React vs Vue.js: When to choose which?

JavaScript frameworks gained wide popularity worldwide as web developers began to follow a new trend of creating dynamic web pages. Each developer tries to capture a wide range of features for developing their website, and for this purpose, JavaScript frameworks come in handy. 

As per the Stack Overflow Survey in 2022, React is the most widely-used JavaScript framework, and Vue js is on the fifth rank in this list. There’s no doubt how helpful both of the frameworks are. However, they are unique and different from each other. React.JS and Vue js are both used to create cross-platform applications using the same codebase. 

Source: Stackoverflow Survey 2022

Moreover, the preset libraries help to further ease the development. Both of being highly powerful front-end frameworks, which could create mobile and web applications simultaneously, let’s find out which one to choose for your next big project.

What is React?

React, often referred to as a framework, is an open-source UI development JavaScript library managed by Facebook and other open-source communities. It is the most widely used JavaScript library in web development for developing the front end of websites. ReactJs was released in 2013 and uses JSX (JavaScript Syntax Extension) for building applications. JSX helps in writing HTML elements in the JavaScript code without having to use any JavaScript function such as createElement().

A react application is a combination of several components, each serving as a building block of the application and is highly reusable. The introduction of reusable components in the JavaScript code has reduced the development time and complexity of while developing. 

Test Setup of React

To run tests on our React application, let’s start by installing a few libraries. 

Open the terminal inside the project directory of your application and install all libraries following a single command.

npm install @testing-library/react react-test-renderer jest-dom -save-dev

After that, create a test file for the component you want to test. For example, browserstack.test.js is the test file to test browserstack.js component file. Let’s now write a simple test for our component.

import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
import Browserstack from ‘./../browserstack.js’;

it(“testing a react app”, ()=>{
const div = document.createElement(“div”);
ReactDOM.render(<Browserstack></Browserstack>, div)
})

Run React Tests on Real Devices

To run the test, follow the below command. 

npm test

After the test is executed, the terminal will display the test results. Here in the terminal, it shows 2 tests have been passed because one test file app.test.js is already created after we installed the necessary testing libraries. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of using React

React being one of the most powerful JavaScript libraries to build web applications is often the developer’s first choice. However, there are several edges and cons of using ReactJs. Let’s find them out. 

Advantages of using React

• Less Complexity and faster speed 

One of the biggest problems that were solved by React is that it allowed reusable components. After this, the application required less coding complexity and more functionality. Moreover, React uses virtual DOM to further increase the application’s performance by comparing the previous and current states of the application instead of the traditional approach of updating all the components. 

• Debugging errors in react project 

There are several frameworks, such as Angular, which follow a bi-directional data flow, which is useful in transferring data from the parent to child components and vice versa. Since React does not allow this approach and only follows a unidirectional data binding, however, it has its own advantages in debugging the application. 

It is easier to debug the application where the flow of data is in a single direction. Apart from this, Facebook has launched a dedicated tool, a chrome extension which is useful in debugging the React application.

• Easy to learn

There are a lot of frameworks that are useful but have a difficult learning curve, which leads to the ultimate decline of the entire technology. In such an aspect, React is way ahead in the race, as it has an easy learning curve. Any web developer is capable of learning React technology and is able to go through the HTML and JavaScript concepts. 

Limitations of using React

• The constant pace of development

ReactJs is constantly experiencing updates in its features and functionality, and this has caused a rapid pace in development. This led the developers to constantly relearn the concepts of ReactJs. 

• Developers are uncomfortable

ReactJs employing JSX to write efficient code. However, for some developers, getting equipped with JSX is fairly difficult. JSX is somewhere similar to JavaScript, but many developers find it complex to learn. 

What is Vue JS?

Vue is an open-source front-end framework used for creating dynamic user-interface and single-page applications (SPAs). Vue Js was released in 2014 and gained enormous popularity among developers across the globe due to its straightforward and short learning curve. The inspiration behind the creation of the Vue.Js came from another JavaScript framework, Angular. 

Evan You, the founder of the Vue.Js, created it by picking all the best parts of Angular and putting it under Vue.Js. Vue follows the same approach as React. The logic and UI are meant to be kept in the same file, which helps in bringing clarity to the component code and is useful to keep track of programmed methods and functions. 

Vue.Js enables developers to write code in JSX. However, the components are created in HTML components. Developers who have mastered JavaScript skills often succeed in learning React. However, on the other hand, Vue.Js can come in handy to beginner developers. 

Test Setup of Vue

To run tests on your Vue application’s components with the help of Jest, first install two necessary testing dependencies using a single command. 

npm install @vue/cli-plugin-unit-jest @vue/test-utils

The next step is to create a test file, naming it browserstack.test.js. Jest can catch any file which is named *.test.js or *.spec.js.

import { mount } from '@vue/test-utils'
import Browserstack from ‘./../browserstack.js’;

it(“testing a vue app”, ()=>{
expect(wrapper.find('button').exists()).toBe(true))
})

Run Vue Tests on Real Devices

To run the test, follow the below command.

npm test

Advantages and Disadvantages of Vue JS

Vue.Js shares so many similarities with React.Js, such as having component-based architecture and both having virtual DOM for speedy performance. Now, let’s find out the unique advantages and limitations related to Vue.Js. 

Advantages of Vue.Js

• Learning Curve

Learning React requires you to have some level of skills in JavaScript. However, the learning curve of Vue.Js is a further step. It doesn’t mandate any prerequisite programming skills and comes in handy even for beginner developers. Moreover, it offers options API and composition API for different scenarios, which further eases the learning period. 

• Size, Documentation, and Libraries

The entire size of the Vue project could be as low as 18KB to 20 KB. Small size has several advantages. Firstly, it directly benefits the SEO of the website. Moreover, it has extensive documentation, which is even handy for a starter. Anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript is already good at learning Vue.Js.

• Community Support

The community support for Vue.Js is good. Community support is an important factor to consider when picking any technology to design a webpage. It helps in grasping techniques that overall improve the quality of your project. Vue currently has more than 2 million GitHub stars and has more than 100K questions related to Vue.Js.

Limitations of using Vue.Js

• Ecosystem

React has a bigger ecosystem than Vue.Js, therefore, performs better for complex UI data processing and personalization. React’s broader ecosystem also allows the react application to adapt to several browsers and operating systems. 

• Not Backed by a tech giant

Several JavaScript frameworks are backed by tech giants, such as React by Facebook and Angular by Google. Therefore, developers/companies build more trust in React and Angular than in Vue.Js. 

Core differences (Table)

The next step

Both of the tools, React and Vue, are very useful while designing or developing front-end parts. It entirely depends upon the choice, requirements of the project, and skills of the developer to choose any one technology for their next project. Moreover, there are certain factors that one must consider before opting for any one technology, such as evaluating the community support of technologies. The one with higher support leads to paced learning. 

In this case, both of the tools, React and Vue has good community support. Other factors to consider such as development speed and cost are also important while picking a framework or a library. It is often seen, React.Js only provides the UI layer of the application, whereas it doesn’t cover most of the things related to web development. Hence it does not give everything under one roof. 

On comparing the frameworks it is evident that all the frameworks are very useful and powerful and it depends upon the developer’s goal and business requirements of the project, which one they should choose. 

No matter which framework you choose for web development, depending on the project requirements, testing the website thoroughly under real user conditions is a must, for a seamless end-user experience. 

Be it a website built using React, or Vue, it should be tested for cross browser compatibility and mobile compatibility on a range of mobile and desktop devices and browsers. To test on different devices, it is not favorable to buy devices, and maintaining an in-house device lab would take a lot of time. In such cases, real device cloud like BrowserStack can come to the rescue. For Manual Testing, BrowserStack Live, helps you debug your website in real-time through DevTools. 

If you have to run Automation Tests, BrowserStack Automate can help you achieve your testing goals through its Cloud Selenium Grid, which helps run parallel tests for maximum coverage and a smooth testing experience with utmost accuracy.

Try BrowserStack Now