The growth of new front-end technologies has spiced up competition between developers working and maintaining these technologies. If you’ve been keeping track of recent programming news. You might have come across the AngularJS vs ReactJS faceoff on many tech forums and blogs. If not, still both technologies are a frequent topic of discussion amongst front-end developers and the community.
Both ReactJS and AngularJS are built on JavaScript and are considered to be the most popular front.end development technologies preferred by solo developers and global businesses. Both are designed to build dynamic mobile and web applications.
Not only are they fairly effective but they are also robust from a performance standpoint. However, when you think of starting a new project, choosing the right platform does come to mind. It’s natural, as the success of a project depends on the right choice of technology selected for the job.
In order to gain clarity on the debate subject, our post will focus on a comparative approach to each technology and highlight their necessary pros and cons, to help you assess the more suitable for your project.
Getting Started with the AngularJS vs ReactJS Debate
What is AngularJS
AngularJS is a JavaScript client-side framework that is primarily used to create dynamic web applications. It is based on HTML and JavaScript; hence one is not required to learn additional languages to create an independent full-fledged application. AngularJS was created by Google and is supported by a vibrant community.
What is ReactJS
The reactor, also known as React.js or ReactJS, is a front-end JavaScript library for creating user interface (UI) components. It is an open-source library, maintained by Facebook, independent developers, and other companies. React can be used to create single-page applications or also mobile applications. React is responsible for rendering the visual interfaces to the browser.
Differences Between AngularJS and ReactJS
Advantages
AngularJS
- It provides a clean code development
- Slower performance compared to ReactJS (DIS)
- Material design-like Interface
- In-depth documentation and community support.
- The MVVC nature allows developers to work on each segment in parallel
- Provides two-way data binding
React
- Very easy to learn and absorb, because of its simple syntax and use of JSX.
- Declarative coding style.
- Use of components, which means code can be reused.
- Faster load-up times because of virtual dom-based processing
- One-direction data binding prevents nested elements from affecting each other.
- The HTML-like syntax allows for templating and extremely detailed documentation.
- Server-side rendering, beneficial for SEO and browsers that do not handle JavaScript
- Migrating between versions.
- “Codemod” is provided by Facebook to automate much of the process.
- React Skills can be utilized when working in its Native development.
- ES6/7 enables ReactJS to handle heavy loads with ease.
Disadvantages
AngularJS
- The general syntax is relatively complex to understand for a new angular JS developer. The latest TypeScript 2.4 is an improvement from the earlier versions still.
- Migration issues are likely to happen when upgrading to newer versions
- The general learning curve is pretty steep.
- Slower performance due to complex SPAs
- Consist of many components considered to be a heavyweight
- Due to its versatility, there are so many ways around and approaches to solve a problem. Hence inconsistency in development can be seen.
ReactJS
- React lacks the traditional MVC architecture
- It is view only and used to create UI components. Complex integrations are required with other technologies for a complete development experience.
- Expert knowledge is required when integrating ReactJS with other MVC-based frameworks.
- Lack of updated documentation that matches the constant updates that React gets
Choosing the Right One
You must be wondering what we have to say regarding which is the better technology between Angular-JS and ReactJS. The truth is, there is no one winner or better between them both. Where one is a JavaScript library the other is a full-fledged MVC-based framework.
Both are equally capable of creating engaging and dynamic web and mobile applications. However, to compare both of them in the first place would be a little unfair. They both are entirely different instruments with different capacities.
Primarily speaking, AngularJS provides a holistic development experience, whereas ReactJS provides development capability for user interface components in specific. If you are in the early phase of development, wishing to start with a technology that offers a complete package.
Then AngularJS is the way to go, however, if you are favoring ease, convenience and flexibility, ReactJS might be the better option. Albeit with much need experience in other technologies as well.
In the end, it really comes down to personal preference and the goals of an organization. Sometimes the choice will really depend on the requirements ahead, the functionality required, and the usability factor of the proposed application.
