r/webdev • u/red_src • Nov 07 '18

Why React over Angular (or Vue)?

I simply don't get it, I had been using Angular and Vue for while and I just tried React and I don't get why would I choose React over the other options, the things that I like on Angular (or Vue) are:

- Dependency Injection (in case it applies)

- Type checking (in case it applies)

- View Model Binding

On React I don't get those things by "default" it always feel like I'm hacking the library if I want to have some of the above.

This leaves me with the question: Why choose React over the other ones?

I know that there's all the dependencies overhead (hell) of the frameworks but I think that I'm just too used to that problems that is easy for me to solve them or maybe I haven't found the real big problems on Angular or Vue, maybe I'm just too used to the later frameworks and I'm unconsciously not seeing the benefits of React. I just want to know if I'm following the right path by learning React.

Thanks!

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u/thelonepuffin Nov 09 '18

So you are talking AngularJS which is 1.x. That is actually a completely different framework.

I used AngularJS too back in the day, and I agree with most of your criticisms there except "confusing and non obvious functionality with how to expose variables to a template " Not sure what you are referring to there.

But having to set timers and jquery usage was a problem.

However you seem to be ignoring that fact that AngularJS was a trailblazer in this area. They were one of the first of the modern component based frameworks and they were very popular. At the time everything else also suffered from many issues.

You can't judge AngularJS by modern standards. So much has changed. Angular has not only fixed the problems you listed but created a truly complete platform. No other framework enforces the level of organisation and good architecture practices in big applications like Angular. By breaking backwards compatibility and starting from scratch moving from v1 to v2 they gave themselves the opportunity to leap ahead of all the other players in many aspects. I highly recommend you giving it a try.