Are you hunting for a cost-effective solution for the front end development of your website or application? Confused about which out of the available frameworks will be the perfect match for you? Can’t decide whether you should choose AngularJS or Vue.JS for building your web application? If yes, then you have landed on the right place. Here’s a detailed comparison of AngularJS vs Vue.JS to help you decide which one is the best front end development framework for your web application.
In today’s modern world, one cannot imagine front end development without JavaScript frameworks. With so many JavaScript frameworks available in the market, selecting the right framework for your application plays a pivotal role in determining its structure, performance, and scalability. Both AngularJS and Vue.JS are the most popular and widely used frameworks for modern front end development.
But, what makes these technologies different from each other? Let’s find out!
Detailed Comparison of AngularJS vs Vue.JS Front End Development
1. AngularJSvs Vue.JS – Overview and Key Features
AngularJS
Maintained by Google, AngularJS is an open-source JavaScript framework used for developing fast, dynamic, and high-performing web apps. It is ideal for developing cross-platform mobile apps, single-page applications, and enterprise applications.
Key Features
- Architecture: It is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture.
- Deep Linking: With AngularJS, you can encode the app’s condition in the URL to bookmark it.
- Services: There are several built-in services available for AngularJS.
- Filters: AngularJS can filter data array based on the parameters before it goes to the view.
- Dependency Injection: The built-in dependency injection feature of AngularJS makes the development process simpler.
- TypeScript Support: AngularJS comes with out-of-the-box TypeScript support that makes the code written in TypeScriptfree from run-time errors.
Vue.JS
Released in 2014, Vue.js is a popular JavaScript framework used for developing the front end of web applications. Vue.js facilitates the development of a receptive web user interface. Vue.js inherits most of the qualities from Angular and React and hence, it is known as an unofficial child of both technologies. There’s tough competition between AngularJS vs Vue.js as the latter has many improvements if compared to the former technology. Vue.js is also an ideal solution for developing single-page applications and small-scale applications.
Key Features
- Architecture: Vue.js is based on the MVVM (Model-View-View Model) architecture.
- Reusable Components: You can build custom components that can be reused wherever possible in HTML.
- Transition: Vue.js provides various methods to implement a transition to HTML components when included or removed from the DOM.
- Built-in Directives: The built-in directives in Vue.js help you perform different tasks on the frontend. For eg. v-show, v-else, v-on, and more.
- Size: Vue.js is small in size, 18–21KB.
- Learning Curve: It is comparatively easy to learn and use.
- Flexibility: It is highly flexible. You can write templates in an HTML file, JavaScript file, and pure JS file with help of virtual nodes.
2. AngularJSvs Vue.JS – Community and Popularity
When comparing AngularJS vs Vue.JS in terms of community and popularity, AngularJS, of course, is the most popular front end development framework. It’s because it is backed by a vast community of developers and the tech giant, Google.
On GitHub, Angular has earned nearly 41K stars and has 730 contributors, while Vue has gained about 114K stars and has 193 contributors only. Even though Vue does not have enough contributors, it seems the most trending technology.
3. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Syntax, and Length of Code
While the syntax in AngularJS is more complex, Vue has a simple syntax that is easy to learn. The complexities of Angular make developers spend more time doing simple things and often result in great confusion.
As said earlier, Vue has a smooth learning curve because it uses clean and less complicated syntax. Angular uses TypeScript, a usage of decorators and injectors, so you should have good knowledge of TypeScript or the understanding of the OOPS programming concept. Vue, on the other hand, is based on JavaScript and so it is very easy to learn.
4. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Structure
When comparing AngularJS vs Vue.js in terms of structure, AngularJS is well-structured and elaborated. It allows developers to perform all activities in a standard and effective way. Many large-scale enterprises trust AngularJS for their web applications because of its well-defined structure which ensures that all developers stick to the same architecture.
Vue.js offers greater flexibility as it allows developers to structure the project according to their preferences and needs. Moreover, the templates can be written in an HTML file or JavaScript file. AngularJS is ideal for those who know about TypeScript and OOPS. Vue also offers TypeScript for web app development, with only a few libraries in it.
5. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Code Scalability
If your project has a huge codebase, then AngularJS is suitable in terms of code scalability. It is a complete front end development framework that enables the developer to write code in a pre-defined code structure.
In Vue.js web app development, there is no defined app structure for the developers to follow which is crucial for developing complex applications with a large codebase.
6. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Built-in Libraries
Vue has less built-in framework-specific libraries because it’s a new technology. Therefore, you need to explicitly include other third-party libraries.
Angular, on the other hand, has numerous framework-specific libraries and most of them are incorporated earlier in the Angular-CLI project.
Angular also offers in-built API-specific libraries so you don’t need to install them explicitly. Vue does not have an API-specific library and developers need to include the AXIOS library explicitly for API calls.
7. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Performance
When we compare AngularJS vs Vue.js in terms of performance, both perform equally well. The only difference is that Vue.js is using the Virtual DOM concept which makes it more performative while Angular makes use of watchers for data rendering.
Whenever the project scale changes, watchers have to re-evaluate the entire project once again. However, Angular has a better performance on many benchmarks.
8. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Data Binding
AngularJS is known for its two-way data binding feature. It also supports asynchronous services that are essential for developers who are attempting to include third-party elements.
On the contrary, Vue uses unidirectional data flow amidst elements. The framework also facilitates effortless data flow and makes the development of business-critical applications easy and fast. Developers make use of libraries to work with asynchronous services.
Data binding in Vue.js is the same as in AngularJS. Developers use the same double curly brackets and model attributes for data binding.
9. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – When and Why Should You Use?
AngularJS
AngularJS is equipped with a wide array of functions and has an opinionated structure. Therefore, it is more suitable for developing large-scale, dynamic, and real-time applications like chat apps or instant messaging apps.
Moreover, it is an ideal front end development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps and enterprise-level applications.
Vue.JS
If you are planning to build a lightweight single-page application, then Vue.js is the best option for you. If you prioritize speed and performance, then you should consider selecting Vue.js for your web app development.
10. AngularJS vs Vue.JS – Top Companies
Some of the leading companies using AngularJS include Netflix, Upwork, JetBlue, PayPal, Microsoft Office, Deutsche Bank, Mixer, Santander, Gmail, Forbes, UpWork.
Top companies relying on Vue.js include Grammarly, Alibaba, Xiaomi, Behance, Adobe, and many more.
Final Note
Both AngularJS and Vue.js provide a well-defined structure for your web application. You can select any of the two as per your project requirements, timeline, and budget. AngularJS web development is the best option for those who are looking for a framework that is reliable and of industry standard.Vue.js web development is suitable for those who want to build an application with a single-page layout, fast loading time, light-weightiness, and clean code.
Now that you have gained a better understanding of both front end development technologies, you should look for the best web development team to turn your dream project into reality.
