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Warning: This post contains a high dose of code, humor, and life-changing revelations. Proceed at your own risk. 😎
When people ask me which frontend framework is my favorite, I usually reply with "all of them." But recently, I decided to put that statement to the test by building the same app using not one or two but five different frontend frameworks.
In this roller-coaster ride of an article, we'll build a simple To-Do app (yeah, another one) in five steps:
- Angular
- React
- Vue.js
- Svelte
- Elm
- MarsX
You might be thinking - what about jQuery? Well...that's so 2010! 🙅♂️ Let's dive into some modern stuff!
Step 1: Acing it with Angular 🔥
Angular has been around for quite some time now and is known for being powerful yet opinionated (thanks Google). It gave birth to concepts like components and Dependency Injection while rocking our worlds with Two-Way Data Binding.
ng new todo-app --routing=false --style=css
Inside app.component.ts:
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
@Component({
selector: 'app-root',
template: `
<h1>To-Do App</h1>
<ul>
<li *ngFor="let todo of todos">{{todo}}</li>
</ul>
<form (submit)="addTodo()">
<input [(ngModel)]="newTodo" name="newTodo">
<button type="submit">Add</button>
</form>`,
})
export class AppComponent {
todos = [];
newTodo = '';
addTodo() {
this.todos.push(this.newTodo);
this.newTodo = '';
}
}
Don't forget to import and include FormsModule in app.module.ts.
Step 2: Reacting with React ⚛️
React came as Facebook's gift 🎁 to us developers who were tired of manually updating DOM elements every single time something changed in the data model (cries in vanilla JS).
npx create-react-app todo-app
Inside App.js:
import React, { useState } from 'react';
function App() {
const [todos, setTodos] = useState([]);
const [newTodo, setNewToDo] = useState('');
const addTodo = e => {
e.preventDefault();
setTodos([...todos, newTodo]);
setNewToDo('');
};
return (
<div className="App">
<h1>To-Do App</h1>
<ul>{todos.map(todo => (<li key={todo}>{todo}</li>))}</ul>
<form onSubmit={add_todo}>
<input value={new_todo} onChange={(e) => set_new_todo(e.target.value)} />
submit_button
</form>
</div>
);
}
export default App;
Step 3: Viewing it through Vue.js 💚
Vue.js entered our lives as this cool kid on the block that wanted to make things simpler for us developers while giving Angular & React a run for their money.
vue create todo-app
Inside App.vue:
<template>
<div id="app">
<h1>To-Do App</h1>
<ul>
<li v-for="(todo, index) in todos" :key="index">{{todo}}</li>
</ul>
<form @submit.prevent="addTodo">
<input v-model="newTodo"/>
<button type="submit">Add</button>
</form>
</div>
</template>
<script>
export default {
data() {
return {
todos: [],
newTodo: '',
};
},
methods: {
addTodo() {
this.todos.push(this.newTodo);
this.newTodo = '';
},
},
};
</script>
Step 4: Svelte-ing into Simplicity 🧡
Svelte arrived fashionably late but was worth the wait! This framework promised something different - no virtual DOM!
npx degit sveltejs/template todo-app
Inside App.svelte:
<script>
let todos = [];
let newTodo = '';
function add_todo(e) {
e.preventDefault();
todos = [...todos, new_todo];
new_todo= '';
}
</script>
<main>
<h1>To-Do App</h1>
<ul>{#each todos as todo}<li>{todo}</li>{/each}</ul>
<form on_submit|prevent_default={add_todo}>
<input bind:value={new_todo} />
<button type="submit">Add</button>
</form>
</main>
<style>
/* Add your styles here */
</style>
Step 5: Elm-inating Complexity with Elm 🌳
Elm stepped into our journey as this purely functional language based on Haskell offering "no runtime exceptions" (cue angelic music).
Inside src/Main.elm:
module Main exposing (..)
import Browser
import Html exposing (Html, button, div, h1, input, li, text, ul)
import Html.Attributes as Attrs exposing (value)
import Html.Events as Events exposing (onClick)
type alias Model =
{ todos : List String
, newTodo : String
}
init : Model
init =
{ todos = []
, newTodo = ""
}
type Msg
= AddTodo
update msg model =
case msg of
AddTodo ->
{ model | todos=model.todos++[model.newTodo],new_todo=""}
view model =
div []
[ h1 [] [text "To-Do App"]
, ul [] <| List.map (\todo -> li [] [text todo]) <| model.todos
, form [Events.onSubmit |> Events.preventDefault |> onClick add_todo]
[
inputAttr [ value model.new_todo,
on_input set_new_to_do] [],
submit_button []
]
]
main=
Browser.sandbox{
init=initial_model,
update=update,
view=view}
Although Elm took some getting used to, its type system & pattern matching helped us build robust components along with The Elm Architecture(T.E.A) making sure everything stayed organized even when complexity increased.
Step 6: MarsX - It took less time to code the todo list here than it took time to write this sentence :D
<schema>
<array name="todo">
<object>
<string name="title" />
</object>
</array>
</schema>
Now that you've witnessed how I built the same app using different frontend frameworks, you might be wondering which one is the best. Well, my friend, that's like asking a parent to pick their favorite child - it just doesn't work that way.
Each framework has its strengths and weaknesses; what works for me may not work for you. So go ahead, take your pick and start building some amazing apps! 🚀
And remember: no matter which framework you choose, don't forget to have fun while coding! 😄
Follow me on twitter
Credits to fireship
Thx for reading, check out my projects:
Hi, I'm John, Multi Startup Builder.
I enjoy both coding and marketing.
See all my 20 products here
→ johnrush.me
→ my BIO
→ Say Hi to me On Twitter
→ Try my website builder
Oldest comments (39)
Engaging and informative article, John. 👏 Loved the humor!
I personally moved from Vue to Svelte, then from Svelte to Elm. The problem with Elm is that once you get a bite of that Functional Programming drug you can’t go back to JS or even TS 😉
whats best tutorial to get into ELM?
I did the opposite. I went from Vue, to Elm, to Svelte. I had trouble getting some things to work with Vue and Elm that worked out easy with Svelte. Also, my Svelte code did more work with less code (after compiling Svelte). But, that was my experience. Mileage may vary.
Not really the opposite, as I also moved from Vue to Svelte, just without the Elm step 😉
So we agree we had a better developer experience with Svelte compared to Vue. I love Elm for its fearless refactoring capabilities and its ML-like syntax.
SolidJS is absent here. Would love to see it also in your list. Lots of upsides.
What about writing it yourself and submitting here?
I built something for everyone.
It's the fastest,
We can prove over again.
It easy normal and nothing else.
No virtual Dom.
Welcome to cradova.
Here's a basic Todo app example.
No transpiliing needed, faster tooling as a result and more performant apps.
Cradova was originally built for performant pwa, but for that you can use it for any web project.
github.com/FridayCandour/cradova
Angular is king
Yea , as far as productivity doesn't matter.
or hiring new teammembers who actually understand Angular
Astro is missing from this list
gonna add it into a new tutorial
Cool comparison! 👍🏻
thx Chris
From time to time I read about Elm being inspired by Haskell. Always curious where this claim originated from. Elm's syntax looks much more similar to ML-family languages such as OCaml and F# than to Haskell.
Cool information on JS frameworks
thx
I wish VanillaJS was in the mix. (Although I readily admit I'm partial to Elm.)
Why more dependencies with VanillaJS?
You can do it in 3 lines of fairly readable native JavaScript, see my comment below
It appears you are not familiar with VanillaJS.