Angular vs React: Which One to Choose for Front-End Development in 2023?

Dinesh Thakur

21 Jun 2023

Are you in a dilemma about which JavaScript framework to choose for your front-end development project in 2023? Though the JavaScript framework has a lot of options that are capable of facilitating a project’s requirements, Angular and React are the two most popular ones. Angular is a JavaScript framework built on TypeScript, whereas React is a JavaScript library built on JSX. Both frameworks have component-based architecture, which means they have reusable components that address similar front-end problems.

Given the similar functionalities of the two frameworks, the development community often debates on Angular vs React. But which is better? In this blog, we’ll do an in-depth comparison between Angular and React to help you make the right choice for your project.

Given the similar functionalities of the two frameworks, the development community often debates on Angular vs React. But which is better? In this blog, we’ll do an in-depth comparison between Angular and React to help you make the right choice for your project.

Let’s get started!

What is Angular?

Angular is an open-source JavaScript front-end framework developed and maintained by Google. Released in 2010 under the name AngularJS, it is one of the most popular client-side frameworks for building scalable mobile and web applications using TypeScript, CSS, or HTML. The framework offers a host of robust developer tools to develop single-developer size to enterprise-grade apps. Angular 13 is the latest version of Angular and offers enterprise-level web app solutions, well-integrated libraries, efficient client-server communication, etc. to fuel the development process.

Some key features of Angular are:

• Two-way data binding
• MVC architecture
• Angular CLI for seamless updates
• Dependency injection
• Clear and concise coding
• Built-in support for HTTP, AJAX, etc. is just a few differentiating features of Angular.

What are the Advantages of Angular?

Modularity

Angular leverages modular architecture, enabling developers to simplify code by breaking complex apps into smaller, manageable, and reusable parts.

Cross Platform

As a cross-platform framework, Angular uses a single codebase to build web, mobile, and desktop applications. Thus, developers can easily build and maintain applications across different platforms.

TypeScript-Based Web App Framework

Angular is based on TypeScript, a statically typed language and a superset of JavaScript that adds more features to help developers identify errors, improve code quality, and maintain code better.

Massive Community Support

A massive community of Angular developers provides regular updates about the framework, quick bug fixes, features, etc., making it a great choice for building web applications.

What is React?

React is an open-source JavaScript library (developed and maintained by Meta) for building user interfaces from reusable UI components. The framework has a component-based architecture and allows developers to build scalable applications with interactive and complex UIs but deliver a seamless user experience. Since React library codes are reusable and have virtual DOM, it cuts down the development time and of course, saves money.

Some key features of React are:

• Virtual DOM to help developers manage an extensive database
• JSX advantage
• One-way data binding
• Declarative views
• Rapid updates in both front-end and server-side

What are the advantages of React?

Reusability

React is a widely used JavaScript library for building UI components that can be reused across different parts of an application. It also offers support for mobile app development with React Native.

Customizability

React is customizable, which means developers can tailor the framework to their unique needs and easily integrate it with third-party libraries.

Community

Like Angular, React has an active community of developers, which share a wealth of knowledge, resources, and libraries to improve the functionality of the framework.

Performance

Virtual DOM (Document Object Manager) updates the important parts of the DOM only, resulting in quick optimization of the rendering process and fast updates.

Angular vs React: A Detailed Comparison

Popularity

Both Angular and React are widely used frameworks and have gained a lot of popularity. According to Statista, React is the second most commonly used web framework worldwide, whereas Angular secures the fifth position. Further, the StackOverflow 2022 survey states that 42.62% of the respondents prefer React, while only 20.3% use Angular.

Since its release in 2010, AngularJS was widely used for building web applications, especially single-page apps. Later in 2016, Angular 2 was released with many new improvements and features. Angular has been continually evolving and improving with every new release and is quite a popular choice for web app development.

On the other hand, React has managed to maintain more popularity as compared to Angular. In addition to rendering optimizations, virtual DOM, and migration between versions, it allows the reuse of UI components. Such distinctive features have made React a go-to destination for building scalable and dynamic web applications.

Data Binding

As already discussed, Angular uses two-way data binding and React uses unidirectional data binding. Two-way data binding means, whenever an interface element changes, the model state will change automatically keeping the two layers updated with the same data. It is a great way to extract data from ERP software, like accounting software or medical software that has complex requirements. Thus, the Angular framework makes it easy to build ERP software.

React’s one-way data flow means a UI element can’t change a component’s state. In other words, it renders modifications in the interface model only when the model state is updated. This means React developers have more control over the web or mobile applications.

Server-Side Rendering

Angular creates a static view for rendering the application before it gets interactive. When it comes to reducing the traffic between server and client, Angular is a win! React does the server-side rendering using some specific functions. One of the best examples of React app is Meta (Facebook) with high-speed rendering and great functions even with a not-so-good internet connection.

Testing

Codes written in JavaScript undergo a complex set of tests. Talking to testing, Angular has several features, and codes are written keeping testability concerns in mind. For example, dependency injection eases the decoupling of components for testing.

In the case of Angular, testing or debugging for the entire project can be done using a single tool. But React needs a set of tools for testing. Tests are more predictable in React, though. Also, React executes test suites continuously for running test cases a crucial part of the development process.

App Structure

Angular is based on MVC architecture, which involves separating the application data into Model, View, and Controller components. Comparing Angular with React, the latter doesn’t have the same MVC structure, providing more freedom to the developers but also requiring them to design structure at the beginning of every new project. React’s data concept offers the View component itself, whereas Model and Controller require additional components.

UI Components

With Angular, customizing the UI is faster and easier as there are ready-to-use design elements that improve the overall functionality of the framework. However, React allows the creation of custom components using less code. Also, developers can download the pre-built solutions from the React portal and create complex web applications easily and effectively.

Dependency Injection

Dependency injection means providing external dependency to software components. React doesn’t offer this functionality but allows the creation of global component objects that will be available to any component. This supports data sharing without passing around the entire DOM tree. On the other hand, Angular has full dependency injection.

Performance

Angular has all the necessary features to optimize coding practices and enhance performance. Projects that don’t require bi-dimensional data binding can be handled with the older versions of Angular to minimize the complexities. Further, it uses Real DOM and has a unique mechanism to detect changes and improve the speed of web apps.

React uses a Virtual DOM, a wonderful feature to boost app performance. With this feature, the front-end developers can make changes without rewriting the document and ensure improved performance by rendering updates faster. Besides, the reusability of components is another critical factor that gives this framework a competitive edge.

Learning Curve

Angular is vast. Initially, it may be challenging for developers to cover topics, like modules, directives, dependency injections, etc. In a nutshell, the learning curve of Angular is higher than that of React. However, once developers start grasping the core concept, things become easy and the ease of development follows.

When it comes to React, the learning curve starts with writing components, managing internal states, using props, etc. Writing might sound a bit unusual initially, but by learning the basics, developers can start building apps quickly. The best thing about React is it doesn’t add complexity, which makes it a favorable tech stack.

So, Which one is better?

To sum up, both Angular and React are great for building web applications with component-based architecture. Define your project’s functionalities and workflow first and then choose the framework that best fits your needs. With React, developers don’t have to organize HTML and can simply reuse the UI components. If you are looking to build an app out of a small learning curve, React is the way to go. However, for enterprise-level applications with huge development, Angular is the best bet.

Want to discuss which framework should you choose for building an application? Feel free to contact us. We are here to assist you in building scalable web applications.