Whether a startup or a large-scale enterprise, every business wants to create a robust web application using the best available technology. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for selecting a reliable technology for developing web applications. ReactJS and AngularJS are two of the premier front-end development technologies. From performance and user experience to cost and compatibility, there are many parameters that make AngularJS and ReactJS suitable for developing web applications.
ReactJS and AngularJS both have excellent features and benefits, making it difficult to choose between these technologies. Therefore, if you want to develop a web application using these frameworks, ReactJS vs. AngularJS can cause a dilemma. Whatever be your choice, whether Angular or ReactJS development service, you need to consider every aspect to select the right one for your project.
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ReactJS vs. AngularJS: A Brief Overview
AngularJS and ReactJS are two popular front-end development frameworks and libraries to build compelling web applications. The following is a brief introduction to both AngularJS and ReactJS.
AngularJS
AngularJS is an open-source front-end framework used for creating a wide array of web applications. Angular is the rewritten version of the AngularJS frameworks with excellent features for developing robust web applications. It is written in TypeScript, which is a superset of JavaScript.
Google introduced AngularJS. Creating a web application with AngularJS can provide numerous advantages. You just need to choose the right AngularJS development company for your project.
Key features of AngularJS include:
- Angular CLI
- TypeScript
- @angular/forms for Forms
- @angular/router for Routing
- Dependency injection
- HTML templates
- Two-way data binding
- Component CSS encapsulation
- XSS protection
ReactJS
React.js is a rich JavaScript library that was released for rendering views. React provides the view aspect only instead of complete MVC (Model, View, Controller) as Angular. It hyped the use of component-based architecture for web development, allowing users to manage a web app’s state with other libraries and frameworks. With React, state management is handled with libraries that support two-way data binding and immutable data for unidirectional data flow.
- JSX files
- Virtual DOM
- Functional components
- Context API and setState for basic state management
- XSS protection
Let’s run through a complete comparison of ReactJS vs. AngularJS to find out which one you should choose between AngularJS vs. ReactJS for your web development project.
1) Componentization
AngularJS has a fixed and complex structure because it is based on three layers – Model, View, and Controller. This framework allows developers to break down a web application code into many files. As a result, it enables the repeated use of the element and template in many parts of a web application.
On the other hand, ReactJS has a different architecture that provides a simple way to build element trees. It helps in functional programming with declarative component definitions. ReactJS codes are logically structured and easy to read. Hence, React JS development is suitable for creating quality web applications.
2) Toolset Used
Many code editing tools like Atom, Sublime Text, and Visual Studio are readily available for writing codes. Further, the Create React App tool helps to bootstrap a project. And, Next.js is used for server-side rendering. Developers can utilize various tools to test multiple web application components. AngularJS also uses numerous code editors like Aptana Studio, Sublime Text, and Visual Studio.
While Angular CLI is used for creating the project, Angular Universal helps in server-side rendering. The key differentiating factor between ReactJS and AngularJS is that you can thoroughly test Angular-based web applications using only one tool that could be Karma, Jasmine, or Protractor.
3) Development speed
AngularJS offers an improved web development experience because of its CLI enabling developers to build a workplace and create functioning web apps as well as components and services using one-line commands. Also, it has a built-in method for removing Typescript’s coding feature and fixing complicated issues. The speed of web development and productivity are impacted in the case of ReactJS because of the inclusion of third-party libraries.
As you hire a ReactJS developer, he/she can decide the right architecture for your web application. However, the toolkit for ReactJS depends on the project that may need more time and effort if a new developer is working. Hence, AngularJS has an upper edge on ReactJS in this aspect.
4) State handling
Web applications use states in many instances. An element defines a web application’s UI at some point in time. After this, the total UI elements are rendered again by the framework when data changes. This method allows a web application to ensure that data is updated. In the case of ReactJS, Redux opts as a solution for managing web app state, but Redux isn’t used in the case of Angular.
5) Use of programming language
AngularJS and ReactJS are JavaScript-based frameworks and libraries. Hence, JavaScript is used for both AngularJS development and ReactJS development. But TypeScript is recommended for Angular for faster and more efficient coding. In the same way, XML and JSX are recommended for ReactJS.
Both ReactJS and AngularJS offer the benefit of statically written code due to statically typed languages despite the different mediums of writing code. In this case, your decision to select between ReactJS vs. Angular JS web development depends on which is suitable for your JSX or TypeScript.
6) Coding style
ReactJS and AngularJS have slightly different coding structures. With Angular, the @Component decorator is used in web development for creating components. Also, regular HTML and some custom directives are required to create templates. With ReactJS, both JSX and the Component class are used for components and templates. Developers can choose any of the approaches.
As such, AngularJS can be the right choice if developers feel comfortable delivering HTML files. However, when developers are comfortable with JSX, ReactJS is suitable for well-structured and clean code.
Final note:
ReactJS and AngularJS are two very popular front-end technologies for creating top-notch web applications. However, selecting Angular vs. ReactJS can be difficult as both offers varied web development benefits. ReactJS has benefits like Virtual DOM, which is conducive to developing high-speed web applications. Further, migration between different React versions is easy.
Angular is widely used for creating large-scale web apps and complex structures. Moreover, the final decision depends on numerous factors, such as project requirements and suitability.