React vs Angular in 2022: Which Framework to choose for Frontend Development

Frontend development has changed dramatically over the past decade with a host of new technologies and open-source development frameworks making it easier for companies to build robust applications. In 2021, best performing JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, Node, Express, Aurelia etc are dominating web development industry.

From achieving scale to incorporating new features, these frontend frameworks have made lives easier for developers across the globe and has propelled adoption of standard and high-performing practices across several businesses which makes it easier for interoperability.

Nevertheless, any frontend development initiative in 2021 begins with the dilemma of choosing between two of the most prominent frameworks available for frontend development – React vs Angular !

Widely regarded as the two most commonly used frontend development platforms for some of the world’s most visited websites and portals, both these open-source JavaScript-based frameworks are utilized by software engineers to build custom frontend interfaces for backend processing applications created with a number of programming languages.

React vs Angular is still a considerable debate as both the frameworks are dominating the frontend development for years and rooted their place in the list of top web development frameworks in 2021.

Let's look at some important figures and stats before analyzing the performance of React and Angular.

-> React vs Angular - Popularity

React.js Github Stars : 156,000 +

Angular Github Stars : 66,000 +

-> React vs Angular - Market Share

React.js : 0.4 % 

Angular : 0.5 %

So now to the important question: Which one should I choose for frontend development between Angular and React? To answer this let us examine the key pillars of a frontend framework and how both fare in each of these pillars. You can thus make an informed choice based on which pillar finds relevance in your business’s web application.

Origin & Community Support

Any software professional would appreciate the large support they get from the community for a technology they are using to build applications. With frontend, there is no much difference on that note as well.

Let us look at Angular and React in that perspective. Angular is built on TypeScript which was developed by Google and is maintained by the internet giant and has large community support available.

React was Facebook’s answer to Angular and is today used by developers to build everything from interactive interfaces to mobile apps. It has a large community to support developers as well. Being open-source and backed by internet titans, both Angular and React have very little to distinguish themselves clearly in this category.

So many top freelancers of React JS & Angular JS are available on popular platforms like Toptal and Upwork. 

They both have the necessary support ecosystem and software professionals looking to create intuitive frontend interfaces will not face any difficulty in experimenting with their ideas with either of them.

Framework Architecture

While we mentioned both React and Angular as frontend frameworks, there is a slight difference in React with regards to how it is called a framework.

As a standalone offering, React.js is a JavaScript library with only its view mode. Angular on the other hand is a comprehensive and fully-fledged framework with an established MVC architecture thereby allowing it to be used both as a frontend development as well as an end-to-end app development framework on its own without relying on external 3rd party libraries.

Angular offers more features on its own thereby eliminating the need for software developers to continuously find and integrate new libraries to incorporate features.

React on the other hand requires React Native, a separate cross-platform application development framework that can be used for mobile app development. On its own, React.js offers a library that allows creation of dynamic frontend interfaces.

It requires integration with multiple libraries to enable an app-building capability and hence Angular is more of bigger one size fits all platform for software engineers to build frontend interfaces and powerful applications in one go.

Modularity and Re-usability

As development costs continue to rise, it is important for companies to efficiently build applications with trusted re-usable components as much as possible.

This alleviates developers from duplicate efforts and saves considerable time and money while also enabling faster rollout of the application to the market.Coming to our contenders, both Angular and React have component-based architecture.

To make it more clear, this implies that any app built with these frameworks will comprise of modular components which are cohesively bonded together. These components can be re-used and can be combined to build new interface features.

This property is much desired in modern frontend development activities and hence both Angular and React scores in this department. They both allow developers to speed up their work and scale applications on-demand without having to focus on building components again and again from scratch.

Data Binding and DOM

This is a feature that impacts the performance of apps built using either of these frameworks. While both React and Angular enable developers to build large scale enterprise applications, there are key differences in their (Data Object Model) DOM and data binding principles. React.js uses a virtual DOM while Angular has an inherent real DOM based operational model.

Angular development has a downside that it makes dynamic changes a bit slower since the real DOM will have to rewrite the entire HTML table tree structure to make even minor changes. React on the other hand allows developers to update changes without this full-fledged HTML rewrite.

It thus enables faster rendering of interfaces and ensures better performance irrespective of the size of app you are looking at. When there are too many requests for data, angular may appear to be a bit slow in rendering because of its real DOM operational model.

Then comes the data binding part. Angular uses bi-directional or two-way data binding and React follows a unidirectional or one-way data binding model. While, it is argued that one-way binding can render apps to be more stable and easier for debugging, there is practically more favor for Angular’s two-way binding as it is simpler to work with. A clear cut winner in this segment is not possible as both have their own respective advantages and cons.

Coding Language Simplicity

While both are JavaScript-based frameworks, Angular is built with TypeScript but can be worked upon with JavaScript as well. TypeScript is a larger superset of JavaScript which enables it to be utilized for building larger and more complex business applications on the web.

It offers better autocomplete capability, improved navigation and faster code refactoring when compared to pure JavaScript. React uses JavaScript ES6+ and JSX Script which is known to be a simpler UI Coding extension.

Though both the scripting languages used here by the frameworks are relatively equal in their comparisons, the better adaptability of TypeScript and familiar syntax makes it easier to learn for developers who have for long opined that JSX is pretty hard to digest for beginners and even experienced professionals.

So Angular makes a winning streak here and clearly outclasses React in coding simplicity. This also makes it more suitable for larger and more complex enterprise application development initiatives.

Conclusion

There isn’t too much difference in React vs Angular battle on most of the key pillars of frontend development. In some area’s Angular works well but in certain areas, React too shows its class.

It all boils down to the type of application or UI frontend that your company wishes to create. Choosing either one has its share of advantages. You need an expert consultant to identify the scope of your frontend development needs and suggest the right fit candidate from these two.

This is where Citrusbug can make a difference as we have expertise in React, Angular and other relevant technologies as well. Our consultants will work with your business to identify the right scope and purpose of every frontend or app interface that needs to be built and recommend the best platform, frameworks and tools to help you build the app faster. Get in touch with us to know more.