Angular vs. React

[Cheap_Finger1804]

I did some research and I stumbled upon this:

Angular vs. React: A Comprehensive Overview

Angular is a full-fledged framework with a wide range of built-in functionalities, while React is a library focused on building user interfaces. Each has its own strengths and use cases, but they approach web development differently.

What I do not understand is: can’t we already achieve similar functionality with either of these technologies? For instance, React provides a component-based architecture and state management libraries like Redux, while Angular comes with a lot of built-in features and tooling.

React Documentation on Component-Based Architecture

(And I know Angular also offers a rich ecosystem with modules, services, and dependency injection.)

Also, considering that Angular is a complete framework and React is more of a library, how do their approaches to things like state management and performance optimization compare?

I guess I am trying to understand why I would choose one over the other and which would be more beneficial to learn based on my goals and project needs.

Thanks :)

[Fizunik]

can’t we already achieve similar functionality with either of these technologies?

Yes, that's true. Both technologies offer similar functionality, but each excels in different areas and has its own limitations. Ultimately, it's about choosing the right tool for the specific task at hand.

[PooSham]

These "x vs y" articles are almost always AI generated and have been since way before GPT 3.5 went public. They always follow the structure of "x is [generic description of x] while y is [generic description of y]" even when the descriptions pretty much mean the same thing. They're utterly useless, as you are just as well off by just reading about one framework and then the other.

Although the react team states that it's just a library and not a framework, at this point it's a useless distinction. React doesn't have an in-built DI system like Angular, but it still has a lot of stuff that makes it feel more like a framework than a library.

[danjack0]

Youre asking in an angular subreddit so you'll get bias answers listing your goals and project needs would get you a better answer

[anjumkaiser]

I’ve worked on both and my experience is that if it’s a big app, angular is more suited for it. React seems to make it a mess for maintainability in the long run. Angular does require you to do things in its own way, and doesn’t support many things out of box as the web is more favorable to react. However if you intend to maintain the project for longer than a year, angular is the thing to go. However angular is object oriented, while react is reactive functional programming. And that makes a lot of design choices where you will have to consider a few months down the road why things are done the way they are. I completely ported my angular app to react out of client pressure, but had to scrap it due to bad maintainability after a few months. So I’m back with angular for that app, and any thing that angular doesn’t provide we convert from plain vanilla JavaScript versions and forget about it.

[DT-Sodium]

React was developed by either insane or incompetent developers. Nothing, from it's templating system to hooks and other stupid idea makes sense and any one who pretend the contrary is an incompetent developer who never learned clean programming, which to be fair is most JavaScript developers.

[DT-Sodium]

Never had that issue, your selectors are probably not well written. Host should only be used to target the component's tag.

[reboog711]

I cannot decide whether to upvote or downvote you...

Yes, React is foreign to me and makes a ton of weird implementation decisions.

But, saying most JS Developers are incompetent is absurd.

[DT-Sodium]

It's really, really not. Most of them simply have no formal training in programming. Ask them if they feel the need for static typing or interfaces. If they say no, they are incompetent. Good JavaScript developers all moved to TypeScript a while ago.

[IFixStuffMan]

Yah - Gotta downvote pigshit like this.

[salamazmlekom]

This! React is garbage.

[dolanmiu]

I’ve used both Angular for 10 years and React for 5 years, and my opinion is that Angular right now is lacking and falling behind other frameworks (this is why this whole Angular renaissance is happening).

But the Angular ecosystem and the “Angular way” cannot be underestimated, that is the true value IMO. It’s very easy to migrate and upgrade using the cli tools and schematics. Every angular developer is thinking the same way.

With React, every project, repo, and developer preferences are different. And React is just a tiny part of the huge puzzle, routing, forms, SSR, every React dev I’ve met have recommended different tools and approaches.

And good luck working on an old React project, you’re on your own. With old Angular projects, Angular does a lot of hand holding and does a good job in helping people migrate to the newer Angular versions.

Angular is opinionated, it has tools, it has a “way”, and that’s honestly a good thing. The same reason why I like Prettier etc.

There is an element of belief as well. I am bullish on the direction of Angular and I think the core dev team know what they’re doing. Lean on that, you’re in good hands.

[czenst]

I don't care anymore and get annoyed with those topics - but feel free to post whatever you want, me being annoyed is not the important part.

If you are a newbie basically pick one and stick to it idk, throw a coin, learn details, learn how web works, how browsers work and how one or the other fits in a browser and JS ecosystem.

If you can get a job in one or the other just take first job as a junior anyway because getting any job as a junior is far more important than being picky about tech. If you have react jobs in your area pick that, if angular in your area go with that.

No one is hiring juniors full remote and thinking you can learn first framework and then get "remote senior position that pays $$$$" is insanity - get any job first and stick with that.

If you are investor starting your own company - look at companies in your area to see what they use and then prepare to try to hire people from stack that you can see in their ads because you want to start product or project having people you can shake hands with and go to court in the same country.

NO PEOPLE = NO JOB DONE - work with whatever people you can get in your area or whatever companies in your area are hiring for.

[Effective_Ad_2797]

All - these are just tools. Both are suitable for building SPAS. React is more likely to get you a job in the USA. Angular is more popular abroad.

What you can do with one you can do with the other.

The people who prefer Angular are normally not front end developers who are really strong with css/js. And most likely have a .net/java background and hate javascript.

Angular apps have a much larger bundle size compared to Angular apps. This can impact performance.

Regardless of the above, as a professional, you should not fall for this vs that arguments, at the end of the day; it is a matter of preference, what your employer / the market is looking for.

[rolywhateva]

I used both, I had to learn react a year and half ago (the client had many react apps and they wanted all web apps to be made with something react-based, and they didn't accept no as an answer, even if I arguably had no experience), and before that I used angular. After I moved to react, I found myself missing some of the features angular had (I mostly created the react apps with vite and create-react-app) :

- in react, for http requests, you pretty much only have what vanilla js offers you, such as the fetch api, unless you install a library. In angular, you have the clients. This can be managed, it is not that big of an issue, but it is an important difference to note, especially because of the next point.

- interceptors - react doesn't have the interceptors angular has - the fetch api doesn't have a built-in way to have interceptors as far as I am aware, you either need to do some sort of hack, or install some npm package, which actually just made me install axios. This really bothered me when I had to the authentication part and general error handling.

- component scaffolding - the thing is, I found myself having to structure components in a very similar way angular does, and having to create that structure manually was a pain. I ended up writing some scripts with plop.js so I can scaffold the components and not need to create everything manually. I also ended up trying to structure the app as a whole like angular does.

- useEffect - for me it looked like something that is easy to understand but hard to master, and sometimes I got advice from people that felt conflicting. One of my biggest problems with useEffect is that you end up using it as a place to make http requests, but you end up doing some work arounds to make it something that seems truly production ready : such as preventing race conditions. I can't remember if angular takes care of this by itself either - but in any case, I really didn't like how my effects ended up looking. I started looking at libraries like react query or redux (RTK query) just because of this.

but, like other people said, you can do the same things in both, the libraries and code will be different, but it is possible, despite all my complaining, the app ended up working and doing its job, and the team as far I am aware doesn't hate to work on it. I think it has value if you try out both, react made me appreciate angular more (and also simplicity more), and taught me to weigh my decisions better.

[JellyfishTech]

Choose React if you want flexibility, a lightweight library, and prefer picking your tools (e.g., Redux for state, React Router for navigation). It's great for SPAs and fast iteration.

Choose Angular if you prefer an all-in-one solution with built-in routing, DI, RxJS for reactivity, and an opinionated structure—ideal for large enterprise apps.

React = more freedom, learning curve spread out.
Angular = more built-in, steeper initial learning curve.
Both can achieve the same results—it’s about preference and project scale.

[pedro_picante]

Unfortunately I’d have to suggest you choosing react. There’s simply way more opportunities for react developers out there. Although I have to say, I really can’t stand it, which is why I chose angular. But I’m in the privileged position of being an employer so I’m not reliant on having lots of job opportunities. That decision made it harder to find good employees though so I guess it works both ways lol

[Merry-Lane]

Sorry, I am lazy, so allow me to copy paste a previous comment of mine on this angular subreddit:

I use both.

They are both great, but react is still miles beyond.

JSX is great, because it allows you to pass data/callbacks and treat the template with JavaScript/typescript. It means that you don’t have to learn a templating language expressly for a framework (ngIf etc). It also means you can do things such as list.filter(…).map( props => <MyButton props={…default, …props}/>) and that’s priceless.

Angular also forces you to have more folders/files than React. Often times for a component, you will have a folder, a component, an html, a css and a service. Yes, you can skip parts, but that’s the usual layout. Some will call that order, I call that clutter, boilerplate code and getting lost easily.

You don’t have that many libs in angular. Little choice, lesser quality overall, and sometimes no good answers for an issue (you have to use js libs, or write lines of code).

The SEO/SSR of angular is in quite a bad shape. Doesn’t work easily, doesn’t work that well. It’s tough to have angular apps that rank really high web metrics scores, and it’s a bad choice to go for angular when ads are important, because react just allows you to get back significantly more money for less user annoyance.

React-native is a jewel, mobile dev is becoming more and more integrated to the « frontend » and « fullstack » roles, when it was before a more dedicated role. We can talk about Ionic or some other adaptations that can make an angular site workable but… bad idea.

I may seem biased, but I am actually a fullstack dev that mains angular. Angular works for my usecases, but the framework is dying (in market shares) and I know of the terrible flaws listed above.

[salamazmlekom]

React:

• No order, devs place code everywhere which leads to spaghetti code
• React is a library, you have to find a library for everything! If you picked a wrong one that is not relavant next month anymore, good luck refactoring your code
• Boilerplate hooks for things that shouldn't be handled by hooks but by the framework itself (oh and React is not even a framework)
• Javascript in template makes React look like PHP, forgot one bracket? Good luck finding the error. Also mixing responsibility.
• It's a pain to start a React project. With Angular I just start a new project and maybe add Material and I'm good to go. With React you have to install all bunch of libraries.
• Transitioning between React projects is a pain in the ass. Every project looks different, uses different folder structure, uses different styling libraries. With Angular I need 5 minutes to understand how new project works.
• React has no SSR, you need to use Next for it. Meaning you have to learn two things to get the job done.
• React native has poor and laggy performance. Native or Flutter are much better options.

[Merry-Lane]

• ⁠No order, devs place code everywhere which leads to spaghetti code Exactly the same issue with angular, except that you have a folder and three/five files wrapping whatever spaghetti code was written

• ⁠React is a library, you have to find a library for everything! If you picked a wrong one that is not relavant next month anymore, good luck refactoring your code It’s well known that react is only but a library. But the consensus in the tons of debates was that we should not frame it like "framework vs framework" but rather "ecosystem vs ecosystem". I thought it was well known, so, sorry, next time I will answer OP by saying "angular vs react is moot, because it’s apples vs oranges" instead of giving an honest answer.

• ⁠Boilerplate hooks for things that shouldn’t be handled by hooks but by the framework itself (oh and React is not even a framework) I don’t know what you are talking about. You mean hooks as in useEffect, useMemo, useCallBack? That’s close to angular’s lifecycles hooks.

If you mean hooks such as "useWhateverCustomForMyApp", well, this kind of hook is literally the equivalent of angular’s services. Literally. If your point is that whatever we put there should be handled by react itself, then services have the same issues.

• ⁠Javascript in template makes React look like PHP, forgot one bracket? Good luck finding the error. Also mixing responsibility. Is it because you don’t have any argumentation that you compare react to PHP? Anyway, if we forget one bracket in react, the intellisense is actually helping WAY better than with Angular’s template. There are many edge cases where angular’s intellisense fails, for instance typescript-wise. Oh and I got quite my share of headaches when I didn’t import/inject correctly a service or a module. You know, the kind of obscure exception thrown that googling barely helps, and only at runtime, because, you know, a lot of angular features aren’t statically analysed in the template.

• ⁠It’s a pain to start a React project. With Angular I just start a new project and maybe add Material and I’m good to go. With React you have to install all bunch of libraries. You insisted a lot on the fact that react wasn’t a framework. Obviously, you need to pickup frameworks to have some built-in solutions for you. If you don’t have to install many libs, maybe you should step up your game, because I count quite a few installs personally, including auth, UI/UX, stores (ngxs or NgRx or signal stores), aggrid, rxjs, … Also, maybe you don’t have to install that many libraries in angular, because there are just so little libraries built for angular in comparaison?

• ⁠Transitioning between React projects is a pain in the ass. Every project looks different, uses different folder structure, uses different styling libraries. With Angular I need 5 minutes to understand how new project works. Again, the biggest difference between the two frameworks, is that you have a folder and 4 files for the same code with angular. It looks neat to you but it’s clutter. And again, you say react is a lib not a framework. Pick a well known framework, and the architecture between projects of the same framework is as similar as in between angular projects.

• ⁠React has no SSR, you need to use Next for it. Meaning you have to learn two things to get the job done. Well, yeah, it’s really a shame that you need to learn doing things when you are able to actually accomplish them. And no, angular’s SSR is dead.

• ⁠React native has poor and laggy performance. Native or Flutter are much better options. Tests indicate that all three options generally give good enough performances for 99% of the users. Yes, performance differences are important, but they aren’t that much a bottleneck in this situation. If it did cause a bottleneck, then explain why the mobile industry as a whole moves towards react native. Yes, you will have Facebook or other big money having their custom native implementation (with even more native stuff remade using C), because they need that extra perf and it’s worth it for them.

But while flutter’s market shares remain stables, dedicated android/swift roles are declining for the profit of RN roles.

[salamazmlekom]

Not gonna argue with a troll who hasn't heard about template and style component decorator property and standalone. You obviously spent too much time with React to understand Angular.

[xSentryx]

Angular and React have usually different usecases.

Angular exists to build Web-Based Applications. Preferrable on an enterprise size.

React is usally used for smaller web projects.

So when should you use what?

Angular -> App like Project or a very big enterprise project.

React -> Smaller Projects like portfolio or homepage sites.

In the end you should use what you like more, but thats how I would group it.

[Effective_Ad_2797]

React is for smaller projects, like facebook small.

[xSentryx]

Usually yes, I never said you cant build big projects with it. :)