React VS Angular VS Vue – Which Framework is the Best?

Since 59% of the world’s population is online, you must be aware that the world is adapting to the latest technologies being invented. Web Development is one of them which has now become the trend and will be forever. Let’s also know that there are more than 1 billion websites and those are created by none other than the tech giants – Web Developers. 

While creating those beautiful websites, web developers require various tools and frameworks. There are several tools that can be used for the development of the website. Since frameworks play an important role in building an efficient, effective, and quick website there’s always a big confusion in choosing the framework for front-end development, as one prefers to choose the best framework in terms of performance, speed, and how best it is in making the UI attractive. There’s a big competition and huge demand among the most popular ones React, Angular, and VueJS which also offers excellent salary. Let’s discuss the differences between these frameworks (React VS Angular VS Vue). 

What is React?

React is the JavaScript library of User Interfaces. It is build single-page applications and also allows you to create reusable UI components. It is a front-end JavaScript framework, created by Facebook in 2011. The initial version (V0.3.0) was released in July 2013. The latest version is V5.0.1. It has a size of 31.8K. This complete guide on How To Learn ReactJS: A Complete Guide For Beginners will help in making your transition towards React if you’re a beginner.

Features of React

• Component-Based: React is based on a component-based architecture, where UIs are split into independent and reusable components.
• Virtual DOM: React uses a virtual DOM to improve performance by updating only the necessary parts of the actual DOM.
• JSX: JSX is a syntax extension for JavaScript that allows mixing HTML-like code within JavaScript.
• One-Way Data Binding: React implements one-way data binding, which means that the data flows in one direction, making the code more predictable.
• React Native: React Native allows for building native mobile applications using React.

What is Angular?

Angular, developed by Google, was released in the year 2010. It is a TypeScript-based framework that uses a regular DOM. Angular provides a set of tools using which a complex, reactive UI can be built. It is primarily aimed at creating SPAs (Single Page Applications) and performs various operations such as routing, state management, PWA, testing, and building, having a size of 143K. 

Features of Angular

• Full-Featured Framework: Angular is a full-featured framework with a comprehensive set of tools and libraries for building complex web applications.
• Two-Way Data Binding: Angular uses two-way data binding, where changes to the model are reflected in the view and vice versa.
• MVC Architecture: Angular follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which helps in organizing and managing code.
• Dependency Injection: Angular has a built-in dependency injection system that helps in managing dependencies and promoting modular code.
• CLI: Angular provides a Command Line Interface (CLI) for scaffolding and managing Angular projects.

What is Vue?

Vue was developed by a former Google employee and was released in the year 2014. It was developed to make the best version of Angular and make a custom tool. It is used for developing single-page engaging and high-quality web applications. It lets you extend directives (HTML with HTML attributes), and also provides built-in directives and user-defined directives. It is the lightest framework having a size of 23K.

Features of Vue

• Approachability: Vue is known for its simplicity and approachability, making it easy for beginners to understand and use.
• Flexibility: Vue is flexible and allows developers to use it as a library for specific features or as a full-fledged framework for complex applications.
• Reactivity: Vue provides a reactivity system that automatically updates the DOM when data changes, similar to React’s virtual DOM.
• Single File Components: Vue allows for defining components in a single file, which includes the template, script, and styles, making it easier to manage components.
• Vue Router and Vuex: Vue comes with official libraries for routing (Vue Router) and state management (Vuex), making it a comprehensive solution for building SPAs.

React VS Angular VS Vue

Here is the comparison between three frontend frameworks: React, Angular, and Vue. We’ll delve into their key features, architecture, performance, popularity, and community support to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of these frameworks and help you choose the right one for your project. Whether you’re looking for the best frontend framework for performance, or ease of use, this comparison will guide you in making an informed decision.

1. Popularity

• React: React has gained a lot of popularity in recent years and is considered one of the best frameworks for web development. There are more developers who keep React as a priority for creating wonderful websites. Companies like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Yahoo!, and The New York Times use React for their front-end development.
• Angular: Angular is used by Google, Upwork, and MS Office and since this framework was implemented before React, it is more popular providing a highly functional framework to create larger applications. 
• Vue: Vue has become so popular these days and it is one of the hottest topics in terms of technology. Companies that use Vue as their front-end development framework are UpWork, Netflix, and Nintendo. It has a good rating on GitHub making it so popular. 

2. Architecture

• React: React does not follow any specific pattern, developers have the freedom to choose any design pattern. It begins with a single root component. Each can be nested with another component. It can also include third-party components such as state management routing, animation, etc for specific purposes. Here, the components are the large building block that defines reusable items used through the application.
• Angular: Angular follows MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture, also you don’t have restrictions in following only MVC architecture. Since Angular is also component-based, you can choose any design pattern. The Angular framework contains modules, templates, services, and components in the architecture which follows several operations while implementing an application.  
• Vue: Vue is called a progressive framework where you can extend functionality using third-party packages. It follows the MVVM (Model View ViewModel) pattern but is also not strictly linked to it. It also has SFCs (Single File Components) which can be transpiled into JS code using tools like Webpack. 

3. Ecosystem

• React: React has excellent open-source packages that could be used for developing applications. Front-end applications rely on global state management (Redux) used to store information. Also, React has React Native which allows you to build native iOS and Android applications. React uses JavaScript which acts as a powerpack for the whole new application. It combines UI templates and JavaScript logic called JSX which is the scripting language for React. 
• Angular: Angular also performs state management, inspired by Redux in React. You can build cross-platform mobile applications using NativeScript. The technology MEAN is based on Angular which is the trendy one these days, used mostly by developers. Angular material fills all the needs of UI and helps developers in building an aesthetic, consistent, and fully functional UI. It uses templates with Angular directives. 
• Vue: Vue comes with various libraries used for creating a full-fledged UI. Vuex is the state management library for Vue applications. To speed up your development, it has input components and advanced elements. It has a brilliant feature of integrating with Laravel. It can play a role of a library and a framework both depending on the project’s requirement. It uses HTML-based template syntax.

React VS Angular VS Vue: Difference Table

Feature	React	Angular	Vue
Type	Library	Framework	Framework
Initial Release	2011	2010	2014
Developer	Facebook	Google	Evan You
Language	JavaScript	TypeScript	JavaScript
Architecture	Component-based	MVC	MVVM
Rendering	Virtual DOM	Regular DOM	Virtual DOM
Learning Curve	Moderate	Steep	Easy
Popularity	High	High	Growing
Community	Large	Large	Active
Performance	Fast	Good	Good
Flexibility	High	Moderate	High
Data Binding	One-way	Two-way	One-way
Mobile Support	React Native	Ionic	Weex
Size	31.8KB (core)	143KB (core)	23KB (core)
Companies	Facebook, Airbnb, Netflix	Google, Upwork, MS Office	UpWork, Netflix, Nintendo
Tooling	React Dev Tools	Angular CLI	Vue Devtools
State Management	Redux, Context API	RxJS, NgRx	Vuex

Conclusion

React, Angular, or Vue, all of these frameworks are based purely on JavaScript thus, they’re not dependent on any third-party tools. Each framework has unique features that can be used by developers whenever required. So, instead of giving a conclusion on going for one framework, it totally depends on you which framework you want to go for. Use the right framework based on the requirement of the project.

FAQs

Which framework has better performance, React, Angular, or Vue?

React is known for its fast performance due to its virtual DOM implementation. Vue also offers excellent performance, while Angular’s performance can vary depending on the complexity of the application and how it’s implemented.

Which framework is easier to learn for beginners, React, Angular, or Vue?

Vue is often considered the easiest framework to learn for beginners due to its simple syntax and approachable documentation. React is also beginner-friendly, but Angular has a steeper learning curve.

Which framework is more suitable for large-scale applications, React, Angular, or Vue?

Angular is often preferred for large-scale applications due to its built-in features for managing complex projects. React and Vue can also be used for large-scale applications, but may require additional libraries for certain functionalities.