Mobile app revenues were recorded to be 365 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and they are expected to go beyond 935 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2023, as forecasted by Statista, a reputed portal for statistics. Looking at these figures, we can confidently say that the scope for app development has grown at an exponential rate. Millions of entrepreneurs across the globe are investing in mobile app development services like never before!
But the entrepreneurs and business professionals looking for creating a lucrative mobile app might face some hurdles. So, this article talks about one such hurdle and that is technology selection. Narrowing down the topic furthermore, the article discusses Angular and React- the two JavaScript-based technologies, widely used for creating SPAs. This read will provide you a detailed report on these technologies and help you make an informed decision on which one can be a better fit for your app development needs.
A Detailed Comparative Analysis between Angular and React
Technology Developed by:
Angular: Google
React: Facebook
Technology Type:
Angular: Written in JavaScript and is an MVC framework
React: A JavaScript library that has only view in MVC and needs Flux to employ architecture
Background and Reliability:
Angular:
Developed in 2016, Angular is maintained by Google’s team to date. It is a complete framework. Despite being a much younger technology in the market, it is widely used for diverse applications due to its reliability. In 2018, more than 600 apps were created in Google alone like Google Analytics, Google Cloud Platform, and many other apps for different business applications.
React:
React too belongs to a good family and is much older comparatively. It is being supported by Facebook. It was first used in 2012 by Facebook for its News Feed functionality and then made open-source in 2013. Today, React is extensively used in several applications and is considered a stable and reliable technology. React has more than 150,000 stars on GitHub.
Basic Concept:
Angular: Brings JavaScript into HTML, client-side rendering, works with real DOM
React: Brings HTML into JavaScript, server-side rendering, works with virtual DOM
Learning Curve:
Angular:
Learning Angular is quite challenging, especially for beginners, and requires rigorous training.
React
React is comparatively easier to learn and grasp, but when augmented with Redux, it can become difficult for learning.
Latest Version:
Angular: Angular 11, released on Nov 11, 2020
React: React 17.0.1, released on Oct 22, 2020
Installation Time:
Angular: Easy to set up, but at times, can require a longer time for coding which may lead to delayed project deliveries.
React: Though React takes longer to get installed, but once set up, it is considerably faster for delivering applications and other projects.
Features and Functionalities:
Angular:
Angular offers some of the outstanding features and functionalities such as:
- dependency injection
- class-based components that come with lifecycle hooks
- routing using @angular/router
- templates using HTML which is an extended version
- XSS protection
- code splitting options
- Ajax requests
- lazy loading
- component CSS encapsulation
- test runner, utilities, and framework for unit-testing
- @angular/forms for creating forms
Some of the features like forms, HTTP client, etc. are optional in Angular, but some features like dependency injection are built into the framework’s core and Angular developers need to use them compulsorily.
React:
- It comes with JSX instead of classic templates; JSX is an XML-like language developed on top of JavaScript
- class-based components
- state management functionality
- code splitting
- lazy loading
- tools for unit-testing of components
- XSS protection
- error reporting and handling with error boundary
React doesn’t offer anything much for routing, dependency handling, advanced form calling, HTTP calls, etc. However, it leverages popular libraries like Fetch for HTTP requests, React-router for routing, React Testing or Enzyme Library for more unit-testing utilities, several techniques for CSS encapsulation, etc.
Significant Tools and Libraries:
Both, Angular and React, have a huge ecosystem of important tools and libraries associated with them to boost the performance of these frameworks.
Angular:
- Angular CLI
- Component Libraries like Material UI, PrimeNG, ng-bootstrap, NG-ZORRO, Onsen UI for Angular
- Angular Universal
- Ngx-admin
- State Management Libraries such as NGXS, Akita, and NgRx.
- Compodoc
- Ionic Framework
- Augury
Find a more detailed list of Angular tools in our blogs here.
React:
- A CLI utility named Create React App
- Component Libraries such as ant-design, react-bootstrap, Material UI, Semantic UI, Blueprint, Onsen UI, etc.
- Styling Libraries like Emotion, CSS Modules, Styles components, etc.
- State Management Libraries such as MobX and Redux
- React Native
- PropTypes feature
- React Admin
- js
- UI development environments like Storybook, MDX, React Styleguidist, etc.
- Gatsby
- React developer tools
- React 360
- Testing Helpers like Enzyme, built-in TestBed, Testing Library, etc.
Applications Developed:
Angular: Google Analytics, Forbes, Mesh, Firebase Console, Wepay, VMWare, Google Cloud Platform, Auto Trader, Upwork, Google Express, Beam, etc.
React: Uber Technologies, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Netflix, etc.
Wrap-up:
Our article ends with this and we have seen the good and bad of both technologies. There is no winner here, both- Angular and React are apt for certain requirements and business applications. It depends on aspects like features required in the app, app size, budget constraints, skills and size of the team, the platform that you are targeting, when it needs to be out in the market, and several other factors. So, you can decide the best-suited option accordingly.
If you want some expert advice on whether to choose Angular or to go with React app development, contact Biz4Solutions, a renowned React and Angular app development company, based in Frisco, US. We have knowledge of emerging technologies like React, React Native, Angular, Flutter, Xamarin, PHP, .Net, Ionic, Swift, Objective-C, etc. Reach out to us at [email protected] for more details.
To know more about our other core technologies, refer to links below:
