Both Angular and AngularJs have some similarities; since the former is an improved version of the latter, their differences help us choose the better one among the two. Let us first know Angular and AngularJs individually.
What is Angular?
Angular is a Typescript-based alternative to AngularJS for developing dynamic web apps. It is the improved version that is most utilized today. Its primary benefits include being easy to develop, having an advanced modular design, and being substantially faster than AngularJS.
AngularJS is written in Javascript and is used as the term for all Angular v1.x versions. It was founded in 2009 and is also commonly referred to as Angular 1. The open-source single-page application development framework has specific unique capabilities, such as switching from static to dynamic HTML. It comes with several filters and directives.
The most recent upgraded version of Angular is 9, while AngularJS is currently stable at version 1.7.7.
Key Differences between Angular and AngularJs
Angular 2 represented a paradigm shift from AngularJS because of the language and the underlying architecture and approach to data binding. Despite this, programmers and web developers continue to employ both Angular and AngularJS to meet their needs.
Let's have a look at how Angular and AngularJS differ:
Criteria
Angular
Angular JS
Language
Angular is based on Typescript (a superset of ES6).
AngularJs is built on Javascript.
Architecture
Components and directives are the foundation of Angular. Angular handles the processing part.
AngularJS supports the MVC (Model View Controller) architecture. The business logic goes in the model, and the desired output goes into the controller.
Angular CLI(Command Line Interface)
Angular 2+ comes with its own command-line interface, also known as a CLI. It's used to quickly and efficiently generate components, services, and even full projects. With dynamic type checking, linting, and other features, you may simply build various versions of the same project for different platforms.
AngularJS does not have its own command-line interface.
Expression Syntax
Angular is more intuitive than AngularJS when it comes to dealing with data binding. Event binding is done with () while property binding is done with [].
For binding property or an event with AngularJS, the programmer must know the proper ng directive.
Dependency Injection
Angular uses declarations, function Object() { [native code] } methods, and providers to provide a hierarchical dependency injection framework.
Dependency Injection is injected into several link methods, controller functions, and directive definitions in AngularJS.
Mobile Support
It supports mobile support.
It doesn’t support mobile support.
Routing
Angular tries to imitate a directive by using a URL to navigate to the client view. The routing information is provided by the @Route configuration.
‘@routeProvider.when’ is used by AngularJS to define the routing information.
Management
Angular projects are structured, hence easier to manage.
AngularJS projects are not structured, hence challenging to manage when it comes to bigger applications.
Detecting Changes
The ‘scope.$apply()’ function is not required by Angular. Angular is always aware when a piece of code ends because it runs in the Angular zone. It starts the change detection procedure in this way.
AngularJS uses ‘scope.$apply()’ to make changes to data bindings after each event, either manually or automatically.
Speed and Performance in Angular and AngularJS
AngularJS is significantly slower than Angular. Developers claim that Angular applications can be up to five times faster than AngularJS applications if developed correctly.
As more complicated apps are produced using AngularJS, two-way binding, which made the original AngularJS popular among web developers, has proven to be its undoing. AngularJS uses a digest cycle to compare each scoped variable's previous value to ensure and implement two-way binding. Because this digest cycle runs randomly, the checking might continue indefinitely as the program’s size expands, affecting application performance.
On the other hand, Angular has a flux architecture, which detects changes through unidirectional data flow, making applications faster.
The ‘ng-bind’ for one-way binding and the ‘ng-model’ for two-way binding are available in AngularjS. ‘ngModel’ in Angular performs both. Symbols indicate the type of binding as follows:
One-way binding []
Two-way binding [()]
Event binding ()
Property binding []
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of Angular
Because of a far superior data binding mechanism and a component-based architecture, Angular is at least five times faster than AngularJS.
An Angular application's components are independent, self-contained and self-sufficient, making them test-friendly and reusable.
It's easy to replace, maintain, and scale up the individual components.
Both web browsers and mobile devices can render Angular applications.
For the server-side rendering of applications, Angular includes built-in extensions. This allows developers to sync material on both the client and server sides, which is great for SEO(Search Engine Optimization).
Lazy loading is supported by Angular, which speeds up the applications by loading only the required components.
Angular's TypeScript first approach results in clearer code, improved navigation, and a high-quality outcome.
Disadvantages of Angular
Angular has a steep learning curve due to which one must also learn typescript, a statically typed language. Many developers are incompatible with statically typed languages because of the arrival of frameworks that allow for fast development.
Angular is also a verbose language because the components are managed in such a complicated manner.
Angular 2 is a complete rebuild of AngularJS. Hence, legacy AngularJS systems must be converted, which many developers dislike.
Engineers appreciate Angular's command-line interface, but they often complain that its documentation is incomplete.
Advantages of AngularJs
AngularJS is considerably easier and faster to understand because it is based on JavaScript.
AngularJS has a two-way data binding process that allows faster and more accessible data binding without developer intervention.
AngularJS allows for faster prototyping and coding, significantly reducing the development time.
AngularJS's MVVM(Model-View-ViewModel) and MVC architecture separate data from the design, making it easier to create and manage complex online applications.
AngularJS programs are highly reusable due to their clean and ordered coding.
Disadvantages of AngularJs
The AngularJS application will not operate if JavaScript is disabled on the system on which it is being run.
To use AngularJS, developers must be acquainted and very familiar with the MVC architecture.
AngularJS gained popularity among web developers when it was initially launched because of its built-in capabilities such as two-way binding, the ability to construct responsive online apps, and highly responsive designs. However, after competing for front-end development frameworks like ReactJS, which had more excellent performance, were released, its flaws were exposed. As previously said, AngularJS was reworked into Angular 2 to provide web developers with a better alternative.
Angular is now the most incredible option for creating large and complicated applications. The Google development team is aiming to reduce the size of Angular applications and improve their performance. The framework of the future is Angular. To increase the maintainability of the code and the general efficiency of apps, Google switched to TypeScript. Angular currently appears to be targeted at enterprise app development.
Engineers discover that developing and sustaining applications utilizing so-called easy-to-learn, deploy, and maintain frameworks like ReactJS becomes more challenging when the complexity and size of the application grows. If you choose Angular instead, the steep learning curve is balanced by its stability and technical support. Google has further positioned Angular for long-term, scalable, and resource-intensive applications by guaranteeing long-term support (LTS).
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Angular or AngularJs?
A reasonable solution is to use the latest version of Angular. Moreover, it will almost always be a better option. In any case, attempt to answer the following questions before selecting one of them for your new project:
What web browsers do we want to be able to use?
If you’re going to use recent browsers, Angular is the best option. It's because it's a forward-thinking library, but don't forget about other browsers. For example, if you're using IE8, you should use AngularJS version 1.3 or higher, which supports IE8 and higher.
Is AngularJs a browser extension, a library, a framework, or a plugin?
Even though AngularJs is considerably more lightweight than a typical framework, still, it best meets the description of a framework, which is why many people confuse it with a library. AngularJS is written entirely in JavaScript, is altogether client-side, and works in desktop and mobile browsers. So it's not a plugin or another type of native browser extension.
List down some directives of AngularJs.
AngularJS directives are only used to extend the behavior of HTML and DOM elements. These are the ng-prefixed special attributes that inform AngularJS's HTML compiler ($compile) to attach a specific behavior to that DOM element. AngularJS includes directives such as ngClass, ngApp, ngBind, ngInit, ngModel, and ngRepeat.
What are AngularJS and Angular's most significant drawbacks?
AngularJS is currently in long-term support (LTS), with an end-of-life date of December 31, 2021. In reality, the most recent upgrade (1.8.2) was released just last year. However, Angular's most significant disadvantage is that its apps can be overly sophisticated, making them ineffective for small, simple applications.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have learned the concepts of Angular and AngularJs. AngularJS and Angular are two Google web frameworks that solve the same challenge of creating user interfaces in distinct ways. With AngularJS, developers can create complex, feature-rich websites with just a few lines of code. Angular, on the other hand, is a lightweight cross-platform software development framework with no external dependencies. If you know what your project requires, there is no need to dispute Angular and AngularJS; select the one that best suits your needs.
8+ registered 