React vs Angular: The Ultimate Side-by-Side Review

Speaking of frameworks and libraries, this is the most fundamental difference that a React vs Angular comparison must consider.

To elaborate on the point, Angular, developed by Google, is a front-end development framework written in the TypeScript coding language, and has all the key features and components you need for web application development. React, on the other hand, is a product from the Facebook stable, is used extensively for Facebook projects, and is a library rather than a framework. To build an app using React, you will need to integrate a range of supporting tools such as containers, routers, code bundlers, transcompilers, state-management software, and app-testing utilities.

Angular and React are so different that you will need to accept some tradeoffs resulting from the choice you make. For example, Angular will give you the ability to start developing an app in its out-of-the-box state, but your project team will have to work within the constraints imposed by the tool.

With React, you enjoy a way more flexibility but have to also contend with the workload of choosing and integrating supporting tools and libraries.

For a single app development project, this may not present much of an issue. Yet if you are choosing a tool for multiple projects, keep in mind that you might use different libraries for each and therefore need to manage an array of resources, along with the associated migrations and updates.

Given that the ReactJS vs. Angular decision must consider the differing nature of the two products, it might be helpful to know what you do get straight out-of-the-box with each of them.

Angular comes complete with the following tools and components:

• A form builder (@angular/forms)
• Unit testing utilities
• Component CSS encapsulation
• Routing library (@angular/router)
• Ajax requests (@angular/HTTP)
• Dependency injection
• XSS protection
• Templates

Meanwhile, with React you get a more basic package of standard features. This includes XSS protection, Ajax requests, and some unit testing utilities, but excludes templates (although as a substitute for handlebars or EJS, React has a built-in language called JSX) and dependency injection.

In deciding on a technical basis whether to use React or Angular for your web app development project, consultation with your developers will be essential. If you haven’t yet put a team together, you perhaps have more freedom to choose the tool and build the development team accordingly.

Incidentally, this approach will not introduce much of a variation in labor costs, as according to career website ZipRecruiter, salaries for React and Angular developers are almost the same, standing at around $105,000 to $110,000 per year.

In any case, it will be a good idea to investigate the human resources at your disposal and try to determine which of the two development tools will support the most harmonious blend of technology and expertise.

Of course, before you can do that, you need to have some idea of how the two products compare from a functional perspective. The following sections should help you understand the technical differences that matter most.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Angular and React are both based on the JavaScript coding language. Yet this is a very general statement, belying the significant differences in the coding approach required for each platform. For instance, in Angular the use of JavaScript is an option but your team is more likely to work with TypeScript, an improved version of JavaScript suited to enterprise projects.

One key advantage of TypeScript is the possibility to detect errors during the coding process, and in the 2018 State of JavaScript Survey of more than 20,000 developers, some 7,000 said this was the primary factor driving their choice to work with it. Other TypeScript benefits include a cleaner, more compact structure than JavaScript and fast code refactoring.

React also has enhanced JavaScript coding capabilities in the form of JSX, a JavaScript extension that simplifies UI programming. While JSX performs a similar function to TypeScript, keep in mind that it is not as well-known among developers and can be a little awkward to work with for the uninitiated.

A document object model (DOM) determines the way an app performs data updates. React and Angular have different types of DOM which, under cursory observation, might seem to suggest a distinction between how the two tools perform.

Angular uses a real DOM, which updates an entire data tree every time a single element changes. React uses a virtual DOM, which enables elements to be updated without affecting the whole tree. In effect, the virtual DOM should ensure that React is a much faster tool than Angular.

In practice though, the reality does not conform to those expectations. That’s because Angular uses a solution called change detection, which essentially allows a real DOM to work in the same way as its virtual counterpart. Consequently, data-update performance is of a similar standard in both development tools.

State, if you're not familiar with this term in app development, is data that can change. Keeping an app updated requires the UI of a component to be re-rendered whenever data changes. However, there are numerous ways to approach front-end state management, and for any app development team choosing the most appropriate method can be challenging.

With Angular being a complete framework, it is possible to execute state management without any external tools, but in reality many developers will use a library such as Redux. If you choose to work with React, you will have no choice but to integrate Redux or another state management tool.

If your planned web app is going to be a single page, Angular with its built-in state management might be your best option. For more complex apps though, it becomes harder to separate React and Angular when it comes to state management performance.

Data binding is another capability that React and Angular approach in different ways. Again, if you are not a developer, data binding might mean little to you but it will mean a lot to your development team. It is the process used to synchronize an app's core logic with the user interface.

Angular employs two-way data binding, which is the conventional approach and for many developers is considered more manageable than React's one-way process. However, one-way data binding offers the advantages of improved code stability and ease of debugging.

When all the factors, from software maturity and popularity through technological elements and practicalities of working with Angular or React are considered, our verdict is that there is no clear victor.

Each of the two solutions has qualities lending it to specific project needs and environments. So rather than taking a position on the best choice in every case, it’s probably more realistic to outline the circumstances in which each one might be most appropriate, given its merits.

As Angular is a full framework solution, it will be a great choice if you need to hit the ground running with your project. Angular has the capabilities required for medium-complexity projects and the development of feature-rich web applications. As a ready-to-use development tool, Angular will facilitate high productivity and short time-to-market for your app, but your project will fare best if the team includes experienced Angular developers.

React requires much integration with other utilities but offers a ton of flexibility, making it a valuable tool for building high-complexity apps. Your project budget will need to allow for plenty of pre-development, as your team needs to design and build a technology stack with React as the centerpiece.

React will be an excellent choice if your project team includes plenty of JavaScript and HTML expertise, and if speed-to-market is a lower priority than a highly polished app that offers a top-class user experience.