Javascript is an interesting beast to tame. When choosing a framework for Javascript, it’s important to understand the costs and benefits of utilising a given framework so that you don’t make the costly mistake of creating a front end that does not serve its intended purpose.

Of all the main frameworks and libraries available, Angular and React stand out as the two most prominent. There are many other frameworks out there such as Vue, but in terms of wide adoption and scale, these two can’t be beaten. The following is intended to be an effective comparison between the two, to make your decision for front end development slightly easier.

AngularJS is a complete JavaScript framework that contains a comprehensive list of tools a developer may need to build the client-side of a given website. As a framework, Angular allows a developer to create a pattern in their programming and establish a structure, helping to streamline development and standardise workflow.

React is an open-source library specifically designed for catering to views. Although full frameworks like Angular provide both the model, view, and controller, React is simply a library catering specifically to the view side of development. As it uses one-way data binding (data flows only from the object to UI) it can offer a unique approach to development. This type of data binding in turn gives it a huge advantage in terms of performance over competing technologies.

In 18 ^th century London the barbaric act of dogfighting was common. Dogs were pitted against other dogs, and the winner would take all. As boxing was not yet readily available, this was the largest betting sport. Of these, one top dog named Puss stood out above all others. Puss had been undefeated in a hundred fights, and at the time was considered the true champion. On the other side of the spectrum, the only other undefeated “dog” in the market was actually a monkey named Jacco Macacco. Jacco’s main skill was not that he had all the abilities of a dog, but that he was highly specialised for a certain style of fight. What it lacked in traditional tactics it made up for in performance efficiency. The two fighters eventually fought, in what was the Frazier vs Ali of its day. Neither party won though.

To put things in perspective, Angular is the dog in this scenario. It is both comprehensive, tough and able to compare to any other framework on the market. React of course is a library, making it the monkey. It cannot be used by developers to create efficient development processes as it is simply used for view-side development. React is generally able to handle lots of dynamic content changing within the view. React isn’t backwards compatible out of the box however, which may spell disaster for internal use only project. Angular is generally faster to use as it is a full running solution out of the box.

If React is the monkey and React is the dog, neither really wins. A library can be used with a framework and vice versa, meaning both can be considered equally necessary. The real question is whether you want the unique but time consuming solution, or the faster and generic one.