reduce the overall process time by half and frees up server space.
If you are still doubtful and want to discuss more on JavaScript-based frontend frameworks, then feel free to connect with our consultants.
We at Arka Softwares have a legion of seasoned front-end and full-stack programmers, who are known for building world-class solutions. We utilize state-of-the-art technologies including Angular and Vue to develop enchanting and empowering online experiences.
If you are planning to develop enterprise-grade apps with captivating interfaces and capabilities, then you must opt for Angular. Whereas Vue is a technically capable framework that can be used to develop frontend components and to solve complex problems.
Vue offers a higher level of customizability, which is why it is comparatively easier to learn than Angular. Furthermore, Vue overlaps with React and Angular concerning the use of components and their functionality.
It offers Vue CLI and various other useful features that improve the SPA development capabilities. It allows developers to produce and pre-configure a fresh SPA with the help of the Vue Create command.
Angular uses Dependency Injection, which improves the code readability and manageability. This feature enables developers to build scaled enterprise applications with ease.
Vue is simpler, sleeker, and faster than Angular because of its better algorithm, efficient management of Component-Based Architecture, and Data Binding.
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