Today the biggest change to have happened in the area of software development is the transformation of application development from an on-premises ecosystem to a globally dispersed rich internet powered web application. Organizations big and small are developing or utilizing powerful web apps to manage their business and these applications range from simple websites to powerful ERP systems. As for software developers, today the focus area of innovation is front-end frameworks that allow them to build powerful web app interfaces that can provide multi-device views for the same data generated by back-ends. Among the most popular of front-end frameworks, the ones widely used today are Angular JS and React JS. Just to clear the air, React JS isn’t actually a framework but a JavaScript-based library. However, combine it with Flux and you have a method to define an architecture for the application you want to build. At Perfomatix, our dedicated and talented team of experts, with their comprehensive technical expertise and domain knowledge, continuously focuses on implementing the best choice of technology to deliver the best in class business solutions for our clients through our app development services
So how do you pick one of these two to build your dream app? Let’s run a comparison to see how each fare in areas that are most desired for web application development.
Performance
This is a critical aspect for any technology you want to work with while building an application. If you are dealing with enterprise-level data-intense applications, then performance would be a benchmark that you cannot ignore. Both Angular and React have proven their mettle in terms of performance, but if you were to observe closely, then React would have an upper hand thanks to its virtual DOM concept. Browser loads are considerably reduced and React sends only the HTML of elements that change in user interaction on a web browser rather than the complete HTML. Newer versions of Angular have really brought this performance factor on par with that of React and so it’s not a clear sign of victory here for React. You can build high performing apps with Angular as well.
Componentization – Framework vs Library
This is an extension of what we spoke about in the beginning. Angular is a pure framework in all aspects. It has a complex yet solid structure based on three layers i.e. Model, View, and Controller. Standard services, routing solutions, controllers, directives, and libraries are all taken care of by the framework itself and gives developers a good start to build an application. React on the other hand is flexible to integrations and you can connect it with any number of other tools, exchange or integrate new libraries and so on. It has no formal structure which makes it highly favorable for creating out of the box applications thanks to its integration capabilities. However, it is more prone to chances of things going wrong when there are dependencies because of the lack of an MVC structure.
Support and Growth
As you all know, Angular is maintained by Google and React is in the safe custody of Facebook. The world’s two biggest internet companies rely on these two technology frameworks to power their mission-critical business operations. Both Facebook and Google have internet products that are used by millions of users worldwide on a daily basis. Hence the immaculate levels of support in terms of technical development, future integration roadmaps, and growth aspirations will all be on par with the world’s best. There is no need to worry about the future potential of these two frameworks (or framework and library to be more precise) as these internet powerhouses will do whatever it takes to ensure that their respective offerings stay relevant in the market for years to come.
Reusability
Angular has a series of elements that are ready to use or ready to deploy. They utilize a concept called dependency injection wherein one object provides the dependencies it has to another object. This coupled with the MVC architecture makes it a better candidate for reusable code elements as compared to React. React JS on its own can only build the view of your application and even though they provide reusable components, they are not as solid and robust as the ones generated by an MVC backed Angular structure.
Building your team of developers
While all other points we spoke of here talk about how Angular JS or React JS delivers services, this one would matter more to you. The choice of framework for your application development aspirations really boils down to the availability of skilled resources in either of these techniques. From a developer perspective, both Angular and React have the large fan following and on any day, you could find developers from either stream arguing with each other on which is the better framework.
Angular with its complex MVC concept and a slightly tougher learning curve can prove to be a more time-consuming affair for developers. React on the other hand offers more flexibility as it allows developers to build apps with knowledge of using JavaScript and HTML alone. However, as your codebase increases, a structured MVC model would be highly desirable to ensure that dependencies are mapped properly. This would be guaranteed by Angular JS while React requires additional integrations like with for example Flux to define new application architectures.
While either of the two technologies we have compared here cannot be called a clear winner in the battle, it is important to understand that from a business perspective, it all boils down to staying technologically relevant with changing times. This requires a mix of all the above-listed comparison parameters plus many more. Your accessibility to quality solution advisory, the right talent in any of this front-end technology and the logic your application would serve from a business or use perspective are what counts ultimately. Write to us to know how we can help you in delivering the best internet applications for your business needs with the right technology frameworks.
