Angular vs. Vue vs. jQuery vs. React vs. Ember is a question a development team and product owners must ask themselves at the outset of every new web development project. All JavaScript frameworks, they each have their own relative strengths and weaknesses and different developers have their own comfort zones and opinions between all five options. But you’ll have to make an informed decision on which to go with for a particular app development project. With this blog we’ll try to help you do just that by leveraging K&C’s experience across many projects with different characteristics and business priorities.
According to the TIOBE Index for August 2018, JavaScript ranks eighth among the languages to learn this year. It makes sense that the number of its frameworks and libraries based on it has dramatically increased over the last couple of years. But with that choice comes a more complex decision making process before arriving at one of Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, React or Ember.
Without being prophets, it is not difficult to surmise that you will be choosing between the frameworks of Angular, Vue.js and Ember for your development projects over the months ahead. And to our comparison list we decided to add a couple of libraries as well – the hugely popular React and another which was extremely popular but now regarded rather obsolete — jQuery. We’ve included it because of its legacy merits which offer a good benchmark against which newer technologies can be judged. If you are interested to learn more about jQuery and its historical importance to the development industry you can check out our jQuery vs. Angular blog post.
There’s a bit of a ‘Dev Geek’ “holy war” currently being waged between the five frameworks we cover here. If you’re smart, you’ll understand there is no need to take sides. Angular, Vue, jQuery, React and Ember are all good frameworks or libraries.
Of course, developers often have their personal preference. But what the right choice for a given project is often boils down to the development’s particular characteristics, the competencies of the DevOps team available and the business priorities of the product manager and their organisation. There’s rarely a definitively ‘right’ answer.
On the chart above you can see stats showing the trends in popular usage between Angular, Vue, jQuery, React and Ember. This clearly shows that React is out in front but are its features really what you’re looking for today? Only a deep understanding of the unique pros and cons of each framework or library can help you make a truly informed choice. For a bird’s eye view, let’s look at the parameters of each framework and library compiled in the table below.
Your eventual choice between Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, React or Ember will of course be heavily influenced by the format of the applications you will develop. Particularly whether it is a SPA (Single Page Application) or MPA (Multiple Page Application).
Angular is a JavaScript framework based on TypeScript. Do not confuse it with AngularJS (aka “Angular.js” or “AngularJS 1.x”). It greatly differs from Angular 2+ versions. Today the second version is well regarded thanks in no small part to the fact Alphabet’s Google supports the framework and uses across multiple in-house projects (e.g., AdWords user interface). Enterprises and projects from Forbes, Wix, healthcare.gov, and weather.com have already implemented it Angular. Angular is regarded as a safe choice to get complete off-the-shelf framework with all components inside.
If we delve into ThoughtWorks’ Technology Radar, which provides insight into how different technologies evolve over time, it shows that Angular is the only in the ‘Trial’ ring. This means that while considered a solid choice without having yet fully matured as a framework.
React is a JavaScript library for UI development, yet some people call it a framework. It’s characterized as a JavaScript library used to create user interfaces. Facebook maintains React, which gives it a lot of credibility. Uber, Netflix, PayPal, Airbnb, Twitter, Walmart and many other “giants” have preferred React, which is a happy medium for large and middle-size projects. By the way, on Technology Radar, it’s on the “Adopt” stage, which means that the benefits React provides are highly acknowledged by the development world.
Vue.js is a breath of fresh air. The framework was first launched in 2014 and then relaunched in 2016. Vue describes itself as an “Intuitive, Fast and Integrable MVVM for creating interactive interfaces.” And at K&C we tend to agree with those adjectives.
The framework project’s main goal is to make ideas in web UI development (components, declarative UI, hot-reloading, time-travel debugging, etc.) more comprehensible. Less dogmatic, it is much simpler to learn for young developers compared to other frameworks.
Vue.js has been chosen by Alibaba, Nintendo, Expedia, and multiple other enterprise-level projects, defying the sometimes lazy assumption that it is a framework for single-page applications. The fact that Vue.js does not enjoy the backing of a “big corporation” makes its growing success all the more notable. Evan You, a former ‘Googler’, created Vue.js completely by himself.
Many opinion leaders regard this independence as a positive and it has actually resulted in a particularly diligent volunteer support community having sprung up around Vue. Problems and questions are typically responded to much more quickly than is the case with the big, corporation-backed frameworks such as Angular and React.
Another positive side effect is clear code/API which has not been ‘over-engineered’. It obviously hasn’t affected Vue.js’s position on Technology Radar, where it has achieved the same “Trial” status as Angular.
The Ember open source framework is an old friend of developers, originating from Apple Music. It is best known as a massive repository that serves as a dictionary for app development. It takes into account convention rather than juggling configurations and enables two-way data binding.
jQuery is a cross-platform Javascript library. It’s free, open-source very useful for work that involves DOM and Ajax requests. While jQuery has already become irreplaceable in some contexts it may not fit the needs of every application and limit your options.
So finally, which of Angular, Vue, jQuery, React or Ember should you choose for your app? As outlined above, each framework or library has its strengths and weaknesses. The right choice depends on the particular needs of an application and is also influenced by developer resources and business considerations. But we would be cheating if we left it so open at the end of such an extensive review of the five. So, here are some rules of thumb to help you decide:
And if you still can’t make up your mind, try them all out in different contexts. You’ll come to your own conclusions.
Krusche & Company’s offers React development experts as well as engineers experienced across Angular, Vue, jQuery, React and Ember. Our Munich-based web development, DevOps, Cloud and digital transformation agency has over 20-years of experience. We enable our partners’ digital business goals from enterprise portals for some of Europe’s best known brands to lean MVPs for promising start-ups and everything inbetween.
Our model of German management and nearshored tech talent combines to provide a unique blend of quality, control and price. Whether you need software development capacity, cloud migration or architecture or DevOps, a team extension or dedicated team please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to hear about your project needs and discuss how we could help you realise your objectives on point, on time and in cost.
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