Angular vs React vs Vue: Core Differences

Web developers are always at crossroads where they have to decide among a range of development frameworks and choose one for their project. It is a common topic of debate among developers on how to pick a framework for their next big project. Some frameworks which have become the most popular among developers and causing the dilemma are ReactJS, VueJS, and Angular. 

A simple difference between these three is that React is a UI library, and Vue is a progressive framework. However, Angular is a full-fledged front-end framework. As per StackOverflow Survey 2022, React is the favourite framework of 40.14% of developers, Angular with 22.96%, and Vue with 18.97% of developers. This guide focuses on helping you decide which framework to pick before starting your next project.

Source: Stackoverflow Survey 2022

What is Angular?

Angular is a full-fledged web application framework based on TypeScript, free and open-sourced. It is widely used to create Single Page Applications. It was initially launched by Google in 2016 as a sequel to AngularJS, which was released in 2010. 

In the initial stages, when Angular came into the market, it caught the attention of a lot of developers due to its excellent features, and also it is backed by a Tech Giant, Google. A lot of people confuse Angular with AngularJS, which later being the first version of Angular launched by Google. 

Angular uses TypeScript for development, whereas AngularJS uses JavaScript. A drastic shift from JavaScript to TypeScript disappointed a lot of people because JavaScript is a more well-known language than TypeScript.

Source: Stackoverflow Survey 2022

Test Setup of Angular

To run tests on your Angular application, let’s take an example of a basic Angular application and run tests on it. When you create an Angular file, a test file is automatically created alongside the application. Open the file which ends with .spec.ts and write the tests on it such as the test code below

import { TestBed } from '@angular/core/testing';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
it(`should have as title 'SimpleApp'`, () => {
const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(AppComponent);
const app = fixture.componentInstance;
expect(app.title).toEqual('SimpleApp');
});

Run Angular Tests on Real Devices

After successfully writing the tests, let’s run the above Unit Tests for Angular App by the following command in the CLI.

ng test

Advantages and Disadvantages of using Angular

Advantages of using Angular

• Trustworth for Future: Since Angular is backed by Google, developers have an enormous amount of trust for building large-scale applications, knowing that it would be maintained for the long term. 
• Documentation: The documentation of Angular is detailed and very well explains the functionality and working of Angular. Moreover, each concept is explained with an example and easy language that is even useful for beginners. 
• Scalable: Working on an Angular project as a team is highly scalable, as any minor changes done by any member of the team do not require you to update the entire structure of the project. Moreover, the code base is highly consistent and readable, which increases the efficiency of the project. 

Limitations of using Angular

• Learning Curve: Angular requires you to be skilled in TypeScript, which according to the StackOverflow survey, is favored by 30% of developers. Therefore, learning Angular requires greater effort than other frameworks. 

• Size of the Project: The size of the project defines a lot of parameters for an application. However, it is only noticeable in small applications, whereas in large applications, all the projects would weigh around similarly.

What is React?

React is an open-source frontend JavaScript library used for developing user interfaces based on components. It was developed by Facebook in 2013 and is now currently maintained by the open-source community and Facebook.

It is the most widely used JavaScript-based library because of the ease it provides in creating web applications. Moreover, besides creating UI, it offers several features, such as Flux and React Native. 

One of the biggest advantages of using React is that you can create web as well as mobile applications using the same codebase with a framework called React Native. Jordan Walke originally founded the library in 2011. 

Each component in a react application serves as a building block, making the application highly reusable. Reusable components in JavaScript reduce development time and complexity. 

Test Setup of React

To run tests on our React application, let’s start by installing a few libraries. 

Open the terminal inside the project directory of your application and install all libraries following a single command.

npm install @testing-library/react react-test-renderer jest-dom -save-dev

After that, create a test file for the component you want to test. For example, browserstack.test.js is the test file to test browserstack.js component file. Let’s now write a simple test for our component.

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import Browserstack from ‘./../browserstack.js’;

it(“testing a react app”, ()=>{
const div = document.createElement(“div”);
ReactDOM.render(<Browserstack></Browserstack>, div)
})

Run React Tests on Real Devices

To run the test, follow the below command.

npm test

After the test is executed, the terminal will display the test results. Here in the terminal, it shows 2 tests have been passed because one test file is already created app.test.js after we installed the necessary testing libraries.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using React

React is often the most popular choice among developers. However, before choosing React, let’s study the benefits and drawbacks of using React. 

Advantages of using React

• Reusable Components: While developing React applications, the amount of complexity and coding is less because of the reusable components in React. It brought more functionality and a clear codebase, which is also easy to maintain. 
• Performance: React does not depend upon the conventional DOM and uses a JavaScript structure, virtual DOM. Using virtual DOM enhances the performance and increases the speed of the programs. 
• Learning Curve: React is way ahead of its competitors due to its easy learning curve. Moreover, it is easy for web developers who have just finished their concepts in HTML and JavaScript to learn React. 

Limitations of using React

• Development Pace: Since React is the most widely used JavaScript library, React is offering constant updates, which led developers to relearn newer concepts and get along with the pace of React.

• Introduction to JSX: Learning React does not require any prerequisite. However, JSX does not come in handy to a lot of developers while learning React development. In addition to JSX, developers complaint about the inline scripting feature in React, which is also a tedious task for developers. 

What is VueJS?

Vue is an open-source progressive frontend framework that came into wide popularity for creating Single Page Applications (SPAs). SPAs are web applications that have only one HTML file rendering the entire code. It was released in 2014 and caught developers’ attention due to its straightforward interface and easy learning curve. 

Learning Vue seemed easier than most of the technologies present at that time. Angular inspired the creators of Vue to discover Vue, based on bringing all the best parts of Angular under one roof and neglecting all the limitations of Angular to create a highly-efficient tool. Vue focuses on beginner developers helping them create dynamic web applications without having to go through any prior tedious learning. 

Test Setup of Vue

To run tests on your Vue application’s components with the help of Jest, first install two necessary testing dependencies using a single command.

npm install @vue/cli-plugin-unit-jest @vue/test-utils

The next step is to create a test file, naming it browserstack.test.js. Jest can catch any file named *.test.js or *.spec.js.

import { mount } from '@vue/test-utils'
import Browserstack from ‘./../browserstack.js’;

it(“testing a vue app”, ()=>{
expect(wrapper.find('button').exists()).toBe(true))
})

To run the test, follow the below command.

npm test

Run Vue Tests on Real Devices

Advantages and Disadvantages of VueJS

Vue is highly handy to beginner developers. However, let’s study the advantages and disadvantages of using Vue in your project. 

Advantages of Vue.Js

• Short Learning Curve: In React and Angular, you are required to have to be skilled in TypeScript and JavaScript, respectively. However, Vue is beginner-friendly and does not mandate any prior skills. 

• Project Size: The size of your Vue project has several advantages, such as directly affecting the SEO of your webpage, as google search console rejects showing heavy websites in the front, which takes more time to load.

• Forums and Community: The forums and other community support are very important when heading out in a direction to pick a technology. It helps in maintaining and learning any technology in a further good curve. 

Limitations of using Vue.Js

• Ecosystem: The ecosystem plays a vital role in applications to adapt to several browsers and operating systems. Vue has a very narrow ecosystem, therefore, does not render in older versions of operating systems and web browsers. 

• Developers: Other frameworks such as Angular and React are backed by Google and Facebook, which automatically build trust among the people, however, Vue is generally not trustworthy among the audiences. 

Core Differences: Angular vs React vs Vue

Here are some of the core differences between Angular, React, and Vue to make it easy to decide which is the best web development framework for your project.

The way ahead

On comparing the frameworks it is evident that all the frameworks are very useful and powerful and it depends upon the developer’s goal and business requirements of the project, which one they should choose. 

But no matter which framework the developers choose for their projects, testing them thoroughly under real user conditions is a must, to ensure a seamless end-user experience. Be it React, Angular or Vue, website should be tested for cross browser compatibility and mobile compatibility on a range of mobile and desktop devices and browsers. 

While buying devices is not favorable and would take a lot of time, real device cloud like BrowserStack can come to rescue. For Manual Testing, BrowserStack Live, helps you debug your website in real time through DevTools. 

If you have to run Automation Tests, BrowserStack Automate can help you achieve your testing goals through its Cloud Selenium Grid, which helps run parallel tests for maximum coverage and a smooth testing experience with utmost accuracy.

Try BrowserStack Now