Angular vs. Vue Comparison: 12 Things to Know About Each Framework

Over the past decade, front-end JavaScript frameworks have become integral to web app development. They considerably optimize the SDLC, providing engineers with reusable resources. Developers can quickly and effectively create nice-looking web applications by choosing a framework that meets their needs best.

Obviously, every JavaScript framework differs in its use cases. This article reviews Angular and Vue as the most common options. They are both great for web app development. Overall, Angular is a top choice for enterprise-based applications, while Vue is perfect for building web interfaces and single-page apps. Discover more things to note below.

1. Angular vs. Vue: Brief Overview

What is Angular?

Angular is a typescript-based Javascript framework developed by Misko Hevery from Google and released in 2010. In 2016, a more innovative Angular 2 appeared, a complete rewrite of AngularJS. Now, it’s the dominant Angular version supported by the Angular team at Google and external developers. It has multiple in-built tools and enables engineers to build apps across all platforms.

What is Vue?

Vue is a newer JavaScript framework developed by Evan You in 2014. It has rapidly gained popularity over the past few years, even without any backup from large companies. Vue is a lightweight and flexible framework that enables developers to create robust SPAs and front-end web apps. It provides customized modules and visual components for extending web app functionality.

Angular vs. Vue Overview

2. Statistics on Popularity and Usage

According to Stack Overflow research, Angular is more popular than Vue.js, but not that much. 26.23% of software developers name Angular the most commonly used web framework, while 20.09% opt for Vue.

Yet, in terms of community, Vue outperforms Angular. Vue boasts 200k stars with 33k forked projects on GitHub, while Angular has 84.5k starts and 22.4k forks. It means the Vue framework has a larger community, and you are more likely to find quality support on the web.

3. Pros and Cons of Angular vs. Vue

Pros of Angular

• Cross-platform. Angular supports browsers on iOS and Android devices and allows product teams to share codebase and engineering skillset across apps.
• Typescript based. The use of Typescript ensures better refactoring and autocomplete, which is particularly critical for enterprise-scale apps.
• Optimized development. Hierarchical dependency injection, Angular Universal, Ivy renderer, differential loading, and other built-in tools make development faster.
• Third-party integrations. Angular smoothly integrates with third-party applications, providing additional opportunities to streamline development.
• RxJS library. Angular can be used with the RxJS library for asynchronous programming, reducing the wait time for complex operations.
• Google support. Since Google cares for Angular, you get detailed documentation and regular updates with new features.

Cons of Angular

• Complexity of coding. Angular is verbose, and managing its components may be difficult.
• Cumbersome migration from AngularJS to Angular. If you need to migrate a legacy app from AngularJS to newer versions, be ready that the transition will take skills and time.

Pros of Vue

• Progressive development. Developers can gradually introduce Vue into code for smooth app migration or integration. It considerably optimizes development time and gives engineers more control over changes.
• Light size. With each new version, Vue gets lighter and lighter. Since its package takes only 21 kb, Vue-based apps are quick and offer an excellent user experience.
• Readability and maintenance. Since all components are stored in separate files, the code is easier to read and fix.
• Growing tooling ecosystem. Vue offers many features to streamline development and debugging, end-to-end testing tools, and a plugin installation system. Even though the tooling ecosystem of Angular is more robust, Vue perfectly covers the needs of small and medium projects.

Cons of Vue

• Not the best choice for large-scale projects. Vue is unsuitable for large teams and lacks the backup of large companies.
• Mobile support difficulties. Older iOS and Safari browsers may have trouble running Vue apps.
• Excessive flexibility. Despite opening more opportunities for developers, flexibility may also cause irregularity and errors in code when one team combines several programming approaches.

4. Angular vs. Vue Use Cases

Choose Angular to develop:

• Enterprise web applications
• Web apps with dynamic content
• Ecommerce apps
• Video streaming apps
• Progressive web apps
• User-generated content portals

Choose Vue to create:

• Single page apps
• Small and middle-sized apps
• Custom web interfaces
• Prototype design
• Design or functionality extension for existing apps

5. Apps Built With Angular and Vue

Many famous brands choose these frameworks to develop their products. You can check these apps to understand what a typical Angular or Vue-based application looks like.

The renowned Angular-based projects include Gmail, PayPal, Forbes, the Guardian, Microsoft Office, and Upwork.

Vue is popular with Grammarly, Behance, Leafplayer, Font Awesome, Gitlab, WizzAir, Glovo, and Adobe Portfolio.

6. Performance Angular vs. Vue

Overall, Vue is a better choice in terms of performance than Angular. The speed of mobile and web applications is directly related to the Document Object Model. Angular relies on real DOM, which renders the entire page even when one component changes.

Vue.js uses Virtual DOM that doesn’t update the page directly and, therefore, avoids memory overload.

7. App Architecture Angular vs. Vue

Angular offers you better capabilities for building a clearly defined app architecture. To develop dynamic web apps and websites using Angular, engineers use MVC (Model-View-Controller) and MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architectural patterns. That’s why Angular is so good for large-scale enterprise apps.

For Vue, developers follow the ViewModel connected in a two-way binding approach. It gives more flexibility but isn’t overly structured.

8. Scalability Angular vs. Vue

Being suitable for large-scale applications, Angular has excellent scalability. It’s a full-fledged framework supported by Google and large corporations. Angular’s scalability stems from its command-line interface and feature designs. Engineers can group modules and folders based on their features and logical units to efficiently organize the structure of complex apps and make them scalable.

Vue allows engineers to extend an app with flexible tools or break it down into multiple repositories for greater scaling. Yet, generally, this framework is more suitable for small apps and has limited scalability.

9. Security Angular vs. Vue

Angular has inner HTML for displaying user-generated content and DomSanitizer that prevents Cross Site Scripting Security bugs (XSS), among other security features. Besides, Angular libraries are regularly updated to eliminate any defects.

Vue doesn’t have a built-in sanitizer, but you can ensure a decent level of security with external libraries.

10. Testing Angular vs. Vue

With Angular, you can develop an application from scratch and easily test every component. The framework has dependency injection and mock HTTP providers that simplify testing. It also supports tools like Karma and Jasmine to check the entire development code separately.

Vue has fewer testing resources than Angular but is still pretty good. It provides hot reloading and continuous integration and delivery for more convenient test execution. The official libraries recommended for use are Vue testing Library and Vue Test Utils. Unit testing of Vue usually relies on Jest, Mocha, or Chai.

11. User experience Angular vs. Vue

Angular manages user interactions through templates, which means it interacts with the template syntax and instantly updates the view. This feature ensures a decent user experience since there is no time gap between information update and display.

Vue is generally a top choice for creating appealing web app user interfaces. Thanks to the Virtual DOM support, the changes you make aren’t directly reflected in the app, giving you more space for experiments.

12. Hiring developers Angular vs. Vue

Another thing you must note about Angular and Vue is hiring opportunities. Even though this factor doesn’t impact the quality of the application, it will shape the software development process. The lack of developers in the Western markets is impressive, so you must ensure you can find the specialists you need.

Despite Angular losing popularity, there are still sufficient developers who have experience with this framework. Vue is much easier to learn, but you may have trouble hiring Vue engineers in the US. – This framework is primarily popular in Asia.

The cost of development services is another issue since both Angular and Vue developers in the US may charge over $100/hour. The good news is that you can considerably cut expenses by outsourcing. Front-end developers in Ukraine charge from $25 to 80, depending on the experience.

Conclusion

The tech stack for front-end app development depends on the app’s complexity, performance, and functionality. Angular is more advanced than Vue and has a richer range of additional tools. It also ensures better security. Vue, on the other, is more lightweight and flexible. It’s rapidly gaining popularity as a framework for building user interfaces.

Contact Leobit to discuss your project and learn what frameworks can meet your needs. We offer data-driven consulting services and can help with any tech task, be it design, development, or testing.