Both AngularJS and ReactJS are widely used JavaScript frameworks. Angular is currently being maintained by Google, whereas React is developed and maintained by Facebook. The usage statistics posted on various websites indicate that Angular is currently more popular than React. But the number of stars on its Github page depicts the growing popularity of React. Angular.js and React.js further differ from each other in terms of features, usage and performance. Hence, it becomes essential for developers to know the features of both Angular and React, and understand the important points of distinction between Angular vs React.

Angular

Angular is an open source and structural web application development framework. It is written in JavaScript, and also distributed as a JavaScript file.  Organizations use this JavaScript framework extensively for development of rich web applications. It further simplified client-side development by providing a clean model-view-controller (MVC) option. As Angular handles JavaScript code for each web browser automatically, it becomes easier for web developers to build cross-browser applications.

React

React is developed and maintained by Facebook as a front-end JavaScript library. The developers can use specific edition of React to handle the view layer of web applications or mobile apps. React further allows web programmers to create a variety of reusable UI components to present a dynamic and huge amount of data efficiently. The simple programming model provided by React makes it easier for programmers to create and work with virtual document object model (DOM). Also, the web developers have option to use NodeJS to render React on the server side.

Understanding Important Differences between Angular and React

Angular vs React : Maturity

Angular was released in 2009, whereas React was introduced in 2013. Hence, Angular is more mature than React. Also, it has been evolving consistently to compete with other modern JavaScript frameworks. Many developers consider Angular to be more robust and offer additional features in comparison to React.

Angular vs React: Design Goal

Angular was originally designed to simplify and facilitate development of single-page websites. Hence, it has features to load dynamic content without requiring users to switch to another web page. On the other hand, React was designed with the intention to simplify development of user interface (UI) for single-page web applications. The features provided by React make it easier for web programmers to create web applications that need to access and deliver dynamic content to users.

Angular vs React : Converting HTML into a Template Language

Angular, unlike React, allows web developers to use HTML as a template language, and express concepts by extending HTML elements. The HTML compiler included in Angular further helps programmers to create new HTML syntaxes just like creating XML elements. Hence, it becomes easier for developers to make the application code readable and maintainable by using HTML as a template language.

Angular vs React : Single-Page Website Development

In addition to supporting model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, Angular further comes with a client-side framework simplify development of single-page websites. The client-side framework provides a number of features to that help users to enhance the functionality and performance of a variety of single-page websites without putting extra effort. The developers can further avail the features of the client-side framework to create websites that allow dynamic and updated content without changing web pages.

Angular vs. React : Two-Way Data Binding

As a remarkable feature of Angular, bidirectional data binding enables web developers to bind data in two ways. They can simply use event listeners to monitor and track the changes made to data in the application. The event listeners are further effective in tracking the changes made by user and the changes made to the database. Hence, it becomes easier for developers to make the application deliver updated information and relational content to each user. Also, the bidirectional data binding feature makes Angular score over React.

Angular vs React : Document Object Model (DOM) Management

Both Angular and React allow developers to customize the look and feel of the web application through DOM manipulation. But Angular, unlike React, lack the capability to render, update and manipulate large volumes of data quickly and efficiently. React, at the same time, has features to manipulate DOM with huge amount of data efficiently. The event-driven approach adopted by Angular further directly affects the speed and performance of data-driven web applications. React further enable programmers to boost the application’s performance by creating virtual DOM and implementing one-way reactive data flow.

Angular vs React : Solutions for Packaging Code

The HTML templates provided by Angular make it easier for developers to create web user interfaces rapidly. But they have to put additional time and effort to deploy the web applications developed with Angular as the framework does not provide any tools for code packaging. On the other hand, React provides a variety of solutions to simplify code packaging and deployment of applications. The developers also have option to use the library to load code directly.

Angular vs. React : Code Debugging

While using Angular, programmers have to adopt an event-driven approach. Despite reducing the coding time effectively, the event-driven approach affects the code debugging process adversely. The developers have to use the constructs provided by Angular to debug the code more efficiently. But React allows programmers to debug the code easily by using a variety of tools and extensions.

Angular vs React: Controlling the Website’s Performance

The performance of a website nowadays affect is user experience and search engine visibility. Hence, web developers look for smarter ways to customize and control the website’s performance. Angular enables programmers to control a website’s performance by counting scopes. But React enables JavaScript developers to control the website’s performance by creating custom functions. The developers also have option to enhance the performance of web applications with complex model by generating additional DOM.

Angular vs React : Usage

As noted earlier, the design goal of Angular is different from the design goal of React. The web developers can take advantage of the libraries and features provided by Angular to improve the overall quality of the application and brand interaction. But the developers need to opt for React while developing websites that perform large data operations frequently or deliver dynamic content to users. However, they also have option to use Angular and React.

On the whole, Angular and React have their own strengths and shortcomings. But the web developers also have to use the two JavaScript frameworks together. The combination of two robust libraries will help JavaScript programmers to render JavaScript more efficiently. Further, they can take advantage of the resources provided by Angular and React to enhance the web application’s functionality, performance and user experience without putting extra time and effort. JavaScript developers can also use various full-stack JavaScript frameworks for better web performance.