Front-End Development’s Big Three: ReactJS, VueJS, and Angular

Having sites and applications look and feel professional is crucial. How they perform says a lot about you, your company, and the quality of your products and services. Thankfully, developers have plenty of options for creating modern interfaces. Among the most popular front-end development tools are ReactJS, VueJS, and Angular (a rewrite of AngularJS).

At first glance, they may seem similar. But these three take different approaches and serve distinct project needs.

The Role of Front-End Development in Building Business Websites

Your website is often the first touchpoint customers have with your brand. Poorly designed, confusing layout, or sluggish performance turns potential clients away before they can even explore your offerings. This is where front-end development plays a crucial role.

By focusing on usability, speed, and design consistency, strong front-end development ensures your website looks professional and delivers a seamless user journey. For businesses, this means higher engagement, stronger credibility, and ultimately, better conversions.

Source: Statista

ReactJS: The Straightforward

First open-sourced in 2013 by Facebook software engineer Jordan Walke, ReactJS (commonly known as React) is a JavaScript library designed to manage a website’s Document Object Model (DOM). 

In simple terms, the DOM represents a webpage’s structure. React makes it faster and easier to update UI (User Interface) elements without reloading the whole page, a huge advantage in front-end development. 

React is a library focused on building user interfaces — the part of an application that users see and interact with. One of its main strengths is being declarative. Instead of telling the browser step-by-step how to update the UI, developers simply declare the desired state, and React efficiently renders it. It’s simple, efficient, and direct to the point.

Consequently, learning React also opens doors to React Native, which extends the same concepts to mobile app development for both Android and iOS. 

VueJS: The Versatile

Although VueJS (pronounced “view”) also manipulates the DOM using JavaScript, it is not a library but a progressive framework. Simply put, Vue combines useful libraries and tools into a flexible framework that simplifies building reusable components for web applications.

Released in 2014, Vue’s creator and former Google Creative Technologist Evan You designed it with Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) principles to create clean, maintainable interfaces. It’s also open source and not backed by big corporations but supported by many developer communities.

Vue is lightweight, flexible, and easy to set up, making it one of the most approachable front-end development frameworks available today. With its gentle learning curve, developers of all skill levels can quickly adopt it. Since Vue runs on simple code, it lets projects start, enabling earlier feedback, debugging, and iteration.

Vue also comes with powerful tools: Vue CLI (Command Line Interface) for project setup and management. Vuex for centralized state management, Vue Router for navigation, and Vue Test Utils for testing. Together, these features make Vue both versatile and developer-friendly.

Angular: The Full Featured

AngularJS (commonly called Angular 1) was first released in 2010 by Google engineers Miško Hevery and Jules Kremer, introducing MVVM-style data bindings to web development.

Angular, the rewrite of AngularJS, is a component-based framework built with TypeScript, which is an extended form of JavaScript. Components are the building blocks of Angular, representing the visible elements on-screen. 

Since Angular organizes applications into modular components, teams can easily reuse elements, streamline collaboration, and speed up development. 

Angular is a full-featured front-end development framework, making it ideal for large-scale, complex projects with multiple deliverables. Its powerful CLI further supports development by enabling applications to run across different environments. 

Beyond traditional form-based applications, Angular’s flexibility even extends to advanced use cases like building enterprise tools and interactive applications. It also powers mobile development through frameworks like Ionic, which leverages Angular (alongside other supported frameworks) to create high-performing cross-platform apps.

In addition, Angular benefits from a strong developer community, extensive documentation, and countless third-party resources. This ecosystem ensures long-term support and helps front-end web developers deliver more powerful results with cleaner, more efficient code.

Here’s a comparison chart about these three front-end development frameworks:

Source: React Masters

Which Front-End Development Framework Fits Best?

While these three undoubtedly dominate the front-end development landscape, they excel in different circumstances. React is often chosen for simplicity and efficiency in UI creation. Vue appeals to many because of its flexibility and accessibility across skill levels. Angular is well-suited for handling large, complex projects with its full-featured framework. 

However, the right choice ultimately depends on the developer’s expertise and the needs of the application or product being built. If you’re unsure which options align with your business goals, our expert web developers in the Philippines can help. You can choose the right front-end development framework and build a solution tailored to your project needs. 

Get Design and Functionality
Specific to your Brand!

• Build a website that's mobile-friendly and responsive.
• Custom designs aligned with your brand.
• Optimized for SEO and user experience.
• Scalable and feature-rich solutions.

Book A Discovery Call!

This article was updated on August 26, 2025.

FAQs About Front-end Development

React vs Vue vs Angular: Which is better?

There’s no single “best” choice—it depends on your project and team:

• React: Great for flexibility, ecosystem, and large communities. Best for SPAs and teams already using JavaScript.
• Vue: Easy to learn, lightweight, and flexible. Ideal for startups and gradual adoption.
• Angular: Full-featured, opinionated, and enterprise-ready. Best for large-scale, complex applications.

Contact our web experts for a discovery call.

Can I use React, Vue, and Angular together in one project?

Technically possible (e.g., micro-frontends), but not recommended for most cases. Mixing frameworks increases complexity and maintenance overhead. 

Which companies use these frameworks?

• React: Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber
• Vue: Alibaba, Xiaomi, GitLab, Laravel (Echo)
• Angular: Google, Microsoft, IBM, PayPal, Upwork

About Adam Tan

Adam is a charming geek who loves his family's Siberian Husky, enjoys the occasional night out with friends and, most of all, lives and breathes new trends and updates about the web and its technicalities. If you want to stay updated with changes or new trends on the web or learn about the technicalities that are involved, he's your guy. He's capable of writing cheesy stuff as well, but he'd rather stick with the manly stuff.

Find more about me on:
•