React vs Vue JS in 2024 Which Framework is Better

React vs Vue JS in 2024 Which Framework is Better

React, and Vue.JS are two of the most popular JavaScript frameworks developers use to create web apps. However, during development, Vue vs React becomes a battle of behemoths, and the developers must choose between the two. This is where stakeholders are stuck in a time loop. That is because they cannot decide whether to hire React Native app developers from React Native development companies or go with a Vue team. Like the stakeholders, developers also have divided opinions about Vue vs React. Some developers prefer Vue, while others love working with React.

According to a survey conducted by Stack Overflow in 2023, “Out of 90,000 developers, 40.58% of developers sided with React while 16.38% of developers preferred Vue.js.”

While that stat is telling, it still does not nearly solve the debate of Vue vs React. In order to put this matter of Vue vs React to rest for once and all, we will dive deep into both JS frameworks. Moreover, we will talk about the main difference between React and Vue. Also, the comparison between Vue vs React can help you determine which is the best JavaScript framework for your development. Whether you want to go with Vue or React native for mobile app development, this blog will make things all very clear. So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it.

Detailed Comparison Between React and Vue

Vue vs React is a tech battle for the ages. An app built with React Native offers different perks than an app developed with Vue. However, there is only one way to find out which framework comes out on top of this battle. We will dive deep into this comparison. It can help you determine whether Vue code is better than React or vice versa. Vue. JS is an open-source progressive JavaScript framework for building responsive web apps. Likewise, React is an open-source JavaScript library for building with React Native app development.  Let’s compare both to decide who wins the Vue vs React debate.

Detailed Comparison Between React and Vue

Usage and Preference Among Developers

Both Vue and React are powerful frameworks and have been hugely successful with developers. But their very use and what percentage of developers prefer to use either one have literally swung back and forth. This sets the stage for the debate of Vue vs React. With this comes one of the largest user and developer bases through enterprise and large-scale application development ecosystems. It is powered by a very rich ecosystem, strong tooling, and active community support. React has a larger developer fanbase. Moreover, React is more popular for its declarative approach, the flexibility that JSX syntax allows, and its architecture based on components. On the other hand, Vue is gaining ever-growing popularity due to its human-friendly learning curve, great documentation, and strong attention to developer experience. Vue resonated very well with developers with backgrounds in jQuery, Svelte, or AngularJS for its ease and simplicity.

The fact that Vue is very lightweight and the ability to adopt it in an incremental manner for projects have also played a part in Vue’s popularity. Judging by the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, React has emerged as the first most loved front-end framework, with a share of 40.58% of developers who love it. Following it is Vue, with 16.38% of developers interested in the framework. This showcases their rising adoption. However, the fact that such a preference can fluctuate due to project requirements, the type of expertise the team possesses, or industry trends has to be highlighted. This led React to get entrenched in big organizations and enterprises, while Vue has gained significant popularity in small teams, startups, and niche communities for whom approachable solutions with easy integrations matter. In the end, choosing one in the battle of Vue vs React comes down to business needs and preferences.

Angular vs Vue vs React: Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Framework for Developers

There are a few factors that you will need to consider before deciding React takes the center stage for your development or Vue. These factors will also help settle the Vue vs React debate.

Angular vs Vue vs React: Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Framework for Developers

Learning Curve

The role of the framework remains central for a developer from the point of view of productivity and adoption. This is an important factor to consider In the Vue vs React debate. Vue often comes with a softer learning curve than React and Angular. All that Vue is doing here is with its simple, familiar template syntax that looks more or less like plain HTML. It is more concise and expressive reactive virtual DOM components. These are backed by a powerful, flexible core, which might be seen as a compromise between the simplicity of a highly focused library like Preact and the powerful expressiveness of a fully featured framework like React. The documentation, official to be precise, is also widely praised for being clean and complete, hence allowing for better ways of learning. React, on the other hand, is very powerful.

Moreover, React has a steeper learning at first because it employs JSX (JavaScript XML) and requires knowing concepts of state management, lifecycle methods, and the wider React ecosystem (e.g., Redux, React Router). React may feel a little non-intuitive at first, but when the developers push through this initial friction, React’s component-based architecture and declarative nature will become second nature to them. Angular, being full-fledged framework software, comes with a steeper learning curve among the three. Being opinionated in nature and requiring some understanding of Angular-specific concepts such as dependency injection, modules, and reactive programming required by TypeScript, it might be somewhat steeper, especially for a developer who doesn’t have any prior experience with Angular or another front-end framework.

Cross-Platform Requirements

This growing importance of cross-platform development comes with the need to maintain a consistent user experience from one device or platform to another. The debate of Vue vs React is also shaped by cross-platform development as even though both solve it, they do it in different ways. It’s an isolated library from React, allowing the building of truly native mobile applications using identical components and the same concepts developed in React. Most of the code for web and mobile apps is shareable between them through React Native, hence reducing not only the development efforts but also maintaining the same consistency across platforms. Supported officially by the Vue Native project, Vue.js can build really native mobile applications.

However, it’s still early in the experiment phase, and the community around Vue Native is very small compared to React Native. Vue developers will most likely use frameworks like Capacjson or Cordova to develop hybrid mobile applications using web technologies. For example, React and Vue both support desktop application development using projects like Electron or NW.js, giving the possibility to build a cross-platform desktop application using either of their respective frameworks.

Access to Third-Party Solutions

In many ways, this environment is richly populated with third-party libraries, tools, and solutions. It increases development productivity and the potential capability of the application much more than React does. Also, its ecosystem is gigantic and very mature. It comprises thousands of open-source libraries and tools that will assist you in virtually anything. These include state management (Redux, MobX), routing (React Router), UI component libraries (Material-UI, Ant Design), etc. The huge number of third-party solutions gives React developers access to a wealth of them for usage and re-usage. That is why they are only focused on developing the core application functionality.

 

Linkitsoft For Healthcare Kiosk Solutions

Build Your Dream Workflow and Solve Your Biggest Challenge With Us

 

The Vue community, while not as massive and well-established as the React ecosystem, continues to grow and mature rapidly. In the meantime, the community around Vue literally has dozens of solutions: Vuex and Pinia for state management, Vue Router for routing, Vuetify and Element UI for UI component libraries, and a lot of others. Its progressive nature allows Vue to add third-party solutions incrementally and makes it easier for developers to adopt and make use of existing libraries. Both frameworks have rich ecosystems and active and vibrant communities that contribute to the third-party solution space, with developers being assured of a huge pool of solutions to integrate within their applications.

Ecosystem and Community Support 

Ecosystem and community support are important pointers for the success of any given framework and its life. They point out the evolution of the framework, maintenance, and the resources available for the developers. React is from Meta (formerly Facebook), which has the biggest and strongest ecosystem. This makes the core React library so well maintained, and the team working on it continuously invests in its improvement without losing sight of emerging standards and features on the web. And, of course, the number of React developers is just huge. There is a great number of online resources, tutorials, conferences, and meetup groups, all aimed at knowledge sharing and promotion. Vue, though being a quite new framework, has managed to create a really impressive ecosystem with a lot of community support.

The Vue core team is very active in maintaining and extending the framework; the work on it is led by Evan You. One of the prime reasons for the popularity of Vue is its documentation. It is often hailed as the clearest and most comprehensive in the entire JavaScript framework space. This makes it super easy for developers to onboard. The Vue community has exploded with vibrant forums, online resources, and local meetup groups around the world. “Community of helpful people around Vue, its approachability, and the focus on developer experience have helped Vue gain rapid popularity.”. React has equally massive community support, with guarantees of resources and required help that will aid developers in the successful building and maintaining of applications.

React vs Vue: Similarities Between the Two

Before we start discussing the differences in the battle of Vue vs React, we will look at the similarities that both frameworks possess. In many ways, React could be more similar to Vue than we all think. So, let’s look at the similarities:

React vs Vue: Similarities Between the Two

JavaScript At Core

The main idea is that React and Vue are both JavaScript libraries/frameworks. Moreover, in the development of user interfaces, both perfectly leverage the power and flexibility provided by JavaScript. This way, it leaves a possibility that developers using either of the two have the opportunity to partake in the large JavaScript ecosystem libraries and tools in place, supporting very flexible and wide extensibility integration.

Flexibility and Scalability

Both React and Vue are designed to be flexible and scalable and help developers build applications from the simplest at a small scale to those that are of an enterprise level. The second similarity is that both frameworks are based on modular and component-based approaches. They allow code reusability and are maintainable with the growing application size and complexities.

Similar Meta frameworks Like Next.js and Nuxt.js

In the React community, the counterpart of the meta-framework ecosystem is Next.js. Like Vue, Nuxt.js is in the Vue community. It is a framework for server-side rendering, static site generation, and overall application framework that provides meta-framework capabilities. There is another battle that goes down in the form of Next.js vs Nuxt.js. However, in this case, both utilize the prime features of React and Vue, respectively. They do it in a manner such that with the help of effective tooling provided by the meta-framework, developers can substantially raise their efficiency while developing applications.

Virtual DOM

One of the key similarities between React and Vue is the fact that they base their operation on the concept of Virtual DOM (Document Object Model). Virtual DOM is an imitation of the real structure of DOM in memory after any change of state rendering that perhaps updating the properties of the node in the UI structure occurs. In detail, both React and Vue ensure high performance and smooth user experience. They do that by rendering changes within the Virtual DOM, subsequently reflecting those changes in the actual DOM.

Component-Based Architecture

Both React and Vue have a component-based architecture through which a view is built with reusable UI components. This architecture, therefore, highly encourages modular development, where code reuse is highly promoted for easy maintenance. React, and Vue’s components may encapsulate their logic, state, and presentation. It also makes every piece of your app a lot easier to reason about and test in isolation.

Rapid Development

So, React and Vue have gained admiration in terms of developer productivity and rapid application development. Their ecosystems are full of tools, libraries, and development utilities for uninterrupted development. This tooling is optimized for development and helps users iteratively ship web applications with ease.

PWA Support

The emergence of new kinds of support for PWAs continues to be among the most rapidly emerging concerns in current web development. An example of an incumbent on the list is React, with heavyweight native support and its many parties. This would enable web developers to write web applications that can be installed, work offline, and have the same functionalities as applications on the device.

Open-source Community

React and Vue are community-powered, open-source projects that have a passionate, diverse, and active community. These communities are endless resources for documentation, tutorials, libraries, and support forums. That allows developers also to contribute back through an open-source nature, report issues, and shape the future direction of the frameworks.

Build Dynamic User Interfaces

Designing and implementing user At its core, React shares the main motive with Vue: to develop user interfaces for dynamic and interactive web applications. All of them give clear patterns on how to effectively update and render the components of the UI according to changes either in data or by user action. Thus, they make a good ground for the modern development of responsive, rich-UX web applications.

What are the Key Differences Between Vue and React

Now we come to the business side of things and the thing that you are here for in the first place. That is, of course, looking at the differences that can put this matter of Vue vs React to bed and decide the winner for your development project. The differences in the competition between Vue vs React are as follows:

What are the Key Differences Between Vue and React

Data Binding

React adopts a one-way data flow binding, where through props, data evidently flows from parent to children. It is commonly known as one-way data flow or top-down data binding. Changes to the state are directly addressed. This way, it brings about updates that trigger the re-rendering of the relevant components via the setState method in React. On the other hand, Vue uses a two-way data-binding approach. This will actually have the data model updated into the view. At the same time, it will also automatically update the data model. That kind of two-way binding approach makes it quite easier for you to keep UI in sync with your data model, especially within input fields or forms.

Syntax: JSX vs templates

React uses JSX (JavaScript XML) or a JSON file, a syntax extension to JavaScript, in which developers write code that looks like HTML inside their JavaScript files. JSX, specifically, will be transpiled into regular JavaScript code in the build process. It may take a little bit of getting used to, but in essence, JSX is a way of working with your UI components more directly: you’re putting UI code in the same file as your component’s logic.

Vue uses template syntax that is very similar to HTML but includes JavaScript logic for that component. Under the hood, Vue templates are actually parsed and compiled into extremely optimized render functions. This compartmentalization of concerns between template and component logic may be argued to make the code more readable and maintainable for developers who are used to the less dry nature of conventional HTML.

User Experience

While both React and Vue are oriented toward giving developers a smooth, responsive user experience, they differ in several approaches. React uses the functional programming style with insistence on immutable data structures and promises enhanced performance along with predictability for applications of high complexity.

Of course, those might need more boilerplate code, and the learning curve can be a bit steep for some people. Vue, on the other hand, tends to offer developers an intuitive and friendly developing experience with a simpler learning curve and a smoother path to features, such as data-binding and computed properties. This could, therefore, lead to a rather streamlined development process, especially for small to medium-sized applications.

App Size

The initial size of the React or Vue application will mainly depend on the features included and third-party libraries. Given that it is a bigger overall framework with more built-in features, React tends to ship with larger bundles out of the box. But of course, with things like code-splitting and tree-shaking, the final bundle size can be kept to a reasonable minimum. Vue is known to have a smaller initial footprint and be lightweight. Their core library is relatively small. This makes it a great choice if you want to build either small applications or scenarios where the size of your bundle is always a priority.

App Performance

Both React and Vue are built with high performance in mind. However, their nature of performance characteristics could vary between the two depending on the application and use patterns. It’s very performant for large, more complex applications given the efficiency React has to offer in updating the user interface using its Virtual DOM (VDOM) and the reconciliation algorithm.

Vue also runs on the Virtual DOM. However, its rendering generally weighs much lighter and is more efficient for small to medium-sized apps. In this view, Vue’s reactivity system and optimizations, like lazy compilation and caching, can provide better performance in some scenarios.

App Architecture Support

React and Vue take distinct approaches to application architecture and structure. React leans towards a functional programming style, encouraging the use of patterns like higher-order components, render props and the context API for state management and component composition. This approach helps with managing complex component hierarchies and state interactions more predictably.

Vue adopts a more opinionated strategy. It provides built-in features such as Vuex for state management and Vue Router for application routing that are right out of the box. This can simplify the structuring and organization of larger applications, offering clear guidelines and less setup time for developers.

Code Maintainability

Several factors influence code maintainability, including coding practices, team conventions, and the application’s complexity. React’s code tends to be more verbose, primarily due to JSX and the explicit management of the state. However, its commitment to functional programming and immutability makes the code more predictable and easier to manage in complex applications.

On the other hand, Vue’s code is often seen as more concise and easier to read. It is easier to read for those familiar with HTML and traditional template syntax. The clear separation of concerns between the template and component logic in Vue aids in better code organization and maintainability. This makes it appealing for projects where readability and ease of maintenance are priorities.

Mobile App Development

Both React and Vue provide solutions for building mobile applications, but their approaches differ. React does not provide a better library than React Native for building truly native mobile applications, leveraging React’s principles and components. This platform is supported by a robust ecosystem and a large community.

Vue offers Vue Native for mobile development, which remains experimental. More commonly, Vue developers use frameworks like Capacitor or Cordova to create hybrid mobile apps.

App Security

App Security is a crucial aspect of web application development. Both React and Vue incorporate mechanisms to safeguard against common security threats. React uses Virtual DOM rendering and JSX syntax to guard against XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks. Despite these protections, it is still essential for developers to adhere to best practices and adequately sanitize user inputs.

Vue also implements Virtual DOM rendering and template compilation to reduce XSS risks. Additionally, Vue enhances security with built-in features such as output encoding and a strict mode, aiming to provide a more secure development environment.

Test Support

Testing is essential for ensuring the quality and reliability of applications. Both React and Vue boast well-established testing ecosystems. React’s testing framework is highly developed, featuring tools like Jest for unit testing and Enzyme for component testing, along with various third-party libraries for end-to-end testing.

Vue also offers robust testing capabilities with official utilities such as Vue Test Utils for unit testing and supports integration with popular frameworks like Jest and Cypress. The Vue community further enriches this environment with a variety of third-party testing tools and libraries. While both frameworks provide strong testing support, the specific tools and approaches may vary based on team preferences and project requirements.

Let’s Get Started With React

In order to determine whether React comes out on top in this battle of Vue vs React JS, we will need to take a deeper look at React 18. These factors can help make your mind on choosing React when it comes to Vue vs React.

Let's Get Started With React

Why Should You Create React Apps?

There are several compelling reasons to consider React from the Vue vs React battle for developing applications. Some of the reasons that decide the winner in Vue vs React are as follows:

Component-Based Architecture

React’s approach promotes modularity, reusability, and separation of concerns, simplifying the construction and maintenance of complex user interfaces.

Virtual DOM

React’s Virtual DOM implementation enhances the efficiency of updates and rendering of UI components, leading to improved performance and smoother user experiences.

Powerful Ecosystem

React is often built on a huge, mature ecosystem with thousands of open-source libraries and tools across various categories. It provides developers the opportunity to utilize ready-made solutions and focus on creating core functionality.

Cross-Platform Development

React Native enables the construction of real native mobile applications using the same concepts and components as React. This allows developers to share code between web and mobile applications, reducing development efforts and ensuring consistency across platforms.

Developer Productivity

React’s declarative nature and efficient updates, supplemented by tools like React Developer Tools, significantly enhance developer productivity by enabling rapid application development and quicker iterations.

Strong Community and Learning Resources

React benefits from an enormous, active community. There are numerous online resources, tutorials, conferences, and meetup groups all focused on exchanging knowledge and best practices.

Supported by Industry Giants

Backed by Meta (formerly Facebook), React continues to receive robust support and development, ensuring it remains in alignment with modern web standards and features.

Use React UI Component Library

Most developers would actually use third-party UI component libraries to ease and speed up the development of React applications. They do it all while ensuring consistent styling throughout the application. React UI component libraries that bring with them pre-built components of the user interface. Besides the pre-built components, these UI component libraries include theming, accessibility, and responsive design right out of the box. This reduces the time overhead of a developer in building a UI from scratch. Some of these popular UI component libraries can help you choose React in the Vue vs React competition. These libraries include:

Material-UI

A set of modern, polished, and ready-to-use React components in Material-UI implementing Google’s Material Design specification.

Ant Design

A design system and UI library for React, packed with a lot of high-quality components that are highly customizable.

React Bootstrap

A library of React components based on the Bootstrap leading CSS framework regarding responsive and mobile-first pages on the web.

Semantic UI React

A library for React that brings together the Semantic UI framework with all its UI components and theming.

Chakra UI

It provides a modular, accessible component library that gives a developer a consistent, customizable design system for their React applications.

OR Get Started With Vue 3

New Vue 3 is the upgraded version of Vue 2 and offers tons of benefits. The comparison of Vue vs React is nearly at its close. However, if you were to choose VueJS, then the following factors can prove your decision worth taking in this debate of Vue vs React.

OR Get Started With Vue 3

Benefits of Vue

Vue 3 brings a lot of value and improvement to the comfort of the developer of modern web applications. These benefits prove a stronger case to go with Vue in the competition of Vue vs React. These benefits are as follows:

Approachable and Easy to Learn

The beauty of Vue comes with its simple, straightforward syntax and documentation, in a way that even beginners can pick up and get started in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Lightweight and Performant

This overall makes Vue much smaller in size compared to other frameworks; hence, it performs better with faster load times and better performance, especially for smaller to medium-sized applications.

Flexible and Incrementally Adoptable

Vue has a progressive nature that allows it to integrate into existing projects gradually, thereby smoother adoption and migration with little time to go full “Vue all the things.”.

Comprehensive Tooling and Ecosystem

The Vue framework boasts a very rich ecosystem that comprises official and third-party tools, libraries, and resources, among others: Vue CLI, Vuex (state management), and Vue Router.

Virtual DOM and Reactive Data Binding

Vue uses Virtual DOM diffing, where it uses a Virtual DOM for lightweight UI component updates and efficient rendering on the real DOM. This helps in keeping the UI synchronized with the data model through reactive data binding.

Vibrant Community and Learning Resources

It is a community-driven open-source project powered by people like you and me. Vue.js has one of the friendliest communities in the open-source universe.

Versatile and Suitable for Various Project Sizes

These make Vue a flexible and scalable solution that is suitable for projects of any size, from small to extra large and enterprise-level.

Use Vue Libraries With Vuetify & Vue Router

While developing Vue applications, developers find themselves using third-party libraries and tools to spice up the application and enable easy development. Two of its popular libraries include Vuetify and Vue Router. When used together with Vuetify, Vue Router is particularly brilliant in helping the developer build an appealing, fully-featured Vue application that has a common look and feel through the pages, from the home page to any sub-page, and has simple navigation from page to page with polished user interaction. These libraries save development time and effort. It allows developers to focus on building the core functionality of the application while leveraging pre-built, well-tested components and features.

Vuetify

It is a Vue UI library with a large set of pre-made components adhering to Google Material Design specifications. Vuetify comes with many UI components ready for use: buttons, cards, menus, dialogs, and many others, styled according to Material Design’s guidelines. Also, Vuetify includes theming, responsive design, and accessibility features.

Vue Router

Vue Router is to Vue.js what React Router is to React. It provides an easy way of putting components into various routes. This allows for the easy client-side routing of single-page applications. Vue Router also supports easier navigation, nested routes, and integration with Vue’s natural and simple transition to the component-based view.

Final Thoughts

That is it for this blog on Vue vs React. While we have wrapped this blog, the debate of Vue vs React JS vs other frameworks remains as it is a long topic of discussion. This blog covered a fraction of it, as we only talked about Vue vs React. Still, this blog has laid out differences as well as similarities between the two frameworks. We hope our breakdown of Vue vs React will help you choose the right framework for your development. If you enjoyed reading this blog, we suggest you check out more like this from our website.

Hire the Top Software Developers Around!

Related Blogs

Contact us

Linkitsoft is an outsourcing and software development firm that specializes in creating various software products kinds following client needs.
Our expertise in offering a whole lifecycle of software development includes
strategic consultation for product creation, upkeep, quality assurance, and much more.

We are one of the leading international software outsourcing businesses with years of expertise in offering superior solutions at reasonable prices.

Request For Proposal





    Scroll to Top