Angular vs. Vue – Which is Best for Programming in 2020?

Angular and Vue are two of the most popular and fully-featured frameworks for front-end web development today. Both are versatile tools that can be used to build everything from simple websites to complex web applications.

As a full-stack developer who has worked extensively with both frameworks, I often get asked by colleagues and clients: "Which one is better? Should I learn Angular or Vue?" The answer is nuanced and depends on a variety of factors.

In this in-depth comparison, we‘ll look at the key differences and tradeoffs between Angular and Vue. By the end of the article, you‘ll be armed with the knowledge and examples you need to confidently choose the best framework for your development needs.

Overview of Angular and Vue

First, let‘s start with some background. Angular is a TypeScript-based web application framework led by the Angular Team at Google. Originally released as AngularJS back in 2010, it was completely rewritten and released as Angular 2 in September 2016.

Since then, Angular has followed a predictable 6-month release schedule. The latest stable version is Angular 10, which was released in June 2020. Some of the key features of Angular include:

• Component-based architecture
• Dependency injection
• Declarative templates
• End-to-end tooling
• Integrated best practices

Vue, on the other hand, is a progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces. It was created by Evan You, a former Google employee who worked on AngularJS, and initially released in February 2014.

Vue is designed to be incrementally adoptable, meaning you can use as little or as much of the framework as you need. It consists of a core view layer and accompanying tools/libraries for routing, state management, build tooling, and more. Some of Vue‘s key features include:

• Declarative rendering
• Component system
• Virtual DOM
• Build tooling
• Client-side routing

Here‘s a quick comparison of Angular and Vue‘s high-level stats and characteristics:

Metric	Angular	Vue
Released	2010	2014
Created by	Google	Evan You
Written in	TypeScript	JavaScript
Architectural pattern	MVC	MVVM
DOM	Real DOM	Virtual DOM
Learning curve	Steep	Moderate

As you can see, Angular has been around longer and has the backing of Google, while Vue is newer but has been gaining rapid adoption. Now let‘s dive into a detailed comparison of the two frameworks.

Performance & Size

One of the first things developers and users care about is performance. How quickly does the framework load and render? How does it handle memory usage? In general, both Angular and Vue perform very well thanks to features like ahead-of-time compilation, tree shaking, and virtual DOM.

However, out of the box, Vue apps tend to be smaller and more lightweight than Angular ones. A minimal Vue project can be as small as 20KB gzipped, while an Angular app is often 65KB+.

Here‘s a simple "Hello World" component example in each framework to illustrate this:

Angular Component:

import { Component } from ‘@angular/core‘;

@Component({
  selector: ‘hello-world‘,
  template: `

  `
})
export class HelloWorldComponent {
  name = ‘Angular‘;
}

Vue Component:

<template>

</template>

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      name: ‘Vue‘
    }
  }
}
</script>

The Angular component requires a separate TypeScript file and includes more boilerplate code like imports and decorators. The Vue component can be written in a single HTML file and has a more concise syntax.

When built, the Angular component will generate more runtime code due to its dependency injection system and TypeScript compilation. The Vue component will result in less JavaScript that is more optimized for quick parsing and execution.

This is just a simple example, but it‘s generally the case that Vue apps have smaller bundle sizes and less runtime overhead than equivalent Angular apps. This can translate to slightly faster load times and better performance on mobile devices or slow networks.

So while both frameworks perform well in most scenarios, Vue has an edge when it comes to size and memory efficiency.

Learning Curve

Performance is important, but so is the learning curve for developers. How easy is it to get started and become productive with the framework?

As someone who has taught Angular and Vue to many developers, I can confidently say that Vue is the easier framework to learn. Its component-based architecture and single-file components feel more intuitive to developers coming from an HTML/CSS/JavaScript background.

Here‘s an example of a basic Vue component:

<template>
  <div id="app">

    <button @click="reverseMessage">Reverse Message</button>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      message: ‘Hello Vue!‘
    }
  },
  methods: {
    reverseMessage() {
      this.message = this.message.split(‘‘).reverse().join(‘‘)
    }
  }
}
</script>

Even if you‘re not familiar with Vue, you can probably understand what this component does. It displays a message and a button that reverses the message when clicked. The template, logic, and styling are all encapsulated in a single .vue file.

Compare that to the equivalent Angular component:

import { Component } from ‘@angular/core‘;

@Component({
  selector: ‘app-root‘,
  template: `

    <button (click)="reverseMessage()">Reverse Message</button>
  `
})
export class AppComponent {
  message = ‘Hello Angular!‘;

  reverseMessage() {
    this.message = this.message.split(‘‘).reverse().join(‘‘);
  }
}

The Angular syntax is a bit more complex with TypeScript annotations, decorators, and separate template syntax. It requires understanding Angular-specific concepts like components, modules, services, and dependency injection.

Vue‘s HTML-based templates, plain JavaScript, and lack of complex APIs make it more beginner-friendly. The official Vue documentation is also praised by the community for being clear, well-organized, and example-driven.

Angular is a powerful framework, but it has a steeper learning curve, especially for developers new to TypeScript or used to standard JavaScript development. The concepts of decorators, modules, services, RxJS, and dependency injection can be overwhelming at first.

This is not to say Angular is excessively difficult to learn, but it does require more upfront investment to become proficient. In my experience, developers are able to build their first Vue app much faster than their first Angular app.

Vue‘s gentler learning curve is one of the reasons for its growing popularity, especially among less experienced developers and teams that want to quickly prototype ideas.

Ecosystems & Tools

No framework is an island. A robust ecosystem of tools, libraries, and community support is essential for productive development.

Both Angular and Vue have great ecosystems, but they differ in philosophy. Angular is a batteries-included framework with official tools for routing, forms, HTTP requests, internationalization, PWAs, testing, and more.

The Angular CLI generates projects with a prescriptive directory structure and includes powerful tools for code generation, linting, deployment, and upgrades. For many common tasks, you don‘t need to look outside the Angular ecosystem.

Vue‘s ecosystem is more modular and decentralized. The core Vue library focuses on the view layer, while routing, state management, and other concerns are handled by separate libraries like Vue Router and Vuex (both officially supported but not part of Vue core).

This approach keeps the core Vue runtime lightweight but means you need to pull in additional libraries for an equivalent feature-set to Angular. The Vue CLI provides an official way to quickly scaffold Vue projects, but it‘s less comprehensive than the Angular CLI.

Here‘s a comparison of the two frameworks‘ ecosystems:

Library/Tool	Angular	Vue
Core	@angular/core	vue
Router	@angular/router	vue-router
HTTP Client	@angular/common/http	vue-resource / axios
Forms	@angular/forms	N/A
State Management	@ngrx/store	vuex
Testing	Jasmine + Karma	Jest / Mocha
UI Components	Angular Material	Vuetify / Element UI
CLI	Angular CLI	Vue CLI
Templates	HTML + Angular directives	HTML + Vue directives
Styling	CSS / SCSS / LESS	CSS / SCSS / LESS / Stylus
TypeScript	Built-in / Required	Via 3rd party tooling
Resources	Angular.io	Vuejs.org

As you can see, Angular has more official built-in libraries but Vue has a wider variety of community-driven options. This reflects the frameworks‘ contrasting approaches – Angular aims to be a comprehensive platform while Vue aims to be a flexible, adoptable ecosystem.

So which one has the "better" ecosystem? It honestly depends on your priorities. If you value a stable, standardized, "blessed" set of tools, Angular may be preferable. If you prefer a more flexible, modular ecosystem you can adapt to your needs, Vue will feel more at home.

Personally, I slightly prefer Angular‘s ecosystem when building complex enterprise apps, as it provides more structure, consistency, and official support. But I appreciate Vue‘s simplicity and flexibility for smaller projects or when I need to progressively integrate it into an existing codebase.

Scalability & Performance

Speaking of complex apps, scalability is another key consideration when choosing a framework. Does it have the features and architecture needed to maintain performance as your app grows in size and complexity?

Both Angular and Vue offer strong support for building large-scale applications. They each provide a component-based architecture, efficient update strategies, and build-time optimization techniques.

However, Angular is generally considered to be more opinionated and "enterprise-ready" out of the box. It includes dependency injection, strong typing with TypeScript, and an emphasis on RxJS observables for state management.

These features can help maintain a clean, decoupled architecture and catch errors early in development as your app grows. Angular‘s focus on static typing and tooling like AOT compilation also enable powerful optimizations that keep apps fast.

Here‘s an example of an optimized production Angular build:

ng build --prod

This command creates a production-ready bundle that is:

• Compiled with AOT (Ahead-of-Time) compilation
• Minified & uglified
• Dead-code eliminated
• Bundled & code-split by routes

The result is highly performant JavaScript code that can efficiently boot your Angular app, even as it grows to hundreds of components and modules.

Vue also offers solid performance for large apps, but its internals and optimization story are a bit simpler than Angular‘s. It uses a virtual DOM and reactive data-binding to efficiently update the UI when state changes.

Vue‘s template compilation and bundling optimizations (via webpack etc.) are similar to Angular‘s, but it lacks built-in AOT compilation. Some advanced features that assist with scalability (like the Composition API) have also only recently been introduced in Vue 3.

Here‘s an example of a production Vue build command:

vue-cli-service build --mode production

This bundles and optimizes your Vue app, similar to the Angular CLI. But in complex Vue apps with hundreds of components, the lack of static typing, dependency injection, and built-in lazy loading can lead to challenges maintaining architecture and performance over time.

That‘s not to say you can‘t build large, fast apps with Vue – you certainly can. But it may take more conscious effort and third-party libraries to achieve the same level of scalability as an Angular app.

So when it comes to enterprise-grade scalability and performance optimization, Angular has an advantage. But both frameworks are more than capable of powering large, high-performing web apps in the hands of experienced front-end developers.

Final Thoughts

We covered a lot of ground in comparing Angular and Vue. Here‘s a recap of the key takeaways:

• Angular is a full-featured, opinionated framework backed by Google. Vue is a more lightweight, flexible framework that can be incrementally adopted.
• Vue apps tend to have smaller bundle sizes and less runtime overhead than Angular apps. Both frameworks have excellent overall performance.
• Vue is generally easier to learn, especially for developers familiar with HTML/CSS/JS. Angular has a steeper learning curve due to its complex APIs and use of TypeScript.
• Angular has a comprehensive, "batteries-included" ecosystem while Vue has a more modular, community-driven ecosystem.
• Angular is designed with scalability and optimized performance in mind, making it well-suited for large enterprise apps. Vue can also scale well but may require more manual optimization.

So which framework should you choose? Ultimately, it depends on your specific needs and constraints. But here are some general recommendations:

Consider Angular if:

• You‘re building a large, complex application that needs to scale
• You want a comprehensive set of built-in tools and conventions
• You have a team that is comfortable with TypeScript and object-oriented programming
• You require long-term support and frequent updates from a large company

Consider Vue if:

• You want something lightweight, fast and easy to learn
• You value simplicity, flexibility and incrementally adopting a framework
• You‘re integrating a framework into an existing project or tech stack
• You‘re working as an individual developer or on a small team

Whatever framework you choose, remember that your skills and code quality as a developer are more important than the choosiness of your tools. I‘ve seen great Angular apps and not-so-great ones; same with Vue.

The "best" framework is ultimately the one that enables you and your team to efficiently ship high-quality, maintainable, and performant code. And that‘s as much about people and processes as it is about technology.

As a full-stack developer who works across many frameworks, my advice is to try both Angular and Vue and see which one resonates with you. Gaining experience with the two leading front-end frameworks is valuable not just for your current project, but for your overall growth and marketability as a developer.

Hopefully, this comparison has given you the context and facts you need to make an informed decision about Angular vs Vue in 2020. Remember, at the end of the day, they‘re both great tools that can help you craft amazing web experiences. Happy coding!