Update How to Find the Most Suitable JS Framework from Angular, Vue, and React

Developing a business application is difficult; and that too, with user-focused features is quite a task. Thankfully, advancing technology comes with various programming languages to make the web developer’s life easy.

JavaScript is one such versatile language that has won the hearts of hundreds of thousands of developers globally. This robust language is here to stay and various frameworks are based on it. Out of them, the most popular ones are Angular, Vue, and ReactJS.

Over the period, React, Vue, and AngularJS development services have gained ground for developing advanced desktop and mobile applications for modern enterprises. But here, many entrepreneurs and developers remain in the dilemma that which of these frameworks is the most suitable for the next app project.

In this blog, we will compare these top three platforms in five different ways to assist you to choose the right JS framework for your project.

• Popularity
• Performance
• Size
• Scalability
• Community support

Before digging deep for these three frameworks, let’s go through their background in brief.
Angular- This JS framework is based on typescript and released by Google in 2010. This framework is older than its counterparts Vue and React.

Latest Version- Angular 8.0.0 – Release Date of Latest Version- May 28, 2019

Vue- It is the brainchild of Google’s ex-engineer. It was released in the year 2014 and considered as the newest member of the family of JS frameworks.

Latest Version- Vue-2.6.10 – Release Date of Latest Version- March 20,2019

React- Facebook has released this framework in the year 2013 to resolve the issues caused by the high traffic of Facebook ads. What’s more, ReactJS aims at solving issues related to coding and maintenance.

Latest Version- 16.8.6 – Release Date of Latest Version- May 6, 2019

Key Summary

• Overview: The article compares Angular, Vue, and React, focusing on popularity, performance, size, scalability, and community support, based on surveys, Google Trends, and technical metrics.
• Popularity:
  • Stack Overflow Survey: React leads with 74.5% preference, Vue at 73.6%, and Angular at 57.6% among developers.
  • Google Trends: React tops with 100 search items, Angular close at 91, and Vue significantly lower over the past 12 months.
  • Vue’s Growth: Vue.js saw a surge in popularity since 2016, with expectations of continued growth.
• Performance (Memory Consumption):
  • Angular: Initial memory footprint of 8.7 MB, rising to 15.4 MB after DOM manipulation.
  • React: Starts at 8.3 MB, increases to 15.1 MB post-DOM operations.
  • Vue: Lowest initial footprint at 7.6 MB, but rises to 16.1 MB after DOM manipulation, slightly higher than competitors.
• Size:
  • Angular: Largest at 500+ KB, suited for heavy-weight enterprise apps.
  • React: 100 KB, designed for lightweight applications.
  • Vue: Smallest at 80 KB, ideal for lightweight apps but less suited for large-scale projects.
• Scalability:
  • Angular: Highly scalable with feature modules for organized, reusable components; ideal for enterprise apps.
  • React: Scalable with reusable components, but depends on external libraries, code quality, and architecture.
  • Vue: Best for small apps due to its lightweight nature; less suited for large, robust applications.
• Community Support:
  • Angular: Strong Google backing, regular updates every six months, and used in Google’s AdWords, ensuring credibility.
  • React: Supported by Facebook, with a dedicated team enhancing it; widely trusted for ad campaigns and beyond.
  • Vue: No major corporate backing but has a rapidly growing open-source community, with 122k GitHub stars, surpassing Angular and React in repository engagement.
• Use Cases:
  • Angular for large-scale enterprise applications.
  • React for flexible, lightweight, and reusable component-based apps.
  • Vue for small, lightweight applications with rapid development needs.
• Benefits:
  • Angular offers robust structure and enterprise support.
  • React provides flexibility and performance for diverse apps.
  • Vue excels in simplicity and low overhead for smaller projects.
• Challenges:
  • Angular’s size and complexity can be overkill for small apps.
  • React’s scalability relies on external libraries and code quality.
  • Vue’s limited scalability restricts its use in large projects.
• Conclusion: React leads in popularity and flexibility, Angular excels in enterprise scalability, and Vue is ideal for lightweight apps, with each framework supported by strong but distinct communities.

Comparison between Angular, Vue, and React

Popularity

Interestingly, a survey conducted by the Stack Overflow and findings of Google Trends tells an entirely different story. As per the Stack Overflow, React is the most preferred framework among the developer’s community with more than 74.5% market share. Vue.js is in second place with a 73.6% share. Here, Angular.js is lagged with just 57.6% share.

Since the release in 2014, Vue.js has gained ground in the developer’s community. But, the real surge in popularity came in the year 2016, which is still going on. We can certainly expect that in the coming years, the popularity of Vue.js will increase more over the period.

Google Trends, on the other hand, shows that React is indeed the most popular one from the searches perspective with 100 search items, but Angular is just behind it with 91 search items in the past 12 months. Here, Vue.js is way behind Angular and React.js.

Performance

When it comes to performance, memory consumption is an important factor to consider. Now, memory consumption is based on DOM manipulation. The standard tool measures time consumed for a total number of DOM manipulation events by these three frameworks. The result of the DOM manipulation study is given below.

Let’s analyze this result for all three platforms.

Angular

When the webpage is loaded, the initial memory footprint of the Angular is 8.7MB. But, DOM manipulation operations increase the footprints to 15.4, which is two times more than the initial one.

React

Just like Angular, ReactJS has memory consumption before the DOM test is 8.3 MB, whereas, after completing the DOM operations, it jumps to 15.1 MB.

Vue

Unlike AngularJS and ReactJS, the memory consumption of Vue.js remains at 7.6 MB initially. You may find it a bit less than its formidable rivals but in fact, this reading is way better than their readings. But then, when the DOM manipulation operations are done, the memory consumption becomes almost double at 16.1 MB.

Size

Finally, let’s talk about the size of every framework. Angular has many things to offer for its developers, so it is quite big in size (500+ KB), and therefore, it is not possible to build light-weight apps by using this framework. React (100 KB), on the other hand, is designed for developing light-weight apps. Vue.js is the smallest one (80 KB) among all three frameworks.

Size of frameworks matters when you develop a heavy-weight or a light-weight application. AngularJS is capable of maintaining large enterprise applications. It is better to consult an AngularJS development company to know more about the scope and benefits of this Google-supported platform.

Scalability

Let’s compare the scalability of these three platforms.

Angular

It comes with feature modules that allow the developers to organize related components with dependencies. For example, you can combine a product module with a product card, product search page, and services. When you hire AngularJS developers, they can store the module in a separate repository or reference it from the main application.

React

React is simply known as the library to create reusable components. But then, you need to gather a bunch of other libraries to bring these components together. Here, the scalability of apps depends on how well the code is written, the amount of technical debt, and the solution’s architecture.

Vue

As mentioned above, Vue.js is a light-weight framework with a small size. As a JavaScript library, it is highly suitable to develop small applications. You cannot build scalable and robust applications using this platform.

Community

The community support comes at last. It is crucial for every framework as developers can freely ask questions and resolve their issues with the help of the community consists of active developers. Let’s start with Angular.

Angular

Active backing of Google and regular updates are two major reasons why AngularJS has got huge support from the community of enthusiastic developers. Google already utilizes this platform for AdWords application that enhances the credibility of this platform.

Every six months, Google comes up with an update for this platform. All you need to assign your app project to the reliable AngularJS development company.

React

Facebook has developed and managed this platform. Though this platform was developed to support ad campaigns on Facebook, a dedicated team of Facebook developers is still working on its enhancement.

Facebook has heavily invested in the React platform, and it is one of the major reasons why app developers find this platform credible and reliable. In the coming years, the community of ReactJS developers will certainly thrive.

Vue

Though there is no big name associated with Vue, this platform has gained a lot of popularity in a short time. The framework has an ever-growing, open-source community to support developers. Over 122k stars, 17k Forks, and 5.7k Watchers in GitHub repositories are sufficient to show Vue’s higher popularity among the group of developers as compared to Angular and React frameworks.

Related Reading- How to Hire AngularJS Developers for Your Next App Project

The open-source nature and smaller size of Vue.js attract many developers to contribute. But, Angular and React have already seen a massive contribution in repositories from Google and Facebook employees respectively.

Key Apps Run on Top Three Application Development Frameworks

Google AdWords applications run on the Angular platform. AngularJS development services have empowered a few of the top websites like The Guardian and Weather.com.

Similarly, ReactJS development services are behind top communication apps Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Vue.js is relatively a new platform and companies like 9Gag and GitLab count on this framework.

Wrapping Up

With this, we are concluding this comprehensive comparison between Angular, Vue, and React. It will help you select the right platform for your upcoming app project. If you want to release a large application with complex features, then Angular should be your choice.

A mid-size app can be developed by a team of React.js developers. Whereas, a small-sized app can be easily developed by using Vue.js.

You can assign your project to ReactJS or AngularJS development company to get the top-notch and customized app solutions that can fulfill your business needs effectively.