Front-end Javascript frameworks are essential for modern applications development. This is especially true today since they can significantly improve the software development experience in terms of architecture, functionality, scalability, deployment, and so on.

In the past decade, a lot of Javascript frameworks have emerged, allowing developers to choose the one that suits their project requirements best. Aside from web development, some of these frameworks are even used for building mobile and desktop applications, and they often come with pre-built components for responsive and consistent design.

In this article, we are going to compare four of the most popular Javascript frameworks used for front-end development. We are going to mention their main functionalities, compare their popularity, and give examples of their most common usages, so you can choose the framework that suits your next project the best.

Angular

Angular is a TypeScript-based JavaScript framework, released by Google in 2010-- which makes it the oldest of the ones we'll cover. Later, the original version of AngularJS was replaced in 2016: when Angular 2 appeared, which was a complete rewrite of Angular JS, and it still used today.

Angular is a MVW (Model-View-Whatever) framework, which is used as an MVC. Its components have a template (HTML code), and a TypeScript file corresponding to the template. This enables Angular developers to write well-structured code, which is beneficial for complex projects.

Angular has a large community, and offers many other benefits as a framework including:

• Two-way data binding
• Angular Material library for building pretty and consistent designs
• AOT (ahead of time) compilation - compiles the code during build
• Offline support and PWA capabilities
• CLI tools
• End-to-end testing
• Many built-in features without the usage of any other libraries

However, it does has some downsides. It has relatively slower rendering. Additionally, it is meant for use with Typescript can be a downside since it will require JS developers to learn a different syntax.

Some companies that use Angular include Upwork, Freelancer, Udemy, YouTube, PayPal, Nike, Google, Telegram, Weather, iStockphoto, AWS, and Crunchbase.

1import { Component } from '@angular/core';
2
3@Component({
4  selector: 'app-root',
5  template: `
6    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
7  `
8})
9export class AppComponent {
10}

React

React is a framework by Facebook (Meta) released in 2013. It is the core library used for developing Facebook and Instagram's web applications. React does not implement the MVC template, but it is a great framework for building huge web applications where data changes on a regular basis.

React is an open-source, but is not as complete of a framework as Angular. However, there are many third-party npm packages that allow you to do virtually everything with this framework, by installing only the packages you need. The most important advantage is the Virtual DOM, which helps to make rendering and HTML components load much faster, by only rendering the parts that have been changed.

Some of the benefits of React include:

• Scalable, simple, and fast
• Virtual DOM for maximum efficiency by only re-rendering nodes as needed
• Support for server-side rendering (SSR)
• Easy to learn
• Lightweight

However, there are some drawbacks of this framework to take into consideration:

• Lack of official documentation - since it is open source and upgraded daily
• Long time to master

Companies that use React include Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Yahoo, Whatsapp, Dropbox, Airbnb, Asana, Atlassian, Intercom, Microsoft, and many others.

1import React from 'react';
2
3function HelloWorld() {
4  return <h1>Hello World!</h1>; 
5}
6
7export default HelloWorld;

Vue.js

Vue is the youngest of these frameworks, released in 2014 by previous Google employees, mainly for creating highly adaptable user interfaces and single-page applications. Vue is not as big as Angular or React, nor does it include such features that make it competitive with these two frameworks.

However, it has a relatively easy learning curve, and the ability to create efficient, fast, and sophisticated single-page applications.

Vue is an exceptionally fast tool, that uses Virtual DOM such as React and it has Single File Components (SFCs) with the .vue extension containing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so that all relevant code resides in one file.

The benefits of Vue also include:

• Detailed documentation, easy to follow and learn
• Flexibility and simplicity for app development
• Adaptability, large scaling, and awesome integrations
• Has its own tools and libraries such as CLI, Development tools, Vue Router, State Management, etc.

When it comes to drawbacks, the following ones are worth considering:

• It has limited plugin availability
• Smaller community

Some of the companies that use Vue include Google, Apple, Trivago, Xiaomi, Alibaba, Wizz Air, and Nintendo.

HTML file example:

1<template>
2  <h1>Hello World!</h1>
3</template>

JS file example:

1export default {
2  name: 'HelloWorld'
3}

Ember

Ember is a framework that is not as big as the previous one we mentioned. It was originally released in 2011, but its stable version was only released in 2016.

Similar to the other three, Ember.js is used for creating reusable and maintainable JavaScript web applications.

It is a MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework, mainly used to develop large client-side applications. In comparison to other JavaScript MVC frameworks, it gives you the ability to write more organized and structured code based on convention over configuration.

It has its own toolchain: a CLI, a debugger, several data libraries, and templates that help to automatically update the model if the content of applications gets changed. However, since its user base is relatively small, it has a more compact community too.

Handlebar example:

1{{!-- app/templates/application.hbs --}}
2<h1>Hello World!</h1>

JS example:

1// app/components/hello-world.js
2import Component from '@ember/component';
3
4export default Component.extend({
5  // component implementation
6});

Which framework to consider for your project?

When it comes to choosing the right front-end framework for a project, you need to do some research, read about some of the main characteristics of the frameworks, and compare them, as we did in the sections above.

Here are some tips and information that may help when choosing a framework for a certain type of project.

Angular

• Angular is great for large-scale and complex projects
• Angular is a better option for reliable scalability
• Use Angular if you have time to learn, or you are proficient in Typescript

Vue.js

• Use Vue when high-performance applications are needed
• Vue is great if you are lacking skilled front-end developers
• Or your team does have enough time to learn a new technology

React

• React is useful for apps that can incorporate reusable components
• Use React if you intend to have a simple frontend
• React is a good option for projects that require the highest level of scalability
• Or for projects with short deadlines

Ember

• Ember is useful for simple applications that require constant maintenance
• Use Ember if you need to build a single-page application quickly
• Or if you build an app where data would not constantly change

One Pager Cheat Sheet

• Front-end Javascript frameworks are essential for modern applications development, and this article compares the four most popular ones in terms of functionalities, popularity, and usages, to help developers choose the best one for their projects.
• Angular is a MVW framework released by Google in 2010, used by many large companies and offering many benefits such as two-way data binding, AOT compilation and CLI tools, however with some downsides such as slower rendering and a need for developers to learn TypeScript syntax.
• Ahead of time compilation (AOT) offers faster performance and code quality assurance for Angular applications.
• React is an open-source, scalable and fast framework by Facebook, used by many well-known companies, with a Virtual DOM for maximum efficiency and server-side rendering support.
• React's Virtual DOM helps improve performance by re-rendering only the nodes affected by changes, rather than the entire page.
• Vue is an exceptionally fast Virtual DOM tool, with Single File Components, easy to learn, good documentation, flexibility, scalability and integrations, although it has limited plugin availability and is not supported by as large a community as Angular and React.
• Vue is known for its Single File Components (SFCs), which allow developers to efficiently manage the different aspects of a component within a single, .vue file.
• Ember is a MVC framework, mainly used to develop large web applications, that has its own toolchain based on convention over configuration and has a relatively small user base.
• When considering a front-end framework for a project, research Angular, Vue.js, React and Ember and compare their features, scalability, and developer skill sets for the best fit.
• React is an optimized, high-performance framework with a simple front-end, reusable components, and a short learning curve (compared to frameworks like Angular that require knowledge of TypeScript).