Svelte vs. React vs. Angular: Which Is Better for Web Development

Svelte vs. React vs. Angular: Which Is Better for Web Development

14 October 2022 • 12 min read

Svelte vs Angular vs React: which framework is better? This question is often asked by those who work on their web development project. All three are extremely popular among developers. So, no wonder making the right choice can be challenging.

We’ll give you the first clue using the stats from Stack Overflow. Svelte leads the top favorite frameworks among developers, with over 71% dev satisfaction rate. React comes almost right after with 69%, and Angular falls slightly behind with a 55% satisfaction rate.

Today’s article will highlight the difference between Svelte JS, Angular and React. We’ll discuss each framework’s advantages and disadvantages and compare their web development capabilities.

After reading our post, you’ll have no doubts that Svelte is the best option. Softermii confidently claims this, having over eight years of successful software development experience.

Svelte, React, and Angular: Pros & Cons Battle

Are Angular and React framework better than Svelte? Or are all these tech tools at about the same level? Well, we’re going to deal with that today. Let’s start with their pros and cons.

Svelte

Released in 2016, Svelte was meant to be a framework. Yet, it is a component framework developed to compile components down at the build step. It allows you to load a single bundle.js onto your page so that you can render your app.

In simpler words, you write components using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with Svelte. During the development process, the framework compiles them into small, standalone JavaScript modules. Doing so ensures that the browser does as little work as possible, making your web app faster and code simpler.

Wrapping up, the Svelte pros are as follows:

  • Easy to learn and use
  • No virtual DOM
  • Small package size
  • Fast rendering thanks to reactive programming
  • Component-based, which means you can reuse code
  • Client and server-side rendering support
  • Decent SEO support
  • Cross-platform

Although Svelte offers many advantages, it’s not entirely perfect. Here are some cons:

  • Small community
  • No TypeScript support
  • The feature’s number may be limited

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React

React is essentially a JavaScript library launched by Facebook in 2013. It is a declarative and component-based tool that enables the creation of dynamic and scalable user interfaces. React was also the first to introduce the virtual DOM.

Let’s take a quick look at its main pros:

  • Easy to learn and use
  • Declarative, which makes code easy to debug and shows changes in components immediately
  • Component-based, which means you can reuse code
  • Flexible
  • Fast and performant
  • Large community and support from Facebook
  • Constant updates and innovations

Here are some cons that you may encounter in React development:

  • Complex compilation of the framework
  • Poor documentation
  • The necessity of JSX syntax extension
  • The need to use a large number of tools

Angular

Angular is a JavaScript framework written in TypeScript. This technology is supported and constantly updated by Google, and the primary purpose of this framework is the development of single-page applications.

Let’s look at the pros that Angular offers:

  • Modular
  • Component-based, which means you can reuse code
  • Detailed documentation
  • Numerous ready-made components
  • Top-notch security
  • Effortless work with a large code base
  • Fast server performance

While Angular is a decent tool for enterprise-scale products, it has some cons:

  • Complex to learn
  • Large package size
  • The need for time-consuming and complex dependency injection

Svelte vs React vs Angular: Comparison for Web Dev

A lot of engineers compare Svelte with other web development frameworks. As you now know, the most famous alternatives are React and Angular. So let’s discuss these three tools in greater detail.

Development Cost

The cost of web development will depend significantly on each specific project, its features, and the tech stack. Let’s estimate the approximate cost by comparing specialists’ salaries for each framework.

The most affordable option would be Svelte, as such developers earn an average of $110,351 per year in the US. The services of an Angular specialist from the US will cost you $117,000 per year. React developers are slightly more expensive, with an average annual salary of $117,500.

Development Time

If we talk about the time it will take to develop your web solution, then Svelte is the winner again. This framework helps generate more readable and simple code, shorter than React or Angular. The learning curve for Svelte is likewise less steep than for the other two. All this significantly reduces development time.

Comparing React and Angular, these frameworks are quite similar regarding dev time. Yet, there are slight distinctions. React is easier to learn than Angular and provides extensive pre-built component libraries, thus, shortening the development time.

Performance

Now, we offer to compare the performance of Angular, Svelte, and React. Consider the speed test results first.

svelte vs angular vs react

You can see that Svelte shows the highest execution speed of all frameworks we compare today. Let’s also look at the results of the startup and memory allocation tests.

A startup test shows how long it takes to start the framework.

svelte vs react vs angular

Just by looking at the colors, you can understand that Svelte is ahead of other frameworks. If you’re wondering how exactly it does this, the answer is simple: it doesn’t use a virtual DOM and works as a compiler.

Let’s now see the results of the memory allocation test.

svelte and react

Here again, it is clear that Svelte outperformed other frameworks, while Angular was the least productive. Svelte takes much less memory because it compiles highly optimized lightweight JavaScript bundles.

Security

Let’s now talk about the level of security offered by Angular, Svelte and React.

By default, Angular uses sanitization of input data and encoding of output data that is sent to the DOM. Thanks to this, it offers a top-notch level of security and reduces the number of vulnerabilities in your web solution.

React is considered a relatively secure framework compared to other JS tools, but it is still not entirely safe. This platform uses open-source components and does not have strong security settings by default. Hence, there is a possibility of weaknesses appearing in your product.

The same can be stated about Svelte. It is not to say that this framework offers a low level of security, but there is still some mistrust of it, especially given its newness and small community.

Installation & Project Setup

What about installing Angular, React or Svelte? See how you can do this and set up your project with these frameworks.

You need any text editor and NodeJS installed to get started with Svelte. To set up your project, you can use a degit template. 

As for Angular, ensure you have Node and NPM in your system. After that, you need to install Angular CLI and start your project. 

For React, you also need Node and NPM. After that, you should install React, where you will already be able to launch the project.

Routing

Now we offer to look at how routing occurs in the three frameworks we’re discussing today.

Svelte uses a filesystem-based router. In the codebase directories, you define the URLs that users can access. React binds URLs to components and does not support native routing because it’s a UI library. Angular enables routing to create SPAs with multiple views and navigation between them.

Frame 232

According to Stack Overflow, React is the second favorite framework with 69% of satisfaction rate among developers.

Testing

Let’s take a swift look at the testing means in React, Angular or Svelte. The Svelte and React frameworks offer their testing libraries. Angular, in turn, uses the Jasmine test framework.

Debugging

Speaking of the debugging process, Svelte is an absolute winner. It is because you get less code than with Angular and React.

As for other frameworks, debugging in Angular is easier than in React because only one tool is needed to execute the process, while React requires multiple tools.

Extensions

React offers developers the largest number of tools and libraries for creating web products. Because of this, you can bring almost any idea to life using this framework solely.

Angular also offers many well-integrated libraries and covers a wide range of features. This framework has everything you need to develop scalable web applications.

Svelte offers fewer extensions and tools than React and Angular. Yet, this is because this framework has a smaller community and is not backed up by tech giants like Facebook and Google.

Let’s summarize our comparison of React, Angular, and Svelte in the table below:

Svelte

React

Angular

Development Cost

Lowest dev rates

Highest dev rates

Medium dev rates

Development Time

Fastest dev time

Fast dev time

Lowest dev time

Performance

Most performant

Averagely performant

Least performant

Security

Average security level

Average security level

Top-notch security level

Installation & Project Setup

Easy to install and set up the project

Easy to install and set up the project

Easy to install and set up the project

Routing

Includes a routing feature

No native routing

Includes a routing feature

Testing

Easiest testing process

Most complex testing process

Testing process of medium complexity

Debugging

Easiest debugging process

Most complex debugging process

Debugging process of medium complexity

Extensions

Smallest set of extensions

Largest set of extensions

Sufficient set of extensions

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After learning more about the frameworks discussed, you can already roughly decide on the choice. Read on to find out which tool your company suggests.

Framework That Softermii Recommends for Web Development

If we were to choose between the frameworks described today, Svelte is our unquestionable choice. Why use Svelte instead of Angular and React?

Once again, for its benefits. They are:

  • It is a component-based framework that requires no extra plugins
  • It handles state management with none of the usual difficulties
  • It makes use of scoped styling without needing CSS-in-JS, so no editor extensions or odd syntax is required
  • It needs a simple build script to get going
  • If you are starting a base project, hardly any files are needed

Furthermore, the most popular web frameworks, like Angular and React, are based on the idea of waiting until the code loading to build a virtual DOM. Only afterward can they render the page using the library.

Svelte, meanwhile, is a compiler. It compiles your components into JavaScript rather than relying on concepts like Virtual DOM to update the browser DOM. With Svelte, you can build an app much more expediently.

We also choose the Svelte for its blazing speed. It is considerably faster than Angular and React. It’s even competitive with Inferno, which is likely the speediest UI framework in the world. So, it’s a critical benefit when making a higher-speed application that can move you ahead of the competition.

What Else About Svelte.JS Should You Know?

Let’s cover extra Svelte benefits compared with other frameworks that greatly affect the development process.

Beginner-Friendly

Svelte has become popular because of how quickly beginners take to it. With this framework, developers can learn the basic principles of a component state without getting too confused by the details.

When you use it, you’re not forced to manipulate the DOM. You don’t have to grasp framework-specific state wrappers, either. You can access variables directly from markup, dramatically simplifying the creation process.

Interoperability

Earlier, you could only use the same version of the framework the widget is built on if you wanted to integrate, for example, a calendar widget or any other into your app. Using Svelte, this is not the case anymore.

Code Splitting

Let’s say that you’re using React as your primary framework. If you initially serve only a single React component instead of many, you still must serve to React itself. With Svelte, code splitting is much more effective. It’s because the framework is embedded in the component, which is quite small.

Open-Source Maintenance

Svelte is an open-source software developed by volunteers. Thus, using this framework doesn’t require any cost and allows you to add many features free of charge. Also, Svelte has an active development environment on GitHub that you can join and where you can ask for help or make your contribution.

Read Also: The Most Popular Development Environment

Conclusion

We hope the facts we have provided supporting Svelte will help you make the right choice. While React and Angular are no worse, Svelte is the next-gen of frameworks. It is a lightweight and easy-to-implement solution, offering the best performance ever.

On top of the above, this framework sparks the most interest among software devs. So if you want to get a quality web product quickly and for reasonable costs, then pay attention to Svelte.

Despite which framework you choose, you can always get our free quote on web development services for your project and understand the best fit for building solutions you want to deliver to the market. So contact us anytime.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Svelte work?

First, you open a website. Next, you render the page using pure JS. Once you get it to where you want it to be, the other development team members can look it over unless you work by yourself. What they’re looking for is genuine reactivity from your code. If it’s present, the application or website you are creating should run smoothly.

What do the Svelte components consist of?

Any Svelte PWA component may contain three sections: script, style, and template. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what that means:

  • Script tag: this is an optional JavaScript block with function declarations and variables that should be used within the component.
  • Style tag: this is another optional block. Think of it as a common HTML style tag, but there is one critical difference. The rules described inside this block are scoped to this component alone.
  • Template block: this is the last and the only required block, normally an H1 tag. It’s both a presentation and a view of your component.

Is Svelte stable and reliable enough?

It is a relevant question for a framework that is somewhat new to the market. As exciting as SvelteJS is, you should wait a while before teaching code workshops with it. That is because the beta version might differ from the mass-market one in some ways.

Still, Svelte offers a concise page for documentation for V.3 that can ease beginners into it. So, this framework, for sure, can be considered as part of your robust tech stack.

Is Svelte.JS the next big thing?

It’s a challenging question to answer. Yet, according to the State of JS Survey 2021, Svelte topped the rating of JS frameworks based on the interest developers showed in it. That might mean that sooner or later, it will be considered one of the best JavaScript frameworks.

Are React or Angular better than Svelte for web development?

React, Svelte and Angular are common topics for debate among programmers, but one framework is not necessarily better than the other. For example, Svelte matches well for a web application or MVP development, while Angular suits well for PWA or enterprise web apps.

Some devs find a framework they like and stick with it, but even if that is true for you, it should not prevent you from trying out Svelte. You might enjoy some of the features it can offer you.

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