React vs Angular – Which is the Best for Your Business?

Out of so many app development frameworks available today, React and Angular has received great attention in the front-end development market. For any business, choosing the right platform is necessary for the long-term success. React, being owned by Facebook and Angular, being owned by Google, both frameworks have similar architectures, easy to use and are unique in their own ways.

In this post we will review these two JavaScript based frameworks and look at their characteristics. We are not going to tell you which framework to choose, but we will bring you enough information on the table so you can pick the right technology that matches your needs.

Type of Application

React

React app development framework is suitable for creating both mobile and web applications. However, React needs to be integrated with Cordova when it comes to mobile development. React also offers a separate platform for mobile application development, known as React Native. With React, you can develop both multi-page and single-page web apps.

Angular

Angular is also a great choice when it comes to mobile and web app development. For mobile development in Angular, a great amount of work is to be done on Ionic, which is a separate mobile app development platform just like React Native. Angular app development facilitates both single and multi-page web applications.

Learning Curve

React

React is pretty simple – no complicated feature, no high-end templates and no dependency injection. If you are familiar with JavaScript, you can easily understand React framework. However, you may need to learn to set up the project because there is no pre-defined structure. React applications make use of the Redux library for state management, so React app developers will require to learn it.

Angular

Angular is a library-like framework, therefore understanding all the concepts will take more time compared to React. Moreover, Angular is quite complex to learn and it has a lot of unneeded syntax. It has a complex component management and some of the complicated features are incorporated into the core of the framework, so you will need to hire skilled Angular app developers to work with them.  

Performance

React

Since React uses Virual DOM and Fiber for developing apps, its performance has greatly improved. The Virtual DOM trees are lightweight and are built on server, which has considerably reduced load on browsers. The unidirectional data binding further reduces additional workload.

Angular 

Angular lacks a bit in performance, especially when it comes to dynamic and complex apps. Angular has a bidirectional data binding which impacts its performance. A watcher is assigned to every binding and the loop continues to run until all the watchers and values are checked. However, the recent Angular 7 update has come up with the drastic improvement on performance, and none of the framework is ready to lose against each other.

Community

React 

Being one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks, React has a huge community of developers and supporters across the world. React framework is often updated, and hence, keeping up with the latest documentation and changes is not easy. However, this problem is resolved by the vast community support.

Angular 

Angular is less favored because of its complicated architecture, but since it is developed by Google, Angular is constantly being supported by the company. Google provides long term support and brings out regular updates to improve its performance. Sometimes updates are so quick that the documentation falls behind, but this issue is mostly solved by the community.

Flexibility

React

One of the things that make React a preferred choice is its flexibility. React lets you choose libraries, components and tools of your choice for developing an application. You will be able to build extremely fine app using available third party tools with the help of the proficient React application development company.

Angular

Angular, on the other hand, offers everything you need in the framework itself. From routing to templates and testing utilities, you will find all the tools in Angular and you don’t have to move to other third-party tools to build applications. You just have to write programs with whatever is provided in the Angular framework.

When to Choose React

React is a great framework for startups or businesses that need small or lightweight applications for their site. React is currently used by Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, PayPal, Airbnb, Yahoo, Microsoft, Instagram and other media giants. If you are looking for highly customized web solutions and expecting to share the components across multiple apps in the future, then you may go for React application development.

When to Choose Angular

On the other hand, Angular can be used to develop more complex apps as Angular can extend HTML syntax to simplify front end development. The simplicity and flexibility offered by Angular are one of the top reasons why it is used by big names like Adobe, HBO, McDonald’s and Apple. If you are looking to build large UI applications, it is suggested that you consult expert Angular application development company as it requires in-depth knowledge of the framework to develop robust apps.

Final Words

Choosing a suitable framework depends on the type, complexity and size of the application. Both frameworks can give you robust, reliable and powerful applications if developed by the right hands. At ManekTech, we believe that tools should be tailored to business requirements. That is why we work with a highly talented team of both Angular and React developers who are dedicated to helping you achieve your business goals, no matter what platform you choose.