Blazor Or Angular - What Must You Choose For SPA Based Web Application Today?

Blazor is the new web-based application framework based on ASP.Net Core provided by Microsoft. It can be used to develop any SPA-based web application, like Angular, React, etc. Moreover, it does not require any extra plugins to install into the client machine to run the application. On the other hand, Angular became one of the most widely used client-side component-oriented frameworks for developing scalable and dynamic web applications. This article will discuss the different features offered by both frameworks. Also, we discuss related to similarities and de-similarities. So, after reading the document, we can choose one of these two to use in our next project.

What is Angular?

Angular is a TypeScript Based Open-Source framework mainly used to develop the client parts of any application. This framework has been the most widely used client-side framework in recent years. With the help of this framework, we can quickly develop an interactive user interface based on Single-Page Application. The initial version of Angular was known as AngularJS and used JavaScript. But later on, with the advanced version, TypeScript replaced JavaScript in the new edition of Angular. Therefore, Google creates angular so that front-end developers can interact with both sides of the application at the same time. Currently, Angular is one of the best frameworks as a Production ready framework and provides full support for MVC/MVVM-typed applications. Also, nowadays, Angular is used by many big companies in their application process lifecycle.

The Angular Framework is designed so the developer can fully customize the framework with the help of its element and modules. Besides this, Angular also supports many more features like lazy loading of the application, the i18n internationalization standard related to the support for the local languages and cultural settings, and Ionic cross-platform-based mobile applications for iOS and Android. As Angular is an open-source based language, it also has the support of a large number of repositories related to the open-source based packages which can be used by Angular developers like –

• NgBootstrap
• NgRx
• NgTranslate
• Angular Material
• Ignite UI for Angular
• Angular Google Maps
• Ng2 Pdf Viewer 

and many more.

Characteristics of Angular

So, while discussing the Angular framework, we should understand the benefits of using this framework as a developer. Through this article, our primary focus is to compare the Angular and Blazor frameworks. So, as a Framework, Angular has many more benefits than those mentioned in this section. But, here, we only focus on some related to both SPA Framework associated with this article. 

Community Support

As an Open-source based framework, Angular always gets help from the entire Angular Community, which is very large compared to other communities like Blazor. So, if any developer faces any issue and needs a solution, they can find it through the Angular Community. 

Use of TypeScript

In the case of Angular Framework, TypeScript is used as a programming language for developing the Application in Angular. This is because TypeScript provides many attributes similar to the OOPs, which are much better than JavaScript's model. That's why clean, predictable and understandable code performs better for any Angular application. 

Support MVVM Model

Angular Framework supports the MVVM framework model, which always separates the programming logic from the user interface controls. In this framework, developers can maintain the code structure, and the project structure can be divided into the model–view–view model (also called a model-view-binder). This way, developers can update, edit or fix the code quickly and easily. In this structure, the view is responsible for displaying viewable items and receiving input data from the model. Then the ViewModel establishes a connection between the model and the view. And after that, the model executes the logic of the program.

Reusability

One of the essential features of the Angular framework is reusability. It always helps developers reuse their application's existing components or modules. With the help of this, development time was mainly reduced.

Despite the many benefits, Angular also has some disadvantages as a framework. Some of them are,

SEO Optimization

In General, Angular is not much friendly with the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) operations. Only search engine crawlers can index the web application if it is built on the server side. Therefore, the application must be indexed and visible in the SERP without issues for better SEO-oriented results.

Challenging to Learn

For front-end developers, Angular is quite a rigid framework to master. Due to the steep learning curve and comprehensive programming documentation, it requires deep knowledge. Also, Angular release a new version twice every year. So, it is pretty tough for developers to prepare themselves properly for a new version so quickly.

Large Volume

For any extensive ERP-based application, the bundle size of the application often becomes large. Therefore, the application can perform slowly compared to the other framework.

What is Blazor?

Microsoft introduced a new framework called Blazor, dependent on the Asp.Net Core web-based framework. And with the help of this framework, the web application can be developed using C# language. Blazor framework helps developers build a web application based on existing web technologies like HTML, CSS, etc. Also, developers can use the C# and Razor as template markup syntax systems. The name of this framework is a combination of a browser and Razor. 

Using this framework, developers can develop reusable and interactive web-based application UIs with the help of .Net architecture for Web Assembly-based client-side applications. Besides this, it also helps developers to share the code and libraries between the server and client-side application. Because both types of applications can be developed by using C# language. The essential points of Blazor Framework are that it supports all the new web standards and does not require any additional packages or plugins to run the application into different deployment models like client-side Web Assembly and server-side Asp.Net Core.

Web Assembly often called wasm, is the new standard in the web application that can run web applications in a modern browser. Wasm is a low-level assembly-like language supporting a compact binary format. Due to this, it is possible to run the application where code is written in many languages like C+=, Java, etc. The main objective of the Web Assembly is to develop high-performance-based applications on the web-based platform.

Characteristics of Blazor

So, while discussing the Blazor framework, we should understand the benefits of using this framework as a developer. Through this article, our primary focus is to compare the Angular and Blazor frameworks. So, as a Framework, Blazor has many more benefits than those mentioned in this section. But, here, we only focus on some related to both SPA Framework associated with this article. Some of the key benefits of the Blazor framework,

• We can create and use the developer of the reusable component in C#.
• We can develop Progressive Web Apps with the help of C#.
• Can share the code between the client and server-side applications in C#.
• It supports ahead-of-time compilation.
• Client-side web Assembly based applications can work offline.
• Blazor applications can run all modern web browsers, including mobile ones.

Despite the above benefits, Blazor also has some disadvantages,

• Blazor Applications always require the Asp.Net Core framework to Run. It is one of the significant dependencies of the Blazor Framework.
• Blazor Server side application does not support the Offline functionality as it always requires an active network connection.
• In the case of the Blazor Web Assembly-based application, the execution time of the application depends on the size of the application. Because when loading any web assembly application first, it tries to download all related dependent resources and cache them to the local browsers. 
• For any Blazor application, the browser or the latest version must be supported. Otherwise, it will not help some functionalities of the Blazor applications like WebAssembly.

Comparison between Blazor and Angular

So, now we clearly understand the Angular and Blazor Framework and their key features, benefits, and drawbacks. So, now, in this section, we will compare these two frameworks based on different aspects.

Parameter	Angular	Blazor
Developed By	Google	Microsoft
Release Date	2014	2018
Language	TypeScript	HTML, C#
DOM Support	Regular DOM	Incremental DOM
Production Ready	Currently, Angular Framework is total production ready after years of tested deployments.	With the .Net 6 release, Microsoft made many improvements in the Blazor framework, and we can say that now this framework is ready for production related to most applications.
Learning Curve	Unlike Blazor, Learning Curve for Angular is more extensive for any .Net or C# Developers.	The easy learning curve for the .Net or C# Developers
PWA Support	Yes	Only provide support for the Blazor Web Assembly-based applications.
Capture Component State at Server-Side for every client	No	Yes, for the Blazor Server based applications
Code Editor	Angular CLI and many 3rd Party editors like Visual Code, etc.	.Net CLI, Visual Studio, and other 3rd Party Editors.
Version-Release Plan	Every year, two major versions are released by Google. Therefore, it is a significant change for enterprises to keep the application up to date.	Every year, one major version is released by Microsoft. Although, many minor updates were also released during the entire year.
Code Style	Very lengthy, along with lots of boilerplate code structure that needs to follow to start the application coding.	Minimized related the boilerplate based code, relatively easy to start the initial coding for any application.

 

Which one Needs to Use in Development?

So, both the frameworks Angular and Blazor support SPA-based application development. In comparison, both have different features and advantages in developing perspectives. So, while developing any application like Web Application, PWA-based application, or mobile-based application, we can use both Angular and Blazor based on the different use cases. This section will discuss when we need to use which framework for any development purpose. 

When to use Angular?

As a framework, Angular is a much more versatile framework that can be used for any application related to all industries. But when we are planning to use Angular for any developing any application, we must follow the below scenarios,

• Let's agree to spend enough time training the developers to learn and gather knowledge on Angular and its different aspects. After that, we can use this framework for any application development.
• Suppose we are using front-end developers for application developers who have good knowledge of JavaScript and are not interested in working on the .Net technology. In that case, Angular is the best option to use.
• If we want to develop any application that has a simple look but needs to be very active, then Angular is the best option.

When to use Blazor?

As a framework, Blazor depends on the .Net technology. So, as a C# developer, if we want to develop a web-based application quickly, Blazor will be the perfect option. Besides the short development time, Blazor provides us with multiple development models we can use during development.

• Blazor PWA – Can be used to develop web applications as Progressive Web Apps with the help of the Blazor PWA model.
• Blazor Hybrid – Can be developed Hybrid web application by using the Blazor Hybrid.
• Blazor Native – With the help of Blazor Native mode, we can create a native application for different types of mobile platforms.

Conclusion

This article discusses the two types of SPA-based frameworks – Angular and Blazor. Both of the frameworks have some similarities along with some differences also. If a developer is efficient in front-end development, it is pretty challenging for them to work on Blazor as they need to learn about the .Net technology related to Blazor. The same thing is true for the C# developer proficient in the .Net framework and wants to use the Angular Framework for their projects. But, despite this learning curve, both frameworks have some matching cases on which we need to choose them for our projects. So, it depends on which framework we must select, depending on our requirements and resource strength. If you still have queries or doubts about this issue, contact me for guidance.