Comparison of popular frontend frameworks: React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, and others - Part 1

September 24, 2025

Frontend frameworks are tools that simplify the development of web application user interfaces. They provide ready-made components and a structure for building dynamic single-page applications (SPAs) and complex interfaces. In recent years, many JavaScript frameworks have emerged, and it can be difficult for developers to choose the right technology for their project. Nevertheless, a few core solutions firmly hold leadership positions, and promising new options are also appearing.

As of today, the most popular frontend frameworks include React, Angular, and Vue.js. According to the Stack Overflow survey (2023), about 40% of web developers use React, followed by Angular (17%) and Vue.js (16%). New approaches are also gaining an audience - for example, Svelte is already used by roughly 6.6% of developers. Despite relatively limited adoption, newcomers like Svelte and Solid.js show an extremely high level of satisfaction among their users (over 70% in surveys), which indicates strong potential for these technologies.

In this review, we will look at the features, strengths, and weaknesses of popular frontend frameworks - both established leaders and new promising solutions - and discuss in which cases each of them fits best.

Popularity and trends

The popularity of various JS frameworks is regularly tracked in industry surveys. According to 2023 data, React confidently ranks first in usage among frontend tools. This library from Facebook is used to build interfaces by almost twice as many specialists as its nearest competitor. Angular, a large framework from Google, is in second place in prevalence, chosen by about 17-18% of developers. Not far behind is Vue.js - a lightweight framework popular for its ease of learning - used by about 16% of respondents.

It is noteworthy that classic jQuery is still present among the most used web technologies (around 22% of developers mentioned it in 2023) - however, jQuery is more a library for DOM manipulation than a full-fledged modern framework, so more up-to-date solutions are usually considered for new projects.

Among newer frameworks, interest in Svelte is growing: although its user share is still small, it ranks among the most loved tools - over 74% of developers who have worked with Svelte want to continue using it. Solid.js and Qwik are also actively discussed in the community - in 2022-2023 surveys they were among the top three frameworks developers would like to learn in the future. This shows the industry is not standing still: alongside the main players, new approaches are emerging that offer improved performance or developer experience.

At the same time, some previously popular frameworks are gradually losing ground - for example, Ember.js has lost much of its former appeal, giving way to more modern solutions.

React

React (React.js) is an open JavaScript library for building user interfaces, developed at Facebook (Meta) and first released in 2013. React is not a framework in the strict sense, as it focuses only on the view layer of an application, but thanks to its popularity and ecosystem it is often compared with full-fledged frontend frameworks.

A key feature of React is its use of the virtual DOM. The library creates a lightweight copy of the DOM and efficiently updates only the elements that changed, which provides high performance in complex applications. The component-based approach and one-way data flow make it easier to scale the interface and maintain the code.

Today React is the most popular frontend tool. Surveys indicate that around 40% of web developers used React in the past year, and many large companies have chosen it for their projects (Facebook, Netflix, Uber, etc.). Its popularity is reinforced by a huge ecosystem: there are numerous third-party libraries and tools for virtually any task - from routing to state management.

In addition, the React-based framework React Native was created for mobile development, which allows you to leverage React skills when building native applications for iOS and Android.

Advantages of React

Flexibility and scalability.
React provides only the core for building the UI, so the developer is free to choose additional libraries. This allows you to tailor the stack to your requirements and scale the application in the desired direction. The component architecture and component reuse speed up development and simplify code maintenance.

High performance.
Thanks to the virtual DOM and a thoughtful differential update system, React delivers fast UI rendering even with a large number of dynamic elements. Application performance is easy to optimize by controlling when and how a component updates.

Large community and ecosystem.
React is actively evolving. A huge community means lots of ready-made solutions, educational materials, and discussions - finding an answer to almost any problem is usually not difficult. In the number of add-on packages and extensions, the React ecosystem surpasses competitors.

Cross-platform capability.
The ability to develop mobile applications via React Native is a big plus for those who plan a single team for both web and mobile interfaces.

Disadvantages of React

Steep learning curve for beginners.
Despite the relative simplicity of the library itself, React introduces concepts such as JSX (a JavaScript syntax extension for markup) and requires understanding the specifics of one-way data flow. It can be hard for beginners to immediately grasp the unfamiliar approach and the mixing of HTML with JS code in JSX. It takes time to get used to writing the interface this way.

Incomplete out of the box.
React only handles the UI layer, so additional libraries are required to build a full-fledged application (for routing, state management, forms, etc.). The wealth of choice is an advantage on the one hand, but on the other it can cause analysis paralysis, when the team spends a lot of time choosing among numerous third-party tools.
The lack of unified standards means you need a certain level of experience to assemble an optimal stack.

Frequent updates.
The React ecosystem is evolving rapidly. New versions and patterns appear (for example, the shift from class components to hooks) - developers have to keep their finger on the pulse. Rapid changes sometimes outpace the documentation, which can complicate learning and code migration.

SEO and server-side rendering.
By default, React renders the application on the client side (in the browser). This can make it harder for search engines to index the page and slow down the initial load.
To solve these issues, an additional framework, Next.js, is typically used - it enables server-side rendering of a React application and generates HTML on the server for better SEO.

When to use React

React is recommended for projects that need maximum flexibility and a highly interactive interface. It is great for single-page applications, dashboards, social networks - in short, where the interface is actively updated without page reloads.

If you expect high traffic and heavy load on the frontend, React will provide a stable platform capable of efficiently updating the UI for a large number of users.
React is also a good choice if your team values broad community support and access to many ready-made solutions.

When not to use React

If the team has little experience with modern JavaScript, the lack of a strict structure can lead to problems. Beginners may find React complicated due to JSX and the many ways to implement the same things.
In cases where a very simple site or static content is required, a heavy SPA framework may be overkill.

In addition, for highly specialized tasks (for example, an embedded widget on a third-party site), a lighter-weight library or web components may be more appropriate instead of pulling in React as a whole.

Angular

Angular is a powerful frontend framework developed by Google. In 2016 it replaced the aging AngularJS (Angular 1.x) and has since evolved as a separate product (often referred to as Angular 2+).

Angular is written in TypeScript and provides developers with an all-in-one solution for building web applications. Unlike React’s minimalist approach, Angular includes many features out of the box: a component system, two-way data binding, dependency injection, its own router, tools for testing, forms, and much more. Essentially, Angular aims to provide a complete framework for a project, which is especially valuable in large team development.

Angular still ranks among the top three most popular frontend frameworks - roughly one in six to one in eight web developers uses it.
The framework is actively used in the enterprise segment: companies such as Microsoft, Google (internal projects), AWS, BMW, use Angular for their applications. Google provides long-term support and regular releases, which is important for stability in enterprise development.

Advantages of Angular

Full feature set out of the box.
Angular already includes many capabilities that, in the case of React or Vue, require adding third-party libraries.
For example, Angular provides two-way data binding, automatically synchronizing the model and the view: a change in the model is immediately reflected in the UI and vice versa.
The framework also has tools for building forms, validation, internationalization, and much more.
Having everything needed within a single ecosystem speeds up project start and guarantees component compatibility.

Strict structure and patterns.
Applications in Angular are built with a clear architecture - modules, components, services, directives - which sets a consistent code style across the team.
Thanks to TypeScript and strong typing, code becomes more predictable, and errors are easier to catch early.
For large teams, a standardized approach makes it easier to maintain the project and onboard new members.

Google support and a large community.
As a technology from Google, Angular has extensive official documentation and long-term support.
There is a large community and many ready-made component libraries and community UI solutions, for example Angular Material - the official set of UI components.

Performance and scalability.
Although Angular is a fairly heavy framework, it is designed for large-scale applications.
It implements several optimizations:

change detection across the component tree,
AoT compilation (Ahead-of-Time),
tree shaking.

These mechanisms help maintain good performance even in very large projects.

SEO optimization via SSR.
Angular supports server-side rendering via Angular Universal.
This means the application can be rendered on the server and deliver ready HTML, which speeds up the initial load and makes pages SEO-friendly for search engines.
For SPAs this is important, as it helps avoid issues with content indexing.

Disadvantages of Angular

High complexity and learning curve.
Angular is harder to master than React or Vue. The framework requires understanding many concepts - DI, zones, RxJS, and others.
Even good documentation does not always help: for beginners, Angular’s architecture can seem overloaded and excessive.
A developer needs to get used to Angular’s template syntax, TypeScript decorators, and other framework specifics.

Large bundle size and performance requirements.
The abundance of built-in features leads to even a minimal project weighing tens of kilobytes of JavaScript.
For small applications, Angular can be excessive, and the extra code slows loading and negatively impacts Core Web Vitals.

Limited flexibility.
The strict structure helps on large projects, but imposes constraints.
There is a certain Angular way of solving tasks, and it is not recommended to deviate from it.
This reduces the team’s freedom in choosing approaches.

Migration challenges.
Historically, the transition from AngularJS to Angular 2+ was very painful: projects were incompatible at the code level.
Today there are no such large breaks, but when moving between versions problems can still arise, especially in large codebases.
Example - switching the compilation engine in Angular 9.

When to use Angular

Angular is ideal for large, complex applications and enterprise projects where scalability, long-term support, and code consistency are important.

If you are building a large application with numerous forms, tables, and complex business logic - Angular will provide a rich set of tools and speed up the development of these kinds of features.

Angular is especially useful if:

your team has experienced TypeScript developers,
a strict architecture is important,
the product will be maintained and developed for many years.

When not to use Angular

If the project is small or is a simple web application with limited functionality, adopting Angular may be overkill.
For startups and small teams where speed and flexibility are valued, Angular can slow down the process due to its complexity.

Angular is also not the best candidate for incremental adoption in an existing project - it’s more convenient to use it as the foundation of a new application rather than integrate it piece by piece.