8 Proven Reasons You Need Angular for Your Next Development Project

Businesses are striving for an ultra-effective online presence these days. Hence, the need for a robust web development framework with cutting-edge features is at an all-time high.

Enter- Angular

Angular is a highly popular web development framework that offers rich user experiences, fast responsiveness, and code maintainability. It is the fourth most used front-end web framework according to the Stack Overflow Survey 2021^[i].

This tool was created back in 2009 by Google to assist web development. It is one of the most sought-after JavaScript frameworks and is aimed to make front-end development much simpler and accessible.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the fundamentals of Angular and why it is better than other frameworks for your development projects.

So without any further ado, let’s understand Angular better!

What is Angular?

Angular is an open-source front-end framework developed by Google for creating dynamic modern web apps. It uses JavaScript-based TypeScript programming language to eliminate dispensable code and ensure lighter and faster apps.

Angular helps build interactive and dynamic single page applications (SPAs) through its compelling features that include templating, two-way binding, modularization, RESTful API handling, dependency injection, and AJAX handling.

Designers can use HTML as a template language and even extend HTML syntax to easily convey the components of the application. You also don’t need to rely on third-party libraries to build dynamic applications with Angular.

Listed below are some other highly rated factors that make Angular a preferred framework among developers.

Journey of Angular

First introduced as AngularJS, the framework has now evolved to Angular 12 with many enhancements over the years. The below image depicts the journey of Angular with major updates in each version.

8 Proven Reasons to Use Angular

Now that you have a basic understanding of Angular and its features, let’s discuss why Angular is an excellent choice for your development projects.

1. Supported by Google

One of the biggest advantages of Angular is that it is supported by Google. Google offers its Long-Term Support (LTS) to Angular that sheds light on Google’s plan to stick with the framework and further scale the Angular ecosystem.

Google apps also use Angular and their team is quite optimistic about its stability. Other Angular developers also get the golden opportunity to learn from Google’s certified Angular professionals.

2. TypeScript

Angular applications are built using TypeScript language, a superscript for JavaScript, which ensures higher security as it supports types (primitives and interfaces). It helps catch and eliminate errors early in the process while writing the code or performing maintenance tasks.

Unlike CoffeeScript or Dart, TypeScript is not a stand-alone language. With TypeScript, you can easily take the existing ES5 or ES2015+ JS code and it will compile it down based on what you are configuring. It fully supports core ES2015 and ES2016/ES2017 features such as decorators or async/await.

You can also directly debug TypeScript code in the browser or an editor if you have proper map files created during build time. This language ensures improved navigation, refactoring, and auto completion services. You can even opt-out of its inbuilt features when needed.

3. Declarative UI

Angular uses HTML to define the UI of the application. HTML, as compared to JavaScript, is a less convoluted language. It is also a declarative and intuitive language with directives like ng-app, ng-model, ng-repeat, and forms control.

With its help, you don’t need to invest time in program flows and deciding what loads first. Simply define what you require and Angular will take care of it.

4. POJO

With Angular, you don’t need any additional getter and setter functions. This is because every object that Angular uses is POJO (Plain Old JavaScript Object) which enables object manipulation by providing all the conventional JavaScript functionalities. You can remove or add properties from the objects while also looping over these objects when required.

5. PWA and SPA

Angular Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a cost-friendly solution that allows websites to act like mobile apps. It reduces dependency on the network which significantly improves the user experience of the website.

Caching in PWA works efficiently and conserves bandwidth whenever possible. This minimizes the risks of serving outdated content. Moreover, as it is a website, it can be optimized for SEO.

Angular also facilitates the development of single page applications (SPA) which provides server side rendering capabilities that boost SEO rankings. It also helps load the first page quickly and improve website performance on mobile and low-powered devices.

6. Simplified MVC Pattern

Angular framework is embedded with the original MVC (Model-View-Controller) software architectural setup. However, it is not according to the established standards. Angular does not ask developers to split an application into different MVC components and build a code that could unite them.

Rather, it only asks to divide the app and takes care of everything else. Hence, Angular and MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) design structures are quite similar.

Angular ensures easy development as it eliminates the need for unnecessary code. It has a simplified MVC architecture, which makes writing getters and setters needless. Directives can be managed by some other team as these are not part of the app code. All in all, developers are promised less coding, along with lighter and faster apps.

7. Modular Structure

Angular organizes code into buckets, whether it is components, directives, pipes, or services. Those who are familiar with Angular refer to these buckets as modules. Modules make application functionality organization easy, segregating it into features and reusable chunks. Modules also allow for lazy loading, which paves the way for application feature loading in the background or on-demand.

Angular makes it an achievable goal to divide the labor across different team members while ensuring organized code. You can make the best of modules when you have a proper understanding of these. Developers can also improve productivity with appropriate modules built.

8. Code Consistency and Easy Testing

Every code base requires consistent coding. This is because inconsistent coding can increase the risks of delayed launches or elevated costs. On the other hand, consistent coding can make your site easier to use and enable the use of templates or pre-defined code snippets.

Angular framework is based on components that begin in the same style. For instance, each component places the code in a component class or defines a @Component decorator (metadata). These components are small interface elements independent of each other and offer you several benefits, including:

• Reusability: The component-based structure of Angular makes the components highly reusable across the app. You can build the UI (User Interface) with moving parts while also ensuring a smooth development process for developers.

• Simplified Unit-Testing: Being independent of each other, the components make unit testing much easier.

• Improved Readability: Consistency in coding makes reading the code a piece of cake for new developers on an ongoing project. This adds to their productivity and overall efficiency of the project.

• Ease of Maintenance: Decoupled components are replaceable with better implementations. Simply put, it enables efficient code maintenance and update.

Additionally, testing is extremely simple in Angular. Angular.js modules have application parts that are easy to manipulate. With module separation, you can load the necessary services while effectively performing automatic testing. You also don’t even need to remember the module loading order if you follow the “one file-one module” principle.

Top Websites Using Angular

Owing to the various above-listed advantages of Angular, many big brands use this framework for their websites, including:

• Microsoft Office Home
• Deutsche Bank Developer Portal
• Forbes
• Google Marketing Platform
• IBM
• PayPal

This indicates that Angular is already a leader in web development frameworks and a preferred choice for leading businesses. Combined with incredible technology and practical features, it is a framework for developers looking to build next-gen projects. And if you are one of them, then without a doubt, you must go Angular!

Want To Know More About How Angular Can Help You Achieve Your Website Goals? Schedule a Free Consultation!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2018 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy.

References-

[i] Stack Overflow Survey 2021