Did you know that there are about seven hundred different coding languages? While some lists have around two hundred core languages, when you count variants, that adds hundreds more.
In the last decade, two, in particular, have become popular. Angular and Vue.js – or Vue – have become core programming languages.
But with this popularity comes plenty of people comparing Angular vs. Vue. From the point of front-end development, how do you know you’re picking the right coding language?
If you’ve been trying to decide between Angular and Vue for your programming language, we’re here to help. Here’s a quick guide to the two languages, their similarities, and which performs best under which circumstances.
What Are These Languages?
With the Angular vs. Vue debate, it’s important to know what specifically is being discussed. What are these languages? Why do specifics matter, and why can’t you just pick one at random?
Both of these languages work as JavaScript frameworks that can help outline your project. While they have some deep similarities, there’s plenty to explore from each individual as well.
Angular
Angular is a web application framework that was first released by Google in 2010 as AngularJS. Based on TypeScript, this open-source language is behind some of the most well-known web applications available.
Users often prefer Angular for its wide array of functionality features. Many also applaud its high performance, favoring Angular for interactive pages. Overall, it’s a powerful, versatile language that is used for strong front-end development.
Vue
Vue.js – more often simply called Vue – is also an open-source front-end development framework. Evan, You released this JavaScript framework in late 2015, with the earliest form released in 2014. You have admitted that much of Vue was influenced by Angular, which they were familiar with from their time working for Google.
Vue is an extremely versatile language that programmers use in a variety of situations. Many have come to favor Vue for its simplicity and flexibility. While still a young language, it’s bloomed in popularity immensely over the few years it’s been active.
Who Uses What?
It’s helpful to know what sort of programs are created in which language. That way, you can have a decent gauge of what sort of projects utilize Angular or Vue.
Angular is behind some of the biggest names on the market. Upwork, PayPal, Forbes, and even IBM work in part by using Angular.
Vue is found in popular products like Grammarly and 9Gag, two massively popular pages. Buzzfeed, Gitlab, and even Nintendo run off of Vue’s framework.
Pros of Angular
As a front-end development language, Angular is one of the most popular languages to utilize on the market. Designers use Angular for a massive variety of projects, often utilizing other tools with it. It’s easily one of the most popular languages on the market at the moment.
Popularity Breeds Community
Popularity doesn’t just let you know that the language is common and used. Instead, popularity comes with some noticeable benefits.
Because millions of programmers use Angular, you’ll have a wide community to help you figure out any issues. If you’ve ever had to search the internet for fixes to a program that refuses to compile, you know how great this truly is.
Angular has a wide community of engineers to help provide materials, new tools, and solutions to any problems. Due to this popularity, Angular also enjoys frequent updates and releases that continuously increase its functionality.
Modular Development Structure
Angular utilizes a modular development structure for front-end development. In short, this means that Angular works to separate functions into individual building blocks.
These blocks each contain everything they need to execute a function. By doing so, these modules are flexible and adapted much easier.
A modular development structure provides Angular with excellent reusability and ease of editing when working with the program. It makes discovering and fixing issues a much easier task than it is for many others. Hybrid web development is also a key perk.
Dependency Injection
One term you’ll see frequently while researching Angular is the concept of Dependency Injection. This can help transfer a functionality’s dependencies into the needed code. Dependency injection creates objects, seeks out the classes requiring them, and then applies the correct object.
This makes code significantly more readable by making a component’s dependencies easier to note. Rather than have to scan hundreds upon hundreds of lines of code, Angular makes it easy for you!
Cons of Angular
Of course, it isn’t all upsides. Angular is an effective and popular language, but it isn’t flawless.
While a community helps find answers, there are times when the code just won’t cooperate. Here are a few of the most commonly stated downsides of working with Angular.
Overly Complex
Angular is far from a simple language, which can make it difficult to work with. Even the most proficient front-end development team is likely to complain about the verbosity of the language.
This also comes with a bit of repetitiveness, which can make churning out code a bit more frustrating. Lining up the files needed for a component, then the dependencies, and then everything else needed to get a single function running can be monotonous. It’s even worse when you have to do it over and over again.
Difficult to Learn
While some languages can be simple to pick up, Angular certainly isn’t. There’s a variety of tools that one needs to learn to utilize Angular properly.
TypeScript and RxJS both are efficient tools that are practically essential for Angular. Because of that, most programmers can struggle to translate their abilities into the language.
Newcomers that are learning Angular before any other language are sure to have an incredibly difficult time. This strong learning curve can feel disheartening until things finally click.
Pros of Vue
Now that we’ve looked at a small sampling of what Angular has to offer, let’s move on to Vue. There are many similarities between the languages, and the same can be said for their features.
That said, in many of the places where Angular fails, Vue succeeds. Given that Vue was created to smooth out some of the issues with Angular, it makes sense that it would have left behind most of the cons.
Efficient and Simple
While Angular is sometimes bemoaned for complexity, Vue’s greatest perk is simplicity. Vue is specifically made for programmers to be able to work efficiently without great effort.
That isn’t to say that it’s a “lazy” language. Vue is there to make it so that programmers can easily work with their code as quickly as possible. This also makes it much more user-friendly and simple to learn!
While far from easy, a beginning coder would have a much easier time picking up Vue than Angular. The increased simplicity makes beginners learn quicker, and experts work much, much faster.
Wide Integration
Vue can easily integrate into other languages, such as another customized framework. It’s common for programmers to integrate Vue with React.
Additionally, Vue is capable of integrating with JavaScript and HTML. This is because of two-way communication as a result of its MVVM (Model-view-view model) architecture.
Being able to integrate Vue with so many things makes it a breeze behind the scenes and a blessing server side. Such a widely customizable framework can greatly increase your front-end development’s efficiency without great effort.
Customizable and Free
Vue works with incredibly few restrictions, which can bog down some other, more complex languages. The design of the language provides a great deal of flexibility through its many features.
Additionally, developers enjoy a great deal of customizability. Segments can work with separate functions, making any block of code extremely versatile to the programmer’s needs.
Cons of Vue
Just as Angular has a few issues, Vue does as well.
Here are some of the most commonly cited problems with Vue.
Lack of Support
Vue enjoys a sizeable community, but that doesn’t mean that it’s as massive as some others. More than anything, it lacks the funding and backing that other more notable languages have.
That means that issues can likely take longer to resolve on every end. This often prevents Vue from being used in larger projects where mistakes can be more costly. While it’s seen some adaptation in larger organizations, this is often done to only power small parts of a page.
Limited Tools
While Angular enjoys using a massive number of tools, Vue hasn’t quite developed the same library. Users often are let down upon finding the language lacks a wide variety of tools.
Languages like React and Angular have hundreds more plug-ins and tools to utilize. This can make Vue feel like a much more limited language, especially for experienced programmers.
Young and Growing
One con can only see improvement with time: the language is still growing. Vue has been a language for less than a decade.
This can make it difficult to find a pool of highly experienced developers or professionals. It’s also one of the main reasons that the tools and plug-ins are comparatively scarce.
As Vue is more readily adopted and utilized, this will eventually change over time.
When to Use Angular
Angular has plenty of uses that Vue simply won’t work as well in.
For example, Angular’s greater support system and community mean that it’s better for wide-scale applications. Larger enterprises and higher-volume websites will often utilize Angular.
Because of this, Angular is also preferential when being used by a large team. Projects that work for future scalability are also better suited to Angular than Vue.
If your project has strong needs server-side, Angular is likely to support them much better as well. Cross-platform or hybrid web development is a key strength of Angular.
In short, larger projects will be better suited to Angular. Projects that the developers intend to grow significantly larger than they started can benefit from running on Angular as well. This is because of a wide tool library, powerful processing, and a versatile framework.
When to Use Vue
The same condition is true for Vue! While there are times when Angular is the clear winner, there are others when Vue is the better choice by far.
Vue is a more simple language than Angular, so it stands to reason that the projects utilizing Vue will also be more simple. As such, smaller projects will benefit from Vue.
Projects that highlight development with simplicity and flexibility are the strong winners for Vue. Single-page applications and simple interactable generally work decently well with the language.
Customizability is key for Vue, which means that the projects utilizing it should be those that value the customizable framework. Image boards or portfolios are commonly powered by Vue for this reason.
That said, don’t think that Vue can’t handle larger tasks. While other languages might be better fitted to the job, Vue is still used to power parts of Netflix, Facebook, Adobe, and many more.
Building for the Future With Angular vs. Vue
The Angular vs. Vue debate is almost undoubtedly going to continue well into the future. As more and more tools and plug-ins help improve each language, as well as the languages evolving, there’s always something new to learn.
Whichever language you choose, you’ll have a plethora of support options and future developments to look forward to. Take stock of your project’s needs to see which language best suits you.
If you’re ready to get to work on your project, be sure to contact us as soon as possible!
