Angular is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks and is used by companies such as Paypal, Upwork, Nike, Google, Sony, HBO, and many more. The Google-developed web application was released in 2009 with the name AngularJS. But the second version of the framework was renamed Angular, which was initially released in 2014, and went into different previews to reach full release in 2016. The latest version of Angular is 6.0.0 released in May 2018, which focused more on the toolchain and less on the underlying framework. Even though Angular’s popularity is increasing by the day, it is not short of its set of cons.
Top Angular Alternatives
To help budding and expert developers, we bring to you top Angular alternatives in 2024.
1. Aurelia
Termed as ‘the next generation UI Framework’ by its creators, Aurelia is very well received due to some of its features. Even though Aurelia is a full framework, it encompasses a number of libraries that work in tandem with well-defined interfaces in place, making it modular and flexible, a feature that was absent in Angular as it was ideally constructed as a monolithic framework with all components draped in a single bundle. Further, there isn’t any need to specify the controllers of view-models, unlike in Angular. The flexibility of Aurelia makes it an easy to use framework and a perfect alternative to Angular.
2. Vue.js
Vue.js is an open-source framework put together primarily to build user interfaces (UI). Released in 2014, Vue.js was created on the idea of extracting the best features of Angular and build a lightweight framework. Even though recent versions of Angular have reached considerably low sizes, Vue.js easily beats Angular in size as a full-featured Vue project is lightweight as compared to an angular-cli generated project. Moving over to flexibility, Vue is much more flexible than Angular and gives freedom to developers on the ability to structure their application. Finally, Vue.js is an easy to learn the framework, unlike Angular which has a slightly steeper learning curve.
3. React
Ever since its release, React has been a popular JavaScript library and has been a choice for many. Released in 2013 and maintained by Facebook, React was mainly developed to build user interfaces. It has become a primary choice for many developers, who choose React over Angular as it is easy to learn, much more flexible, a high update rate, a lightweight and support from Facebook to ease out the process of migrating between different versions. Due to these features, companies such as Netflix, Yahoo, Codecademy, Whatsapp and many others have opted for React.
4. Mithril
Mithril is tiny and easy to learn JavaScript library, initially released in 2014. It is a small API which requires users to learn only a few functions to get started, making it the first choice for many. Along with an easy learning curve, Mithril is extremely fast when compared to Angular, as it is using a lower magnitude of code to run. Regular updates have rendered Mithril even faster, and new plugins have made editing and formatting easier.
5. Riot
Riot is a simple component-based UI library, offering some astounding features over other contenders in the market. Riot brings custom tags into the mix, which create a reusable component from a combination of relevant HTML and JavaScript. These tags let developers build complex views using HTML, which makes the syntax human-readable. Furthermore, it is lightweight but does not compromise on features needed for a UI library. Along with a negligible weight, it is very easy to learn, which is why it is highly popular among developers.
6. Knockout
Released in early 2017, Knockout.js has been gaining ground in the realm of the developers as a standalone JavaScript implementation of the Model-View-ViewModel pattern with templates. Knockout is primarily popular among beginners as it is very easy to learn and has a low entry barrier. The primary features of Knockout include deep browser support, built-in exercises for easier learning, dynamic models, easy data binding and built-in templating support. While it may not be the perfect alternative to Angular, more and more developers are repositioning to Knockout from Angular.
7. Backbone
Released shortly after Angular, Backbone.js is a JavaScript library based on the Model–view–presenter (MVP) application design model. The collections in Backbone are tightly integrated with JavaScript library Underscore.js, allowing developers to call underscore methods (functions to allow developers to manipulate data) directly on Backbone objects. Also, Backbone is highly flexible and lightweight, and unlike Angular, it has a more unopinionated approach. Since it is has existed longer than most frameworks available in the market, it has a large number of followers and a huge amount of projects created Backbone are available online.
8. Polymer
Polymer is an open-source JS library created to build web applications using components. It has received a number of stable releases and is being developed by Google developers and a number of contributors from GitHub. The popularity of Polymer can be comprehended from the fact that companies such as Netflix, Electronic Arts (EA), Coca-Cola, IBM, and McDonald’s employ Polymer, along with Google services such as Google Play Music, YouTube and its part YouTube Gaming, and the new Google Earth. This is due to its features such as a lightweight system, flexible layout components, and an easily approachable ecosystem.
9. Ember
Ember.js is an open-source JS web-framework released in December 2011. It is popular among developers as it helps them create scalable web applications, using common idioms into the framework. The framework is based on the Model–view–viewmodel (MVVM). Many popular websites and applications such as LinkedIn, Vine, Twitch, Chipotle, Apple Music and Discourse use Ember. This is due to an easy to understand API, easier access to jQuery’s features and a set of auto-updating templates. But the biggest drawback of Ember is its size, which might make it an overkill to use on simple projects.
10. Sencha Ext JS
Sencha Ext JS is an application framework used to build interactive web-applications for multiple platforms. While it is a full framework to build single-page applications, it can also be used as a minimal component framework to create dynamic grids on static pages. Even though it was created as an add-on library extension in 2007, newer versions reduce dependencies on external libraries and make their use non-compulsory. Latest updates enable the framework to be used both as a single script and as a supplement for application building with Sencha Cmd.
Summary
For many developers, the choice of a framework may not matter, but in the end, the material decides how strong the building will be. Each framework or library comes with its own set of pros and cons, and it is for the developers to decide on which framework they wish to use. While Angular has seen its share of success ever since its release, there are many alternatives available that have been slowly gaining momentum.
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