Whatever the business be, user experience is the number one priority for every business in the market today. As a software developer, no matter how complex functions and operations happen in the background, what users see and experience has to be seamless. Powerful, simple and brilliant user interface is the ultimately a customer need from an application.

In the front-end development technology, vast JavaScript libraries have been around for quite some time now. It has evolved from simple technology and is now today composed of several frameworks that help software developers. From all these frameworks we are explaining two frameworks, Angular and Vue.js.

What is Angular?

Angular is one of the most widely used JavaScript frameworks globally. It provides development opportunities across all platforms through its reusable code that can be used for any project deployment. It has a dynamic UI binding with the objects and two-way data binding that is integral to its architecture. Initially, Angular was a Model-View-controller framework but over the course of time, it transformed into a Model-View-View Model which is more based on components.

It was introduced by Google and is maintained as an open-source framework to benefit the large community that has grown around the framework. Many companies’ websites run on Angular like BMW, Xbox, Forbes, IBM, and the list goes on.

Advantages of Angular

• As the data in the Model changes, the View does too and vice-versa. The in-build functionality called two-way binding reduces development time.
• Features like dependency injection made components reusable, easier to manage and test. AOT compiler, and flexible third party integration are the other features that are included in Angular.
• Directives made customisation of DOM elements seamless and permitted engineers to develop rich HTML pages.
• Immense developer support from communities and documentation and continued version updates from Google.
• Typescript offers, so many additional features than simple JavaScript like autocomplete, eliminating syntactical errors at the development phase itself and refactoring services.

What is Vue.js?

Vue is a simple and straightforward framework which is a very popular front end framework nowadays. This lightweight JavaScript based framework provides advanced features to develop SPAs, mobile apps and even progressive web applications with ease. Vue is versatile, it optimizes application performance, tackles complexities and helps developers with multiple tasks.

The initial release was launched in February 2014, but its stable version was released in March 2018. However, even before it’s first stable release it had already grabbed the attention of developers and got popularity in the market. 9gag, Behance, Gitlab, Wizz Air, Grammarly, and Alibaba are some of the popular apps that are built with Vue.js.

Advantages of Vue.js

• Simplicity of syntax makes it easy to use Vue.js for the developers with JavaScript background.
• Ease of integration to other frameworks such as react framework attract developers to use Vue.js to customize their projects.
• The variety of components in Vue.js helps developers to create different types of applications and also handles HTML blocks because of the MVVM structure they follow.
• Vue.js has a gentle learning curve so it’s easier for new programs with basics of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. In addition to that there are plugins available under Chrome and Firefox browsers to get started quickly.
• It doesn’t have many restrictions over coding which makes it inversely proportional to flexibility of completing projects and the documentation provided is improved constantly to include every feature that Vue.js includes.

Which One Is High in Demand?

Let’s see how these technologies have trended over time courtesy: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/

Overflow trends show that, compared to Vue.js Angular is more popular but the growth of Vue has continued from the past couple of years.

Courtesy: Tim Qian

In the above chart we can see the sudden and constant rise of stars in GitHub for Vue.js, but the number of contributors aren’t adequate for reaching a conclusion about the popularity of Vue.js to angular.

The Detailed Comparison

Application Architecture

The Model View Controller architectural pattern that is followed in Angular differentiates the HTML interface with the logic. Thus helping to organize the components with code and logic. The two-way data binding feature that is provided by angular makes the development simpler with MVC pattern.

Two-way data binding is an integral part of angular architecture compared to other frameworks that implement the same by using event handlers and listeners. The angular architecture allows the developers to design a clean and simple design by isolating UI and business logic.

Vue.js follows a MVVM pattern. Model contains information/data it’s the data access layer of the architecture, View is the representation of model and View-Model behaves like a link in between the view and the model by means of data binding. VM reflects any changes that have occurred in the model to the view. The MVVM architecture can be used to develop robust and rich web applications when combined with supporting tools and plugins.

Performance

The Model View Controller architectural pattern angular itself makes it a high performing framework. Rendering engine makes the compilation of components swift, thus the development time is considerably reduced. Among the two types of compilations in Angular, the ahead of time compilation helps to decrease the DOM manipulations, usage of pre-compiled HTML and multiple browser rendering. All these features of Angular made this a popular framework.

Virtual DOM is the lifesaver for optimizing the performance in Vue.js applications. Lazy loading is an important feature which improves the loading time of modules. Both Angular and Vue.js have lazy loading features. Vue.js automatically tracks the components and identifies the updates by itself and this makes optimization easier for developers. All these features of Vue.js makes it a fast tool among the other JavaScript frameworks.

Learning Curve

As far as the learning curve is considered Angular has a steep curve for the first time programming language learners but if you are an experienced developer Angular is easy to pick up. The typescript is what makes Angular difficult to learn.

Compared to other JavaScript frameworks Vue.js is the simplest one. If the person has fundamental JavaScript knowledge then it is way easier to learn and understand. Documentation of Vue is pretty straightforward, this makes learning and developing applications effortless.

Scalability & Complexity

In the case of scalability Angular wins the title because of its modular development feature i.e.; we can arrange components as modules and folders with respect to the features, whereas in Vue.js it uses template based syntax which will make things harder with the large size applications.

Vue.js is simpler than Angular in terms of its syntax and code length and JavaScript makes Vue.js less complicated. The use of typescript in angular creates a sense of confusion and the injectors, decorators etc. adds to it.

User Experience & Built in Libraries

Contribution of Angular framework to the front end development is immense. The sophisticated way of displaying information to the users, reflecting the data updates in no time and the SPA feature routing between pages without invigorating the entire page made Angular popular.

The virtual DOM in Vue.js gives an opportunity to experiment on the user interface and thus the Vue.js is used for creating simpler, captivating and interactive applications.

The built-in libraries provided in Angular gives the developer a hassle-free experience while developing. But in Vue.js the number of libraries are less, and the developer has to install it explicitly.

When to Choose Angular?

• If the application contains too much dynamic data, where we need data updates according to the user’s actions which will affect the all linked components with it.
• If the application is enormous and has above requirements angular is an apt JavaScript framework because of its maintainability and scalability.

Considering your application is small and has more static pages than angular won’t be your best choice.

When to Choose Vue.js?

• If the application is more about speed, Vue.js can provide you that because of its structure.
• If the application is very lightweight then using Vue.js as front end framework will be the best choice because it itself is lightweight. Not only that, the same reason allows users with limited network connectivity to use the application.
• If you want to integrate a specific requirement from Vue.js framework to an existing application that also can be easily done by its lightweight nature.

If your application is bulky and has too much dynamic data it is better to opt for another front end framework which is suitable for these applications.

Which is Better: Angular or Vue?

Consider, if you are going for a simple, fast and straightforward application it is better to use Vue.js and if you have more dynamic content and is a large application go for Angular at any time because of its maintainability and scalability feature.

Conclusion

Vue is simple and straightforward, on the other hand Angular is more mature and has plenty of tools available, both have some features that are alike too. So choosing the right frames work wisely by keeping your application requirements in mind wins the situation. It’s not about all the variety of features available in each framework, it’s how you decide the framework by comparing your business requirements with respect to what the framework offers. Decide on a framework that your application demands for rather than going with the trends.