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Vue Vs React: What Framework to Choose for Mobile App Development in 2021?

Ruslan Botnar
Ruslan Botnar
March 31, 2021

There are many front-end frameworks out there. In this article, we’ll take a look at three of the most popular ones: React and Vue. We will also talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using them for various web projects. With the development of the web and the increasing demand for responsive design, frameworks have been developed that allow you to create web products much faster than writing a front-end in pure JavaScript.

Let’s make a reservation that you should not overestimate the importance of choosing a specific tool – a detailed study of one will make it easier to understand the others. Either way, you will learn not only the features that are specific to one framework but also general concepts that apply to web development in general: component design, understanding data flow, managing states, templates, etc.

JavaScript frameworks have become an integral part of every modern web project. There are many such frameworks out there, and as a result, developers constantly have to wonder what to choose. The answer to this question will have to be sought in 2021 as well. If you are reading this, it can be assumed that you are busy looking for a framework that will form the basis of your next application. It is possible that you are targeting leading technologies and thinking about which is best for you – a React library or a Vue framework. This is not an easy dilemma, but it still needs to be solved. Here are some common questions asked by those choosing between React and Vue:

  • What’s the best fit for my next project?
  • Which framework has the best performance?
  • What’s more popular with developers?
  • Which is better for small web applications?
  • Which framework is more reliable?

Popularity:

In the world of JavaScript, new frameworks and libraries appear almost every day. In fact, this is an almost continuous process, during which favorites change literally every few months. Let’s take a look at the 2020 data and find out which is more popular – React or Vue.

Here are the Details from Google Trends. Here are some graphs illustrating the popularity of React, Vue, and Angular. It’s easy to see that React is significantly ahead of Vue.

Now let’s turn to the results of the Stack Overflow study. React tops the list of the frameworks that developers love the most. And Vue is only slightly behind. Vue, since its release in 2014, has gained considerable popularity in a fairly short time.

Dossier: History, Use cases, Features and Disadvantages

Vue: This JS framework was created in 2014 by Evan Yu, a former Google employee. There are no tech giants behind Vue. It has only been 5 years since Vue appeared. This makes this framework the youngest development among the systems of this level. Large companies using Vue include Alibaba and GitLab. One of the features of Vue is the fact that it mixes the capabilities of some of the other successful JS frameworks.

Vue is a young framework with a growing audience. The easiest to learn in the top three, you can get started out of the box, yet powerful enough for professional developers. Vue doesn’t have as many built-in features as Angular, but more than React. A popular choice among

Features:

  • Data binding;
  • Productive (there is a virtual DOM);
  • Ease of learning;
  • Adaptability and detailed documentation;
  • Scaling;
  • Optimization of html blocks;
  • Miniature size;
  • Templates.

Disadvantages: Few tutorials. Good documentation is a plus, but for specific cases, it would be helpful to have more different examples. Fortunately, there is a fairly large community. Integration into other projects can turn into a headache, the community does not have much experience in this matter yet.

React: React is a JavaScript library that was created not by an independent programmer, but by a huge company. It’s about Facebook. One of the main reasons for creating React was the desire of the company to improve the mechanisms for forming interfaces. This library was developed when Facebook faced some problems related to the development and support of the project.

The React library is known as a powerful tool for creating dynamic and interactive user interfaces. This library is used for the development of interfaces in many well-known companies.

React offers easy and functional building of components, and also promotes their use to maintain elegant API code. The framework is very popular, especially in various startups. With a large selection of readily available open-source plugins and extensions, you can develop almost any type of website. Component templates are built using JSX, this may be slightly different from what you are used to. Having a large selection of extensions is great, but it can be quite confusing for newbie developers.

Features:

  • Component oriented;
  • Declarative;
  • Productive (thanks to react virtual DOM)
  • Server rendering;
  • The presence of redux;
  • Pwa support;
  • JSX.

Disadvantages: Using templates interspersed with JSX may seem odd to a beginner. It may not be quite a flaw, but the non-straightness of the choice of the stages of project development is usually resolved only by experienced managers.

Framework Performance Parameters

Changes to the application interface are made by modifying the Document Object Model (DOM). There are concepts like virtual DOM and real DOM. How the process of working with the DOM is organized is a major factor in the performance of JavaScript tools for developing interfaces.

React: React uses virtual DOM, which is a lightweight, browser-agnostic system. One of the main reasons for the popularity of React is that it works very efficiently with the DOM.

Vue: Vue also uses virtual DOM, but compared to React, Vue has better performance and stability.

Learning curve:

A learning curve is a graphical representation of the change in the learning rate for particular knowledge or activity. In our case, we are talking about the speed of mastering React and Vue. Vue is known to be easier to learn than React. In the StateOfJS survey, respondents were asked to answer various questions about frameworks. Shown below are the survey results for React, Vue, and Angular.

As you can see, many have used React and are planning to use this library again. There are many programmers interested in learning React. If we talk about Vue, then we can note that the rate of use of this framework is not as high as that of React, and the rate indicating interest in learning is higher than that of React. This allows us to say that Vue is a framework that many people want to try. As a result, given that Vue is easier to learn, it can be expected that there will be an increase in the number of people using Vue and planning to use it again in the future.

Framework Flexibility

React: The core of React provides only basic functionality. With the practical use of this library, its capabilities have to be expanded. This gives the developer a tremendous level of flexibility when it comes to choosing additional tools. There are tools for developing interfaces, the ideas behind which can be considered the exact opposite of those built into React. For example, Angular, a framework that includes many standard tools. The plus of this is a ready-made set of tools that work well with each other. The downside is the lack of level of flexibility in the choice of tools that React gives.

Let’s talk about specific tasks solved with the help of additional libraries used with React. We can note, for example, routing, application state management, server rendering, and application development for mobile devices.

Vue: Vue, in contrast, to React, gives the developer a broader set of standard tools to solve the same problems that the React ecosystem usually solves using third-party libraries.

Community support

The communities that form around technology have a major impact on its development and diffusion. In particular, community members are able to provide assistance to the main developers of technologies, create various add-ons, they help newcomers.

React: The React library itself is maintained and developed by Facebook. This gives those who choose this library as the basis for the front end of their application a fairly high level of confidence that React will not turn into some abandoned project in the near future. The React community has created and maintains many additional tools.

Vue: Vue is a project with an ordinary person at its origins, not a large corporation. As a result, for the first time after its appearance, this framework did not look particularly reliable in the eyes of the developers. However, over time, Vue has become extremely popular, with many programmers contributing to its development. In fact, we can say that it is the Vue developer community that is the force that supports the project.

The size:

In a very simplistic way of sizing, we can say that React is slightly larger than Vue. React is about 100Kb, Vue is about 80Kb. The size of the JS code is a very important metric that has a strong impact on the performance of web projects. The smaller it is, the better, naturally.

However, it should be noted here that React needs third-party libraries to implement certain features. One such feature is routing. Vue, on the other hand, is a project with a wider set of standard features, although when working with Vue, add-ons are also indispensable. Both React and Vue are still fairly small in size, which makes them quite suitable for developing small applications.

Success stories

Before choosing a technology for the next project, programmers and managers are usually interested in what existing projects this technology is already being used in. If we talk about what React and Vue are based on, about JavaScript and other web technologies, then we can say that all this is applied in countless companies. If you look at specific examples of the use of React and Vue, you can highlight, for example, the following companies.

Companies using React include Atlassian, BBC, Codepen, Pinterest, Asana.

For a seasoned developer, it doesn’t really matter which framework to use. It just takes a while to get used to the new one. Our developers successfully use both React and Vue.js. Each framework has its own pros and cons, which means that you need to make the right choice for each case when developing a product. ё

  • Facebook – As mentioned, this company has created and maintains React, and also actively uses this library.
  • Twitter is a short message publishing platform.
  • Instagram – This platform focuses on posting images.
  • Whatsapp is a popular messenger.The Vue framework is used by Adobe, Behance, Reuters, Xiaomi, WizzAir, EuroNews, Codeship, and Alibaba.
  • GitLab – a project that helps developers build software together.
  • 9Gag – a project known for memes and other similar materials.
  • Nintendo – a game developer.

Grammarly – a grammar checker service.

Final Findings

If we put together everything that we have just talked about, then we can draw the following conclusions:

  • React is more popular than Vue.
  • React is backed by a large company, while Vue doesn’t.
  • React gives the developer a higher level of flexibility.
  • Vue is smaller than React.

For a seasoned developer, it doesn’t really matter which framework to use. It just takes a while to get used to the new one. Our developers successfully use both React and Vue.js. Each framework has its own pros and cons, which means that you need to make the right choice for each case when developing a product.