Comparison Between Angular 11 vs 12 vs 13 [Detailed]

Why Angular is Popular?
AngularJS was developed in 2010 with the aim of building interactive web applications and has since gained immense popularity among front-end developers. It is an open-source framework that allows developers to solve many of the problems associated with the development of web applications.

With the JavaScript MVC framework, it is possible to create dynamic web applications with a variety of features. Among the many benefits that it provides to developers, it enables them to develop web applications that are attractive, engaging, and easy to use.

Compared to other JS frameworks, AngularJS offers unique functionalities and advantages. As a result, AngularJS has become one of the most popular frameworks in the world. With its agile development process, the project is able to save a lot of money as well as time on the development side of the project. The bottom line is, as a business owner, if you are thinking about creating a web app but are confused about how to choose the right framework to use, then AngularJS will be the ideal choice to make.

AngularJS is considered a web application development tool that’s always chosen by web owners because of its progressive features. Brands like Guardian, Upwork, Freelancer, JetBlue, PayPal, Netflix, Lego, use AngularJS. So there is no doubt that it is one of the most popular frameworks but people are still confused by the recent release of AngularJS which version should opt for Angular 11 or 12 or 13.

Therefore to clear all your doubts we have done an Angular version comparison and we have tried to differentiate the difference between Angular 11, 12, 13.

Angular 13

View Engine is No Longer Available
Angular 13 does not support the legacy View Engine. Maintaining View Engine incurs maintenance costs, and Angular 13 codebases are more complex because of it. Angular now supports only Ivy as a view engine so that users do not have to bother with that hassle.

This change will result in the automatic migration of some existing libraries to partial compilation mode, as well as the removal of some metadata, which were previously required by the legacy View Engine. Additionally, all internal tools will be converted to Ivy ahead of time in order to avoid interruptions during the transition.

Changes to Angular Package Format
Angular Framework packages and View Engine metadata are defined by the Angular Package Format (APF). I think this is an excellent method of packaging every third-party library associated with the development of a web project.

The new version of the APF contains some significant changes that are worth noting. There are some older output formats, including some View Engine-specific metadata, that have been removed from Angular 13.

NGCC will no longer be required when APF is updated. This means that developers can now anticipate faster execution as a result of these changes.

IE11 Support Removed
The Angular team has removed support for Internet Explorer 11 in order to take advantage of web APIs that are native to it, as well as modern features found in modern browsers such as CSS variables and web animations. Because of the absence of IE-specific polyfills and no need for differential loading, this is able to offer a smaller bundle size and faster load time for apps, along with improved user experience.

If you still use IE 11 and have not yet upgraded to Microsoft Edge or any modern browser, this breaking change will certainly pose a problem for any authorities or institutions.

TypeScript 4.4 Support
The latest version of Angular supports TypeScript 4.4. This means that we will be able to take advantage of a variety of language features. Additionally, the latest release does not support TypeScript 4.2 or 4.3.

TypeScript 4.4 introduces a breaking change that is advantageous to Angular applications, that is, it doesn’t implement setters and getters to get similar types anymore, which is a positive change.

Node.js Versions Prior to 12.20 are No Longer Supported
It is no longer possible to use versions of Node.js prior to 12.20.0 with Angular 13. This is because of the fact that the packages for Angular now use the package export features from Node.js using subpath patterns.

RxJS Version 7.4
RxJS is a reactive extension for JavaScript. There are various versions of RxJS included in the Angular 13 upgrade, including versions up to and including version 7.

Now, RxJS 7.4 is the default when apps are created with ng new.

It is necessary to update existing RxJS v6.x applications manually through the use of the npm install rxjs@7.4 command. You can, however, create new projects using RxJS 7 in any case. If you are already working with RxJS 6, then you should continue to do so.

Router Changes
The routing system allows us to move from one view to another. By interpreting the URL in the browser as a request to change the view, it simplifies navigation.

A router no longer changes the browser URL which is navigation cancels the current navigation after the newest update.

A number of problems were encountered with compatibility with previous versions of Angular, most notably query parameters. When you put a question mark in a query parameter, the default URL serializer drops everything. On the other hand, the latest update makes query parameters compatible with question marks.

Annul or undefined input to a router link detective was equivalent to an empty string, and it could be navigated as before. In order to prevent full navigation, the values for the link directive variables should always be null or undefined.

Angular CLI Enhancements
A crucial part of Angular is the CLI. Angular CLI simplifies the process of managing web development’s difficulties by reducing complexity across the board.

As part of the release of Angular 13, the framework now comes with a persistent build-cache, which means you can use it for your built-in results, saving them to the disc as a default feature. It is as a result of this that the growth and development process will be accelerated. As a result, you get to choose whether or not you would like this feature to be enabled and disabled in current Angular projects.

Time for Debugging and Testing has been Improved
Angular applications and libraries that are internal to the framework use TestBed as their unit testing API.

TestBed’s new version has been released with improved test API in order to decrease test time. With the new framework, the test environment can now be set up and down automatically and the DOM can now be learned automatically after each test cycle. Therefore, tests are faster and less resource-intensive, and they are more isolated.

Ergonomic APIs
Angular v13 has proven a considerable improvement in load performance due to its ergonomic code-splitting APIs and granular disruption of code at the component level. Additionally, ESBuild has improved performance as well.

ESBuild is a JavaScript bundler that is incredibly fast. As of now, it also works in conjunction with Terser to optimize worldwide scripts. Furthermore, it also supports CSS source maps, which allow it to optimize globally as well. Additionally, this bundler provides support for other framework languages like Vue, Svelte, and Elm in addition to the JavaScript language.

Accessibility Update in Angular Material
Accessibility (A11y) has been improved in Angular Material: all Material Design Components (MDCs) have been reviewed in order to make them more accessible. Among these changes are the larger sizes of checkboxes and radio buttons, along with improved high contrast modes for other components.

New Type of Forms
In Angular 13 an entirely new type for forms has been introduced, which is FormControlStatus. Basically, it represents a union of all the possible status strings for form controls:

Instead of String containing the AbstractControl.status, AbstractControl will be now FormControlStatus.
Instead of observable, StatusChanges are observable.

Inline support for Adobe Fonts
As part of Angular’s upgrade to version 13, Adobe fonts will be supported inline, as well. An app’s functionality can be boosted by using these fonts by accelerating the FCP (First Contentful Paint). The good news is that this change is now available to everyone by default. You do not have to do anything other than to run ng update.

Improvement in Localization
Developers have the ability to use the $localize API to provide a better approach for tagging messages, i18n, and in-built translations. For instance, codes are translated and templates are translated using the $localize API.

Component API Updates
Using Ivy, developers can also dynamically create components and enjoy their work more. The previous complex APIs have now been simplified. Angular v13 made it easy to dynamically create components without having to write too much boilerplate code prior to the changes.

With the new API, ComponentFactoryResolver does not need to be injected into constructors. Ivy provides the ability to create a component directly without configuring an associated factory with ViewContainerRef.createComponent.

Continue Reading: Comparison Between Angular 11 vs 12 vs 13 [Detailed]