Is Vue Better Than React? Yes, Here’s Why

As a React developer, I have never really given Vue the time of day. Mainly because I didn’t see the value in learning it. I knew it was easy to learn, but I assumed that was a bad thing. Like somehow, since it is an intuitive framework to learn, that would make it somehow inferior to React and Angular. But is Vue actually better than React?

Well, I spent some time learning Vue recently for a work project and I must say I was pleasantly surprised! In this article, we are going to explain why Vue is better than React and whether or not it is worth the switch.

let’s dive in!

Reason #1: Vue Has Better Performance Than React

It’s true, Vue is actually more performant than React. At least, when comparing the two core libraries.

The total library size of Vue is ~25.6kb while React is ~48.8kb. Almost double the size!

Ok, so if you’re a professional web developer the difference in library size is pretty insignificant and likely won’t affect performance much. This fact alone certainly shouldn’t affect which framework you use to create your web application. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Vue is, in fact, faster than React.

Reason #2: Vue Is Simpler To Read, Write & Learn

The more convincing reason that Vue is better than React is simply that it is simpler and easier to read, write, and learn. Since Vue was released after React, I think it learned a lot from the mistakes React made.

One of those major improvements is using pure HTML within the Vue markup language. It feels a lot more natural coming from an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript background than the JSX used in React.

Here is an example of Vue markup:

<script>
export default {
  data() {
    return {
      message: 'Hello World!'
    }
  }
}
</script>

<template>
  <h1>{{ message }}</h1>
</template>

This is what it looks like in the browser:

Here is an example of React markup:

function HelloWorld() {
  const message=  "Hello World!";

  return (
    <h1>{message}</h1>
  );
}
ReactDOM.render(<HelloWorld/>, document.getElementById('app'))

This code produces the same result in React:

Obviously, if you know React, neither of these are hard to read. However, if you are not familiar with either framework, the Vue code is going to be easier to read. Simply because it is closer related to pure HTML, CSS & JavaScript.

Reason #3: Vue Can Be A Full Framework [If You Want It To Be]

That’s right, Vue is considered a full framework while React is considered a library. That is because, unlike React, Vue comes with a full suite of tools such as test suites, state management, server-side rendering, and much more that React does not include.

Vue is considered a progressive framework. This means that Vue can be run as its core library and its features are attachable as you see fit. Making it extremely flexible and simple to use.

You can learn more about the differences between React and Vue here.

Should I switch from React to Vue?

As you can see, there are some clear benefits for using Vue over React. No matter how you spin it, Vue is a better framework than React.

However, that doesn’t mean you should automatically switch from Vue to React. React has a bigger community, more jobs, and more developers using and testing it.

Further more, Vue isn’t way better than React by any means. In fact, they are really similar frameworks. Both are based on compartmentalized code and render using a virtual DOM. Many of the choices between the two frameworks can be boiled down to personal preference.

So should you switch from React to Vue? Well, I personally don’t think it is worth it. Unless you feel like learning a new [but similar] framework or need to learn it for work. Other than that, there isn’t much benefit.

Summary: Is Vue Better Than React?

Vue is technically a superior framework to React. It has better performance, is simpler to read, write, and learn, and has more built-in tools. However, the two frameworks are very similar and these benefits are minimal. On the other hand, React is more popular, has more jobs, and has more active development. Vue just isn’t worth switching to based on its benefits. However, if you want to make the switch, or find a job utilizing Vue, it should be really easy to learn.