Making decisions can be challenging, especially in our daily lives. As software engineers, we must make a crucial decision before working, whether on a side project or a larger scale: Which framework should we choose? This challenge is particularly daunting in JavaScript, with enough options to cause decision paralysis.
In this blog post, I will help you choose a framework by comparing the big three: Angular, React, and Vue. Prepare for an instructive comparison to evaluate how these frameworks measure up in creating practical, testable, secure, and high-performance web applications.
Let’s start with the following table as a TL;DR for everyone in a hurry:
| Feature | Angular | React | Vue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Curve | Steep | Moderate | Gentle |
| DOM Manipulation | Real DOM (=conventional) | Virtual DOM | Virtual DOM |
| Best for... | Large, complex enterprise apps | Flexible use, any size | Small to large apps, rapid prototyping |
| State Management | Services, NgRx | Redux, MobX, Context API | Vuex, Pinia |
| Built-in Security | Strong (XSS, CSRF, CSP) | Moderate (XSS) | Moderate (XSS) |
| Performance Optimization | AOT compilation, lazy loading | Virtual DOM, memorization | virtual DOM, Efficient reactivity system |
| Own Testing Tools | TestBed | React Testing Library | Vue Test Utils |
| Auth0 by Okta SDK | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| MIT license | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Ecosystem Size | Large | Very Large | Growing |
| Update Frequency | Predictable (6-month cycle) | Frequent | Frequent |
| Used by | Google, Wix | Facebook, Uber | Alibaba, GitLab |
Once Upon a Time in Framework Land…
Are you still with me? Great! Let’s dive into the details with a brief history lesson about Angular, React, and Vue.
In 2010, AngularJS started gaining attention for its ability to create dynamic web applications. In 2016, there was a significant shift with the release of Angular 2, leading developers to drop the original name “AngularJS.” Angular 2 and higher are now simply known as Angular.
React was first released in 2013 and stood out due to its component-based architecture and virtual DOM. Vue entered the scene in 2014 and gained momentum with the release of Version 1 in October 2015. It offers a progressive approach to web development. Evan You created Vue as a leaner alternative to Angular.
Let’s move on from history and focus on how these frameworks work in real-world situations today. Whether you’re building a small startup MVP or a complex enterprise application, by the end of this article, you’ll clearly understand which framework is best for your needs. As an Auth0 developer advocate and former test automation engineer, I can’t help but bring insights on security and quality considerations with me.
State of JS 2024: A Key Insight into Popularity Trends
Before we get into details, let’s first look at the popularity of these frameworks. My favorite indicator in this regard is the “State of JavaScript survey” survey. The collective Devographics conducts it annually, with the latest iteration at the end of 2024—published just a few days ago, when this blog post was released. 🔥
There is one particular survey question I’d like to take a look at:
Front-end Frameworks Ratios Over Time
I want to focus on the aspects of “usage,” “retention” and “positivity” because, in my opinion, they’re the best indicators of popularity. Here are the key points:
- React: Still the leader with an 82% usage rate, and still some high stats with 75% retention rate, and 69% positivity score. It’s like the popular kid everyone wants to hang out with.
- Vue.js: The emerging star, claiming second place with a 51% usage rate, surpassing Angular for the first time. People’s satisfaction is catching up immensely in 2024, too: With 75% in retention (rank #3 overall) and 70% in positivity (rank #2 overall), it's overtaking React for the first time.
- Angular: Now in third place with a 50% usage rate, 54% retention rate, and 37% positivity score.
The StackOverflow Developer Survey polled approximately 65,000 developers worldwide, revealing that 62% have used JavaScript in the past year. When asked about the frameworks they worked with or plan to use within the next year, 39.5% mentioned React, 15.4% mentioned Vue, and 17.1% mentioned Angular.
These numbers indicate the increasing popularity of these frameworks. React remains the top choice among developers, while Vue is rapidly gaining ground. Angular’s popularity is declining, and while it is still in good shape, it needs to assert itself against the competition.
It’s important to note that popularity alone doesn’t determine a framework’s value. Although popularity serves as a guide, other factors are more crucial. Let’s delve into a comprehensive overview of these frameworks and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Angular: A Large-scale Framework
Angular is a comprehensive TypeScript framework with built-in routing, state management, and form-handling support. It is developed using TypeScript, which provides static typing and advanced tooling. Angular features two-way data binding and a robust dependency injection system. Angular’s Command Line Interface (CLI) also simplifies development by providing project scaffolding and component generation features.
| Pros | Limitations |
|---|---|
Complete solution out of the box, so no more npm install all-the-things
|
There is a steep learning curve, so prepare for late nights and caffeine-fueled (coding) sessions |
| It is fairly "trustworthy" (so to say) because Google backs it | Project size: It can be overkill for more minor projects |
| Extensive documentation | Performance needs careful optimization in complex apps, as it can be impacted by their complexity and the size of applications |
React: The Flexible Library
React is a popular developer choice (see the State of JS 2023 survey) due to its flexibility, efficiency, and robust ecosystem. It introduces a component-based architecture for creating UIs and a Virtual DOM for optimized rendering.
JSX allows for HTML-like code in JavaScript, while Hooks offers a way to manage state and side effects in functional components. These features make React code concise and easy to understand, solidifying its position as a top choice among developers.
| Pros | Limitations |
|---|---|
| Highly flexible and easy to integrate, React usually plays well with others | Frequent updates can lead to breaking changes. You need to be prepared to keep up with that pace and to relearn new concepts introduced alongside it. |
| The reusable components, in particular, decrease complexity and help maintain the codebase | JSX must be clarified for beginners. Learning React alone is relatively easy, but being introduced to JSX might be on a different level. |
| Excellent performance with virtual DOM: React doesn’t rely on the conventional DOM structure, which increases the performance and speed of web applications | |
| Massive ecosystem and community support |
Vue: The Progressive Framework
Vue.js, also known as Vue, is widely recognized for its approachable and versatile nature, making it a popular choice for web development. It is considered a progressive framework, allowing for flexible adoption.
Vue is praised for its reactivity system, which enables smooth, dynamic interfaces. It also offers single-file components for organized code and utilizes a virtual DOM for optimized performance. Additionally, its powerful CLI facilitates easy project setup.
Finally, Vue is driven entirely by the open-source community, which sets it apart from its contenders and is evident in its vast numbers of watchers, stars, and forks on GitHub.
| Pros | Limitations |
|---|---|
| Its gentle learning curve makes it a perfect choice for beginners and seasoned developers. It doesn’t require prior skills. For example, you can use TypeScript, but it’s not mandatory. The documentation is excellent | Their ecosystem: Despite growing fast, it’s still smaller than React and Angular. |
| It offers excellent out-of-the-box performance and provides advantages regardless of project size. Google appears to favor lightweight projects | It may be less suited for large-scale apps, but it’s catching up fast! |
| Vue is backed by an open-source community, not a corporation, which makes it independent and trustworthy | The statement “Any corporation does not back Vue” implies that its maintenance is less reliable than corporate funding. However, you can support their contributors through GitHub sponsoring. |
Security: The Non-Negotiable Factor
When it comes to security, no framework is entirely secure by default. As a developer, you are the final line of defense. While frameworks can assist in making your applications secure, it is essential to remain vigilant, adhere to best practices such as OWASP’s recommendations, keep your dependencies current, and stay updated on CVEs and security news. With that in mind, let’s examine how each framework supports you in this effort.
- Angular takes the lead with its robust built-in protections. It automatically sanitizes and escapes untrusted values, guarding against XSS attacks right out of the gate. Its HttpClient comes with CSRF protection and plays nice with the Content Security Policy (CSP).
- React takes a more hands-off approach. It escapes values by default before rendering, which helps ward off XSS attacks, and its virtual DOM can act as an additional barrier. However, React leaves CSRF protection up to you and your backend setup.
- Vue sits somewhere in the middle. Like React, it automatically escapes content to prevent XSS, and its compiler will warn you about potentially unsafe practices. But again, for CSRF protection, you’re on your own.
Remember, security isn’t a feature — it’s a fundamental requirement. Regardless of your chosen framework, always keep it at the forefront of your development process.
Let Auth0 Support You with Your App Security
I know you saw it coming. In this context, being on the Auth0 blog, I cannot resist doing the obligatory shoutout. Regardless of your chosen framework, Auth0 provides SDKs for all three frameworks, so you can significantly strengthen your security measures with Auth0 if you need a login, authentication, or authorization workflow.
Integrating Auth0 can significantly enhance your app’s security. Auth0 offers robust authentication and authorization features, simplifying the implementation of complex security elements such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and even Passkeys that may be challenging to build from scratch.
Using Auth0 alongside your chosen framework is like having a dedicated team of security professionals protecting your app. Implementing our SDKs enables you to focus on creating excellent features while Auth0 keeps malicious users at bay. In short, it’s a win-win situation.
Testing: The Developer’s Safety Net
As a former test automation engineer, I want to bring the testing perspective into the discussion. A well-crafted testing strategy is crucial. In addition, testability and level of support are significant factors in choosing a framework. Let’s examine what testing utilities each framework offers.
- Angular provides TestBed, which allows for the creation of isolated testing modules and simplifies mocking dependencies and testing components individually.
- React offers a flexible testing approach with the React Testing Library, encouraging developers to test components as users interact.
- Vue has Vue Test Utils, which balances Angular’s structured approach and React’s flexibility, enabling easy component mounting and interaction simulation.
Apart from that, there is a lot of common ground regarding testing. All three contenders support the testing tools that many of you use and love, whether it is Jest, Jasmine, and Mocha for unit testing or Cypress, Playwright, and — of course — Selenium for end-to-end testing, among others. A shallow learning curve will be ahead if you want to use these testing tools.
Best practices are the same for all frameworks. A well-rounded testing strategy includes unit, integration, and end-to-end tests. It’s essential to rely solely on unit tests. To learn more, you can read another article I wrote on choosing testing types. Our friends at Browserstack have also written a great article on how each framework performs with a strong focus on testing.
Summing Up the Similarities and Differences
You’ve now learned what each framework represents and which key feature it brings. Angular, React, and Vue are all designed to build dynamic, modern web applications, particularly single-page applications. They each use components to create reusable and modular user interface elements.
All three frameworks perform strongly through various optimization techniques, such as Angular’s ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation and React’s and Vue’s virtual DOM. Additionally, they all have large, active communities that offer extensive documentation, third-party libraries, and a wealth of online resources. Lastly, all three frameworks/libraries are open-source and licensed under the MIT license, allowing for freedom of use in both commercial and personal projects.
A Close-Up of the Differences
Regarding differences, you already found my short “TL;DR table” at the beginning of this article. Let’s take that table but fill it with life. I’ll add all the information from before, plus some I might have left out. For example, they all bring state management — only in different flavors. Let’s go:
| Feature | Angular | React | Vue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Curve | Due to its nature and focus on TypeScript, Angular has a steep learning curve. It’s most suitable for developers with experience in large-scale applications | There is a moderate learning curve. JSX and integrating additional libraries can present challenges, but once learned, React’s component-based approach is straightforward | Vue is easy for beginners with its gentle learning curve and precise documentation |
| DOM Manipulation | Utilizes the conventional DOM, which updates the entire DOM tree when changes occur | It uses the Virtual DOM, which optimizes performance by only updating the changed parts of the DOM | It also uses the Virtual DOM, offering performance benefits similar to React |
| Best for | It is ideal for large, complex enterprise applications where a full-featured framework is necessary | React is suitable for projects of any size that require flexibility and high performance. Its adaptability makes it a good fit for a wide range of applications | Due to its simplicity and easy integration, it is best suited for small to large applications and rapid prototyping |
| Performance Optimization | Performance is good but can be affected by its complexity and size | Offers strong performance through its virtual DOM and efficient rendering process | It is known for its efficient reactivity system and generally good performance |
| State Management | It uses services and NgRx for state management to provide a robust, reactive solution | External libraries such as Redux, MobX, and the Context API are commonly used for state management, providing flexibility in selecting the appropriate tool | ses Vuex or Pinia for state management, providing a structured and integrated approach |
| Built-in Security | It offers robust security features, including protection against XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery), and CSP (Content Security Policy) | It provides moderate security with built-in protection against XSS but requires additional measures for complete security | Like React, it provides moderate protection against XSS and requires extra precautions for |
| Auth0 SDK | ✅ Angular SDK | ✅ React SDK | ✅ Vue SDK |
| MIT Licensed | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Specific Testing Tools and Support | It comes with TestBed, a built-in testing framework | Often uses the React Testing Library or Jest, focusing on testing components in isolation | Provides Vue Test Utils for testing Vue components, offering a straightforward way to handle unit tests |
| Ecosystem Size | It boasts a comprehensive ecosystem, including a wide range of official tools and libraries to meet enterprise requirements | Its vast ecosystem includes numerous third-party libraries, which provides high flexibility but sometimes results in a fragmented toolset | Features a growing ecosystem with a solid set of official tools and an expanding range of community-contributed libraries |
| Update Frequency | It follows a predictable 6-month release cycle, guaranteeing regular updates and long-term stability | Frequent updates: Many updates underscore the ongoing development and constant enhancements | Like React, Frequent updates of Vue reflect their active development and continuous improvement |
Conclusion: Choosing Your Companion
This all sounds like a lot of information. So, what should you do about it? If you’re like me, you might already feel the decision paralysis. I feel you; let’s try to bring this to a close and find out which framework is winning the comparison. Without further ado, this is my take on when to choose which framework:
- If you’re working on a large-scale application, value consistency, and catch type-related bugs early, go with Angular because it supports TypeScript and its comprehensive framework.
- React is a good choice when you need flexibility and your team is comfortable setting up its architecture and testing practices.
- Vue is ideal if you prefer a gentle learning curve and need a framework that can grow with your project's complexity.
Lastly, please note that the best framework allows you and your team to write clean, testable, and secure code. Regardless of your choice, you will have a fantastic community to support you. ❤️
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