5 Pros of Using Vue.js That Make Life Better

What is Vue.js?

Vue.js is described as “a progressive framework for building user interfaces.” What differentiates this framework from other JavaScript web development frameworks is that its architecture is designed to be incrementally adaptable. Vue.js is one of the most popular front-end frameworks and is often compared to other JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular. We at ProCoders love the framework for its lightweight nature that makes it super convenient to build apps quickly.

This article analyses some of the various reasons why it is an efficient framework for developing web apps. We would look at Vue.js advantages and disadvantages, and also offer some lessons from our own experience in building web apps using this framework. However, before then, there needs to be a brief introduction.

Evan You created Vue.js while working at Google as a creative technologist. Thus, in some ways, it is similar to Google’s JavaScript framework Angular (like in the use of the virtual DOM, plus Vuex for Redux-like state management). The Vue framework is known for its powerful framework design, versatility, and ease of use.

However, it is designed to solve the challenges that exist(ed) with Angular and React. Of course, there are pros and cons of Vue.js, but the latter outweigh the former. It is open-source and is, in fact, backed by donations from sponsors and partners, which include Vehikl, Modus Create, Rangle, Laravel, StoreKit, DevExpress, and many more. Many well-known companies have adopted Vue.js, further establishing its credibility.

This open approach has made the framework much-loved in the developer community and despite being an indie project, its functionalities, support, and adoption rival those of Facebook’s React and Google’s Angular.

Vue.js currently has almost 200,000 stars (186k, as against React’s 171k and Angular’s 74.7k) on GitHub, showing the amount of interest that developers have found in the framework. Vue.js is recognized among popular frameworks and is widely used in web projects of various sizes. Ever since the first version was introduced in 2014 (7 years ago), it has gone on to become a very important front end web development framework powering millions of websites around the world.

However, there are Vue.js pros and cons that must be understood before choosing the framework for your project.

How Vue.js Compares to Other Frameworks

When it comes to choosing a JavaScript framework for building modern web applications, developers are often faced with a choice between Vue.js, React, and Angular. What sets Vue.js apart as a progressive JavaScript framework is its unique blend of simplicity, flexibility, and power. Unlike some other frameworks, Vue.js offers a gentle learning curve, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced developers alike. Its straightforward syntax and clear documentation mean you can get up and running quickly, without the steep learning curve often associated with React and Angular.

One of the standout advantages of Vue.js is its smaller bundle size, which translates to better performance and faster load times for your web applications. The framework’s component-based architecture is both intuitive and flexible, allowing developers to build complex applications by assembling reusable components. This approach not only streamlines the development process but also makes maintaining and scaling your codebase much easier compared to other frameworks.

Vue.js also boasts a rich ecosystem of tools and supporting libraries, such as Vue CLI for rapid project setup, Vue Router for seamless navigation in single page applications, and Vuex for robust state management. These tools are designed to work together harmoniously, providing everything you need to create stunning, user-friendly web applications. While React and Angular are backed by tech giants, Vue.js has carved out its own space by focusing on developer experience and community-driven innovation. For anyone looking to build modern web applications with a framework that balances power and simplicity, Vue.js is a compelling choice.

Top 5 Advantages of Vue.js

Vue.js offers many advantages for building websites and web applications. Only introduced 7 years ago, it is amazing what feats the framework has achieved.

1. Easy to Learn

Vue.js is loved by developers because it is versatile and lightweight, yet this does not take anything away from its functionality, which rivals those of heavier frameworks such as React and Angular. Anyone who has some experience in front-end development can master it within a couple of days. Vue.js’s detailed documentation and easy access to learning resources make the coding process straightforward for beginners.

The only prerequisite for understanding it is to understand the core web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For other JavaScript frameworks like Angular and React, you would need to learn other languages in order to use them effectively. In Angular’s case, you need to learn to use TypeScript; unlike other JavaScript frameworks, Vue.js does not require learning TypeScript, although it does offer TypeScript support for those who want it.

2. Progressiveness

The framework is correctly defined as progressive, which means that it is incrementally adoptable; it gradually introduces additional markup to the HTML code. In doing so, it adapts to the needs of the developer, instead of requiring a developer to rewrite an existing application or start a server.

Vue.js can be added to your HTML code as a simple script tag, and it progressively extends, adapting to your needs, until it can manage the entire layer. Vue.js is easily integrated into existing applications, making it a versatile framework for both new and legacy projects. That’s why it is called the ‘new jQuery’ in some quarters. This is one of the major pros of using Vue.js, particularly when a developer has to transition from another framework.

3. Community and Support

Angular is backed by Google, React is backed by Facebook, but Vue.js is entirely backed by the open-source community, relying on the contributions of local developers and the donation of sponsors to forge ahead. Yet, the latter has managed to significantly challenge Angular and React as the framework of choice for web development.

Vue.js benefits developers by providing excellent and responsive support. Most queries to the official platform are resolved in a matter of hours; the same goes for GitHub issues. The platform also sticks to consistent release cycles to update information and support guides.

4. Best of Both Worlds

Another advantage of Vue.js is that since it is inspired by Angular and React, it learns from and takes all the best features of both Angular and React, while discarding the not-so-good ones. For instance, like React, Vue.js features the Virtual DOM, but it uses automatic dependency management to automatically determine which components are re-rendered when the state is changed. Vue.js also offers a familiar structure for developers experienced with other JavaScript frameworks, making the transition smoother.

In React, this doesn’t happen by default and you have to manually apply the shouldComponentUpdate method to each component. Also, Vue.js uses some Angular-like templating syntax, but without requiring developers to learn a new language (TypeScript). Vue.js supports single-file components, which allow developers to organize templates, logic, and styles in one file, making Vue component development and coding more maintainable and readable. These components can be easily combined with other components to build complex user interfaces. This remains a strong pro to hire Vue.js developers.

5. Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) Architecture

Any discussion of Vue benefits would be incomplete without reference to its architecture. The MVVM architecture that Vue.js uses is excellent for enhancing the UI experience. Basically, MVVM simplifies user interface event-driven programming. This improves system performance.

Vue.js leverages the Document Object Model (DOM) and efficiently manages DOM objects through its virtual DOM rendering and reactivity system. Two-way binding is a core feature that enables real-time synchronization between the user interface and application state.

Mind you, this framework mainly focuses on the ViewModel layer of this MVVM architecture. By separating the user interface from the application logic, it eliminates any need for application redesign when the user interface gets outdated; instead, one can easily just plug in a desired template to the application and keep it running.

How Vue.js Streamlines the Development Process

Vue.js is designed to make the development process as smooth and efficient as possible for software developers. At the heart of this is its component-based architecture, which encourages breaking down complex applications into smaller, reusable components. This modular approach not only makes your codebase easier to manage and maintain but also speeds up development by allowing you to reuse components across different parts of your web applications.

Another key feature that streamlines development is Vue.js’s virtual DOM. By minimizing direct manipulation of the real DOM, Vue.js ensures better performance and faster re-rendering of interactive elements, which is especially important for user-friendly web applications with dynamic content. The framework’s intuitive template syntax and two-way data binding make it easy to connect your data to the user interface, reducing boilerplate code and manual DOM manipulation.

Vue.js also provides a suite of powerful tools to support the entire development process. The Vue CLI offers a quick and efficient way to scaffold new projects, manage dependencies, and add new features as your application grows. For state management in complex applications, Vuex provides a centralized state management library that keeps your data organized and predictable. And with Vue Router, you can easily implement navigation and routing in single-page applications, further enhancing the user experience.

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages is Vue.js’s incremental adoption capability. You can integrate Vue into existing projects without a complete rewrite, allowing for a smooth transition and immediate productivity gains. Whether you’re building a new project from scratch or adding interactive elements to an existing application, Vue.js empowers developers to create stunning, user-friendly web applications with better performance and scalability. With its robust ecosystem, easy-to-use tools, and focus on developer experience, Vue.js truly streamlines the development process from start to finish.

Some Disadvantages of Vue.js

There is no perfect technology out there. Even the best technologies have certain drawbacks, and the drawbacks of Vue.js are highlighted in this section, even though they take nothing away from the excellence of the framework. However, knowing what to expect performance-wise and functionality-wise can help you to more correctly determine if the framework would be useful for building your app.

So, here we go:

• Lack of scalability: presently, it is mainly used for building lightweight web apps such as Single Page Applications, as well as user interfaces. It lacks the scalability that enables building large, complex applications. While Vue.js excels in lightweight applications, it may present challenges when implementing complex features required in large-scale projects, making careful planning and optimization essential for such use cases. This may be due to the framework still being an indie project, not backed by any technology giant. However, this limitation is real and should be among your considerations when choosing the tech stack for your app.

• Lack of plugins: it is not yet as established as the likes of Angular and React; therefore, it has fewer plugins than the latter two. Usually, developers have to turn to different languages to overcome the challenges that result from this issue. Learn more about Node.js advantages if you are considering alternatives.
• Small community: there are many innovations and events going on in the community side, but the community is really small and composed of many non-English speakers. Not to worry, though, if you are hiring from ProCoders, our developers are proficient in English and use the framework excellently.

Websites Built With Vue.js

Many well-known companies have chosen Vue.js for their web projects, including those involving data visualization and analytics dashboards. This section lists some of the most popular websites and web apps that are built using Vue.js. In addition, you can find a complete list of websites using Vue.js on their platforms here on its GitHub page. You can also use Wappalyzer to analyse the technology stack of any website and determine if a website is using Vue.js.

• Google Careers: it would be surprising to many people to find out that Google does use Vue.js. Google Careers, an open platform for applying for positions at Google, is built with Vue.js.
• GitLab: DevOps platform, GitLab has been using Vue.js since 2016. Justifying its decision, some of the reasons why the team chose Vue.js include its simplicity and ease of use, and that it requires less code. In describing its use of Vue.js after one year, a GitLab staff developer wrote, “A lot of our problems have been solved, by us and others.” In fact, till now, GitLab maintains a Vue style guide for writing high-quality Vue.js code as part of its development style guides. GitLab also leverages Vue.js for building interactive dashboards and data visualization tools for DevOps analytics.

• 9Gag: 9Gag is a popular social network for sharing memes and short videos. Founded in 2008, 9Gag would go on to change its site layout and the JS framework ten years later. It transitioned from React and then began a journey with Vue.js that has powered their website app to date. 9Gag presently has several million users as well as over 2 billion monthly social video views.
• Upwork: Upwork, one of the world’s most popular freelance platforms, uses Vue.js on its website, as well as Nuxt.js (and other Upwork alternatives), a web application framework that’s based on Vue.js. Upwork ranks #303 globally on Alexa’s global internet engagement ranking, attracting millions of visitors per day.

• Behance: Behance is a global platform for creatives (especially designers and illustrators) to share their projects and showcase their best work. Behance, owned by Adobe, has over 12 million users and projects on the website have been viewed over 4 billion times.
• NBC Sports: NBC Sports is an American sports news website that shows videos, live streams, schedules, sports, and so on.

• Tencent QQ: Tencent QQ, or simply QQ, is China’s most popular super app and the world’s 4th most visited website, according to Alexa rankings. Via instant messaging, QQ provides a variety of services including social games, microblogging (Q Zone), shopping, music, and the likes.

What Projects You May Use Vue.js Benefits in?

If you go through the list of Vue.js projects, you are sure to find a variety of applications of Vue.js for building web apps performing different functions. Versatility is one of the advantages of Vue.js. One Vue.js website offers ‘Online Training for Language Proficiency Tests’, another is ‘A streaming website for creating internet television’, while yet another functions as a ‘Business communication service.’

There is almost no type of project you want to build that it cannot handle. However, we would focus on the best and most popular kinds of projects that can be built with Vue.js here. Each point identifies a key feature of Vue.js, its benefit, and an example of an app that it enables. Basically, this section highlights the practical benefits of using Vue.js. You can hire remote developers to carry out your project.

Building a To-Do App with Composition API

The Composition API to share and reuse code more easily, especially when dealing with large applications. It helps developers to organise code logically in order to maintain and manage complex components better. With this Composition API, you can build a simple To-Do app with easily reusable code.

User Registration App with Vuex

Vuex is the state management pattern and library for Vue.js. Its equivalent in React is Redux. Vuex stores all an application’s components, stateful or stateless. If you are not ready to apply Vue.js to your entire application at once, you can start by using Vuex to build the user registration and login page. Vuex and webpack can also be used to build a simple web chat app in Vue.js.

Blog with Vue Router

The Vue.js official router includes features that greatly ease the process of building Single Page Applications. It has features that enable you to customise scroll behaviour and navigation control, link with automatic active CSS classes, and use nested route/view mapping, among others. With this feature, you can easily build a Hacker News clone or your own blog from scratch.

Dynamic Update Apps with Virtual DOM

One of the best features of Vue.js, gleaned from React, is the concept of the Virtual DOM. Vue.js uses virtual DOM rendering to efficiently update DOM objects and manage changes to the Document Object Model, resulting in faster and more optimized UI updates. Its reactivity system and two-way binding enable seamless real-time updates in dynamic applications by automatically synchronizing data between the user interface and application state.

More so, using the virtual DOM instead of the real DOM keeps the app lightweight, and the virtual DOM can even be eventually synced with the real DOM through a library. Apps like Netflix benefit from using the virtual DOM, and while Netflix is actually built with React, you can build a similar app on Vue.js based on the same concept, such as Vueflix, a Netflix clone.

Our Experience in Vue.js

ProCoders has had significant experience building web apps with Vue.js for various clients. You can always reach out to us to outsource app development or for your outstaffing needs if you wonder how to hire Vue.js developers. Our experience ranges across different fields and industries, including Travel, Internet of Things (IoT), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), media production, entertainment, etc.

The first example is a web app for a British tour company, Blue-o-Two; the app was to enable customers to easily find and book tours. Another example is a customer-facing CRM tool for Distilj, a distillery located in Kentucky, the United States. With the app, Distilj’s customers were able to customise their bourbon production; this enabled the company to deliver a better user experience.

The scope of requirements for our work with Same Day Courier Network (SDCN), a trading platform for the transport industry, was more different than the other two. ProCoders had to integrate with SDCN’s IT staff to update the code base of their web and mobile applications as well as expand their functionalities to meet their evolving business needs.

ProCoders is located in Portugal, but we have been able to handle these projects from companies in Great Britain, the United States, and Israel efficiently. We maintain teams of development professionals and apply their skills to any project we receive.

Through these staff augmentation services, our clients at home and most especially abroad have remained consistently satisfied. Therefore, to find developers for a startup and develop your next app using Vue.js or other technologies, look no further than ProCoders. Working with us helps you to unlock all the benefits of Vue.js.

Conclusion

Vue.js has a lot of attractive features, but it is definitely not for all kinds of projects. This article has been dedicated to analysing various Vue pros and cons. For one, you may experience issues building large, complex websites. However, as long as the website and its codebase are lightweight, you are good to go with Vue.js. Once you have determined what frameworks to work with, the next thing is to determine who will build the app.
That’s what ProCoders is available for. We assemble teams to build web and mobile apps for our clients, who are mostly offshore. Contact us today to discuss requirements for your next Vue.js app and hire remote developers.