React vs Angular: Differences Figured Out with Expert View

Choosing a front-end development framework and library won’t be that easy. Out of two popular JavaScript framework and library called Angular and React - which one will be the best choice for your existing or next project? Each of them has special offerings, making it difficult for you to choose one from them.

 Whether you are a newbie developer looking for where to invest, a freelancer finding the right framework for an upcoming project, or an enterprise-level architect working on the company’s strategic vision, Angular vs React comparison is a must. It is more likely to benefit you by bringing out all differences from a professional point of view.

Let us be frank that, the best choice among React and Angular can’t be upright. It considers many factors to decide which technology is less or more suiting your development environment and purpose.

 Since there is no direct answer to the question “React vs Angular - which one is best”, you will have something different in this post. You will have detailed comparison between Angular and React, showing you how to tackle the issue of comparing any two JavaScript frameworks in the most structured way and conclude the best based on the findings.

 Key Pointers for Technical Comparison

Before selecting any of these two tools, you should find the answer to two easy questions: “Can it be a good tool independently?” and “Will it go well with my purpose?” Neither of the answers will give any hint if considered individually, so you need to consider them both for a choice. Well, the above two questions might contain a whole lot of other small questions in each, so let's discuss about them.

 Questions asked about the goodness of the tool individually:

•  How mature or reliable is it and which vendor’s product is it?
• How advanced are the features it has?
• What language, components, and patterns it uses?
• What frameworks and tools are associated with it?

Questions for Self-observation:

• How comfortable will I and my teammates be learning this tool?
• Does it fit well with my project development?
• What does the personal experience of the developer say about this framework?

 With all these questions, you can judge the efficacy of any tool, and they will play a part in comparison of React and Angular here too.

Another important point to keep in mind is it is unfair to compare React to Angular, since React is just a JavaScript library whereas Angular is an advance, feature-rich open-source framework. To equalize, we’ll speak on some of the JavaScript libraries that are widely used with React.

 Maturity Level - A Key Point for Consideration

 Another key consideration for a qualified developer is to go for the perfect balance between tested, tried approaches and assessing new cutting-edge technology. As a standard rule, you need to be cautious when choosing a tool that is not matured enough due to some issues:

• The tool can be old-fashioned and unreliable.
• The vendor can abandon it all of a sudden.
• There may not be adequate knowledge base or a strong community to support you at the time of need.
• Angular was launched in 2009, but React was launched by Facebook in 2013. As far as choosing the more mature tool between these two, developers can feel confident about using them both. However, React features as the most preferred tool for developers with a larger number of downloads than its Google competitor Angular.

To summarize, neither React nor Angular is ahead with a great margin when it comes to maturity level. You can’t make any decision based on this sole factor rather you need a few more technical factors to consider and compare before picking one to use in your case. In brief, the React vs Angular comparison should be more technological.

 React at a Glance

 React or ReactJS, whatever you are comfortable calling it, is a JS library useful in building User Interface (UI) components and their variants. It supports both front-end and server-side development. React is normally used for managing the mobile or web apps’ view layer. It also enables you to build reusable UI components in different sections of the application. It is presently one of the favorite JS libraries with a solid knowledge base and a vast community to support users.

React is a product of Facebook and mostly used in its internal projects, such as WhatsApp, Instagram etc. It is a library which has been accessible since 2013, so there is no question of it being new in the industry. React has also won star ratings on GitHub for its popularity.  

Read the main article on Andolasoft Blog.