Angular vs React: Which Front-end Framework to Use for Your Blockchain App

Blockchain is a game-changing technology that has the potential to disrupt many industries. It can help users trust each other and transact safely, without intermediaries. The ecosystem is still growing and evolving, which means there’s no single best framework for developing a blockchain app at this point in time. However, developers are choosing between two popular front-end frameworks for building blockchain apps: Angular or React. Which one should you use for your project? 

This blog post will explore some key differences between Angular and React with respect to these two approaches to building user interfaces.

What is Angular?

Angular is a front-end framework for building web applications in a declarative, two-way data-binding way. It offers a lot of functionality and is a very powerful tool; it’s also very popular and has a strong community and ecosystem. 

Angular is basically a set of components and a very opinionated way to structure an application. It has a lot of functionality out of the box: routing, modules, and so on. Basically, you can run an application out of the box. However, the downside is that you have to follow the structure that’s given to you. You have to use all the features. And, if you want to add custom functionality, you may need to rewrite some components.

What is React?

React is a view library that takes a single-page application approach. The view layer of a web application is the focus of React. React is often used with other libraries such as GraphQL and Redux for building single-page applications. 

The view library is very modular and focused on composability. If you want to write some custom functionality or add some features to your application, you can just write it as a separate piece of code and compose it with the existing components. This makes it easier to write new features because you don’t have to follow a specific structure or rewrite existing code.

Angular vs. React Quick Comparison

Let’s take a look at how these two frameworks compare. The following are some key differences between Angular and React.

• Architecture & Ecosystem: This is one of the most important aspects to consider when choosing between Angular and React. React is a library, while Angular is a full-blown framework. This means that you get everything that comes with a full-blown framework with Angular — tools, documentation, and community support — but you have to add the view layer with React.
• Learning Curve: Both Angular and React take a bit of time to learn, but React’s single-page application approach makes it easier to master because you don’t have to learn to route. The overall learning curve for React is also typically steeper, but this is because the basic concepts are more difficult to grasp. Once you get the hang of things, however, React is definitely easier to use. It’s also worth noting that Angular is more opinionated while React is more open-ended, which gives you more flexibility.
• Performance: This depends on the app’s requirements and other factors like the data fetching strategy. Angular has a strong view of the application’s architecture, so it can render only the pieces of the page that are necessary. React, on the other hand, is a flexible library that lets you decide what to render, which means it can be slower at times.
• QA Testing: Since Angular is a full framework, it has testing tools built in. React has testing tools, but they are not built into the framework. You can expect to spend more time and effort testing apps built with React. 
• Code Quality: Angular is a full-blown, opinionated framework, and React is a flexible view library. This means that you get more structure with Angular, which makes it easier to maintain and scale your application. React, on the other hand, is more flexible, but it’s easier to write bad code with it.

Key Features

Angular	React
Built-in support for AJAX, HTTP, and Observable are just a few of Angular’s highlights	React’s key features include the ability to use third-party libraries
In line with current technologies	Time-Saving
Typescript is a time-saving	Composability and Simplicity
Coding that is more clear and concise	Facebook is fully behind you
Error-handling support has been improved	Improved user experience and lightning-fast speed
Angular CLI allows for seamless updates	More rapid development
Validation and forms	One-directional data binding provides code stability
Local CSS / shadow DOM	Components in React

Strengths and weaknesses of Angular vs React

Every well-known application is capable of being balanced with the performance and features provided by this framework. Let's look at React vs Angular strengths and weaknesses.

There are many advantages to using React.

The development pace of React.js applications is relatively fast because developers can use the same development code snippet either on the client side or server side.

The React code is modular and easy to maintain, which saves development time and business costs.

It's straightforward to master and operate React with a prior fundamental understanding of JavaScript.

The purpose of this language is to create performant and high-performing applications. Because of the DOM program and server-side rendering, complex applications will be high-speed and performant.

The most significant benefit of React is that it provides reusable components, so developers don't have to write the same code again to achieve the same result.

Angular provides several advantages.

Angular's enhanced design structure enables developers to manage multiple components in an application. It is easy to identify functionality and purpose.

AngularJS' dependency handling is one of its essential advantages. It provides supreme dependency injection.

Angular's MVC structure makes for speedy app development, testing, and maintenance. Developers benefit from this speed as well.

Angular offers unique code re-usability because once you finish developing a component or piece of code for a specific purpose, you can utilize it anywhere else for another purpose.

You can use and write components anytime and anywhere with plug & play components.

Angular allows you to manage the state of your app, which in turn allows you to manage the app's properties, permissions, and other state-related issues.

There are several similarities between Angular and React

There are many similarities and differences between React and Angular, but before we look at those, let's take a moment to consider the commonalities.

Designing buildings

Components within Angular and React's component-based architectures can be endlessly recycled and reused.

To be well-liked

There is an extensive community of developers and resources available for assistance with a faster and easier development process for SPAs using React or Angular.

Multiple performances are performed at different times

Performance is also crucial for both React and Angular. Whether the remaining performance is adequate depends on the user's perspective.

Setting up a development environment and performing rendering

Angular and React are popular front-end frameworks. Both are suitable for web and mobile application development, providing efficient client-side and server-side rendering.

It's simple to update

Angular and React are both simple to update. On one hand, Angular uses the CLI, while React takes advantage of external libraries.

Which one is faster: Angular or React?

The performance of ReactJS is excellent

While Angular has a virtual DOM, it is much smaller than React. As a result, Angular components take longer to render than React components. React uses a faster frame rate for its render and update methods. Angular uses dirty checking to update the DOM locks. Every time a component element is manipulated, the Chrome Dev Tools show that Angular updates the DOM.

How fast AngularJS runs

Every binding is usually monitored in order to record all the modifications. Consequently, the loop continues until all the bound values and monitors are checked. This makes the process quite tedious. Although the explanation is straightforward- the more bindings you have, the more monitors are generated.

Angular has improved tremendously with the latest release, Angular 14. Therefore, Angular is still superior to React. However, the disparity between angular and react remains significant.

Performance in numbers

In this section, we compare how Angular and React perform different tasks. This shows us how each of these technologies will work.

Action	Angular	React
Loading	10ms	7ms
Scripting	173ms	102ms
Rendering	3ms	6ms
Painting	2ms	4ms
System	73ms	129ms
Idol	3034ms	3042ms
Total	3295ms	3289ms

Angular and ReactJS Use Cases

Although both Angular and React are popular front-end frameworks, their use cases are quite different. React is often used for building websites and developing web applications, while Angular is a popular choice for building mobile and progressive web apps (PWAs). Angular is based on the concept of a “SPA” (single page app), which is a specific implementation of a website where the entire site is rendered on a single page without the need to reload the page. Angular is widely used for building SPAs. 

React, on the other hand, is typically used for building websites where each page is refreshed automatically to display new content when a user clicks on a link. React is not designed for building SPAs, but it can be used to build hybrid apps and PWAs.

QA Testing in Angular & React

QA testing is one of the most important aspects of building quality software. In the context of front-end development, testing means writing code to check if your code is working as intended. Testing can be done in many ways, including both automated and manual testing. Automated testing is done with the help of code, and manual testing is done through visual means (such as clicking on buttons and checking if the desired result is achieved). Automated testing can be done with many programming languages, but it’s often done with JavaScript, which is the language used most commonly in Angular and Reacts. 

When it comes to testing, Angular and React are very different. React is a test-first framework, which means that the developers write their tests first, then write their code. This approach results in well-tested code that is easier to maintain. 

In contrast, Angular is more of an exploratory testing approach, where the developers write their tests after they’ve written their code. This means that their tests will be more difficult to maintain.

A comparison between Angular and React tests

It's time to test that React app.

React runs test suites continuously throughout development as part of its continuous testing process. Test runners such as Ava, Jest, and Mocha are included, which allow tests to be executed as the development process runs. Jest is highly compatible with a range of features including timers, mocked modules, and Jsdm support, which is why this is the case.

Furthermore, Mocha adequately fulfills browser-specific demands, thus supporting realistic simulations.

Enzyme is a React testing utility that allows you to assert, manipulate, and traverse your components' output. Enzyme's API is simple and concise, allowing you to describe what your component produces. Jest is a testing framework for React that allows you to test your code utilizing JavaScript. It's simple to get started with, but may be extensively customized. You may also integrate Enzyme into your existing test setup by using enzyme-to-jest or enzyme-to-karma.

Testing an Angular application.

The Angular testing framework is best utilized by writing tests before any code is written. Once tests are written, development becomes far more predictable and easier to maintain. By writing tests first, you can see if your code is functioning as intended and whether it addresses the issue.

A comparison of Angular and React performance

Smaller bundle sizes load faster, resulting in higher rankings and conversion rates. The search engine downloads the bundle file immediately upon reaching your website, so it's important to optimize it.

When you build an Angular SPA, the development utilities and unused modules are left out. Angular does not include the complete bundle of Angular frameworks in the user app. It performs additional optimizations via compressions and minifications after that, resulting in a large reduction in bundle size. Using a compiler when developing your SPA with Angular speeds up bundle file compilation. Therefore, you can rank your Angular application using the CLI production mode.

You don’t get such options to optimize the bundle file with React. You get hints for components, but you must always check the size of your bundle.

For Code Quality: Angular or React?

Depending on what your main focus is, you need to choose the right tool. If you’re focused on code quality and maintainability, go with React. If you want a more straightforward workflow, go with Angular. 

It’s important to keep in mind that a lot of this decision depends on personal preference and what your team’s experience is with each technology. There are a few things that you can check to get a better idea of the code quality of each framework. 

The first thing to check is how extensively the framework is tested. The higher the test coverage, the better the code quality. Another thing to check is the size of the framework itself. The larger the framework, the more complex it usually is. If you have a large team that is distributed across different time zones, you might want to decide on a smaller framework such as React. On the other hand, if you’re building a small app that only has a few people working on it, you might want to choose Angular, which is larger and more complex. 

Another way to determine code quality is to take a look at the open source repos for each framework and see how well-written they are. This might not be the most scientific way to check, but it can give you a general idea of each framework’s code quality.

Compare the maintainability of the code

The purest deed in the bible of developers is having a standard practice of overall code maintainability. Organizing the complexity of code structures in different program files and managing the naming conventions is a demanding task.

Writing clean code is important to React developers, but the process slows down production time. In any event, they can write precisely correct code that operates on small modules. React allows developers to split up their code in such a way that machines can utilize it. Using React enables developers to create reusable components, which, consequently, encourages code reusability. It allows them to create custom ReactJS components with unique names that are simple to render.

Angular saves developers from creating mismanaged and disparate code by providing Maintainable JavaScript. Angular saves developers time by providing HTML extensions and component re-usability.

Are Angular and React sufficient on their own, or do they require external libraries?

React is a JS library that is best for UI development. Due to its versatility, additional libraries might be required to optimize state management, routing, and API interaction, such as Redux, React Router, or Helmet. Additional modules or libraries should be installed for data binding, component-based routing, project generation, form validation, or dependency injection, for example.

All the features mentioned above, such as data binding, component-based routing, project generation, form validation, and dependency injection—can be accomplished using Angular's library. However, Angular is a comprehensive software development kit that does not require additional libraries.

Maintainability of Code: Angular vs React

As we mentioned earlier, one of the big differences between Angular and React is that Angular is an end-to-end solution, while React is only a front-end solution. Angular, therefore, is more of a framework, while React is only a library. This means that if your blockchain app needs to connect to a database, you need to integrate a different framework like GraphQL. This means that you’ll have to do a lot of extra work to get all the different components working together. 

On the other hand, if you’re using Angular, you’ll get all of these components as part of the Angular framework. This can make Angular a more complicated solution because now everything is in one big code base. When you need to make changes to something, you’ll have to change it in many places. This can make the codebase harder to maintain. This is where React comes in. 

React is just a library, so you have a separate code base for each component. This makes it easier to update and maintain. This is especially important when your app is in production, and you need to make changes quickly. 

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing between Angular and React is that you’ll likely end up using a combination of both for your project. Almost no one uses just Angular or just React. A lot of people will use both together to build a single application.

Angular and React are used for different purposes

Large-scale applications can be developed using AngularJS, but if you want to create a custom application with specific requirements, you should decide on ReactJS.

Angular is widely used

Angular can be a great alternative if you're looking to build e-commerce platforms, real-time data applications, or user-generated content hubs. You can rely on PayPal for the most effective checkout system, Upwork for smooth functionality, Localities for an exceptional UI, Forbes, Nike, and HBO for example, for quality.

A list of well-known React applications

You can select React if you want to construct Data Visualization Tools or Dashboards, Social Networks, Retail or E-commerce, or Cross-Platform Mobile Applications. The Netflix streaming platform performance and modularization, as well as the unique celebrity appearance version of The New York Times, are just a few examples.

Angular and Blockchain: Pros and Cons

Let’s start with Angular and its potential benefits when used to build a blockchain application.

Angular’s Strengths 

• Large Community — The first advantage of building a blockchain app with Angular is that it has a large community, which can help you find support, new ideas, and solutions to problems faster. Compared to React, you may find that you have more options for finding a team that knows how to use Angular, as well as more open positions for Angular developers.
• Superior Performance — Next to React, Angular is the most popular choice for large enterprise applications that are used by millions of users each day. It can easily handle complex, multithreaded data flows, which can be challenging to implement with React.
• Robust UI Libraries — Related to its enterprise-grade capabilities, Angular comes with robust UI libraries. This means that when you build a blockchain app with Angular, you can also take advantage of its pre-built UI components. This can make the design and development process more efficient, especially if you’re building an app with a team of designers and developers.

Angular’s Weaknesses

• Complexity — Angular can help you build a blockchain app quickly and efficiently, but with its simplicity comes a certain level of complexity. It has a steep learning curve, especially if you’re new to the ecosystem, and can be challenging for beginners to get a grasp on.
• Poor SEO — Angular can help you build a blockchain app that’s rich in features, but it may not be the best option for you if you’re concerned about the app’s SEO. Because it’s so complex, it’s harder to write clean, easy-to-read code, which is significant for SEO ranking. 
• Lack of Platform Standards — Because Angular is so widely used, there are very few standards regarding application architecture. This can lead to inconsistencies across teams and projects, making it harder to collaborate.

React and Blockchain: Pros and Cons

Next, let’s explore some key advantages of building a blockchain app with React.

React’s Strengths

• Ease of Learning — React is a simple framework that can help you build a blockchain app quickly and efficiently. It’s straightforward enough to be easily digestible by beginners.
• Flexibility — React is one of the most flexible front-end frameworks you can use to build blockchain apps. It’s designed with the idea that each piece of functionality can be used and reused in many contexts. This means that whenever you need to make a change, it will be much easier to do so than with Angular.
• Excellent for Learning — Finally, if you’re just starting out with blockchain development, React is a great option for you. It has a very active community of developers, which can help you learn the ropes on your own.

React’s Weaknesses

• Poor Performance — While React can be a great choice for basic blockchain apps, it’s not ideal for complex, enterprise-grade applications. The reason for this is that it can’t handle complex data flows; it’s not meant for that. 
• Poor Documentation — If you’re building a blockchain app with React, you may encounter a few challenges along the way. This is because the documentation is not very detailed, especially for beginners who may get lost easily trying to learn it on their own.
• Lack of Tools — Another thing to consider when building a blockchain app with React is that it doesn’t have the same level of tools and pre-built UI components that Angular does.

Which Framework to choose?

Now that we’ve explored some key differences between Angular and React, we can ask — Which one should you use for your project?  This can vary depending on your exact needs and preferences. 

The following, then, is a list of factors to consider when making your decision:

1. What is your project’s scope? 
2. What are the requirements for your app? What level of functionality does it need to have? 
3. What is your team’s skill set? 
4. What level of experience do your developers and designers have with the two frameworks? 
5. What are the project’s requirements? 
6. What is your application’s expected lifespan? Are you building a prototype or a product that needs to last for years?

Conclusion

This concludes our discussion on Angular vs React. We hope that this has helped you understand the core differences between these two popular frameworks and what they offer. 

When deciding which framework to use for your next application, you should consider the factors outlined above and evaluate your unique project requirements. And when it comes to building blockchain apps, Angular and React both have their advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, it all comes down to your specific requirements and what works best for your project.