Angular vs React: What is the Difference?

Every time when front-end development is needed the Angular vs React dilemma appears. The choice depends on many factors because even front-end developers themselves have been debating the question for many years.

The first difference between Angular and React is their architectures. As you may know, Angular is a full-fledged framework, which makes the engineering experience seamless, while React is a JavaScript Library. By the way, “Is React a framework?” because many developers consider React to be a framework, as the broad ecosystem lets it be integrated with multiple additional libraries and tools, granting it the capabilities of a framework. If you use Angular, everything you need to start building an app is already provided right out of the box. This is a plus and minus at the same time.

The following important thing to be considered is the difference between TypeScript and JavaScript. React uses JavaScript, which is trendy and many developers are already familiar with it, which makes it easier to find a development team for a project.

Angular is based on TypeScript, which was developed by Microsoft and positioned as a superset of JavaScript, a web application development tool that enhances JavaScript. It is more challenging to find developers familiar with TypeScript, but it is possible because the popularity of Angular continues to grow.

React vs Angular: Factors to Consider

On the one hand, Angular and React have much in common, but on the other hand, their differences cannot be ignored. You must decide which tool better suits the needs of your project before choosing Angular or React.

Here are the main benefits of the Angular framework you need to consider:

• Two-way data binding determines how easily developers can change UI elements. In the Angular framework, every change in a UI element is automatically reflected in the corresponding change in model state.

• RxJS is a library for asynchronous programming which is responsible for the handling of asynchronous operations and events. It reduces the resources needed for these operations. A web application can handle events independently at the same time. RxJS is compatible with many frameworks, but if you want to utilize the features Angular framework offers to the utmost, you must have knowledge of the library.

• Angular CLI is a command-line interface that is used as a tool for the quick generation and running of a project with a few commands. It reduces the time which is needed to create apps, add files, make tests, debug, and deploy. Also, the update of an app to the latest Angular version is simple and can be fully automated.

• Angular Universal enables the rendering of Angular applications on the server side. It is totally compatible with Angular CLI and supports some Node.js frameworks. It is perfect for mobile devices that lack processing power for client-side rendering.

• Ivy render is a new Angular rendering engine which increases performance by compiling one file at a time. It ignores dependencies while taking into consideration only a component and its template when generating the output.

• Testing is possible with a single tool. You can use Jasmine, Karma, and Protractor solutions for the thorough testing of an Angular app in browser.

Here is the main drawback to consider.

• Regular DOM is the main feature to take into account. Angular uses Regular DOM instead of Virtual DOM, which can influence the performance of an app when dealing with a lot of data requests. Although, the Angular vs React performance totally depends on code optimization.

React Library: Benefits & Downsides

The full potential of ReactJS can be seen when integrated with other tools and solutions.

Here are the benefits of React you need to consider:

• Virtual DOM is regarded to be faster in comparison to regular DOM because of the ability to change parts of data without changing other parts of the HTML tree. This helps to make and track changes easily. This factor becomes crucial in an Angular vs React comparison.

• Next.js is a framework for the server-side rendering of React applications. React applications can be rendered both on the client side and server side, freeing additional processing power for Virtual DOM.

• Redux is a JavaScript library which manages state modifications. A single object represents the whole application state. If it is used in large-scale projects, Redux significantly speeds up the work of React applications.

• JSX goes against the modern approach to creating HTML and JavaScript code. You don't store the codes separately, because with React you need to create a single self-contained component. You don’t have to use it because it is optional.

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