Angular or React? Or maybe even Vue.js…

When starting a new project it’s very important to choose the right technology stack and build the correct architecture. Fortunately, we have a lot of great open-source stuff that saves us a lot of time. Let’s consider the most popular front-end frameworks and libraries like Angular, React, Vue.js trying to consider the background of each, how is it easy to find qualified developers and learning curve. Obviously, there are no simple answer for questions like this, but let’s try to consider some important topics you should be aware when you have such a situation.

First of all, Angular and React are much more popular in use nowadays than the third competitor according to google trends and actually what we at Mindecs can see on the job market. What is interesting, Angular and React are almost equally popular.

React

React is an open-source JavaScript library for UI components started and maintained by Facebook. What is curious, it’s possible to create native mobile apps for platforms like IOS and Android with React and React Native. It has its own syntax JSX(JavaScript Extension) that empowers usual JavaScript, but you don’t have to use, it’s optional to use. You can also use JSX with Vue using Babel plugin. You have some learning curve to master React, but it’s not hard to get started with. As mentioned before, React is one of the most popular JS libraries at the moment with a lot of contributors and actually, a lot of developers that can work with this library. The library is used by big names like Facebook, Netflix, Uber, Paypal, Walmart, Instagram and plenty of other top companies.

Angular

Comparing to React, Angular is an MVC framework, not just a library, it has more strong options and coding styles, conventions and this also leads to a steeper learning curve, but it’s also not that hard to get started with as they share the same idea of components based UI. Angular is a Typescript based and supported by Google being one of the most popular Javascript frameworks just like to React. It’s also worth to say that the first version of Angular and Angular 2+ versions are dramatically different what makes a challenge if your app was written on Angular of version 1 you should rewrite it to newer versions to make is supportable and up to date. There are a lot of great software engineers who are efficient in developing Angular apps, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a team member if you develop an app using this framework. Angular is used by companies like Google, Instagram, Forbes and a lot of big names.

Vue

And finally, we get to Vue, to one of the most discussed and rapidly growing JS frameworks which was started by ex-Googler Evan You, who took part in the development of Angular when he was at Google. Vue.js is loved and appreciated for being easy to use, it suits well for building awesome UIs using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It’s very easy to get started with and gives you a lot of flexibility. This is the reason why more and more companies start switching to Vue.js. It’s used by Adobe, Alibaba, GitLab, WizzAir, Baidu.

To sum up, all of them are really good choice. You can’t go wrong with either one and you can build great UI for your needs using any of them. Consider all these facts and make a decision which one suits your more and happy coding!