React VS Angular: Which framework does my project require?
When designing a web page or application, we distinguish between two parts of the design: Front-End and Back-End.
When we refer to the Back-End, we are talking about the part of the code that users do not have access to. It is not an overly “aesthetic” section, reserved for important information for the operation of the program.
The Front-End, on the other hand, is what users usually see on the web. It includes menus, images, colors, etc. Designed to be more aesthetic and help facilitate access and control.
Both aspects are increasingly separated due to the growing complexity of current applications and websites, which means that the tools of each of the sections are increasingly specialized.
Within the Front-End, Angular and React are two of the most important development tools. Many clients are developing their projects or are migrating them towards these technologies. But, what distinguishes them from the others? And between themselves? Let’s see it.
If you first want to know the importance of a functional Front-End for your UX and UI strategy, we leave you our article here.
What is Angular and what is React
Angular is, first of all, an evolution of AngularJS. It is a development framework based on JavaScript and Google, widely used for web pages with a single page/window.
React is a JavaScript library developed by Facebook with web apps in mind. It allows you to place HTML code inside JavaScript and it works with Virtual Dom, helping to reconcile the virtual UI and the UI that will appear when running the App.
What similarities do the two tools have?
Similarities between Angular and React include:
Architecture
Both Angular and React have a component-based architecture. These components are reusable within other components, making them infinitely recyclable and reducing the number of times you have to reload the same page.
Open Source
Both are open source. As a result, React and Angular have large developer communities that regularly enrich resources on forums like GitHub.
Popular
Developers mostly use these two technologies to build single page applications. That claims single page apps can be made for faster and better digital solutions.
Development environment
Angular and React are used to develop the Front-End of a mobile or web application, two services that are currently very popular in all sectors of technology.
Rendering
Angular and React provide efficient client-side and server-side rendering.
Performance
Angular and React offer similar performance. The difference mostly depends on the user’s perspective.
Ease of updating
Both Angular and React offer easy upgradeability. While Angular uses CLI, React relies on external libraries.
what differences do they have
Some of the differences between Angular and React include:
Dependency Injection
React does not fully support dependency injection as it does not fully adhere to the idea of functional programming and data immutability. Instead, it has a global state for all components. However, the biggest advantage of Angular lies in the fact that, unlike React, it supports dependency injection.
Language
React is based on JavaScript or TypeScript + combined with JSX script. JSX is an extension to the syntax, which makes JavaScript or TypeScript code look like code written in HTML. This makes the code easier to understand and typos easier to spot. Angular, meanwhile, only uses JavaScript or TypeScript.
self sufficiency
React is a library for UI development. Functions such as data binding, component-based routing, project generation, form validation, or dependency injection require the installation of additional modules or libraries.
Instead, Angular is a complete framework for software development, which generally does not require additional libraries. All the functions mentioned above, can be implemented with the means provided in the Angular package.
What conclusions do we get?
These two web technologies have some unique features and specialties. In the end, choosing between Angular and React depends on your team and its capabilities, the type of project and the complexity you are looking for in each aspect of the process. Whichever tool you choose, you will be using one of the leading solutions on the market.
Angular is a more interesting web and mobile development framework, as it is more complete than React. The problem is that it takes a long time to master due to more complex code even though it includes all the connection facilities.
React, on the other hand, is a library only for UI development, which can be turned into a complete solution with the help of additional libraries and is very easy to learn to use, but you have to learn to work with frameworks and tools. Additional JavaScript, which requires time and knowledge that you may not have.