There is no doubt about the rapid growth and development of JavaScript, and over time new JavaScript frameworks are emerging in the development community. But, sometimes, even for a very experienced developer, choosing the right JavaScript or Front-End framework for their next big project becomes tough. So, in this short article, we will mention the few points that we consider at Osmova before choosing a JavaScript framework when analyzing the needs of our customers.

JavaScript framework: which one to choose?

This article will talk about the three most popular JavaScript frameworks, Angular, React, and Vue.js. These are the most famous JavaScript frameworks in recent times.

Like our other articles, we will also use a table so that the comparison and the differences are easily identified and simple to understand and that the comparison becomes easy.

A brief history of Vue vs. React vs. Angular.

Before we get into the technical details, let’s first talk about the history behind these frameworks – just to better appreciate their philosophy and how they have evolved over time.

How it all began

Angular JavaScript framework

Angular, developed by Google, was first released in 2010, making it the oldest of the bunch. It is a JavaScript framework based on TypeScript. A substantial change occurred in 2016 with the release of Angular 2 (and the removal of the “JS” from the original name – AngularJS). Angular 2+ is known as just Angular. Although AngularJS (version 1) is still receiving updates, we will focus the discussion on Angular. The latest stable version is Angular 10, which was released in June 2020.

Vue.js JavaScript framework

Vue, also known as Vue.js, is the youngest member of the group. It was developed by former Google employee Evan You in 2014. Over the past three years, Vue has seen a substantial change in popularity, even without the backing of a large company. The current stable version is 2.6, released in February 2019 (with a minor incremental version since then). Contributors for Vue are supported by Patreon. Vue 3, currently in the alpha phase, plans to switch to TypeScript.

React JavaScript framework

React, developed by Facebook, was initially released in 2013. Facebook uses React extensively in its products (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp). The current stable version is 16.X, released in November 2018 (with smaller incremental updates since then).

Here’s a quick rundown of Angular vs. React vs Vue in terms of status and history:

JavaScript framework: License

Before using an open-source framework, be sure to license it. Interestingly, all three frameworks use the MIT license, which provides limited restrictions on reuse, even in proprietary software. Make sure you know the license implications before using any framework or software.

The popularity of JavaScript frameworks

Since “Angular” and “React” are common words in English, it’s hard to grasp their popularity from Google Trends. However, the number of stars their GitHub repositories are getting is a good indicator of their popularity. A sudden change in Vue’s star rating occurred in mid-2016, and recently Vue has been up there with React among the most popular frameworks.

Number of stars on GitHub projects for Angular, React, and Vue

When working with the framework of your choice, you don’t want to have to worry about a framework update coming in and disrupting your code. While you won’t experience a lot of issues from version to version in most cases, it’s essential to be on constant standby as some updates can be more significant and require tweaking to keep things going. Compatible.

Angular plans significant updates every six months. There is also an additional six-month delay before major APIs are obsolete, giving you the time of two release cycles (one year) to make the necessary changes, if required.

Regarding Angular vs. React, Facebook said stability was of the utmost importance because big companies like Twitter and Airbnb are using React. In addition, upgrades through builds are usually the easiest in React, with scripts like react-codemod helping you migrate.

In the Migration section of the FAQ, Vue mentions that 90% of the API is the same if you migrate from 1.x to 2. In addition, there is a migration helper tool that works on the console to assess the health of your application.

Working with Vue vs. Angular vs. React

There are many essential features to look at here, the main ones being overall size and load times, available components, and learning curve.

Size and load time of JavaScript frameworks

The sizes of the libraries are as follows:

• Angular: depends on the size of the product package
• React: 116 KB
• Vue: 91 KB

Although there can be a significant difference between the sizes of the frameworks, they are still small compared to the average web page size (around 2MB according to the most recent data). Also, if you are using a popular CDN to load these libraries, it is very likely that a user already has the library loaded in their local system.

JavaScript Framework: Components

Components are an integral part of all three frameworks. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about Vue, React, or Angular. A component usually receives input and changes its behavior based on it. This behavior change is generally manifested by a difference in the user interface of part of the page. In addition, using components makes it easier to reuse code. A component can be a shopping cart on an e-commerce site or a login box on a social network.

Angular:In Angular, components are called directives. Directives are only markers on DOM elements, which Angular can also follow and attack specific behavior. Therefore, Angular separates the UI part of the components as HTML tags and their behaviors as JavaScript code. It’s what sets it apart when looking at Angular vs. React.

React: React, interestingly, combines user interface and component behavior. In React, the same part of the code is responsible for creating a UI element and dictating its behavior.

Vue:When you look at Vue vs. React, in Vue, the UI and behavior are also part of the components, making things more intuitive. In addition, Vue is highly customizable, allowing you to combine the user interface and component behavior from a script. Additionally, you can also use preprocessors in Vue rather than CSS, which is a great feature. Finally, VueJS is excellent for integrating with other libraries, such as Bootstrap.

JavaScript framework learning curve

So how hard is it to learn each of these frameworks?

Angular:Angular has a steep learning curve; considering it to be a complete solution, mastering Angular requires learning related concepts such as TypeScript and MVC. Although it takes time to learn Angular, the investment pays dividends to understand how the front-end works.

React: React has a getting started guide that should help you set up React and takes about an hour. The documentation is comprehensive and comprehensive, with solutions to common issues already present on Stack Overflow. However, react is not a complete framework and the advanced features require the use of third-party libraries. It makes the learning curve of the basic framework not that steep but depends on the path you take with additional features. However, learning to use React is not more about compatibility.