Being in the development field is to be constantly dealing with various technologies and immersing oneself in their intricacies. With new developments popping up every other day, it is not difficult to get lost in the sea of technicalities.
As time went on, software programs changed from basic digital tools to complex systems fueled by long lines of code. With companies still innovating, taking ideas and turning them into successful products takes more than just finding talented developers—there’s also selecting the appropriate tech stack for your project.
To make this choice easier, we’re here to pit two of the most popular JavaScript frameworks, React and Vue, to help you decide the better choice for your circumstances.
A Brief Review of React vs. Vue
React was released in 2011 by Jordan Walke, a Facebook software engineer. The open-source UI component library quickly became a foundation technology for much of Facebook’s products and services.
When React joined the JavaScript universe, it brought along a number of innovative features that differentiated it from offerings such as Angular 1, Backbone.js, and jQuery. Perhaps most significantly, React made the Virtual DOM (to be discussed later) mainstream, and implemented JavaScript XML (JSX), enabling programmers to code HTML inside JavaScript.
Today, React is used by over 10.6 million live websites, including major platforms such as Cloudflare, Adroll, Airbnb, Asana, Dropbox, BBC, Facebook, Flipboard, and Mattermark.
Vue was created, however, by Evan You, who is a former Google engineer. He wanted to take the best of Angular, Ember, and React and create something more developer-friendly with more flexibility and features.
Vue solves the same problems as React but does it in a different way. Unlike React, which uses JSX, Vue uses a template syntax that plays well with standard HTML and is therefore nicer to integrate into an existing project. Unlike React, backed by Meta (formerly Facebook), Vue has a community behind it with a passionate set of developers supporting and improving the framework on a regular basis.
Currently, Vue powers over 1.9 million live websites.
Why React and Vue Continue to Rise in Popularity
According to the JetBrains DevEcosystem 2021 Survey, React and Vue are the top two JavaScript frameworks developers use regularly.
Their popularity is the result of a combination of efficiency, flexibility, and developer-centric features. Though they have separate histories, React and Vue do have some common important similarities that make both very good options for front-end development.
Common Features of React and Vue
1. Virtual DOM (Document Object Model)
React and Vue both use a Virtual DOM, which enhances performance by updating only changed components rather than re-rendering the whole page. This reduces resource usage and enhances application speed over a regular DOM.
2. Component-Based Architecture
Both of these frameworks are component-based in nature, which enhances modularity and reusability of code. This allows developers to make development simple, with easy scaling and maintenance.
3. Build Tools
Both Vue and React offer pre-set build tools that enable developers to easily initialize projects in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
- Vue has vue-cli for project scaffolding.
- React has create-react-app to streamline project setup.
These tools meet the current practices of web development, making the project run smoothly.
4. Chrome DevTools Support
Both frameworks offer dedicated Chrome extensions to assist with debugging and performance monitoring. Developers can inspect app components, review React and Vue markup versions, and track real-time updates within Chrome DevTools.
5. Official Component Libraries
For mobile app development, both React and Vue offer official component libraries:
Notably, vue-native-core is a wrapper around React Native APIs, allowing Vue developers to build native mobile applications with a familiar syntax.
React vs Vue: An In-Depth Comparison
When it comes to choosing between Vue and React, the best approach is to compare them on major parameters like ease of learning, performance, and scalability. In our comparison, we will give you an impartial comparison to enable you to make a decision on what framework best suits your requirements.
1. Performance in React vs Vue
Performance is not a significant discriminator between React and Vue since both make use of a Virtual DOM, resulting in equal processing speeds.
Vue’s framework occupies approximately 80 KB, whereas React is slightly bigger at 100 KB. In comparison, Angular tips the scales at almost 500 KB, meaning Vue and React are much faster and lighter.
Generally, the rendering speed difference between Vue and React is negligible—only a few milliseconds.
2. Market Position in React vs Vue
When choosing a framework, it’s helpful to see which large companies have made it their choice.
- Companies Using Vue: Xiaomi, Nintendo, Grammarly, Facebook, Trivago, GitLab
- Companies Using React: Atlassian, Netflix, Dropbox, The New York Times, Skype, Airbnb
Both frameworks drive high-profile apps, demonstrating their stability and scalability in real-world production.
3. Flexibility in React vs Vue
React: React provides a high degree of flexibility so that developers can install and utilize third-party components whenever necessary.
Vue: Vue is structured, with predefined components suggested for particular functionalities.
- Highly experienced developers prefer React because of its flexibility.
- New developers will find Vue simpler to learn since Vue offers well-defined guidelines and in-built solutions.
Moreover, React’s larger developer community guarantees more pre-built components and available solutions.
4. React vs Vue Scalability
The main contrast between React and Vue is their HTML implementation methodology:
- React supports template coding directly in JavaScript (JSX), which is very scalable in large applications.
- Vue works on standard HTML templates, thus more suitable for small projects but less scalable for complex projects.
Vue’s HTML + CSS-based framework is easier for beginners to learn, while React’s JSX is more of a learning curve but has greater scalability and performance on large projects.
5. Mobile Development in React vs Vue
- React: React facilitates easy iOS and Android app development with React Native, one of the leading cross-platform frameworks. The developer can share as much as 90% of the code for various platforms.
- Vue: Vue has mobile app development support through NativeScript, but it is not as widely adopted as React Native. Vue does integrate with Weex and NativeScript, but its ecosystem is not as reliable and efficient as React Native.
React Native is still the better option for mobile app development.
6. Community and Popularity in React vs Vue
React
- 189K+ stars on GitHub
- Over 331,000 questions on Stack Overflow
- A vast, yet somewhat fragmented developer community
Vue
- 196K+ stars on GitHub
- Over 74,000 questions on Stack Overflow
- A steadily growing community with strong support from Evan You and his team
Although React has a larger user base, Vue’s structured and supportive community makes it an excellent choice for developers looking for clear guidance.
7. Application Size in React vs Vue
- React apps typically range from 1–2 MB, making them larger than Vue apps.
- Vue apps are much smaller (50–100 KB) due to the lightweight nature of the framework.
However, React’s team has worked on reducing app size, cutting down its footprint by 30% in recent updates. Vue, on the other hand, allows lazy loading, which optimizes load times by breaking code into smaller chunks.
Choosing Between Vue and React
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—your project requirements will determine whether Vue or React is the better choice.
Choose Vue if:
- You need to develop a small to medium-scale project quickly.
- You’re working on Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) or Single-Page Applications (SPAs).
- You want to enhance an existing app with additional functionalities.
Choose React if:
- You require thousands of tools and libraries for your project.
- You need to develop a large, complex application with faster time to market.
- You want a framework that supports highly interactive and responsive UI components.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the most suitable front-end framework for your development project is not easy since it is based on several factors – your project’s requirements, features of the framework, and the availability of developers.
Instead of being bogged down by web comparisons, business owners need to concentrate on which framework best suits their particular project needs.
Also, project size and complexity will be a determining factor in your choice. Both React and Vue have their own advantages, but the skillset of your development team will finally decide the success of your project.
