Angular, React, and Blazor are all popular JavaScript frameworks for building single-page applications (SPAs). They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences.
If you are starting a new project and you’ve got to choose one of these, it all depends on you and your team. The good part is none of these frameworks are good or bad. They all can do the same thing. It's like buying a new car. Which car did you buy? It depends on your budget, what you like, and your preferences. All cars do the same thing.
Angular, React, and Blazor: History
Angular is a TypeScript-based framework that is known for its large and mature ecosystem, its comprehensive tooling, and its strong emphasis on structure and organization. Angular is a good choice for large, complex projects that require a lot of structure and guidance. However, Angular can also be more verbose and opinionated than other frameworks, which can make it more difficult to learn and use.
React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React is known for its simplicity and flexibility, its component-based architecture, and its large and active community. React is a good choice for smaller, more focused projects that require a lot of flexibility. However, React can also be more difficult to learn and use than some other frameworks, and it can require more boilerplate code.
Blazor is a C# web framework that runs on WebAssembly. Blazor is a good choice for .NET developers who want to build SPAs using their existing skills and tools. However, Blazor is still a relatively new framework, and it does not have the same level of maturity and community support as Angular and React. Blazor is designed by Microsoft to provide an option to .NET and C# developers to build SPAs using a little bit of JavaScript and mostly C# language, so there is no complex learning curve for existing .NET developers.
While both React and Angular are client-side frameworks, Blazor however has both client-side and server-side options. If you are an ASP.NET developer and want to build Blazor apps the ASP.NET way, you could do that using Blazor Server, but if you are a JS developer and want to do most of your work on the client side, you could do it using Blazor WebAssembly.
Difference between Angular, React, and Blazor
Here is a table that summarizes the key differences between Angular, React, and Blazor:
How to choose between Angular, React, and Blazor
As I mentioned, the choice between these three frameworks starts with you, your team, your project requirements, and your company.
Here are some factors to consider when choosing a UI framework:
1. Your team's skills and experience
If your team is already familiar with one of the frameworks, it may be easier to use that one. Remember, the purpose of building new software is to help businesses run better, cheaper, and faster. Your goal should not be stuck on a tech stack but to solve a business problem. The faster and cheaper, the better. For example, if your team is experienced in .NET and C#, Blazor is probably a better choice for you. But if your team doesn’t know C# and .NET but is good in JavaScript and TypeScript, Angular is a better fit. What if you are just starting and have some young developers on your team? React may be the easiest way to learn to get started.
2. Your project's requirements
If you need a framework with a lot of structure and guidance, Angular may be a good choice. If you need a framework that is flexible and easy to learn, React may be a good choice. If you are a .NET developer, Blazor may be a good choice. Some companies and projects already have a tech stack decided by the leadership. They may have guidelines that all of our front-end UI will be developed in React.
3. Your company’s preference
Existing tech stack and expertise also matter. If you have a team of Angular developers that are working on other projects, you may want to stick with Angular because in long run, you will need a support and maintenance team for the project.
As a company, if you have multiple projects being developed in multiple languages and frameworks, it will get costly over time because now the company has to employ teams with different skill sets.
In my experience, most large and medium-sized companies have tech stack decided by the leadership, so they have fewer people to maintain and support the deployed applications.
4. Performance
When it comes to performance, Angular and React are generally considered to be the most performant of the three frameworks. Blazor is still under development, and its performance is not yet as well-optimized. However, Blazor is still a promising framework, and its performance is likely to improve over time.
Of course, the performance of any web application will also depend on a number of other factors, such as the specific code that is written, the hosting environment, and the user's browser. If you have a bad coder, your React app can be the slowest.
Here are some additional factors to consider when choosing between Angular, React, and Blazor for performance:
- Application size: Angular is generally considered to be a better choice for large, complex applications.
- Developer experience: React is generally considered to be a better choice for developers who are new to JavaScript frameworks.
- Ecosystem: Angular has a larger ecosystem of libraries and tools than Blazor.
5. Existing libraries and components
As I said earlier, the goal of building new software is to solve a business need and go to market faster than slower. If you can use existing components and libraries and already have experience with them, you may want to choose that path. For example, if you’ve worked with a set of third-party components, such as a calendar and scheduling in Blazor, and want to build an app for scheduling, you may want to pick Blazor. But if you are building a highly scalable app for real-time updates that you have built in React, you may want to use React for the project.
6. Jobs and learning
Some people like to learn new skills and also try to get new jobs. If you are targeting a specific company and you know they use a specific tech stack, you may want to learn that. For example, a large corporation in my area mostly builds their software focused around Microsoft stack, and their new apps are developed using React as front end and .NET/C# as backend. In this case, you may want to learn React for the front end and C# for the back end.
7. Your community preferences
If you prefer to work with a large and active community, Angular or React may be a good choice. If you prefer to work with a smaller but growing community, Blazor may be a good choice.
8. Build POCs
Once you decide which framework you want to go with, make sure to build smaller POCs and do some research on open-source projects to learn and see if the functionality you’re going to build is possible in that framework. For example, if you want to build a new Chat app and you find a React component off the shelf as an open-source project, this could be the fastest way to go live.
Enterprise vs Startups
The way React and Angular were started, Angular is more popular among enterprises, and React is more popular among startups. The reason is that Angular uses the MVC architecture and can easily manage different layers of an application. React, on the other hand, requires some kind of backend support.
Blazor, being the new kid in town, is more popular among enterprises that are heavily vested in the Microsoft tech stack. The biggest benefit of Blazor is .NET and C#. If a company is Microsoft stack-based and already has a team of C# and .NET developers, there is no learning curve. The same team can get to work within a few days.
Scalable startups such as Facebook and Instagram are for billions of people and often require a faster and more responsive front-end with real-time updates. Enterprise applications such as a Financial Analysts dashboard require charts, graphs, and reports.
Startups are more likely to adopt React due its easy to its easy-to-learn and adaptability. While enterprises have a structured approach to designing new software. An enterprise is more likely to use Angular or Blazor because of the completeness of the UI framework.
From my personal experience, I've seen a rise in a combination of React and C# among enterprises where the front end is developed using React, JS, and CSS while the backend and API are developed in C#.
Number of apps developed using Angular, React, and Blazor
According to a recent survey by Statista, React is the most popular JavaScript framework for web development, with 40.14% of developers using it. Angular is the second most popular framework, with 22.45% of developers using it. Blazor is a relatively new framework, but it is growing in popularity, with 10.49% of developers using it.
Framework Number of applications
React 40.14%
Angular 22.45%
Blazor 10.49%
Angular vs. React vs. Blazor: Jobs
I recently looked at the number of jobs available on Indeed and LinkedIn listed in the following table. As you can see from this table, React has a lot more jobs than Angular and Blazor has the least number of jobs.
| Job Title |
Indeed |
LinkedIn |
| Blazor Developer |
2,030 |
3,242 |
| React Developer |
41,933 |
84,458 |
| Angular Developer |
22,317 |
53,108 |
Conclusion: Choosing between Angular, React, and Blazor
When it comes to choosing between Angular, React, and Blazor as your front-end framework, there is no easy way to answer that. It all depends on your experience, interest, project needs, and your company. All these frameworks are great and can do almost anything. However, Blazor being a new framework, you want to test drive it first before you go and invest fully in it.
ajeet singhPosted Nov 12, 2023, 7:12 PM
React can also used with typescript and for larger scale project .React provides lot of flexibility to integrate with other library .
Yogi SPosted Nov 11, 2023, 4:06 AM
Nicely explained differences between angular and React.
Satyaprakash SamantarayPosted Nov 10, 2023, 8:00 PM
Very nice and helpful article for today's technology world...Thanks for sharing.