ANGULAR VS. REACT: The Definitive Comparison Guide

ANGULAR VS. REACT

Author: PulsePlay Digital Technology Architecture Team

1. PREDOMINANT APPROACH WHILE COMPARING ANGULAR VS. REACT

• When comparing Angular and React, many say that it’s like comparing apples to oranges.
• While Angular is a full-fledged framework. React is a library that deals with views.
• While the React Developer community may continue to add more libraries to React and it may turn into a complete framework.
• But again, the resulting workflow of this stack is still very different from Angular, hence a direct comparison is still limited.
• Below is a snapshot of how TypeScript (Angular) is getting popularity

Source: State of the Octoverse 2021 (GitHub)

2. WHAT IS ANGULAR?

• Angular is an open-source framework created by Google for building web applications.
• Angular is based on TypeScript (a superscript for JavaScript).
• And unlike React, Angular is a full-fledged MVC framework so once you learn it well, you won’t need other solutions.
• The framework helps to create single-page applications using TypeScript and HTML.
• Angular is a result of rewriting AngularJS, which was the first version of Angular. Angular and AngularJS is not same.
• Important note: Google stopped supporting AngularJS on the 31st of December 2021.
• As it’s highly effective in cross-platform app development, businesses prefer Angular for building cross-platform apps to reduce expenses. But at the same time, Angular is a very complex platform. Therefore, it requires elevated effort and experience to master it. 

• So, when you opt to build your project with Angular, veterans will surely reach for it. The framework also offers several advantages that result in faster and more efficient web apps.
• With “differential loading” in Angular, a browser can load less code and polyfills to speed things up. The newest version of the framework lets you create two types of code bundles — one for modern browsers and another for older ones.
• React provides a built-in advanced Dependency Injection service, which is excellent for resolving productivity factors and speeding up the development process. As a result, users enjoy a more streamlined experience with improved software design functionality.
• When you create a large app, code maintainability becomes an important issue. In Angular, it’s a lot hassle-free. When upgrading from one version to another, developers don’t need to worry about compatibility because Angular automatically updates all the related packages, including HTTP, Angular material, and Routing.
• Angular’s AOT compiler converts Typescript and HTML code into JavaScript at the time of build. Thus, it’s already compiled before the browser loads the code, resulting in a faster render.
• IVY rendering in Angular translates the components and templates to JavaScript code. Its renderer’s tree-shaking technique is unique — it eliminates unused code, so the browser loads a page quicker.

2.1 ANGULAR FEATURES

(a) Built on TypeScript:

Angular is built on top of TypeScript, and Typescript is a superset of JavaScript.

• To catch errors during developing a mega application and identifying bugs, TypeScript portrays a beneficial purpose.
• More interestingly, you can directly debug typescript codes in a web browser. 

(b) Ajax Support:

• Angular has built-in support for Ajax and HTTP, allowing users to connect and communicate with the backend services and boosting performance.  
• In addition, Ajax reduces the response time for both ends’ requests.

(c) Component-based architecture:

• Angular initially started with MVC Model View Controller (MVC) architecture but later shifted to component-based architecture.
• As a result, you can now divide all applications into completely independent logical and functional components while still testing and running all the application pieces individually.
  

(d) Angular CLI

• The Angular Command Line Interface (CLI) is one of the most notable Angular features that developers praise.
• It automates the whole development process utilising app initialisation and app configuration. 
• It also lets you preview your application with LiveReload support.
  

(e) Readability 

• Another aspect of the Angular framework is improved readability. 
• Most new developers easily adapt to reading code in Angular. 
• Moreover, its accessibility makes it much easier for the developers to interact with the framework.

(f) Maintenance

• Last but not least, Angular offers superior ease of maintenance. 
• It helps to replace decoupled components with improved ones, which generates clean, easy-to-maintain code and updates.

2.3 WHY ANGULAR?

• Angular offers an ecosystem that allows you to create your application effortlessly Provides features like templating, two-way binding, RESTful API modularisation, Ajax handling, dependency injection.  
• Google has long-term support for Angular
  
• Angular provides detailed documentation to guide developers
  
• TypeScript helps Angular efficiently identify errors and eliminate them in an earlier phase of the development cycle then many other frameworks.
  
• Supports web and mobile apps.
  
• Angular frees you from worrying about whether something’s a component, service, or any other code type, as it organises them into neat, separate boxes. It then introduces them as modules. These modules make it easy to structure your application’s functionality, separating elements into features and reusable pieces.
  

2.4 COMPANIES USING ANGULAR

• Google
• Google Analytics 
• Google Firebase 
• Google Cloud Platform 
• Microsoft 
• IBM 
• PayPal 
• Upwork 
• Deutsche Bank 
• Samsung
• Forbes
• The Guardian
• Rockstar Games

3. WHAT IS REACT?

• React.JS is an open-source JavaScript library for building performant and visually attractive user interfaces.
• Developed by a team from Facebook.
  
• React is based on JavaScript.
  
• It combines development simplicity (thanks to small pieces of code called “components”) and a strong focus on user experience.
  
• React is the View layer of the MVC model, which gives you almost total freedom in choosing Model and Controller libraries.
  
• React is simple. You can start learning and creating a project within a much shorter time than other platforms. Because you’ll be using raw JavaScript, you’ll have access to the wealth of JavaScript knowledge already compiled on the web. 
• What’s more, the JSX allows combining HTML and JavaScript in your code. That makes life trouble-free for developers.
  
• As we know, React has server-side rendering. That’s why it’s SEO-friendly — it can deal with most search engines with ease.
  
• Generally, client-side rendering only sends empty HTML code to a browser, while server-side rendering sends the HTML codes and contents to the browser. After that, a browser can easily index it and rank it higher in search results.
  
• React code is stable because it has a downward data flow. Any change in the child components never affects its mother components. This helps the developers to debug with ease.
  

3.1 REACT FEATURES

(a) Easy to maintain

• The React engine uses HTML to compose the application UI. HTML is lighter and less complicated than Java.

(b) Manoeuvrability

• React offers a simple UI design and provides numerous extensions to provide total support for the application architecture.
• Likewise, the React native, an inherited framework from React, is commonly known for building cross-platform mobile applications.
  

(c) Clean abstraction

• React doesn’t bother the user with its complex internal functions.
• Internal processes like Digest cycles are not mandatory for the users to learn and understand.
  
• As a result, React delivers clear architecture as Flux instead of architectures like MVC/MVVM.
  

(d) Virtual DOMs

• React provides a virtual DOM that copies the existing DOM and maintains the cache memory, saving you the effort of re-rendering the DOM trees, again and again, each time you update the HTML code.
• In other words, if you change any state of a component, the Virtual DOM only changes that particular object in the real DOM.
  

(e) Reusable components

• React provides an independent component-based structure.
• All your React components can also be recycled in other parts of the application because of this reusability.
  

(f) Cross-platform functionalities

• Another surprising outcome of React is the spin-off framework called React Native, created for cross-platform mobile application development.
• In addition, it uses React.JS for dedicated mobile application development.
  

3.2 WHY REACT.JS? 

• React is exceedingly lightweight, and it’s faster to learn and get things started with.
• Allows 3rd party libraries for use during the development process.
  
• Easier to learn.
  
• SEO-friendly and focuses on rendering speed, making it attractive to crawlers, users and developers alike.
  
• You can have similar code for both the client-side and server-side of an application.
  
• Facebook provides active support to the React ecosystem.
  

3.3 COMPANIES USING REACT 

• Facebook
• Instagram 
• WhatsApp 
• Airbnb 
• Netflix 
• Salesforce 
• Pinterest 
• Yahoo 
• New York Times 
• Discord 
• Dropbox
  

4. ANGULAR VS. REACT COMPARISON 

5. ANGULAR VS. REACT COMPARISON 

5.1 ANGULAR

5.2 REACT

6. ANGULAR VS. REACT – PERFORMANCE

(a) REACT CONCURRENT MODE

According to official React’s website, “Concurrent Mode is a set of new features in React 18, released on the 29th of March 2022, concurrency was released as a built-in mechanism that enables React to prepare multiple versions of the UI at the same time.

Concurrency was available in earlier React versions, but only as an experimental element.

A key feature of Concurrent React is interruptible rendering, which guarantees that the UI will appear consistent even if a render is interrupted. Thanks to that, React can prepare new screens in the background, without blocking the main thread, and creating a fluid user experience.

(b) REACT FIBER

A while ago (with v16 version) React changed its engine, elevating the speed from “just fast” to “blazingly fast”.

More than that, React Fiber enables the priority-based update system, so you can fine-tune your renderings to make sure the most critical updates are done first. Also, you can pause and start your work at will.

(c) ANGULAR IVY

Ivy was created as a complete rewrite of the compiler, as some kind of response to React Fiber. It allows Angular developers to:

• Achieve faster build times
• Get smaller build sizes 
  
• Unlock new features like lazy loading of components instead of modules
  

(d) PERFORMANCE SUMMARY ANGULAR VS. REACT (Indicative)

*Average metrics. It may change varying on conditional factors.

7. OTHER FEATURES

Certain Angular features that stand out but are not in React by default are:

8. SIMILARITIES

(a) ARCHITECTURE

• Angular and React both have component-based architecture.
• These components are reusable within other components, making them endlessly recyclable.
  
• Notably, a component is a piece of a UI.
  
• For instance, the components could be a login dialog box with text, a password field, or a login button.
  

(b) OPEN SOURCE

• Both are open source. 
• As a result, React and Angular have large developer communities that regularly enrich the resources.

(c) POPULARITY

• Developers mostly use both of these technologies to build Single Page Applications. 
• That asserts that you can make single-page applications for faster and better digital solutions. 
  

(d) DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

• Angular and React are used to develop the frontend of a mobile or web application.

(e) RENDERING

• Angular and React provide efficient client-side and server-side rendering. 

(f) PERFORMANCE

• Angular and React offer similar performance. 
• The difference mostly depends on the user’s perspective. 
  

(g) EASY TO UPDATE

• Angular and React both offer easy updating. 
• While Angular uses CLI, React depends on external libraries. 
  

9. NPM TRENDS

NPM is a short form of Node Package Manager, which is the world's largest software registry. The open-source web project developers use it from the entire world to share and borrow packages. The NPM also acts as a command-line utility for the Node.

https://npmtrends.com/@angular/core-vs-react 

10. GLOSSARY

(a)   DATA BINDING

Data binding is the process of making a connection between the UI and the displayed data.

(b)  OPINIONATED FRAMEWORK

An opinionated framework is one which is designed in such a way that it's users will experience the least friction with that framework when the framework is used in a way that does not violate the assumptions made by the framework designer.

(c)   DEPENDENCY INJECTION (DI) 

Dependency injection is a pattern of design in which a class will ask for permission externally rather than creating itself. For instance, a computer class may need a “processor” class. The processor class, in that case, is the “dependency.” 

(d)  DATA ABSTRACTION

Data abstraction is the process of hiding certain details and showing only essential information to the user.

(e)  DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL (DOM)

The HTML DOM (Document Object Model).

When a web page is loaded, the browser creates a Document Object Model of the page.

The HTML DOM model is constructed as a tree of Objects:

With the object model, JavaScript gets all the power it needs to create dynamic HTML:

• JavaScript can change all the HTML elements in the page
• JavaScript can change all the HTML attributes in the page
  
• JavaScript can change all the CSS styles in the page
  
• JavaScript can remove existing HTML elements and attributes
  
• JavaScript can add new HTML elements and attributes
  
• JavaScript can react to all existing HTML events in the page
  
• JavaScript can create new HTML events in the page
  

What is the DOM?

The DOM is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard.

The DOM defines a standard for accessing documents:

"The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of a document."

The W3C DOM standard is separated into 3 different parts:

• Core DOM - standard model for all document types
• XML DOM - standard model for XML documents
  
• HTML DOM - standard model for HTML documents
  

What is the HTML DOM?

The HTML DOM is a standard object model and programming interface for HTML. It defines:

• The HTML elements as objects
• The properties of all HTML elements
  
• The methods to access all HTML elements
  
• The events for all HTML elements
  
• In other words:The HTML DOM is a standard for how to get, change, add, or delete HTML elements.
  

(f) NPM

NPM is a short form of Node Package Manager, which is the world's largest software registry. The open-source web project developers use it from the entire world to share and borrow packages. The npm also acts as a command-line utility for the Node.

The name npm (Node Package Manager) stems from when npm first was created as a package manager for Node.js. All npm packages are defined in files called package.

NPM is the package manager for the Node JavaScript platform. It puts modules in place so that node can find them, and manages dependency conflicts intelligently. It is extremely configurable to support a wide variety of use cases. Most commonly, it is used to publish, discover, install, and develop node programs.

11. REFERENCES

(a)   Angular Official website

https://angular.io/

(b)  React Official website

https://reactjs.org/ 

(c)   Angular vs. React comparison

https://www.toptal.com/front-end/angular-vs-react-for-web-development 

(d)  Angular vs. React comparison 

https://kinsta.com/blog/angular-vs-react/#angular-vs-react-an-indepth-comparison 

(e)  Angular vs. React Usage comparison

https://w3techs.com/technologies/comparison/js-angularjs,js-react 

(f)    Angular Project Ivy

https://blog.angular.io/version-9-of-angular-now-available-project-ivy-has-arrived-23c97b63cfa3

(g)   What is Concurrent React v18.0 

https://reactjs.org/blog/2022/03/29/react-v18.html#what-is-concurrent-react 

(h)  The relevance of TypeScript in 2022

https://css-tricks.com/the-relevance-of-typescript-in-2022/ 

(i)    NPM Trends

https://npmtrends.com/@angular/core-vs-react 

(j)    Google’s discontinuation of Angular JS support

https://blog.angular.io/discontinued-long-term-support-for-angularjs-cc066b82e65a