Are you starting a new project and confused about choosing a Javascript framework? This blog will surely help you to make the decision.
Front-end web development has 3 parts HTML, CSS and Javascript for website or web-application that the users see them in their browser.
HTML is the standard markup language for web pages. It defines the structure and layout of the web pages by using a variety of tags and attributes.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is the mechanism of adding style to web pages such as layout, fonts and colors.
Javascript is a client-side scripting language mainly used by the browsers to create dynamic and interactive experience for the user.
There are many Javascript frameworks that will make client-side development easier. The most popular and which gives the best performance that is often used in projects are: Angular, React and Vue.js.
Angular
Angular was developed by Google and first released in 2010. In 2016 Angular2 was introduced, which was a complete rewrite of Angular JS. It is Typescript based Javascript framework.
Pros
Following are the advantages of using Angular
Component-Based Development: Components are the basic building block in Angular. Component has a selector, template, style using which it specifies the metadata required to process the component.
High Performance: When the URL changes in the browser and the browser navigates to a corresponding page. There is only one page returned from the server, all changes are handled by the client and that’s why it is called Single page applications.
Angular templates: The templates for component creation are readable because they mostly use standard HTML tags.
A simple implementation of two-way data binding: Two-way data-binding means that any changes to the model affect the view. Vice versa when the view changes, the model immediately changes as well. Angular allows simple two-way data binding, which is beneficial for simple applications. More complex apps work more quickly with one-way data binding, which works only in one direction (view-to-model or model-to-view), depending on the needs of the software.
Dependency Injection: Dependency injection is an application design pattern. Angular builds its own dependency injectors that can be altered without reconfiguring the components. Dependencies are services that class needs them from an external source. This approach provides high efficiency and performance.
Better support for Mobile App Development: Angular2 is more focused on mobile apps ( load time, offline) and better in performance.
Cons
Angular is Verbose and Complex: Although the Angular is component-based. The way the component is managed is too complex. The component needs at least 4 files to maintained, inject the dependencies and declare the component life cycle hooks.
Steep learning curve: The Developers familiar with Javascript to learn new Angular, face challenges to learn array of topics or concepts which is large: related to modules, dependency injection, services.
Another barrier is Raj’s, for asynchronous programming, the Developers complain about the error messages are difficult to grasp without trial-and-error changes.
Vue.js
Vue.js is one of the most emerging front-end technologies that are always compared with Angular and React.js, which is also an open-source Javascript library. It was developed by Evan You in the year 2013.
Pros
The following are the advantages of using Vue.js.
Very Small Size: The most significant feature of the Vue.js is its size. It weighs only 18kb after converting to zip. Despite its small size, it beats all the bulky frameworks in a performance like React.js and Angular.js. This makes it useful for building both single-page and more complex web applications.
Simple Integration: Vue.js facilitates to integrate with the existing applications. This is because it is based on a Javascript framework. This integration is possible because it has components for everything and it can store code such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript in one single file.
Detailed Documentation: Vue.js has well-written documentation. It gives information about all the options offered by the framework and corresponding examples. It is constantly been updated. It is so compressive that any user who knows little about JavaScript can develop the web application
Flexibility: Vue.js allows the user to write the template in HTML, Javascript and pure Javascript using virtual nodes. Vue.js has proved a lot beneficial in the development of simple applications that run directly from browsers.
Cons
Following are the disadvantages of using Angular
Lack of support for Large Project: Vue.js is a new language, which is not supported by a large community. The Development of a framework is mostly depended on the feedback of community members
Lack of Plugins: The support for plugins is missing as Vue.js is still in the development phase. The developers depend on other languages for assistance. Thus, small size and customization make is user-friendly for web applications
React
React is assured of better performance compared to those that use other frameworks. It was mainly designed to improve the rendering of a page from the server. It was developed by Facebook when it started facing problems in coding and maintenance.
Pros
Following are the advantages of using React
Virtual Dom: Reacts.js creates efficient virtual DOM known as the Document Object Model. DOM is the logical structure of documents in HTML. The web-browser parse the representation HTML –syntax into the document object model. The traditional DOM constantly checks the difference caused by the changes to give a necessary response. This needs to update the whole DOM tree which causes the performance to degrade. ReactsJs uses the abstract copy, it updates the changes by the user and does not affect the other parts. This makes building dynamic UI.
Reuse React Components: In ReactJs the application is broken into components. They remain maintainable after being divided. The changes done in one component does not affect the other component. This allows reusing of the component. This helps to make programming more precise and comfortable for developers.
One-direction data flow: ReactJs allow for downward data binding to ensure that change in the child does not affect the parent. To change an object, one needs to modify its state and apply updates. Only the corresponding components will be upgraded.
Redux: Redux stores the application state in a single object and allows every component to access an application state without interacting with a child component. Redux provides a centralized data store object to allow these components to access directly.
Cons
Following are the disadvantages of using React
JSX
ReactJs uses JSX. It’s a syntax extension which allows combining both HTML and javascript. Developers and designers complain about the complexity and constant change.
Poor Documentation
Different libraries like Redux and Reflux improve the entire ecosystem. Developers struggle with integrating these tools with ReactJs. Some Developers write their own instructions for particular tools used in projects.
Apps like Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, and others are constantly improving their experience using ReactJs.
Conclusion: Angular vs React vs Vue
The JavaScript frameworks are huge. Each framework or library has been built to solve different tasks, but their functionality can be extended by using third-party solutions. They can all be used based on the requirement of web applications. However, each framework offers something it is extremely good at.
React to build a static blog, but React Native, enables native mobile apps to be built using JavaScript
Angular is helpful for building apps with extensive structures. This framework will impress mobile users with hybrid mobile apps.
Vue combines the best features of Angular and React, and is expanding with its performance benefits.
