React vs Vue – Comparison Of Popular Frameworks

According to one Statista survey,

JavaScript is the most widely used programming language among software developers worldwide with 62.5 percent of respondent ratio.

Over recent time, JavaScript has gained in popularity and many tech giants are reaping the benefits of it. A plethora of frameworks and languages are taking place day-by-day and we can’t keep up with all of them. It is pretty hard to decide which ones are worth paying attention to.

The JavaScript world is moving faster than ever before and as being a prominent software development company, we can’t afford to overlook the most discussed frameworks of this era – ReactJS and Vue.js. So, in this comparison guide of Vue vs React, we will help you select the best framework, based on the significant pros and cons of each, along with market trends and insights. We have a skilled pool of resources who keep themselves updated on every aspect of Vue.js application development and react development.

Let’s dive into the details:

Before you read further, ensure that you clearly understand what React and Vue.js are. They are highly valued and widely used JavaScript frameworks for interface design.

What Is React? Why Is It So Popular?

React is backed by a Facebook community and it makes it super easy to build interactive UIs.

Keep in mind that, React isn’t an MVC framework.

There are many JavaScript MVC frameworks in the market which are doing a pretty good job in terms of performance and reliability. Despite those, why React has gained so much popularity? Why would someone use React rather than relying on some other MVC framework?

React is a library for creating reusable and attractive UI components. It is very suitable for the components which represent data that changes frequently. With React, you can build reusable user interfaces by breaking them into components instead of using templates or HTML.

Learn once, Write Anywhere

React’s official website has mentioned this key feature that says that you can build mobile apps in JavaScript using React Native framework.

React also presents the use of JavaScript XML – JSX which is a syntax extension to JavaScript. React doesn’t necessarily need JSX but it is easy and helpful in the creation of UI components and debugging.

Top Companies Using React

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Netflix
• New York Times
• Yahoo
• WhatsApp
• Codecademy
• Dropbox
• Airbnb
• Asana
• Microsoft

What Is Vue?

React and Angular are top JavaScript frameworks out there and both are universally preferred frameworks to build web applications.
On the other side, Vue.js is an open-source JavaScript framework that is capable of developing contemporary single-page applications. It can be also used as a web application framework with an aim to simplify web development. Vue.js application development has captured the significant attention of developers across the globe in order to build amazing web apps.

As they have mentioned, Vue or Vue.js is a progressive framework for building eye-catchy UI for the web. It was initially released in 2014 by Evan You, a former Google developer who used AngularJS and decided to exclude the pain points of the Angular and build something lightweight.

There are lots of reasons for its popularity and one of the key reasons is its ability to re-render without any action. It allows you to build reusable, small, yet robust components and hence, offers a composable framework that lets you add components whenever required.

Who Is Using Vue?

• Facebook
• Netflix
• Adobe
• Grammarly
• Behance
• Xiaomi
• Alibaba
• Codeship
• Gitlab
• Laracasts

React vs Vue: Who Wins The Battle?

There are many similarities between these two frameworks such as,

• Both are built to work with the root libraries
• ReactJS and Vue.js are based on the Virtual DOM model
• Both tools are having the component-based structure

Certainly, there are differences between these two tools. Each framework has its own advantages and disadvantages to consider. Let’s have a look at each framework one by one.

ReactJS – Powered By Facebook And Evolved By Community

Be it a web or native development, React is ideal for the majority of the platforms for user interface design.

Benefits Of React:

• Flexibility and Responsiveness: It offers maximum flexibility and responsiveness that makes it a suitable choice for modern needs.
• Virtual DOM: As it is based on a document object model, it allows the browser-friendly arrangement of documents in HTML, XHTML, or XML format.
• Rich JavaScript Library: Contributors from all over the world are putting efforts to make it richer with modern features.
• Scalability: React is proven better for large-scale apps due to its flexible structure and scalability.
• Constantly Evolving: React is backed by professional developers from Facebook and since its inception, it is continuously evolving.
• Web or Mobile Platform:  React provides React Native platform which can be used for developing native-rendered apps for iOS and Android through the same React component model.

Cons Of React:

• Lack of Proper Documentation: There’s no proper and updated documentation available which makes it a bit messy and chaotic.
• A Steep Learning Curve: Due to the complex setup process, properties, functions, and structure, it requires deep knowledge to build an application.

Now, let’s move to Vue.js and talk about its benefits and drawbacks:

Vue js: Light-Weight, Flexible, and Faster JavaScript Framework

In comparison to React, Vue js has a very less number of downloads and it is mainly popular for building attractive single-page applications and web applications. However, Vue.js features an adaptable architecture which makes it one of the widely used frameworks with officially up-to-date libraries and packages.

Advantages Of Vue Js

• Ease-of-Use: Vue.js embraces standard HTML-based templates which make it easier to use and revamping the existing application.
• Smoother Integration: Whether it is a single-page application or complex web interface, Vue.js offers smoother integration of smaller parts without any effect on the whole system.
• Better Performance In Little Size: It does not occupy more space and tends to give optimum performance over other frameworks.
• Well-written Documentation: It provides an easy learning curve through the detailed documentation and requires no extra knowledge; HTML and JavaScript will get the job done.
• Adaptability: Overall sound design and architecture makes it a popular JavaScript framework. It provides hassle-free migration, simple & efficient structure, and reusable templates.

Cons Of Using Vue Js

Vue.js framework still shares a very small market share in comparison to Angular and React. It is becoming popular at a fast pace but, at the same time, one can have issues in the large-scale app development in this initial phase of Vue.js.

Well, vue.js has the potential to achieve milestones in web app development considering its modern features, speed, and flexibility.

Vue Js vs React: Which Is Better, When, and Why

Re-rendering and Optimization

When you compare React and Vue, speed can’t be a significant comparison factor in deciding which is better. In terms of performance, let’s consider a re-rendering feature. React’s mechanism triggers the re-render of an entire component tree when the component’s state is changed. You may need to use extra properties to avoid unnecessary re-renders of subcomponents.

While Vue’s re-rendering feature is out-of-the-box. Vue offers optimized re-rendering in which the system keeps track of dependencies during its render and works accordingly.

Re-rendering of Vue is the most distinguishing feature which makes it a widely embraced framework by developers across the world.

JSX VS HTML

React uses JSX – a declarative JavaScript XML that allows developers to write components leveraging the power of JavaScript, while Vue.js uses HTML templates to create views. This leads to fewer advantages, such as,

HTML-based templates are much more familiar and it is also beneficial in terms of revamping the existing application to gain the benefit of Vue’s reactivity feature. This provides an easy learning curve for beginners and experienced professionals as the majority of them have worked with HTML in one or another way.

However, this is true that you require learning DSL (Domain Specific Language) to write templates that are almost as equal as you learn JSX – additional syntax on plain JavaScript.

Routing And State Management Solutions

In component-based frameworks like React and Vue, you need to pay more attention to the state management and data flow as you begin scaling up an application. This is because there are a number of components are interacting with each other and sharing the data.

In such a scenario, React offers an innovative solution called Flux/Redux architecture which represents unidirectional data flow and an alternative to the famous MVC architecture. Now, if we consider the Vue.js framework, there’s a more advanced architecture called Vuex which integrates into Vue and offers an unbeatable experience.

Building Tools

React and Vue, both have a pretty good development environment. With little or no configuration you can create apps that get you up and running with the latest practices and templates. In React, there is a Create React App(CRA) and in Vue, it is vue-cli.

Both bootstrap tools tend to give you a comfortable and flexible development environment and a superior starting point to get you started with coding.

Cross-Platform App Development: Who Is A Winner?

Cross-platform app development is already a buzz and both frameworks are in a race to provide superior cross-platform app development. React’s React Native is matured and widely used platform for native-rendered apps. On the other side, Vue’s Weex is still evolving and aims to provide a smooth development experience to create apps for iOS and Android.

When To Use Vue js Over React?

When you want a lightweight, faster, and modern UI library for crafting a top-notch SPA(single-page applications), you can opt for Vue.js. It is advantageous for designers who are used to work with HTML. Also, it provides reusability of the components making it developers’ pick to build unmatched user experience in web applications.

When To Opt For React Over Vue.js?

When you are a fan of JavaScript! React has a mature and larger development community of professionals who are dedicated to making it more advanced. React is powered by Facebook which has many use cases, solutions, resources, and projects. Furthermore, React is suitable for large-scale applications and mobile apps due to its grown-up user base. It is clear that if you want to build a mobile app using JavaScript, React Native is definitely a choice.

However, React or Vue – either is a fine option for building modern JavaScript applications and it highly depends on the team, app size, and an approach that is feasible to you.

Here’s a quick overview of the whole evaluation:

Vue is better than React in the following scenario:

• Up-to-date documentation and simpler syntax
• Smaller, faster, and flexible
• Rich HTML templates to provide ease in development

React is better than Vue.js when,

• There’s a requirement to build mobile apps
• Professional and great community support to solve any issue
• Need to build large-scale apps
• light-weight and easy version migrating

Vue vs React: A Quick Comparison