How To Choose Between Angular And React For Your Next Project
While technology, in general, has come a long way, thanks to its constant evolution, the truth remains that the pace of the change experienced in the world of development has been substantially higher. But we won’t wax lyrical about all that; instead, we’ll get to the point: Today, we are at a point where web development is unrealistic to envision without programming languages such as CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and their likes. JavaScript is now virtually synonymous with front-end web app development. Unfortunately, despite its popularity, people often struggle to choose the framework they want to work with.
Now, again, the number of options at one’s disposal is enormous, but more often than not, the choice for a JavaScript framework comes down to picking one between React or Angular. While the popularity of most JavaScript frameworks typically wanes off after a few months, these two have managed to remain highly preferred names for a few years now. And given that both seemingly serve similar purposes, if not wholly the same, the struggle to choose between the two is entirely understandable. So, to help ease your confusion, we put together a quick comparison to help you decide which one of the two is better suited for you.
1. Performance: A front-end app’s performance is directly dependent on how HTML is updated. Now, Angular updates change straight in the browser’s DOM. It can prove to be a problem if the device is older since DOM consumes a substantial number of CPU cycles. Whereas, React makes use of a virtual DOM that goes a long way in enhancing the app’s performance.
2. The pace of development: The speed at which one can build an app with Angular or React is based on the number of functionalities and libraries the programmer has access to. Now, React makes it quite easy to scale the app, thanks to the architecture. Unfortunately, it lacks severely in the library department. On the contrary, Angular is decidedly faster, though one can feel the need for libraries, especially in the context of aspects such as SEO.
3. Application lifecycle: While React makes use of a transparent system to update components in the app, it does veil the challenge that is updating the DOM with help from a virtual DOM. Now, Angular — this one makes use of two-way binding to link the DOM’s UI elements with models where the data is stored. Additionally, it continually ensures they remain in sync by using an algorithm that identifies any changes and automatically updates the model. So, to cut a long story short, while they differ significantly in the context of how components are written, both React and Angular’s performance in this context is at par more or less.
React vs Angular is admittedly a challenging pair to compare, especially when one needs to decide which one works best for their project. However, it can be quite easy to choose between the two when you compare each other abilities and drawbacks in the context of your business and project’s requirements.
