React vs. Angular vs. Vue: Your best option for SaaS Product Development

Software as a Service, popularly known as SaaS, is a method of software development that revolves around the idea of accessing software using cloud computing via a periodic subscription and can be installed on individual systems.  The primary notion of SaaS is to market and sell user-friendly software as a service over the internet, which helps software companies sell their products to numerous users around the globe without letting geographical locations stand as a barrier. 

SaaS has been very popular with individual users and big corporations that need software to ease processes for their employees. It allows users to access the software and not worry about maintaining, troubleshooting, or installing it. The developers can control the application via the cloud, thus negating any need for face-to-face, individual troubleshooting and problem-solving. 

Besides these advantages, SaaS provides users with a multitenant, centrally maintained architecture, customization per user requirements, and more. 

To make SaaS user-friendly and fast and provide its users with the latest features, its development requires intricacy and a lot of planning at the development stage. The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for SaaS products consists of Market Analysis, Evaluation, Planning, Development, Operations, Quality Testing, and Launch. 

A significant part of the development stage is deciding what framework must be used for creating the software. The choice of framework depends on many factors, from the abundance of tools and libraries to performance, scalability, and more. Many programming frameworks are available, fighting over the title of the best platform for SaaS product development. However, React vs. Angular vs. Vue is the most frequent debate. 

Let's delve into the differences between React vs. Angular vs. Vue to understand which framework is best suited for you!

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1. React

React is an open-source, JavaScript-based front-end framework chosen by the SaaS development community for designing creative and interactive application interfaces and code packages for software. Its application of the component-based approach has made the platform popular for allowing developers to freely scale their applications and have the option of reusing pre-existing components during development. Created by Jordan Walke- a software engineer at Facebook, this framework has been used by many well-known multinational corporations such as Airbnb, Netflix, DropBox, and UberEats. 

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Besides the ample freedom of creativity that React allows its developers to enjoy, the SaaS product development framework also provides them with declarative views such as DOM (Document Object Models) and React Hooks. DOM makes the code more readable and easier to understand, and React Hooks enables developers to use different framework features without defining a class first. Additionally, virtual DOM provides React users with a representation of webpages in the browser and in the form of code, along with manipulating webpages for updates. 

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Besides, React components require JavaScript Syntax Extension (JSX), making it easier for developers to make the syntax identical to HTML and access the components. React’s efficient integration, migration, and light framework size (43k) have made it all the more popular with the developer community, especially for heavy and complex applications. 

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Advantages of using React for SaaS product development

• An open-source platform for easy and efficient website and application development
• Best suited for building user interfaces and code packages
• Easy reusability of components.
• React also comes with a set of tools that make the development process easier and more efficient.
• The framework is frequently updated to provide users with the latest tools, libraries, and developing environments. 
• Easy to learn due to its JSX-based syntax. 
• Dynamic web applications are made possible with less coding and more functionalities along with JSX syntax, which makes the code similar to HTML- and thus easy to comprehend.
• SEO-friendly, helping websites implement search engine optimization to the fullest. 
• Codes compiled in React execute faster due to the implementation of DOM. 
• Migration and Integration friendly 
• A large developer community of over 30,000 members that offers around-the-clock support.

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Disadvantages of choosing React for application development

• React is infamous for the rapidly changing technologies that make it challenging for users to get used to new features within short intervals. This constant flux ends up wasting a lot of time of developers in decoding their way around the platform, again and again. 

• Additionally, since React is constantly evolving (at a very fast speed), there is seldom time to document these changes. Due to this, developers mostly need to write their own instructions in lieu of the new developments in their ongoing projects- which ends up being very monotonous for them.

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2. Angular

Angular is an open-source development platform highly recommended for developing complex and heavy SaaS products.

Angular was initially released in 2010 as Angular JS. Google then reformed it in 2016 to provide developers with a TypeScript-based JavaScript framework. TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that offers Angular users numerous benefits, such as autocompletion, advanced refactoring possibilities, and navigation. 

Angular is, to date, a popular choice among developers for its two-way data binding, fast development, monolithic framework, and automatic client data and database synchronization. Its latest features and unbeatable advantages attract companies like Upwork, PayPal, Microsoft, and Forbes to program their heavy applications using the Angular framework. 

The best feature of Angular is its monolithic architecture that enables developers to create applications using different components in one platform. Additionally, its Single Page Application development and its ability to develop and support highly scalable applications are incredible, making it a perfect option for SaaS product development. 

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Pros of using Angular for SaaS Product Development

• Angular does not require additional libraries for mobile/web application development.
• A monolithic framework that allows the use of different components within a single platform. 
• Angular is an easy-to-download, open-source SaaS development framework. 
• It is best suited for complex applications and Single Page Applications (SPAs)
• It offers two-way data binding reusable components and an ideal testing environment for developers. 
• It is an extensive framework with comprehensive, pre-installed libraries. 

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Cons of using Angular for SaaS product development

• One of the most significant drawbacks of Angular is its size. The size of the framework hugely affects the overall performance of the software since the framework and the application need to be downloaded to make the software ready to use. However, the size of Angular- 143k is the heaviest of all frameworks, often making developers refrain from opting for it. 

• Since Angular comes with a TypeScript-based JavaScript framework, developers also need an intensive knowledge of the programming language to use Angular to develop SaaS products. 

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3. Vue 

Since its launch in 2014, Vue has been known for its simplicity and user-friendly platform interface, which especially caters to inexperienced and beginner-level developers. Created by former Google employee Evan You, Vue is an open source SaaS product development framework, mostly used to create highly interactive and fast user interfaces and Single Page Applications (SPAs). 

With a size of 23k, Vue is usually recommended for lightweight projects and UI for web applications. Developers with an agenda to create light code for SaaS applications prefer Vue since the framework is the lightest among React vs. Angular vs. Vue, is more adaptable, and offers more efficiency and reusability of components. Due to such benefits, companies like Adobe, Trivago, and GitLab have entrusted Vue for their web and application development.  

It offers the best features of both, React and Angular along with added benefits like being a lightweight framework, offering some scalability for application development and flexibility. 

Vue offers Angular’s two-way binding and React’s virtual DOM to its users, along with its unique concept of “Reactivity,” which is basically updating a JavaScript object in all templates after it's updated in Vue without any special instructions from the users. 

Besides providing the best of both worlds to its users, Vue also offers interactive tours and extensive documentation to help them upskill and understand the framework better. 

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Benefits of using Vue for SaaS product development

• The most flexible and lightweight framework of size 23k. The best option for heavy application development.
• Equally appropriate for application and web development.
• Open source, free development environment. 
• Vue offers developers the option of developing large reusable templates to accommodate multiple codes. 
• Vue provides plenty of documentation, sessions, and videos, making it easy for beginners to learn to program using the framework. 
• Known as the fastest and most efficient JavaScript framework available
• Offers two-way data binding and virtual DOM to its users along with Reactivity. 
• Best for developing SPAs and lightweight programs. 

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Disadvantages of choosing Vue

• One of the biggest disadvantages of Vue is that some of its elements are only available in Chinese, which is an obstacle for global users. 
• Compared to Angular and React, Vue has very few plugins and lacks community support. 
• Since Vue is not backed by a tech giant such as Facebook or Google and is maintained by a community of volunteer developers and contributors supported by Patreon, it is often unable to provide significant updates or bug fixes to the framework. Therefore causing a lot of inconvenience for developers. 
• Applications made on Vue are known to have the most errors and irregularities due to its immense flexibility, i.e., different programming approaches can be implemented simultaneously, causing delays within the code. 

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Final Thoughts

For a SaaS development company looking for a user-friendly coding environment that is also easy to learn and adapt for beginners and allows them to develop interactive user interfaces- React and Vue are the best options for you. Besides, React is also a popular choice due to DOM and JSX, along with being highly SEO-friendly, which contributes to the web reach of websites created using the platform. Angular is your best bet if you are looking for a highly reliable developing environment that can support heavy applications and new features. 

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While each of these platforms offers various features that make them a preferred choice among the developers’ community, all three of them promise a great developing experience and product performance. That said, you might want to spend more time researching before finalizing your framework for SaaS product development, eCommerce app development, and more, and we are here to help you. Contact us to take your SaaS product to the next level today!

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