Today many start-up companies are trying to get in touch with experts to get specific IT consulting services. These consulting services are mostly aimed to help the business to develop an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) within the brief timeline and affordable budget. And when the product itself is a web platform with adaptive capabilities, it makes sense to use a Javascript framework as a solution for the front-end part of the product.
What is important when you choose the right Javascript Framework?
Well, to put it short — experience. As we mentioned earlier, in a typical case the development of an MVP considers two main aspects: the product should be delivered as soon as possible to ensure the best time-to-market, and it should be cost effective as well.
Edgica experts investigated the market to find the most suitable Javascript framework. What can be used as an answer to challenges of an MVP development? How may development teams benefit from using a particular Javascript framework?
Defining the Pool of Javascript Framework Candidates
We started an investigation to identify at least three Javascript frameworks that can be considered as decent options. After research and internal discussions, the team decided to stick with Angular 2, Vue.js, and React.js.
Angular 2
The Angular 2 is a rewrite of the known framework AngularJS. In short, Angular 2 is a comprehensive Javascript framework that has the following advantages: the code is easier to write, which is essential to MVP products development. However, a performance of the Angular 2 is not top-notch comparing to its competitors Vue.js and React.js. Besides, the Angular demands extra efforts to use plugins, which is required for developing complex solutions. On the bright side, framework’s architecture is component-based, and the library of functions is comprehensive.
Vue.js
Vue.js is a JS library that provides developers to build web applications using the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) architectural pattern. At first look, it might seem pretty similar to Angular. But right after the team starts working with it, it becomes quite apparent that Vue is easy to learn. It has simpler patterns, which ensures easy code writing and reading. And it’s not to mention framework’s flexibility and low weight. But there are no pros without cons: due to its young age, framework’s libraries are not sophisticated enough.
React
React uses virtual DOM which is JavaScript object, which improves apps performance since JavaScript virtual DOM is faster than the regular DOM. Component and Data patterns improve readability which helps to maintain larger apps. Besides, the React works well in combination with other frameworks. However, it only covers a View layer of the app, so there is a need to choose other technologies to get a whole architecture.
To ensure a visibility of the research, we decided to equip the investigation with the rank table. The rating was scaled from grade 1 to grade 5, where one stood for “bad” and five means “excellent.” Let’s take a deeper dive into researched frameworks. Among rating categories engineers picked Learning curve, Function Library, Plugins support, and Speed/Weight. You can access the Dictionary to get the definitions of these words.
Expert rating scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
Learning curve — the rate of a person’s progress in gaining experience or new skills.
Function Library — support and availability of built-in functionality required for the project
Plugins support — availability and accessibility of supported plugins.
Speed, weight — data processing speed, the weight of the product itself and project written with it.
There is no winner, how about that? Every framework that we considered in the research is a good candidate to play a role of a platform for the development of front-end part of an MVP.
In some cases, it would be better to go with the Angular 2, when in other situations this option will bring less benefit than, say, Vue.js. So, as you may guess, it depends. Thus you should carefully check your primary goal, the expertise of the team before actually applying some particular option.
Regarding learning curve, Angular 2 is the most complicated framework. If your development team consists of junior-to-middle specialists or those who did not work with the Angular 2 before, there can be issues in project timely delivery. Moreover, speed/weight of this framework is not that great, as well as the support of plugins. On the other hand, Angular 2 has sophisticated and extensive function library, which can be considered its primary advantage. To put it short, Angular 2 is a great option for teams which have an experience in working with this framework.
Meanwhile, Vue.js can be considered in the future as a #1 competitor of much popular Angular 2. Creating components with VueJS is easy, while its API and template system assure simplicity in the usage. As ReactJS, VueJS has the proposed components. Vue.js will become big enough soon if they keep on track with their simple, predictable, and smart product. Also, the functional library should be extended to gain more popularity.
React.js is a good choice as well. However, it’s more complicated for learning than the Vue.js. While it’s a good choice for an app performance improvement, it’s not that great regarding its weight. Moreover, React is using inline templating and JSX, which can seem awkward to some developers.
