Hello, everyone! Today I’d like to share my opinion on Angular JS and Angular 2+. Also, I want to tell about their advantages and disadvantages and tell if you should migrate your app from Angular JS to Angular 2+.
Quite clear that nowadays lots of apps are still running on Angular JS and that is why we do have the issue about migration to Angular 2+.
You know, guys, lately I’ve received a lot of requests from people to rewrite the apps from Angular JS to Angular. We all know that this thing depends on various factors that you can have or not.
Before diving into the information and revealing my opinion let’s take a short look at the history of these technologies.
Short history
I will not write a ton of information on this topic, while you can find everything on Wikipedia or the Internet. We’ll swiftly go through history.
I’d like to point out that Angular JS was released in 2010 and for sure written in JavaScript. This technology was built on the MVC (Model View Controller) which tends to differentiate data, logic and view layer.
As for Angular 2+, it was released in 2016 and based on TypeScript, moreover, it was built with new features. It means that Angular 2+ is far more comfortable to work with.
Personal opinion
Here is the question, “Why was built Angular 2+ which is rather different from Angular JS?”
The thing is Google, which actually created these technologies and improvements to them, has market competitors on an everyday basis.
For instance, React is a rather strong competitor, furthermore, you and other JavaScript libraries and frameworks are considered to be the threat for it.
That’s why after a while, they figured out that Angular JS is quite old and needs improvements. It was rather slow, it has problems with structure creating and so on. That is why the developers of Google have decided to take TypeScript and some specific basis in order to create a new framework with the new language.
So, as you can see, this is how we have gotten Angular 2+.
Now let’s move to the pros and cons of Angular JS.
Advantages of keeping your app working on Angular JS
1. Stable working codebase
That’s not a secret, this technology works stable and fine. If you want to migrate, you understand clearly enough that you will need a new box, you will need to provide regression testing, hire specialists to make everything properly and another headache. But if you stay with Angular JS, you have the advantage that everything is fully stabilized, tested and in the working state.
2.Money
Migration to Angular 2+ takes really lots of money, In the case, if you cannot afford the migration or you just don’t want to spend money for the correction – Angular JS is just for you. Everything will be alright, moreover, if you want some new features you can just pay to your developers for them. So, you’ll be happy and your employees as well.
3.The same team
As for me, the biggest advantage here that you can leave your old team and there is no need to hire new people, instruct them and teach maybe. You can work with the same people who already have your vision and understand you. They already have the necessary skills, they can support you and realize what you need.
Disadvantages of keeping your app working Angular JS
1.Old technology and the lack of people
As I said before, Angular JS was released in 2010, so, it’s definitely old technology. Logically in this period, the number of people on the market who work with this technology is lesser than before and it becomes harder to find them.
We can easily check it by typing “Angular” on any job platform. If we do that we’ll get 95% of developers who work with Angular 2+. The rest 5% have skills for working with that technology but they don’t really want to do that. They understand it will be a lot of legacy code there and something not from scratch.
2.Speed and language
No doubt, Angular 2+ is definitely faster due to its age and improvements. As for language, Angular 2+ uses TypeScript which is far more powerful than a typical JavaScript in Angular JS. Here you are able to do more, even though TypeScript has stricter requirements and patterns in coding. Nevertheless, you can cover it with functionality that makes your code less baggy.
3.Support
I reckon, guys, that despite the future possible updates for Angular JS, all in all, this technology has no future support. Every day the number of components and libraries is reducing. That becomes risky because of the lack of proper support.
On the contrary, Angular 2+ as more modern technology, has support for the react programming and it’s been developing all the time.
4.Absence of the Angular CLI
That’s clear that Angular CLI provides huge opportunities for better work. With that package, you can easily create a scaffolding of your Angular project, everything will look clear and well-structured, furthermore, your project will be well configured.
By the way, if you need a developer who can rewrite your app to Angular 2+ refer to our company AVA codes.
Summary/Conclusion
In case, if you have money to migrate your app from Angular JS to Angular 2+, I strongly recommend you to do that. But if you have no funds for that – just keep going, but keep in mind that every day you can get less support and it becomes too risky to work.
Advantages of keeping your app working Angular JS:
- The codebase is stable and working fine.
- A good option when there are no funds to migrate.
- You can leave the same team.
Disadvantages of keeping your app working Angular JS:
- Old technology and fewer people who can help you.
- Slow speed.
- Usage of typical JavaScript.
- Less support every day.
- Absence of Angular CLI.
Thanks for reading! I hope you find this article useful.
Also, if you want some more information about Angular and React, this article will be useful too: Angular vs React: Angular vs React: Which one to choose for your app in 2020?
Thanks and have a nice day!
