Differences between VueJS and AngularJS

Building for world wide web is a different kind of challenge when compared to Android or iOS app development. There are many reasons for that, one of the most crucial being the fact that web is a decentralized platform that has no single source of truth for the best programming methodology.

 As a result, the market for web frameworks especially JavaScript frameworks is a hot and highly contested one. If you are building for the web you must have experienced multiple choices including frameworks like VueJS and Angular.

What framework is best for you? Which one is the faster? Which is the easiest to learn? Continue reading to get answers.

Overview of JS frameworks

Top 5 among most used web frameworks are JS based

When exploring the market for JavaScript frameworks it is important to understand that there is no best framework, there is only the best framework for your use case. Because all frameworks are different and have their own pros and cons.

Without going into too much detail, we can sum up the history of JavaScript frameworks in a few steps:

• JavaScript is launched in 1996 which brings in a new interactive web design ushering in the golden age of the web.
• Jquery is launched in 2006, it is a powerful tool which can be easily inserted into a web project and used to add dynamic features like carousels, animations and other UI effects.
• Facebook launches React in 2013 to public prior to which it had been using it for its internal implementation.
• VueJs was launched in 2014 by Evan you who was a member of Google AngularJS team.
• Google finally launched the official version of Angular in 2016.

React, Angular and Vue are currently the most used Js frameworks in the world. Although they are not similar completely, they share some common features. 

There are different reasons for using JavaScript frameworks in different scenarios some of the common ones are:

• Organizing code
• Improving performance
• Cross-platform development
• Building large scale applications

The most important factor while choosing a JS framework should be the use case as different frameworks are better suited for different purposes. 

For example, if you need to develop a large scale application then you should go for Angular as it provides more functionality out of the box. If you need to develop a fast loading cross-platform app then you should go for React or Vue.

VueJS vs Angular

Between Angular and VueJS there are some very clear distinctions and some overlapping concepts as VueJS was initially built by someone who was inspired by initial versions of angular JS. 

If you don’t already know, AngularJS <V2 and Angular V2< are products in the same lineup but very different structurally. For this comparison, we will be considering Angular and not AngularJs.

To understand why and how Vue and Angular are different from each other, we first need to understand what they are trying to achieve and how they use different methods to approach the problem.

Common Goals of Angular and Vue

Web development as we mentioned earlier is a field in which there are multiple ways to do one thing. How you go about implementing is something that is decided depending on your level of expertise and the use case for the application you’re building.

There are some common challenges however that are faced by most people building websites that go beyond a certain size or scale of operation. The most important ones are:

• When more than one person is working on a project you want the code to be modularized and organized in such a way that development and maintenance are not hampered by the complexities of file size and structure. 
• Developers want their websites to function effectively on as many devices as possible. To ensure that the code implementation has to be streamlined and resource consumption has to be managed very efficiently. Doing that with plain JavaScript is a bit of a challenge.
• In some cases, developers work on more than one project and need a broiler plate system which can help them in creating new websites as and when necessary.
• During development teams want to integrate testing and other quality management systems into the DevOps workflow. Traditional static web pages do not allow for such workflows to be set up easily.
• When building web applications it is a common feature to see some core components working throughout the applications and then certain specific features or specific modules that are part of various routes within the app. Managing effective use of resources in scenarios where components are repeated is a commonly occurring web development challenge.
• Ensuring security and scalability for websites is a huge challenge because of the public nature of WWW, attackers exploit vulnerabilities and products built without a deep knowledge of underlying systems fail to serve fluctuating user loads.

Comparing Development

Creating a Web App

Both platforms provide a powerful command line tool/interface (CLI) to easily onboard various features packaged within the core bundle. They both run on top of NodeJS so make sure you have the latest version of nodeJS installed on your computer.

You can install the latest NodeJS from the official site. After which you can simply download CLI packages for either frameworks using npm commands.

• Angular

npm install -g @angular/cli

• Vue 

npm install -g @vue/cli

Once you have the CLI setup, you can use it to initialize a broilerplate web app using:

• Angular 

ng new <project-name>

• Vue

vue create <project-name>

File Structure

After creating a base project, here are the file structures and differentiate between these 2 further:

In Angular’s case you can see slightly more files, but overarching similarity in the way configurations, components and assets are organized between both.

Angular file extensions are Typescript based as it only allows to work in TS. Any additional JS injections have to be managed separately. It also creates configuration files for environments by default.

Vue uses .vue templates that are compiled into HTML and injected into main file.

Adding test cases, plugins, middleware and more modules will further extend this file structure in both cases.

Dependencies

You can see from the dependency list that VueJS is much more compact and closer to the standard web when compared to Angular. Angular is opinionated, meaning that it has specific ways of doing things which may not be as flexible as Vue.js. 

Angular provides a wide base layer of powerful abstractions of functionality which can empower teams building deep feature rich web apps.

Building Sample Application in Angular and Vue

Angular

Main script file: /src/main.ts 

import { enableProdMode } from "@angular/core";
import { platformBrowserDynamic } from "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic";

import { AppModule } from "./app/app.module";
import { environment } from "./environments/environment";

if (environment.production) {
enableProdMode();
}

platformBrowserDynamic()
.bootstrapModule(AppModule)
.catch(err => console.log(err));

platformBrowseDynamic is the API that supports JIT compilation and execution.

Main HTML file: /src/index.html

<!doctype html>

<html lang="en">

<head>

  <meta charset="utf-8">

  <title>Angular</title>

  <base href="/">

  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

  <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="favicon.ico">

</head>

<body>

  <app-root></app-root>

</body>

</html>

Standard HTML syntax with <app-root> tag being used to inject compiled component HTML. This selector can be configured in the component TS file.

Define modules: /src/app/app.module.ts

import { BrowserModule } from "@angular/platform-browser";
import { NgModule } from "@angular/core";
import { AppComponent } from "./app.component";

@NgModule({
declarations: [AppComponent],
imports: [BrowserModule],
providers: [],
bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule {}

Module declaration uses import statements to access components.

Component Script: /src/app/app.component.ts

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

@Component({
selector: "app-root",
templateUrl: "./app.component.html",
styleUrls: ["./app.component.css"]
})
export class AppComponent {
title = "Angular > VueJS";
}

This file is used to define data-binding variables and functions for a component.

Component HTML: /src/app/app.component.html

<div>
<h1>
{{ title }}!
</h1>
<img
width="300"
alt="Angular Logo"
src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAyNTAgMjUwIj4KICAgIDxwYXRoIGZpbGw9IiNERDAwMzEiIGQ9Ik0xMjUgMzBMMzEuOSA2My4ybDE0LjIgMTIzLjFMMTI1IDIzMGw3OC45LTQzLjcgMTQuMi0xMjMuMXoiIC8+CiAgICA8cGF0aCBmaWxsPSIjQzMwMDJGIiBkPSJNMTI1IDMwdjIyLjItLjFWMjMwbDc4LjktNDMuNyAxNC4yLTEyMy4xTDEyNSAzMHoiIC8+CiAgICA8cGF0aCAgZmlsbD0iI0ZGRkZGRiIgZD0iTTEyNSA1Mi4xTDY2LjggMTgyLjZoMjEuN2wxMS43LTI5LjJoNDkuNGwxMS43IDI5LjJIMTgzTDEyNSA1Mi4xem0xNyA4My4zaC0zNGwxNy00MC45IDE3IDQwLjl6IiAvPgogIDwvc3ZnPg=="
/>
</div>

This file is used as the HTML template for the component, Read more about templating with Angular.

Build config : /src/package.json

{
"name": "angular",
"version": "0.0.0",
"license": "MIT",
"scripts": {
"ng": "ng",
"start": "ng serve",
"build": "ng build --prod",
"test": "ng test",
"lint": "ng lint",
"e2e": "ng e2e"
},
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"@angular/animations": "^12.2.0",
"@angular/common": "^12.2.0",
…

This file defines the configuration parameters for build, linting, dependencies etc. in JSON format. Read more on Angular builds.

Command to run: 

ng serve

Output:

VueJS

Main script: /src/main.js

import { createApp } from "vue";
import App from "./App.vue";

createApp(App).mount("#app");

The main script file used to import components, createApp() function launches an app instance with the ‘App’. mount() method renders the output.

Read more on app instances and configurations

Vue Template : /src/App.vue

<template>
<img alt="Vue logo" src="./assets/logo.png" />
<HelloWorld msg="VueJS > Angular!" />
</template>

<script>
import HelloWorldVue from "./components/HelloWorld.vue";
export default {
name: "App",
components: {
HelloWorld: HelloWorldVue,
},
};
</script>

<style>
#app {
font-family: Avenir, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
text-align: center;
color: #2c3e50;
margin-top: 60px;
}
</style>

This is the main template which is included in the index.html, it imports the HelloWorld.vue template inside below an image.

Component Template : /src/components/HelloWorld.vue

<template>
<div class="hello">
<h1>{{ msg }}</h1>
<p>
For a guide and recipes on how to configure / customize this project,<br />
check out the
<a href="https://cli.vuejs.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"
>vue-cli documentation</a
>.
</p>
</div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
name: "HelloWorld",
props: {
msg: String,
},
};
</script>

<!-- Add "scoped" attribute to limit CSS to this component only -->
<style scoped>
h3 {
margin: 40px 0 0;
}
ul {
list-style-type: none;
padding: 0;
}
li {
display: inline-block;
margin: 0 10px;
}
a {
color: #42b983;
}
</style>

This is the component HTML template. The export statement enables it to be imported into the main template.

Read more on VueJS templating syntax

Main HTML : /public/index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0">
<link rel="icon" href="<%= BASE_URL %>favicon.ico">
<title><%= htmlWebpackPlugin.options.title %></title>
</head>
<body>
<noscript>
<strong>We're sorry but <%= htmlWebpackPlugin.options.title %> doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Please enable it to continue.</strong>
</noscript>
<div id="app"></div>
<!-- built files will be auto injected -->
</body>
</html>

This is the HTML file into which all compiled components are injected.

Build config: /package.json

{
"name": "vue-3",
"version": "0.1.0",
"private": true,
"scripts": {
"serve": "vue-cli-service serve",
"build": "vue-cli-service build",
"lint": "vue-cli-service lint"
},
"dependencies": {
"vue": "^3.2.33"
},
"devDependencies": {
"@vue/cli-plugin-babel": "~4.5.0",
"@vue/cli-plugin-eslint": "~4.5.0",
…

Command to run: 

npm run serve

Output:

Testing VueJS Vs Angular

Vue recommends using Vitest for unit testing but you can also use Jest and Peeky. 

Angular Unit Testing by default run on a Karma server which you can initialize for your project using the ‘ng test’ command. You can also use other test frameworks for unit testing Angular.

To test website components in browser, you can use developer tools built in to the browser. Developer tools can help you with a number of different kinds of tests like:

• Check load time and resource size.
• Check network traffic.
• Check the number of DOM elements.
• Check the page’s source code.
• Check for functional errors.
• Check the page’s SEO.
• Check the page’s responsiveness.

For responsiveness testing, you can use the mobile viewer but for more realistic testing you need to test on real devices with network conditions and location restrictions.

BrowserStack live provides you with access to 3000+ device browser combinations with advanced features like IP location, network throttling and screen readers etc. You can use it to test your VueJS or Angular applications on real devices.

See a list of all supported devices.

You can also Automate tests using popular frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Nightwatch etc.and collaborate with your QA team using the Automate dashboard.

Run automation tests and share reports with team on Automate Dashboard

If you are building progressive web applications (PWA) you can test them on Live. if you’re working on Cross-platform apps use App live and App Automate platforms for testing. 

Performance Comparison

There is no clearly established metric on how much one is faster than the other but one way of thinking about it which helps understand both of them deeper is to look at when and why each one performs best.

Right out the box with the initial app as demonstrated in previous section, VueJS is lighter and more flexible offering fast and adaptive implementation for a bunch of web app scenarios including:

• Enhancing static HTML without a build step
• Embedding as Web Components on any page
• Single-Page Application (SPA)
• Full-stack / Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Angular on the other hand cannot be simply embedded into static HTML pages, but still offers ways to implement server-side rendering and pre-rendering.

What you get with Angular, something that is missing in VueJS, is an expert implementation in build, render and DOM management under the hood. Vue is less optimized and more flexible to being integrated with the build system of your choice.

It might not seem like a big advantage at first but with a scaling application the ability to add in-depth configurations at all stages for performance and security considerations is a big win. If managed properly, can lead to a pretty stable scaling experience.

If you want clear numbers then you can check out this page which lists some benchmarks for a list of frameworks including Vue and Angular.

JS Framework Benchmark

Angular vs Vue: Differences Summary

The way ahead

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. 

Whether you build your website using Angular, or Vue, it should be thoroughly 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