Both Angular and AngularJs share a number of similarities since the former is an upgraded version of the latter, however, it’s the differences that will help us choose the winner among the two. Before we get into that, let’s understand Angular and AngularJs individually.

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About Angular And AngularJs

Angular is a Typescript-based alternative to AngularJS used to create dynamic web applications. It is the upgraded version that is most in use today. Some of its key features are that it is easy to develop, has an advanced modular design and significantly faster in comparison with AngularJS. 

AngularJS, on the other hand, is written on Javascript and can be used as the term for all v1.x versions of Angular. It was created in 2009 and is also commonly referred to as Angular 1. The open-source, single-page applications development framework also has its unique features such as the ability to change static HTML to dynamic HTML. It has a number of filters and directives packed with it. 

Angular’s latest upgraded version is 9 and AngularJS’ is currently stable at version 1.7.7.

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What Are The Major Differences Between Angular And AngularJs?

Language

The most basic difference between the two open-source frameworks is that Angular is Typescript-based (superset of ES6) while AngularJs is based on Javascript. This essentially implies that there will be differences in their components. [Note: ES6 is backward-compatible with ES5.]

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Use Of Components And Directives

Another crucial distinction is that Angular’s operation is based on a hierarchy of components while AngularJs has a pack of directives which enable code reusability and writing distinct codes. It also uses scope and controllers. Even Angular has the standard directives but the difference lies in how either framework implements them. 

In Angular, components play a huge role in building user interfaces. Each portion of the UI is defined as a component and then composed. In AngularJs, this is done using component directives that exclusively define all the same Angular components such as templates, input/output bindings, etc. These directives have an edge over lower-level features like ng-include, scope inheritance, etc. 

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AngularJS component directive can be migrated easily to Angular but with a few configurations. These include: restrict: ‘E’, scope: {}, 

bindToController: {}, controller and controllerAs, template or templateUrl. +

All these directives and a few more are compatible with Angular. 

There are several component directives that can not be used in Angular which include compile, replace: true, priority and terminal. 

A fully compatible component directive in the Angular architecture is as follows:

export function heroDetailDirective() {

  return {

    restrict: ‘E’,

    scope: {},

    bindToController: {

      hero: ‘=’,

      deleted: ‘&’

    },

    template: `

      <h2>{{$ctrl.hero.name}} details!</h2>

      <div><label>id: </label>{{$ctrl.hero.id}}</div>

      <button ng-click=”$ctrl.onDelete()”>Delete</button>

    `,

    controller: function HeroDetailController() {

      this.onDelete = () => {

        this.deleted({hero: this.hero});

      };

    },

    controllerAs: ‘$ctrl’

  };

}

Must Read: Angular Developer Salary in India

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Based On Architecture 

Angular’s framework primarily uses components including structural directives and attributive directives which come with templates. While the former is used in the modification of the DOM layout, the latter is responsible for altering the behaviour of the DOM. Structural directives replace the elements to achieve their purpose and attribute directive change the appearance of the elements. In Angular’s approach, the functional and logical components are divided as per their purposes and can serve the application better. 

Angular JS, on the other hand, operates on the model-view-controller (MVC) framework where, as the Controller,   it plays a central role in managing data, rules, receiving the input and processing it into commands to be sent to the Model and View. It also managers how applications behave. 

The Model is responsible for storing and managing the data received, and View outputs the data once it has reviewed the information contained in the Model. 

MVC is quite simple, cohesive and helps to speed up development. The binding feature also means that you have to write less code. 

Dependency Injection 

While AngularJS doesn’t employ DI (it uses directives), Angular has a hierarchical DI system to enhance performance. 

Routing

AngularJS uses @routeProvider.when to define routing information. Angular, on the other hand, uses a URL to imitate a directive to get to the client-view. Here, @Route configuration is used for routing information. This gives Angular an edge over AngularJS. 

Performance And Speed

AngularJs has a separate two-way binding feature which means less time and effort invested. Angular has a better structure which becomes crucial in enhancing the speed and performance of its operations. 

In the case of AngularjS, you have the ng-bind for one-way binding and the ng-model for two-way binding. In Angular, ngModel does both. It uses symbols to denote the type of binding:

• One-way binding – []
• Two-way binding – [()]
• Event binding – ()
• Property binding – []

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Testing And Tools

AngularJs relies on IDE and Webstorm, third-party Javascript tools, for building applications and testing for errors. 

Angular again scores for using Command Line Interface (CLI) for project building. The added benefit is that this results in reduced time, and greater accessibility when it comes to testing. 

Management 

Angular projects are easier to manage than AngularJS projects because of how structured they are. This is especially a plus when it comes to bigger applications. 

Detecting Changes 

AngularJS uses scope.$apply() to manually or by default make changes in data bindings after every event. 

Angular doesn’t need scope.$apply() function. Since it runs in the Angular zone, Angular is always aware when a certain code ends. In this manner, it initiates the change detection process.

Also Read: Angular Project Ideas & Topics

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Angular vs Angular JS: Final Thoughts

While both Angular vs Angular JS have distinct benefits to offer developers, Angular comes on the top in several categories. Also, Angular’s dynamic web and single-page applications are extremely mobile-friendly. AngularJS code, on the other hand, doesn’t support mobile applications and this is possibly the biggest advantage Angular has over AngularJs. So, that’s about it in the Angular vs Angular JS debate. 

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