Angular vs. React: Which JS Framework Is Better?

Where It Started: History of Angular and React

Angular 

AngularJS was developed by Google (by Igor Minar, a former Google employee) as an open-source framework for developing Single Page Applications (SPA). 

Other companies such as Netflix, Microsoft, PayPal, and more are adopted Angular for their app. 

Angular and AngularJS 

Is AngularJS different from Angular? 

Google developed AngularJS to develop single-page web applications. You may know that AngularJS is a JavaScript-based framework for front-end app development. 

Having advantages like dependency injection elimination and dynamic binding, AngularJS is still popular and growing with updated versions and is termed simply Angular. 

Even though Angular is on the same road as AngularJS, it has differences: 

• Both are open-source frameworks for the front end, but AngularJS uses JavaScript, and Angular uses TypeScript.  
• This change helped developers develop the highly efficient app as core functionality transferred to other modules. 
•  Angular is smooth and fast when comparing AngularJS and its other older versions. 

Also, other changes to discuss are: 

• AngularJS has MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture, whereas Angular uses components and directives. 
• AngularJS does not support mobile browsers, but Angular does. 
• AngularJS supports only JavaScript, but when it comes to Angular, it supports both JavaScript and TypeScript (that's why it is an updated version) 

The latest version of Angular is Angular 14.1.0 (released on June 02, 2022). 

These show the clear difference between AngularJS and Angular. Since Angular is in trend now, we will compare it with React to find the best framework. 

Advantages of Angular 

If you are a coder, you already know that Angular provides several benefits to its users, which is why it is popular among developers.  

Some of the advantages to mention are: 

• Single page application 
• Component-based architecture 
• Two-way data binding 
• Dependency Injection 
• High speed and best performance, and more 

React 

React was developed by Facebook as a replacement for their internal UI toolkit. 

React is a popular library for building user interfaces with JavaScript. 

It uses a virtual DOM to render changes to the UI without having to rerender the entire view. This feature makes it much faster than traditional MVC frameworks. 

AngularJS and React are both JavaScript frameworks for building web applications. They differ in how they handle user interaction and data binding. 

Like Angular, React also has various versions to provide new updates to the developers.

 The latest version of React is React 18 (18.0.0, 18.1.0, and 18.2.0), and the stable React version is 18.2.0, released on June 14, 2022. 

Is ReactJS the Same as React?

 Of course, yes! 

ReactJS is called short for React, and both terms are the same. 

Advantages of React 

Similar to Angular, the developer also like React due to its advantages: 

• High speed 
• Flexible and Simple 
• Rich interfaces 
• Stability in code 
• Developer toolset 

Since the two frameworks deliver their best results, let’s see their differences and decide the best framework for your application. 

Angular vs. React: Side-by-Side Detailed Comparison 

Why people (developers) are comparing these two terms? Angular or React! 

Angular and React are two popular open-source frameworks for front-end app development. So, you have to decide on the correct framework to develop the best application over others. 

Now we will check 9 different features to compare these JS frameworks. 

1) Angular vs. React — Learning Curve 

 As a beginner, both Angular and React are difficult to learn and will create a confusing state as to which one to start. The answer is in you. 

If you are a total beginner in front-end development and do not know frameworks, then Angular is the best way to start. 

But if you already know JavaScript, then React is the best option. 

Since Angular is a library of concepts and complicated features (like dependency injection and more), Angular seems complex.  

On the other hand, React does not have complicated features like dependency injection and is straight to the UI components. Thus it is a better way to start. 

 But overall, learning depends on your interest (as everyone says). Check the basic framework lessons and choose your interested framework. 

This point is for a beginner developer who wants to choose between Angular and React. 

 The upcoming comparisons are suitable for all developers and entrepreneurs who aim to develop a good app with the best framework. 

 2) Angular and React Community 

While Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix use React, Microsoft, Apple, and Forbes use Angular as their front-end JavaScript framework.  

Big companies pick both frameworks as you check the app example articles (mentioned above).   

Due to the complications in Angular, developers are more on React side. However, Google's support and update towards Angular help it grow potentially.  

Though React is updated frequently and lacks documentation updates, its community support plays an essential role in forums to help React developers solve their problems without a hitch. If you are a great and consistent learner, React will be yours.  

From this, it is clear that React has more developer/ community support than Angular.   

Popularity:

React is more popular than Angular among developers. 

3) Angular vs. React? Which Has Great Performance 

You can get answers from two sides, shouting Angular has better performance and React is better. But here is our analysis. 

Angular has two-way data binding. Due to these bidirectional binding, every binding has a watcher to track modifications. Due to this, the development process becomes heavy. 

When talking about React performance, it has single data-binding and virtual DOM. Due to this, browser loadings are reduced and do not have more watchers (compared to Angular).  

Also, Angular uses Regular DOM leading to performance issues, and React uses virtual DOM leading to faster app development. 

 From this, React is performing better than Angular; also best for dynamic web applications. 

4) Data Binding in Angular and React 

As discussed above, Angular has two-way, and React has one-way data binding. We will decode this point now. 

In Angular, if UI changes, the model also changes, and vice-versa because of two-way binding. In React, the model updates first, and UI will be rendered finally with its one-way binding. 

For the model state, you have to make a change by yourself. 

The developer prefers two-way data binding (Angular) to one-way data binding (React) as it is easier.  

However, here is the thing, the two-way data binding process becomes heavy when handling complex and large-size app development projects because when the process complexity increases, the difficulty in managing model and UI elements also increases. 

Hence, developers opt for React when handling large and more complex app projects.  

Wrapping this point, React is winning the vote in data binding. 

5) Angular and React — UI Components and Directives 

Having a pre-built and in-built material toolset and design components, Angular's UI configuration is rapid. React provides free and paid UI components that are developed by the community. 

With React, users can understand the code (even if they are a beginner) since all templates and logic are in one place at the component end. It varies in Angular. 

An angular template returns with an attribute (i.e.,) an object is set based on a directive that is difficult for readers to understand (if they are beginner and has no idea of Angular). 

6) Angular and React — Syntax/ Language 

We already differentiated AngularJS and Angular and knew Angular supports both JavaScript and TypeScript language. Since TypeScript is compact compared to JavaScript, developers can easily navigate code, and code refactoring is also simple. 

React uses JSX script combined with JavaScript ES6+. JSX is a syntax extension of JS, and this helps to understand the code. 

7) App Structure 

In brief, the Angular structure is fixed and complex; that is why Angular suits experienced coding experts. It relies on three layers of MVC (Model-View-Controller). 

There is no perfect and right structure in React, but the beginning app development stage is difficult and takes a long time to start. After that, the development flow starts fast. 

8) Dependency Injection 

In a word, Angular supports dependency injection, and React does not support dependency injection and has different lifecycles. 

9) Which Is Best for the Future? Angular or React?

The future of Angular and React is not decided now. People will choose easy frameworks with more benefits and features. 

Since both Angular and React have constant updates and provide expected results, the future only decides the future of these frameworks.  

Curtly, the framework with consistent new updates and community support will rule the future. 

Conclusion 

Angular versus React? Which one do you choose? 

It is a big debate, but I hope this article provides you with the necessary solution to your question. 

To summarize, Angular is a full framework, and React is a library. 

Who Can Use React?

React is apt for startups and small-scale industries. 

Who Can Use Angular?

For its complex features, Angular is best for larger applications. Medium and large-scale industries that dream of building large-size applications can choose Angular. 

If you are still in the picking stage, talk with our Angular and React developers to know the best option for your application.