Angular vs React vs Vue: The Best Framework for 2024 is…

A classic question that never seems to die (especially among new developers)... what is the best JavaScript framework - Angular, React, or Vue?

There are two main reasons people ask this question:

1. You want to decide which framework to use for a specific project
2. You want to decide which one is worth learning (ie: what’s best for your career)

In the end, each of these 3 frameworks serves basically the same purpose. They allow you to build rich front-end applications.

Angular is the entire kitchen that gives you all the tools necessary for you to build the meal that is your web app. If I am a bank with lots of developers, I like Angular to keep everyone working in the same pattern.

React is the oven. You’ll most likely need more tools to bake that cake, but it allows you the flexibility to pick and choose what tools you want based on your needs. If I’m a tech company with strong senior developers who can make good decisions, I like React.js.

Vue is the microwave that allows you to get up and running really fast and make your cooking life efficient and easy. If I am a startup with a young developer team and a strict deadline, I like Vue.js.

Yes, this is a simple example and there are many more things to consider when choosing a framework for your project.

But in general, one isn’t significantly better than the other and there’s no one tool that can do everything the best. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

So then how do you decide which one to use or learn?

Well, hopefully, this guide helps. I’ll give you all the information you should need so you can decide for yourself which framework is best for you depending on your situation.

Before I do that though… we need to ask ourselves:

Is this even the right question to ask?

If you want to be a great programmer, you need to change your mindset and stop thinking this way and stop asking questions like “which framework is best”.

Great programmers think in terms of pros and cons based on their needs:

• When should you pick one tool over the other?
• Why was this tool built? What problem was it trying to solve?
• Why would it be good in some situations and not in others?
• What end goal am I trying to achieve and what tool is best to achieve that goal?

These are the questions you should ask.

Being dogmatic and declaring one library or framework to rule them all is something only said by people who don’t know their history, can't be bothered to learn a new tool, or have some other vested interest.

For example:

jQuery, Backbone, and AngularJS (now just Angular), were all useful when they came out.

They provided 10x benefit to what there was before, but eventually, they all evolve and move on as the community grows, web platforms change, and user preferences shift.

What’s best today might not be best this time next year.

What you should care about more than React, Angular, or Vue

Great programmers are the ones who don’t just know how to use one of these tools.

More importantly, they see the high-level reason for why these tools exist and can make decisions on when to use one over the other by spending time learning what problems each tool solves.

They aren’t dogmatic about the tools they use. They pick the best tool for the job at hand.

They make sure they know the fundamentals and the tried and tested computer science topics that underlie everything like data structures & algorithms, how compilers work, how design patterns can help build large systems, etc.

They are ready for the next wave by having a long-term mindset.

The more years of experience you have, the more you start to realize that in order to keep up with the industry, you don’t need to memorize every single API, learn every hot new tool or framework that comes out, listen to every single podcast, watch every single conference talk, or read every single blog post.

You need to learn and understand the fundamental principles that underlie all these tools.

But that doesn’t mean you should ignore these tools. Being on the other end of the spectrum saying that all these libraries and tools are useless is just as bad.

If you have a drill available to you, why waste time and effort using a screwdriver?

Further recommended reading:

1. How to become a Software Engineer
2. 4 Habits of Great Software Engineers
3. The 10 Hard Truths About Being A Software Engineer
4. Don’t be a Junior Developer
5. How To Become A 10x Developer

So why learn any of these then?

As developers, we’re constantly seeking tools that can help us to build better applications and become more efficient. If there are tools that can help us do that, why not use them!

The same logic applies to all the AI hype happening these days. They’re simply tools. They don’t replace understanding the fundamentals and being able to ask the right questions and think creatively to solve problems.

Angular, React, and Vue all have major selling points to use and learn them:

1. High Demand in the Market: Startups, established companies, and tech giants all hunger for developers skilled in these technologies. By mastering any of these frameworks (and libraries), you become more marketable and open doors to more opportunities

2. Community Support: Each framework boasts an active community. Angular enjoys Google’s backing, React thrives under Facebook’s umbrella, and Vue - though not backed by a tech giant - has a passionate community rallying behind it

3. Learning Experience: Angular, React, and Vue all expose you to advanced JavaScript concepts. Whether it’s component-based architecture, reactive programming, or state management, you’ll grow as a developer from learning any of them

4. Rich Ecosystem: Beyond the core framework, each ecosystem also offers a treasure trove of complementary tools, libraries, and resources. These extras help to simplify complex tasks and enhance productivity

5. Career Growth: Armed with the right skills, you can level up your career. Whether you’re eyeing a new job, consulting gigs, or even launching your own venture, these frameworks can each play a pivotal role

Alright, now that we’re on the same page, let’s dive deep into each of these frameworks and compare their advantages, disadvantages, current job demand, developer usage, and developer satisfaction!

By the end, you’ll be able to make your own informed decision about which framework to use or learn.

Because I still get so many questions, I’ll give you a few of my own opinions along the way but you should also seek out the opinions of many experts, not any one person

Let’s do it!

Mile-High Comparison Chart

If you’re in a rush or prefer a quick overview, here’s a high-level comparison between Angular, React, and Vue:

You’ll notice that I’ve also looked into the current usage data (are people using it), job demand, and popularity (do people enjoy using it). I’ll share more on these later as if you’re just choosing a new skill to learn, these are probably the most important factors.

However, if you’re looking to learn more about these because you have a specific project in mind, here are some brief technical stats.

• Type: Angular is a full-fledged MVC framework. React is a library focused on building UI components. Vue is considered a progressive framework

• Language: Angular uses TypeScript which is a statically typed superset of JavaScript. Both React and Vue use JavaScript with the option to use JSX and also support TypeScript

• Learning Curve: Angular's learning curve is steep because of its comprehensive list of features and TypeScript. React has JSX, which can be a learning curve for beginners. Vue is relatively easy to learn, with an API that simplifies tasks and reduces the need for boilerplate code

• Popularity: React is the most popular among the three options, followed closely by Angular. Vue, while not as widely adopted as the other two, is gaining popularity for its simplicity and ease of use, with around 27% growth in daily downloads vs. last year

• Performance: All three options offer high performance, but React and Vue have an edge because of their virtual DOM feature

• Scalability: Angular is well-suited for large-scale applications due to its robust architecture and strong typing with TypeScript. React is backed by a rich ecosystem and also scales well, while Vue is better suited for scaling up small to medium-sized projects

• Community Support: All three have strong community support, with Angular backed by Google, React by Facebook, and Vue maintained by a vibrant open-source community

• Job Market Demand: React dominates in terms of job demand (in the US at least), followed by Angular with around ½ the number of open positions of React. Vue is gaining traction, but the US job market for Vue developers is currently much smaller than React and Angular. (It’s around 16% of the current React open roles!)

Important: Remember of course that this is a high-level overview, and there's more to picking one of these tools than a simple chart and notes. The best choice will always depend on your project requirements, personal preferences, and existing knowledge.

With the initial overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into each framework to understand their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Deep Dive: Angular

You can learn Angular here.

What is Angular?

Angular, originally introduced by Google in 2010 as AngularJS, is a powerful, full-featured JavaScript framework. In 2016, it underwent a complete rewrite and was relaunched as Angular.

Why was Angular created?

Angular was built to simplify and structure the process of building complex, large-scale web applications and single-page applications (SPAs).

It achieves this through its opinionated design, providing developers with strong guidelines on how applications should be structured and how components should interact. This involves adhering to a specific structure and coding pattern.

Angular primarily uses TypeScript, which is a statically typed superset of JavaScript.

TypeScript adds robust type-checking and features like decorators and interfaces to the language. This adherence to structure makes Angular code more predictable and easier to debug, especially in larger projects

Angular also aimed to solve the challenge of creating single-page applications - dynamic applications that can update and render portions of their content without requiring a full page reload from the server.

Pros of Angular

1. Comprehensive Solution: Angular is a complete package. It includes everything you need to build a complex web application, reducing the need for additional libraries

2. Component-Based Architecture: Angular’s component-based architecture promotes reusability, modularity, and easy management of components. For example, you can create reusable UI elements like navigation bars, buttons, and forms as Angular components

3. Dependency Injection: Angular follows a dependency injection design pattern, allowing for greater efficiency and modularity in your applications. By injecting services into components, you can manage shared data, authentication, and other cross-cutting concerns effectively

4. TypeScript: TypeScript usage in Angular leads to better type-checking and improved editor tooling, resulting in more robust software and productive developers. The static type system catches errors early, preventing runtime surprises

5. Mature & Robust Ecosystem: Angular has been around for a while, which means it has a mature ecosystem with abundant resources available. You’ll find extensive documentation, tutorials, and community-contributed packages

Cons of Angular

1. Steep Learning Curve: Angular’s comprehensive feature set, coupled with TypeScript can make it challenging to pick up for beginners. Learning Angular requires time and effort. However, once you grasp the concepts, you’ll appreciate the structure it provides

2. Verbose and Complex Syntax: Compared to Vue and React, Angular’s syntax can be more verbose and complex. The use of decorators, lifecycle hooks, and template syntax may feel overwhelming initially

3. Performance Issues: For extremely large datasets and complex applications, Angular might exhibit performance issues. Proper optimization, lazy loading, and smart component design are essential to mitigate this. That being said, if you’re following strict structure practices then you should be doing this anyway

TL;DR

Angular offers a comprehensive solution for complex web applications, thanks to its component-based architecture, strong dependency injection, TypeScript support, and a mature ecosystem. It’s a complete package that reduces the need for additional libraries.

However, Angular does have a steep learning curve due to its feature-rich nature and verbose syntax. Not only that, but performance issues may arise in large datasets, emphasizing the need for optimization strategies.

Understanding these pros and cons will help you make an informed decision about whether Angular is the right choice for your project.

Don’t make your choice just yet though. Let's first dive into similar details for React and Vue.

Deep Dive: React

You can learn React here.

What is React?

React is a JavaScript library developed and maintained by Facebook.

Important: React is not a full-featured framework like Angular – it's a library focused on the view part of your application.

This means that while you can use React to build the UI components of your application, you have the freedom to choose other libraries for other parts of your application like state management, routing, etc.

Why was this tool built?

React was created by Facebook in 2013 with the goal of simplifying the creation of interactive user interfaces. Not only that, but Facebook was finding issues with code maintainability as their applications grew increasingly complex.

Basically, they were looking for a way to break down complex UI into reusable pieces that could be managed independently, and that’s what they achieved with React.

The idea behind it was to have a tool that can build large applications with data that changes over time, and do it fast. To make this possible, React introduced the concept of the "Virtual DOM," which is a lightweight copy of the actual DOM.

This then allowed React to determine which parts of the actual DOM need to change without having to render the entire DOM tree, significantly boosting an application's performance.

Pros and Cons of React

As with any technology, React has its strengths and weaknesses.

Pros

1. Fast Learning Curve: React is much easier to learn compared to Angular, thanks to its focus on simplicity and its usage of JavaScript

2. Great Performance: React improves performance through the virtual DOM. Direct changes in the DOM are costly, but with a virtual DOM, React can calculate the minimal number of operations needed to keep the real DOM up-to-date

3. Flexibility: Unlike Angular, React provides more freedom and flexibility. You can choose the other technologies you want to add to your project, and are not limited

4. Community Support: React has a very active community and a rich ecosystem of libraries and tools

5. Backed by Facebook: React is used in production by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, demonstrating its reliability and efficiency

Cons

1. Only the View Layer: React only provides the view layer, so you need to choose and integrate with other libraries to have a complete tooling set

2. Too Much Flexibility: The flexibility that React provides can be overwhelming, especially for new developers. There are often a lot of ways to do the same thing, and it can be unclear which way is best

3. Fast-paced Ecosystem: While a rich and vibrant ecosystem is a pro, it also means that the libraries and tools in React's ecosystem change and evolve quickly, and keeping up with the latest tools can be challenging

TL;DR

React simplifies UI development, offers great performance through the virtual DOM, and enjoys strong community support. However, its flexibility can be overwhelming, and staying current with the fast-paced ecosystem requires effort.

Deep Dive: Vue

You can learn Vue here.

What is Vue?

Vue.js, simply known as Vue, is an open-source JavaScript framework for building user interfaces and single-page applications.

Why was Vue created?

Introduced in 2014 by Evan You, a former Google engineer, Vue is known for its ease of integration with existing projects thanks to its incrementally adoptable design. In fact, it's often dubbed a ‘progressive’ framework for this very reason.

The core principle guiding Vue's design was incremental adoptability - the ability to scale from managing small, static websites to powering large, complex single-page applications as and when the need arose.

The idea was to provide an intuitive, versatile tool that developers could effortlessly incorporate into their workflow, and simplify the work done with other frameworks like AngularJS.

Here’s how it works:

Vue works by focusing on the concept of components, promoting modularity and reusability in code.

This means that Vue can provide developers with a flexible approach to coding, with options to use JavaScript, TypeScript, or a JSX-like syntax. Also, similar to Angular, it uses a template syntax, allowing HTML and JavaScript to coexist in the same file.

While the core library concentrates on the view layer, integrating other libraries for added functionality is straightforward as the complexity of a project increases.

For example

For projects that require more advanced features, leveraging a Vue.js admin framework can simplify the integration of additional libraries and functionalities as the complexity of a project increases

Pros and Cons of Vue

As with any technology, Vue has its strengths and weaknesses.

Pros

1. Ease of Use: Vue is known for its simple and clean design. Most developers find Vue's API to be straightforward and intuitive

2. Flexible and Modular: Vue's component-based approach allows for great flexibility and modularity in coding

3. Performance: Vue's smaller size can lead to faster load times and improved performance in comparison to heavier frameworks

4. Detailed Documentation: Vue's documentation is very detailed and easily accessible, making it beginner-friendly

5. Community and Ecosystem: Although Vue is not backed by a tech giant like Angular or React, it boasts a vibrant and active community and its ecosystem is continually growing. This is actually a big deal, as smaller tools tend to have a much smaller ecosystem, but Vue is still growing

Cons

1. Language Barrier: A significant amount of resources and discussions are in Mandarin, as Vue has a large Chinese community. This can be a barrier for developers who aren't fluent in that language. More on this in a second

2. Less Job Market Demand: Currently, Vue has less demand in the US job market when compared with Angular and React

3. Over-flexibility: Vue's flexibility can sometimes lead to inconsistencies in code, particularly in larger teams.

TL;DR

Vue simplifies UI development, offers flexibility, and performs well. However, be aware of the potential language barrier, job market demand, and the need to manage flexibility effectively.

Why is there a potential language barrier?

Simply due to the adoption of the tool. Vue is used all over the world but it also happens to be the tool of choice for some giant Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi and DJI, as an alternative to React or Angular. Hence why the ecosystem has a lot of interactions in Mandarin.

With this in mind, job demand is really going to differ based on where you are in the world. Currently, the job opportunities for Vue in the US are quite small, but Asia might be quite different.

Developer Usage Comparison

I briefly hinted at some of these data points earlier, but let’s look into this a little more, and see what developer usage looks like across React, Angular, and Vue.

Why?

Because we want to know if people are actually using these tools, or if we’re just hearing a lot of hype.

Here is the total number of downloads by developers for each of these tools from NPM (as of April 2024):

Here are the Github stars visualized and compared to each other (as of April 2024):

And finally, here are the Google trends based on search terms (as of April 2024 - this could technically be related to job demand as well):

What we see in the data

So as you can see, people are definitely using these tools, but there is a big difference across them:

• Although already popular, React has seen an uptick in broad searches, as well as a 9.6% increase in daily downloads (1,615,212 more daily downloads)
• Search traffic for Angular has increased slightly, with daily downloads increasing by 4.7% (155,390 more daily downloads)
• While Vue is flat for search traffic (possibly due to other browsers being used in Asia, and so not showing up in many searches outside of there). However, it has seen a huge uptick in daily downloads, with a 27% increase from last year (1,060,479 more daily downloads)

My 2 cents:

In terms of actual usage from what we can with these data points, React has the highest developer activity while Angular comes in second, and Vue comes in a close 3rd.

Why do we care about this popularity when choosing one of these tools?

Because this popularity affects a few things that you might not have taken into consideration before.

There is almost always more documentation, blog posts, and activity around the more popular ecosystems, and fewer resources around the less popular. (This happens all the time).

This means that it’s going to be easier to find resources and support for React than it might be for Angular or Vue. With this in mind, I recommend choosing React if a vibrant ecosystem is important to you.

Job Demand Comparison

So now that we know which tools are being used the most, let’s look at the job market also, before we make any decisions.

Why do this?

Well, it would suck to learn a popular tool because devs are downloading and using it, only to find out there are not that many positions jobs available.

So let’s have a look at the numbers:

My criteria for selecting the data was the following:

All jobs were based on open US positions only, so we can get a rough idea of the US job market.

Then I looked at multiple sources and combined the open positions for each.

• LinkedIn is one of, if not the biggest job board. This is a worldwide search for developer job postings for each library
• Indeed, SimplyHired and Dice are 3 big tech job boards in the USA so the search is geographically targeted there. You may not live in the US, but it’s good to see what is happening in a very important location for tech
• WellFound (formerly AngelList) is probably the best job board for startups. We get to see what startups and newer more modern companies are using in tech

What we see in the data:

React is the top dog with the most open positions by far, at 80,615 jobs available. Then we have Angular with 37,849 and Vue with 13,074 jobs open.

Again though, this is for US based job postings only, so take that into consideration.

My 2 cents:

Learn React or Angular if you are looking to have the most options for employment. (At least in the US anyway).

However, let’s look at the final comparison before we lock in our choice.

Developer Opinion Comparison

Although money is important, it's not everything, and ideally, you want to be working with tools that you enjoy right?

With this in mind, let's take a look at StackOverFlow's latest survey to see what devs are saying about each library.

However, before we get into it, I need to explain a few things.

For this year's survey, StackOverFlow changed from their previous tracking of ‘most loved, hated, and wanted’ to a new methodology called 'admired and desired'.

It’s a little confusing at first glance, so here's how it works:

• Desired - The blue dot represents the percentage of people surveyed who want to work with the tool but haven’t yet
• Admired - The red dot represents how many people are currently using it, and also want to keep using it. This helps us understand if they like using the tool
• Finally, the length of the bar between these 2 dots helps to get an idea of the current user awareness or demand for a tool. For example, only 17.42% of people surveyed want to learn to use Vue. But of the people who currently use it, 57.87% want to keep using it

What we see in the data:

As you can see, devs love React with 63.61% of those who currently use it, wanting to continue to work with it.

Interestingly, Vue is right up there next to it at 57.87%, and Angular is not far behind at 50.75%.

My 2 cents:

If you want to be happy and have the best experience when you are developing, React or Vue are your best choices.

So which should you learn… React, Angular, or Vue?

It’s always important to draw your own conclusions and make sure you’re taking into account your own goals and the strengths and limitations of each tool.

However, just because you asked nicely, my personal recommendation is that React is still the best framework that I would choose to learn between the three.

If we look at the criteria we’ve covered so far:

• React is in demand and used at multiple large companies
• There is a huge difference in job opportunities for React vs Angular and Vue
• React is not only popular, but it's continuing to grow with around 9.6% more downloads per day over last year (for an increase of approx 1,615,212 more daily downloads)
• React is moderately easy to use, assuming you already have JavaScript experience. It's not as easy to learn as Vue, but it is easier to learn than Angular
• Many devs (myself included) like using it

React does the best job of hitting all of these factors.

So if you have limited time and you shouted “TELL ME! JUST TELL ME ONE TO STUDY AND LEARN” and you yell really loud, I would tell you to learn React.

However, this doesn’t mean you should forget about Angular or Vue. They are both still great frameworks.

Everybody has their own opinion and each tool exists to solve a problem. There is no winner-take-all in the tech space (at least not until AI bots by BostonDynamics take over our world).

So use the data I've provided combined with your own goals (and maybe some further research) to make an informed decision based on your needs.

If you're interested in learning any of them, then come join Zero To Mastery where we teach all 3 of these frameworks!

And the really cool thing about this? As a ZTM Academy member, you have access to every course in our collection. So you can change your mind anytime or if you want to be a crazy programmer polyglot, you can learn all three!

Each of these bootcamp courses is constantly being updated and improved so you’re always learning the most up-to-date information. Also, each of these frameworks has its own dedicated channels inside of our Private Discord community.

You can ask questions from each of the instructors, other students, and even other alumni who are working as full-time developers!

P.S. Want a sample of our Vue and React courses?

Still on the fence? Check out these two free crash courses.

Each of them provides you with the first ~6 hours of our full Bootcamp courses so you can learn the basics with no strings attached.

If you love them and want to keep going deeper, then come join ZTM to take the full boot camp.

Here's the free React crash course video:

And here's the free Vue crash course video:

We don’t have an Angular crash course just yet (maybe soon though 👀!).

Whenever we do, I’ll add it here… or you can subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss it.

In the meantime, you can check out the first few videos from our Angular course for free here.

All that’s left now is for you to decide on which framework (or library) that you want to use. Happy coding!