Difference Between ReactJS vs Angular2
In this ReactJS vs Angular2 article, we are comparing two technologies, better be called libraries and frameworks for front-end development. Two very popular and highly used such a platform is Angular2 vs ReactJS, both ReactJS vs Angular2 based on JavaScript and TypeScript respectively.
The most important difference between Angular2 vs ReactJS is that React is a library whereas Angular is a framework.
- ReactJS
React is a JavaScript library build for user interface development. It is maintained by Facebook and supported by a community of individual developers. It is open source. React is used as a platform to develop single page applications or mobile applications too. ReactJS is also called as React.
- Angular2
Angular is based on TypeScript and is open source front-end web development framework. It is developed by an Angular team at Google and is also supported by individual contributors. The very first version of Angular was called AngularJS and its successive versions like Angular 2, 3 etc. are renamed as Angular which is a complete rewrite of AngularJS by the same team.
In this ReactJS vs Angular2 article, we shall mean by the same thing whether we use the term React or ReactJS and also whether we say Angular or Angular 2. They are one and the same.
Head To Head Comparison Between ReactJS vs Angular2
Belos is the top 15 difference between ReactJS vs Angular2
Key Difference Between ReactJS vs Angular2
Below is the list of points describe the key difference between ReactJS vs Angular2
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The table above summarizes the key difference between ReactJS vs Angular2. Here we shall look into some more features of each of those and then understand the respect use case for each.
React changes the approach of how to build a web application. Its components are responsible for this. Software design principle of single responsibility says that a component should do only one thing in an ideal case, and if it grows and takes additional responsibilities, it should be divided into smaller subcomponents and react follows the same.
Other principles implemented in React for its creation were code readability and code maintainability, meaning the code needs to be understood and maintained not only by its creator but by other developers also. These features play an essential role when building large projects and become very beneficial when the system complexities grow.
Angular too has some great features like Improved Performance, improved dependency injection, web component friendly design, server-side rendering support and improved mobile compatibility. It structured as a component tree, immutable and observable objects are added to it to further enhance its power.
Both Angular2 vs ReactJS support code that is reusable.
ReactJS vs Angular2 Comparison Table
Below is the topmost Comparison Between ReactJS vs Angular2
|
ReactJS |
Angular |
| React is a Library | Angular is a Framework |
| React has only the View layer. | Angular has complete MVC functionality. |
| React handle rendering on the server side. | Angular JS render on the client side but Angular 2 and above render on the server side. |
| React has many ways to do the same thing which makes it confusing and there are no best practices defined. | Angular is easily scalable and it has defined boundaries which makes deciding the best way to do a certain thing, easy. |
| React is very flexible. | Angular has great support for 3rd party libraries. |
| React is easier to use and it’s the most popular framework on the web. Reusable code is easy to find for React. | Angular is catching up. |
| React native, which is a React type to build mobile applications are faster and more stable. | Ionic, Angular’s mobile native app is relatively less stable and slower. |
| In React, HTML is written in JS which can be confusing. | Angular follows the template approach for HTML, which makes code shorter and easy to understand. |
| React is tedious at times. | Development time in Angular is fast. |
| React’s core size is smaller than Angular. Optimizing code is more flexible in React. | Angular being a framework contains a lot of code out of the box which is not much of use. |
| Debugging code is easier in React. It shows error code with a line number, | Angular only breaks when it runs on a browser which makes it difficult to debug. |
| In React, data flows only in one way and hence debugging is easy. | In Angular, data flows both way i.e it has two-way data binding between children and parent and hence debugging is often difficult. |
| Lot more people use React than Angular. Community size of React is bigger than Angular on both Github and StackOverflow. | Angular is relatively new and a lot of people who earlier used React and tried Angular found React more convenient. |
| React offers a very good tutorial, however not so well-structured as Angular, there are additional links to other resources such as conferences, videos, tools, and blogs that provide an sufficient information to developers and new beginners. | Angular has well-structured documentation that shows its architecture and the different sub-parts involved like Modules, Templates, Components, Data binding, Dependency, Directives, injection etc. and the way they interact with each other |
| Due to its maturity and longtime presence, React dominates the market. | Angular is also being used by many major corporations. |
Conclusion – ReactJS vs Angular2
This ReactJS vs Angular2 article shades light on important features of both React and Angular. Both Angular2 vs ReactJS frameworks has great functionality and support. It is difficult to conclude which one is better. Both ReactJS vs Angular2 has its flavor and there are a lot of people who can put forward great arguments in the support of each of these technologies. Still, there could be few ground rules which can be set to decide which of Angular2 vs ReactJS should be used where and when. Most people would swear for React as it is in the market for a long time, almost all Angular developer might have used React sometime or other, and almost everyone recommends that one should start from React at least. Meaning, for beginners, React is more suitable. Angular becomes complicated and hence should be left for more advanced users or once someone becomes quite familiar with React. Both ReactJS vs Angular2 is difficult to install and set-up for the first time as it involves a lot of tweaks and tricks but otherwise, the journey of a developer is mostly same whether he/she is using React or Angular. Organization too mostly leave it to the developers to decide which one he/she wants to pick and hence comparison is at times based on individual preferences as well.
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Sibusiso says
I think this is the most useful comparison between Angular and React that i have found on the web.