React vs Vue – The CTOs guide to Choosing the Right Framework

Vue.js and ReactJS as highly progressive tools for front-end development due to several reasons. Although both technologies can be utilized to build similar products and applications, each possesses its own advantages and drawbacks.

This article aims to compare Vue.js and React.js across various aspects, ranging from general information to technical features. Both of these web development tools enjoy the support of well-established communities and possess widespread popularity. However, it is worth noting that Vue.js is a framework, whereas React is a library.

React vs Vue – Overview 

What is React?

Reactjs is an open-source Javascript library to build web apps with rich user interfaces. React offers developers flexibility to create reusable custom components that encourage rapid development processes. Furthermore, its ability to allow quick rendering of a web page makes it more search engine friendly. All in all, it’s a great library that promotes the development of light-weight and complex business applications. 

Here are some cool market usage statistics for React js:

• React js is used by 40.14 percent of the developers, according to the State of Developer worldwide.

• React is at 4th in the list of “Most loved frameworks of Stackflow 2021” for almost 69.28 percent and features “Topmost wanted frameworks” by StackOverflow at 25.12 percentage.
• The framework boasts over 187k Github stars along with the continuously progressive community.

Use cases of React

• Web apps (React.js)
• Video streaming platforms
• Media sites
• Software as a Service tools 
• Mobile apps (React Native)
• Desktop Apps (React + Electron.js)
•  Progressive Web Apps (React + Ionic)
• JAMstack sites (Gatsby.js)

What popular apps are built with React?

• PayPal- The renowned Finance organization used Reactjs to improve the navigational workflows, bookmarks, and initial rendering of their payment gateway application.
• BBC– The well-known British public service broadcaster BBC news channel used Reactjs in building their web more navigational towards a mobile-first page, offering super-fast user experience and making their website super accessible across all the devices. 
• Facebook– The largest social media network website globally uses Reactjs currently in their Facebook Ads Manager; however, the Facebook web app is built with more than 20000 Reactjs components. 
• Netflix- The famous video streaming website used React in fixing the performance issues and minimizing processing times for a blazing startup speed and seamless user experience. 
• Twitter– The largest American microblogging and social networking service website uses React to update content, improve user experience, and create browser-based UI. They renovated their site front-end architecture with React and came up with the progressive web app version.

What is Vue?

Vue is a lightweight and flexible JavaScript-based framework that provides advanced web tools to develop modernistic SPAs and front-end web apps. Vue is also considered a versatile and progressive JavaScript framework because it allows change creation in an application code without having influence any core feature built and this provides the opportunity to create progressive UI. With high decoupling, Vue also offers opportunities to extend the functionalities of the web application with customized modules and visual components. 

Here are some market usage statistics for Vue: 

• There are currently more than 1,884,181 successful websites that use Vue globally.  
• 94.1% of the websites that use Vue prefer Vue v2, and the market share held by the framework is not more than 0.7% overall. 
• The community of Vue is approximately 196k stars, with 32.1k forked projects. 

Use cases of Vue

• Progressive web apps 
• Single-page apps 
• Small project applications 
• Large scale enterprise apps 
• Existing application design extension 
• Existing application functionality extension 

Popular apps built with Vue

Grammarly: Usage of data binding and template engine syntax to create necessary IDE features for building intuitive and easily understandable online editor wrapped with simplistic design and contextual layout. 

Laravel Spark: Seamless functioning of front-end application on the client-side. It offers  complete control over SaaS applications. It was made possible by supplementing custom-built Vue components for creating bulky features for the Primer client version of Laravel Spark.  

Behance: Create custom solutions that can uniformly tend to the application code and  standardize application with each new visual feature added over the year. Most of all, Behance undertook Vue to create a roster shift between their developers conveniently. 

Gitlab: Implement complex features that support the existing community to improve their reporting, administration, code management, and analytics. GitLab conducted a slow migration of Vue for its simplicity in creating advanced components without exerting too much effort. 

Adobe Portfolio: Necessity to migrate from a legacy framework without creating a ruckus of data loss or complication was accomplished with Vue. With the help of Vue, Adobe built customized tools that allow users to develop modernized websites via Adobe creatives. 

React vs Vue— Pros and Cons

Pros of React js

Efficient web pages: React apps save a lot of time and increase web pages’ efficiency by refreshing the user interface to update the data, eliminating the need to reload the web pages. 

Better user experience: Organizes the code for future optimization and increases the readability of code. Hence, easy dead code elimination results in better user experience and loading speed. 

Reusability of Components: Separate logic and controls help build reusable components. Making application development faster and easier, more comfortable nesting of components to build complex functionalities.  

High Performance: It eliminates the need to update data in the real structure and use a virtual structure to update the data. This mechanism produces high-performing React apps, no need to take the extra load while loading the web pages, faster response times, and smooth client-side experience. 

Large Community: React js possess a robust community worldwide. From beginners to experienced developers, everyone enjoys building apps with maximum reusability of components that React offers. 

Cons of Reactjs

Continuous updates: React is frequently associated with the latest updates on all versions and contributions around the world. Hence, the Javascript library is less conventional and more evolving in coding practices. 

Increased complexity of code: JSX is an extension of the syntax used by React js that combines Javascript and HTML. It’s a little old school, an intricate pattern for developers. Also, it is a bit hard to learn as compared to learning plain Javascript. 

Only focuses on View: Building an application with Reactjs will only focus on the view layer from the model, view, and controller architecture. So you’ll have to use an additional platform for the other parts of the application. It means further integration of tools such as routing or APIs. 

Pros of Vue 

Progressive: Migration or integration of Vue can be easily managed by gradually introducing the framework into code while developing components is under process without having to waste any development time. 

Conventional: Vue does not make writing boilerplate code harder by using in-built solutions to create state support for managing components and animations. The conventional approach makes the whole process of building applications with Vue faster. 

Effective Size: With every new version of Vue that gets released, the framework gets even lighter and faster. The optimization ability if Vue allows developers to focus more on feature addition than debugging or code tweaking. 

Functional Extension: Vue offers a set of additive API features that are function-based, which allow the composition of component logic in an application to be flexible and extensive. As a result, application components can become more readable and extended in functionality as per need.

Future Ready: Vue is known for its strong production environment and thus there is not a need for updating or regularly checking the application for bug fixed or improvements. The framework makes the update process easier by default. 

Cons of Vue 

Community: Vue has a community that lacks language understandability. With Vue being popular in regions around China, most of the discussion for Vue is in Chinese, making it difficult for learning, sharing resources for English-speaking developers. 

Code Reactivity: The two-way binding nature of Vue comes in handy to create and sync components across an application. It also results in the rendering of data chunks or parts of features triggered by the DOM. 

Support: Vue is still considered as a young framework, and since its community is relatively small when adopted for large scale projects, resolving less experienced developers cannot handle issues that arise for large scale projects. 

Flexibility Risk: Having flexibility and options to customize is always reasonable, but Vue offers too much flexibility. It is often perceived as a framework where too many options over-complicate a project leading to errors and code irregularities. 

Resource limitation: Though Vue’s ecosystem is wide, it still does not offer plugins and tools that are commonly compatible with most of the external tool sources and other frameworks. It also lacks support for most of the available resources. 

React vs Vue— Performance Comparison

How does React stand out in terms of performance?

React app’s performance is faster, a lightweight performance in user experience with individual components working in a fine functional manner. The component-based architecture of React helps build more robust single-page apps, reusability removes the code clutter and reduced DOM manipulation speeds up the page loading. All this adds to seamless app performance and pleasing user experience. 

Moreso, the library works on updating the necessary changes to the webpage without reloading the entire page. So, it eliminates the unnecessary loading of pages and instead refreshes the data. You could use the minimal approach to build React apps by setting some programming practices at hand. For example, DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle  helps developers to make minimal mistakes and enhance team productivity. 

How does Vue stand out in terms of performance?

With each new feature added or extension of a component, the condition of The Vue application becomes uncertain making it harder for the app to load faster. But luckily, this framework has a virtual DOM, which serves as the default tool that helps in optimizing the performance of an application. Lazy loading is one of the prominent features of Vue. It helps in improving the load time. Vue manages a third-party library in an asynchronous manner by automatically handling the critical dependencies by segregating the libraries into the ones that require to be added in the main application bundle and the ones that can be leftover in routes away from the core bundle. 

React vs Vue— Application Architecture

What kinds of architecture does React js support?

Unlike other libraries and frameworks, React does not have a built-in architecture pattern. React caters to the view layer of application that is made up of components. Components in React work as functions that render the underlying user interface as the data changes. It’s a constant interaction between the users’ actions and the state of the application components that makes up the internal architecture of React js. The  state of the React components is excellent when you want to build apps with limited functionality and scope. But for building the real-world applications, React is dependent on external libraries like Redux, Flux, MobX, Reflux, and more to implement an architecture pattern. 

What kind of architecture does Vue support?

Vue focuses on following the ViewModel approach and undertakes the pattern on MVVM especially in the cases of developing a large-scale application. The View part and the Model part is connected in a two-way binding approach. Here’s what M, V, VM stands for in this framework:

Model: Functions similar to the Model object of JavaScript. Once the data object enters the Model part, the data instance is transformed into reactive elements for creating appropriate storage layers discretely. 

View: Actual management of the DOM instances takes place in the View part of Vue. It uses the DOM-based templating to successfully create root elements and correspond with the required DOM components. 

ViewModel: Handles the synching necessity between the Model and the View part of the code. This object is the primary part where developer interactions with the code take place. 

The architecture of Vue and its DOM structures are abstracted into two parts, namely the Filters and the Directives. Unlike most technologies, Vue is not a full-blown framework, hence considering that it follows a View layer pattern, the handling of application development is made flexible and simple. 

React vs Vue— Ease of Testing

How easier is it to test a React js app?

Reactjs offers important test runners, and with the help of these tools, the development process becomes easy to follow. For example, test runners such as Jest, Mocha, and others help practice a standard pattern of executing test suites that help testers identify problems in real browser environments, unnecessary functions, and the spot where expensive manipulation of functions execute. It reduces the time-to-market, speeds up the deployment of apps, and gives push to a more productive environment.

How easy is it to test Vuejs apps? 

Vue is still a rising star, and its testing abilities are ordinary but straightforward yet efficient. It does not offer over the top luxurious tools as well as does not undermine the testing capacity of its code as well. Unit testing of Vue is significantly close to other frameworks and typically uses Jest, Mocha, or Chai. Some of the libraries officially recommended by Vue are Vue testing Library, Vue Test Utils. They provide access to the application and user-specific APIs, making refactoring and code debugging a breeze. Faster feedback loops are possible to achieve as this framework allows CI/CD and provides hot reloading features.

React vs Vue— Scalability

Is React js scalable?

Since React apps are made up of pure javascript, developers can rely on traditional ways to organize the code to make the project more scalable. Having said that, React is an excellent framework to build scalable UIs pertaining to the concept of virtual DOM and component reusability.   

Is Vue js scalable? 

Since Vue is a lightweight framework, it is often preferred for developing small-time applications and not scalable applications despite its ability to extend an application with its flexible tools. It might be hard to believe that Vue can offer scalability to some extent. It can be made possible by forking a Vue application by breaking it down into multiple repositories to segregate the application for convenient scaling as per requirement. Since the architecture is a little dynamic, scalability is achieved using web packs and Mixin elements offered by Vue to override the code extending limitations. 

React vs Vue— Suitability for building complex apps

Is React js suitable for building complex apps?

React js supports building highly interactive single-page apps. Moreover, it lends support from external server-side rendering architecture such as Redux, Flux, and SSR frameworks like Next.js. Hence, you can build complex apps with React js because of its code management capabilities. 

Can you build complex apps with Vue?

When it comes to developing complicated applications, it might be harder, and here is where the coding part gets a little bit serious. Building complicated applications requires a code that can interlink different underlying components and Vue makes it harder to standardize the order of components.  But, with the help of Vuex, developing complex apps can be easily made possible without even having to write any spaghetti code. Vuex is a state management library of Vue which is specifically tuned for reducing complication by leveraging the reactivity power of Vue.

React vs Vue— Security

How security is handled in React js?

React-based applications are more prone to threats such as XSS vulnerabilities, Server-side rendering attacks, SQL injections, and a few more. It is only upto your developer to implement various security best practices to protect your application from such kinds of threats. The best practices might include, but are not limited to, exploiting script-injection flaws, defense from the insecure links, using the serialize Javascript module, etc. Though React is easy to learn, to get an expert handle on securing React apps requires considerable experience.

How security is handled in Vue? 

Creator of Vue, Evan himself once stated that “built-in sanitizer would add extra bundle weight for a rare use case,” hence automatic protection of Vue codes  against attacks like XSS or other vulnerability attacks is not possible. But with the help of external libraries or sanitizing the HTML codes before implementing the said code in the application database offers a fighting chance against security issues. However, Vue also can automatically inject necessary executable HTML, URL, JS codes to keep the application safe before and after rendering.

React vs Vue— User Experience

React js’s way of delivering the best user-experience

Through its high-quality user interface and fast rendering of web pages, React applications are more likely to be adopted by the users. The applications incorporate rich user interfaces with a clean, everything on place system. The UI components such as buttons, forms, text boxes, and others are so well constructed that they feel comfortable interacting. 

Moreover, the representation of information is seamless and quick because of the fast rendering. If the application is built correctly, nothing could stop React apps from delivering “bug-free” performance. 

Moreover, the technology is frequently updated by the community and Facebook, making it more focused on its functionality, and development is more easily incorporated towards business logic. In short, there are zero framework issues as such since the platform is quite active and supported by the community. It makes React apps offering seamless integration of third party integrations and user experience in all terms.

Vue’s way of delivering the best User-experience

For developing an interactive and eye-catchy web app UI, Vue might be an ideal choice considering the tech stack it offers. Virtual DOM ensures that changes made within the application do not directly reflect visually, which provides more scope and room for UI design experimentation. The data binding nature of this framework allows developers to easily set HTML attributes and values that can be modified anytime without influencing the existing code using a binding feature called v-bind.  Templates, animations, and transitions can be customized as per the requirement with material components and UI tools like Cron generator, Chakra-ui-Vue, etc.

React vs Vue— Rapid Development

How React js contributes to rapid application development?

React demands an in-depth understanding of choosing the router system, configuration caveats, and problem-solving attitude at various stages of the project lifecycle. If you have a skilled resources team, having worked on several projects, you will find React faster and productive. Also, for the short-term goals, you are likely to gain good results from using React. React seems to be the fastest framework for developing fundamental apps or features, with a moderate level of experienced developers.

At what pace can Vue applications be built? 

Building creative applications are tremendous but building them more quickly is even better. Given the lightweight nature and rendering feature of Vue, developing apps at a fast pace is easily achievable. However, using some more add-on tools like Bit, StoryBook, Vue dev-tools, and web packs like Vue loader, Single-File Components (SFCs) can be easily created. This makes the workflow faster and proves to provide opportunities for rapid development.

React vs Vue— Application Size

Application size in React

React is just a library and not a fully featured frontend framework like Angular. So, if you’d see from that perspective, it should make smaller applications than those frameworks, but the React’s app sizes are bigger comparatively. However, the latest React versions have minified overall bundle size by reducing the app size by 30 percent to the previous version.

What is Vue’s application-size?

As already mentioned, Vue is a lightweight framework and that by itself indicates that the application size might not be as heavy compared to other frameworks. A fundamental simple Vue application has a size of between 50kB to 100kB, which is not a lot. Vue CLI might make the application size appear large when it loads the code for the first time due, but upon implementing lazy loading components, codes can be broken up into smaller pieces and improve the load time. Tools like NuxtJS, Vuex, Bit, Vue-router avoids the need for writing code from scratch with effective state management that predicts unnecessary functions, codes, and eliminates them.

React vs Vue— Code Maintainability

How convenient is it to maintain code in React apps?

React has component-based architecture. It focuses on building UI components, custom functionalities in a user interface, and optimally using logic to build meaningful functionalities. Once you start developing your application with React, you are developing functional and individual code snippets. These code snippets are reusable to other applications, as well as different modules of the application. 

Moreover, this breaking down of application into certain parts helps manage application more efficiently. You are ultimately increasing developers’ productivity. For example, you could replace React developers at the instance of time without worrying about how new developers would fit in the project and whether an understanding of the project would take a lot of extra time and effort.

What is code maintainability for Vue?

Vue is still ever-growing and it is not easy to predict how good it is going to be in the future. Will they resolve their community language issues and support limitations? Probably but as of today, Vue is rising in pace against most frameworks that have existed for a long time. This is a fact that might indicate that there is a good chance that maintaining Vue applications is not that hard. Since Vue lacks good support, creating conventional coding practices help to overcome limitations and obstacles. Some of the reports from Stackoverflow or Github may even indicate that Vue is future-proof considering its effortless integration abilities and code grafting continuity onto existing DOM and HTML mark-up with zero prerequisites.

React vs Vue— Learning Curve

How good is the learning curve of React js for developers?

React is easy to learn for those who have experience with Javascript. The experienced developers take very little time to learn the workflow and architecture of React because of the thorough understanding of API structures and data flow in Javascript. Due to its shorter learning curve, the team establishment becomes easier as any beginner or experienced developer can join the team. Even in the cases of emergency when a developer leaves your team, the resources are easily available in the market. 

However, only the versions after 16.0 are up-to-date. So, there might be some trouble for new developers to implement the more advanced features.  

How easy is it to learn Vue? 

Out of all the JavaScript frameworks, Vue is the easiest to learn and understand. It is said that it can be learned between a few hours and less than a week. Basic understanding of how ES6 functions and fundamental skills in JavaScript programming is all that is needed. Documentation of Vue is easily understandable as well though it might not be as rich as other frameworks. The community language issue does not make it any easier for learning or sharing repositories with the community but the official documents are more than enough for a novice to get jump-started with learning Vue and developing web apps.

React vs Vue— Hiring Developers

How convenient is it to hire React js developers?

Hiring React developers is easier than ever as javascript developers are more likely to be interested in building web applications. The average cost of hiring a React developer is $34 per hour. However, It goes up to $100 based on the skills and experience and sometimes the rate also varies from country to country. 

How convenient is it to hire Vue developers?

Vue is easy to learn but when it comes to understanding the depth of Vue concepts, the availability of developers who are experienced with Vue might be relatively far less. This framework abstracts the inner code complexity with its simple architecture and flexibility in features. Thus, a team of a minimum at least three or more would be required for a small project, and a group of five or more with at least one or two experienced developers is a must in the case of large scale application development. Companies that provide team extension  as opposed to hiring freelancers is a cost-effective way to hire Vue developers.

Is React better than Vue?

React or Vue or any other Javascript based solutions all are pretty cool in terms of their own use-cases. There is not a clear winner in this case. It’d be better for you to determine your use-case and map it to the aspects of these frameworks.

Choose react if you:

• Want to play around lots and lots of libraries, tools or ecosystems.
• Want to develop scalable applications without any hassle for Testing and Debugging.
• Want to build a complex app with better time-to-market.
• Want to build video streaming platforms and media sites.

Choose Vue if you:

• Want to build progressive web apps and single-page applications.
• Want to get started on your project as soon as possible.
• Want to have better separation of concerns in your project.
• Wish to extend the functionality of existing applications.