Vue vs React: Which Framework To Choose For Your Development in 2025?

To start off: why compare Vue.js and React?

The main reason is time. Both frameworks can accomplish similar results, are popular in the community, and are used by successful businesses. But they offer differences that impact the learning curve, implementation time, and ideal use cases.

So, if you are a developer, you know that it takes a lot of effort to master technology. By smartly picking a few technologies to focus on, you won't become a jack-of-all-trades with hollow knowledge.

Similarly, if you are a tech leader or business owner, you want to pick the most appropriate tech for your project to minimize risks down in the line. 

In 2014, Evan You, a former Google engineer, built and released Vue.js, an open-source frontend framework designed to improve upon the existing JavaScript tools of the time. His goal was to create a framework that combined the best elements from Angular, Ember, and React, while making it faster, easier, and more enjoyable for Vue.js developers. The framework quickly gained popularity for its simplicity and flexibility.

In February 2022, Vue.js 3.0 became the new default version and many companies seeking Vue.js development services have adopted this version to take advantage of its new features and improved performance.

Starting with Vue.js 3.0, the framework fully integrated TypeScript, providing a more reliable and maintainable foundation for application development. For businesses looking to hire a Vue.js company or developers, this integration ensures stronger type safety, reducing bugs and streamlining the development process. All official Vue packages now include bundled type declarations, ensuring that Vue.js development services deliver seamless functionality from the start.

What's more? The inclusion of TypeScript in Vue.js 3 enhances project stability, minimizes debugging time, and improves code safety—key benefits that any Vue.js company can leverage to build robust applications. Developers also enjoy an enhanced experience, thanks to features like IDE autocompletion, which accelerates development.

Vue.js 3 also introduced the Composition API, a new, function-based approach to writing code inspired by React Hooks. This feature enables Vue.js developers to create more modular and maintainable codebases, making it easier for companies to scale their projects.

If you're considering upgrading from Vue 2 to Vue 3, be sure to check out our 2023 Vue.js migration Cheat Sheet for detailed guidance. This can help your team transition smoothly and take full advantage of the new features in Vue.js development.

The story of how React.js was created begins in 2011 at Facebook, where engineers faced growing challenges with building dynamic, high-performance user interfaces as the platform scaled. One of these engineers, Jordan Walke, came up with an idea that would eventually lead to React.

At the time, Facebook was struggling to keep its interface responsive and efficient. Walke experimented with a concept that allowed developers to build user interfaces using a "virtual DOM," which could track changes and update only the parts of the web page that needed refreshing, rather than the entire page. This was a breakthrough in improving performance and user experience.

The first version of React was used internally on Facebook’s newsfeed feature. Its success led to the company deciding to share the innovation with the wider developer community. In 2013, React was officially open-sourced, allowing developers around the world to adopt and contribute to the library. Today, React is maintained by Facebook and a community of developers, constantly evolving to meet modern web development needs.

Vue.js and React are two of the most popular frontend frameworks, widely adopted by Web app development companies around the world. While each has its unique strengths, their shared features contribute significantly to their demand in the developer landscape. Before diving deeper into their distinctive features, let’s explore the key similarities that make both frameworks a preferred choice for many businesses:

Both Vue.js and React utilize a Virtual DOM which allows for efficient update only of the specific components that have changed. This process saves time and computing resources, which is particularly important for applications with complex user interfaces. For businesses looking for React or Vue.js development services, receive faster load times and a smoother user experience.

One of the key reasons that we, Vue.js company favor these frameworks is their component-based architecture. Both Vue and React break down the UI into reusable, self-contained components. This modularity improves productivity and speeds up the development process which is especially valuable for Vue.js agencies since they can help businesses bring their products to market faster.

Both frameworks are primarily focused on the view layer, which means they handle only the UI and require external libraries or additional tools for managing things like routing or state management. For instance, Vue.js developers often utilize Vue Router for routing and Vuex for state management, while React developers might use React Router and Redux. This modular approach allows a Vue.js agency to choose the best tools for the job, ensuring customized, efficient solutions for their clients.

Both Vue.js and React are built around JavaScript. For Vue.js developers, the familiarity with JS, shortens the learning curve and increases the adoption rate, allowing them to get up to speed quickly and start delivering results. Companies seeking both React and Vue.js development services benefit from this ease of learning, as developers can jump into projects and deliver high-quality code in a shorter timeframe.

One of the biggest differences between Vue and React is the way the view layer is built. By default, Vue uses HTML templates, but there’s an option to write in JSX.

In React, on the other hand, there’s solely JSX. Vue’s traditional separation of concerns into HTML, CSS, and JS makes it easier even for beginner frontend developers to learn how to create Web applications. HTML templates are also familiar to most Web designers, and thus improve collaboration between developers and designers.

React’s JavaScript Expressions (JSX) combine HTML and CSS together into JavaScript. This XML-like syntax lets developers build self-contained UI components with view-rendering instructions included. We’ll talk about what that means later in the article.

• Popularity and community

• Performance 

• Scalability

• Documentation

When comparing the popularity of React.js and Vue.js used by Vue.js agencies and developers in 2024, several key statistics from platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and live website usage highlight the trends:

1. GitHub Popularity:

   • React: React has over 215,000 stars on GitHub, demonstrating its broad community and usage. It also has more than 1,600 contributors, showcasing its extensive development backing.

   • Vue: Vue has around 205,000 stars, which is impressive for a framework that focuses more on simplicity and ease of use. It is supported by around 450 contributors.

2. Stack Overflow:

   • React: There are more than 470,000 questions tagged with "reactjs" on Stack Overflow, reflecting a large developer base and high demand for support.

   • Vue: Vue has approximately 106,000 questions, which is smaller but still represents a significant and growing community.

3. Usage on Live Websites:

   • React is used by about 5.1% of websites globally that implement JavaScript libraries

   • Vue is used by around 1.1% of websites, reflecting its steady growth.

Perfomance is an often sought value when looking for Vue.js development services. There's no surprise as it's a in important decision-making factor for companies aiming to build large-scale applications with React or Vue.js agency. Vue.js developers appreciate its' exceptional performance both in smaller or less complex projects. Let's have a look at raw numbers published by Stefan Krause.

The most recent tests were conducted on a Razer Blade 15 Advanced (i7-8750H, 64GB RAM, Fedora 36) using Chrome 100.0.4896.127. These tests include key metrics like rendering time, row creation speed, and memory usage across operations like updating and clearing large tables. Vue consistently performs well in such raw performance tests, especially when rendering large datasets.

Vue.js is purpose-built for creating interactive multi-page applications, making it an ideal choice for businesses seeking efficient and flexible solutions. Companies offering Vue.js development services can seamlessly integrate Vue's library into existing applications, enhancing functionality without the need for major overhauls.

The framework excels at adding interactivity to static elements while ensuring robust performance. Businesses leveraging Vue.js services benefit from ongoing updates and reliable functionality, making it ideal for those aiming to build fast, scalable, and efficient applications. For organizations seeking rapid, scalable solutions, partnering with Vue.js agencies offers a trusted path to delivering top-tier web products.

Vue.js calls itself the progressive framework and it's designed to be incrementally adoptable. Users can start with a minimum setup and only choose to adopt complex building tools after finding the actual necessity

Scalability is the thing that Vue.js does best. It supports all levels of users and grows together with them.

Haoqun Jiang,

Vue.js Core Team Member

React, because of its impressive community, also has a lot to offer. It’s lightweight enough to easily build multi-page apps but also good with single-page ones. React is immensely useful for building scalable web apps (look at Facebook). Unlike Vue, React doesn't provide ready-made solutions for e.g. routing, so you need to use third-party libraries for that (Flux/Redux, and create-react-app scaffolding tool).

As of 2024, Vue.js continues to maintain its reputation for having highly organized and well-maintained documentation, which remains one of its key strengths and reasons why Vue.js services are so popular among businesses. It significantly simplifies the learning process and troubleshooting for Vue.js developers. This strong emphasis on documentation has been further reinforced with the overhaul introduced in Vue 3, providing developers with clearer, more comprehensive resources to help them quickly resolve issues and onboard new features.

We’ve just shipped our brand new documentation in February 2022 which essentially marked the completion of the soft launch process. When Vue 3 was released it was really just the core, but Vue as a whole has grown into the full ecosystem over time.

Evan You - The Creator of Vue.js

React’s documentation remains far behind Vue’s in terms of accessibility and structure. It goes through basics and advanced uses, but navigating all the material isn’t nearly as smooth as with Vue. However, there was some change recently. The new React.js documentation was officially launched in March 2023, following a public beta phase that started in 2022. This updated version of the documentation focuses on improved accessibility, clearer examples, and better explanations to make it easier for developers to learn React and adopt best practices.

When choosing between Vue.js services and React.js services, the decision should be driven by the type of application you're building and your business goals. If your focus is on quick delivery, lower development costs, and simplicity, Vue.js services are a strong choice, especially for building interactive apps with minimal complexity. Vue.js companies often advise Vue for a diverse array of projects, but here are some key use cases where Vue.js excels:

• Small to Medium-Sized Projects

Vue.js is often preferred for smaller projects or startups where ease of use, rapid development, and low learning curves are important. Vue’s intuitive design allows for quick integration, making it ideal for companies looking to launch fast and iterate quickly​.

• MVPs and Startups 

With an easy learning curve and tools such as Vue CLI 3 and Vue UI, Vue is excellent for the quick delivery of MVPs and startup ideas. Because of those, Vue is also a cost-effective solution for small to medium apps.

• Single-Page Applications (SPAs)

Vue excels in creating dynamic single-page applications (SPAs) with built-in tools for state management (Vuex) and routing (Vue Router), reducing the need for third-party libraries​.

• Mobile and desktop applications

Beyond traditional web applications, Vue.js services can be utilized to create cross-platform mobile and desktop applications with frameworks such as Ionic Vue and Electron. 

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems

Vue.js’s component-based architecture makes it an ideal framework for building ERP systems. By enabling developers to craft reusable UI components, Vue.js promotes modular and maintainable code, essential for managing the complexities of ERP applications. Its fast performance and minimal footprint are well-suited to handling the heavy data loads and intensive operations commonly associated with ERP systems.

• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

Vue.js is also highly effective for creating Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which provide native-like functionality while being accessible via web browsers. With its lightweight design and quick performance, Vue.js helps enterprises improve user engagement without the need for developing separate mobile apps, offering a seamless experience across devices.

What about React.js?

Since React was created for large-scale Web projects in mind, choosing it for small and simple apps might be overkill. Although it requires a lot of boilerplate code just to set up a working project, React’s architecture ultimately pays off in the long run.

Unlike Vue, React doesn’t have official packages for routing or state management. To build complex apps, you have to use third-party solutions for pretty much everything. But the choice is vast. Experienced Vue.js developers tasked with delivering advanced projects will know which of the numerous libraries will be the best choice to meet the business demands of a particular Web application.

In summary, while React.js might be more flexible for large-scale applications, Vue.js is often the better choice for businesses focused on rapid development, simplicity, and cohesive tooling, offering both efficiency and a smoother development experience.

Web apps that use Vue:

• Facebook: It may be surprising to see Facebook on this list as it was created at Facebook and is now maintained by Meta, but its former employee confirmed that Facebook's News Feed uses Vue.

• Alibaba: Launched in 1999, Alibaba.com is a giant eCommerce focused on wholesale trade offering hundreds of millions of products to more than 190 countries and regions. Daily, users exchange hundreds of thousands of messages with suppliers using the platform, according to their website.

• Google Careers: This HR portal by google is built in Vue, hosting a map of job opportunities, interactive content, and more.

• Behance: Part of Adobe, Behance is a leading platform to showcase creative work and portfolios, helping individual talents and companies across the world connect.

• Netflix: This platform doesn't require an introduction, but just if you haven't heard about it: it's a streaming giant with a vast range of series and movies you can watch on-demand. The usage of Vue was confirmed by one of its developers a few years ago.

• Euronews: Multilingual news portal that reaches over 100 million users a month, hosting both text and multimedia content.

• Upwork: This online platform connects freelancers and businesses via thousands of project offers covering all aspects of work, from content writing to admin help.

• Nintendo: The video game mammoth uses Vue.js in selected European regional websites, including Germany, France, Spain, and the UK. Their reward system for game accounts, My Nintendo, also uses the framework.

• Wizz Air: The page for this Hungary-based low-cost airline is made with Vue, allowing for the purchase of plane tickets and services for hundreds of destinations.

• Give Directly: GiveDirectly is the first and largest nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the people most affected by poverty. To achieve the project goals quickly and effectively, Vue.js was chosen for frontend development as the engineering team was already familiar with Vue.

React also has some widely-recognized companies among its users. Here’s the list of nine of them:

• Instagram: With its 2 billion active users worldwide and Meta ownership, Instagram is one of the most popular social apps using React. The framework was introduced by a team of developers who wanted to make Instagram faster for both OS and Android. The implementation wasn’t easy at that time and started with rebuilding the Push notifications feature.

• Reddit: React was implemented at Reddit fairly late, with the switch confirmed in June 2021. The new app's UI was rebuilt entirely in React. 

• Facebook: As I’ve mentioned above, Facebook was behind the development of React as a framework and obviously, this technology is still used by its engineers. Their codebase includes over 30,000 components and React is heavily used in both its web and mobile applications.

• Netflix: Netflix is one of the companies that use both React and Vue in its applications. The company started using Vanilla JS as its frontend framework in 2018, but they still use React to create initial HTML on the server side. 

• Uber Eats: Uber Eats was launched by its parent company, Uber in 2014, and React Native was its go-to technology right from start. The goal was to create a flawless flow between customers ordering food and the restaurants and with the support of React components and the Uber team's detailed knowledge of how this flow should work, the application operates as planned.

Vue.js is a lightweight and user-friendly framework that offers an easy learning curve and smooth integration with existing technologies, even in applications without a predefined framework. Its intuitive templating syntax and component-based architecture make it a powerful tool for both startups and large-scale enterprises. Many businesses turn to Vue.js services for seamless migration or integration, as it ensures faster and more efficient project transitions.

Vue.js and React are both great tools for building interactive user interfaces. To choose which one is better for your next project, you have to take a number of factors into account, including your specific use case, your business needs, environment, developer availability, budget, and the timeframe you’re working with. There's no easy answer when choosing between Vue and React. When you have trouble cracking that nut, don't hesitate and reach out to and experienced Vue.js agency.