Vue vs Angular for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Vue Overview

Vue is the progressive framework that respects your time. It gives you sensible defaults, excellent documentation, and a reactivity system that just works. Single-file components keep your template, logic, and styles together. The Composition API in Vue 3 brings composability on par with React hooks but with less boilerplate and fewer footguns.

What makes Vue special for solo developers is how quickly you become productive. You can start with basic HTML templates and gradually adopt more advanced patterns. The docs walk you through everything step by step. I've picked up Vue features in minutes that took me hours to figure out in other frameworks.

Vue's ecosystem is smaller than React's but bigger than you'd expect. Pinia for state management, Vue Router for routing, VueUse for composables. Nuxt gives you a full-stack meta-framework. It's a complete toolkit that doesn't overwhelm you with choices.

Angular Overview

Angular is Google's enterprise-grade TypeScript framework. It ships with routing, forms, HTTP client, dependency injection, testing tools, animations, and a CLI that scaffolds everything. The philosophy is clear: one way to do things, consistent patterns everywhere.

The reality for solo developers is that Angular's power comes at a steep cost. You need to understand TypeScript deeply, learn RxJS observables for async operations, wrap your head around dependency injection, and navigate a module system that adds ceremony to everything. A simple component requires more code in Angular than in any other major framework.

Angular is built for teams. Large teams. Teams with junior developers who need guardrails and senior architects who define patterns. When you're building alone, those guardrails become barriers. Every feature takes longer to implement because the framework demands structure that a solo project doesn't need.

Key Differences

Time to first feature. Vue lets you build your first real feature in an afternoon. Angular requires days of setup and learning before you're productive. For solo developers racing to validate an idea, this difference is everything.

Reactivity. Vue's reactivity system tracks dependencies automatically with ref() and reactive(). Angular uses RxJS observables, which are powerful but complex. You need to understand operators, subscriptions, and memory leak prevention. Vue's approach is dramatically simpler.

Template syntax. Both use HTML-like templates, which is a common ground. But Vue's templates are cleaner and more intuitive. Angular templates come with their own micro-syntax for directives (*ngIf, *ngFor, [ngClass]) that takes time to learn.

Documentation. Vue has some of the best documentation in the JavaScript ecosystem. It teaches concepts progressively and includes working examples. Angular's docs are comprehensive but dense. They read like reference material, not a learning path.

Ecosystem weight. Angular's built-in tools mean fewer decisions. But Vue's smaller, curated ecosystem (Pinia, VueUse, Nuxt) gives you everything you need without the overhead. You get the right tools without being locked into framework-specific patterns.

When to Choose Vue

• You want the fastest path from idea to working product
• You value clean, readable code with minimal boilerplate
• You prefer learning progressively instead of everything at once
• You're building solo projects where simplicity beats enterprise patterns
• You want excellent documentation that actually teaches

When to Choose Angular

• You're joining an enterprise team that already uses Angular
• You need strict architectural patterns for a large codebase
• You're building a complex internal tool with many forms and workflows
• You want everything in one package with no library decisions
• You're comfortable investing weeks in learning before building

The Verdict

Vue, without hesitation. The gap between these two for solo developers is the widest in any comparison I can think of. Vue's 9/10 vs Angular's 5/10 rating reflects a fundamental difference in philosophy. Vue was designed to be approachable. Angular was designed to be enterprise-grade.

When you're building alone, approachability translates directly to shipping speed. Vue's reactivity system has fewer bugs. Its templates are easier to read. Its documentation teaches you instead of referencing at you. You'll build the same features in half the time with a quarter of the code. Angular has its place in large organizations. For solo developers, Vue is the clear winner.