| React | Angular | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintainer | Meta | |
| First release | 2013 | 2016 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Learning curve | Moderate, jSX and hooks click within a few weeks, but most of the real learning is the surrounding ecosystem (routing, state management, build tooling). | Steep, dependency injection, RxJS and the framework's conventions take months to master, but they pay off in large teams. |
| Performance | Excellent for most UIs thanks to the virtual DOM and concurrent rendering; very large lists and animation-heavy views need memoization discipline. | Strong since signals and zoneless change detection landed (Angular 17+); initial bundles remain heavier than Vue or Svelte. |
React is a flexible library with the biggest ecosystem; Angular is a complete, opinionated framework built for large organizations. Pick Angular for enterprise apps with complex forms and big teams that benefit from strict conventions; pick React for products, startups and anywhere flexibility and hiring matter more than uniformity.