Angular is a technology backed by Google, so it's not likely to become obsolete anytime soon. Angular has become incredibly popular during the last few years, and many tech giants like Google, YouTube, and Microsoft bet on it.
The framework is gaining steam in the last few years and today serves as a go-to technology for teams looking to build single-page web applications, mobile applications with captivating animations, Progressive Web Apps that work offline, and all kinds of enterprise applications.
Are you looking for a technology to build your digital product? Angular might be a good pick. Why is Angular such a great technology, and what kind of apps can you build with it? Read this article to find out.
Table of contents:
- What is Angular?
- What are the benefits of using Angular?
- List of apps you can build with Angular
- Angular mobile apps and much more
What is Angular?
Angular is a framework for building web and mobile applications. It offers a defined architecture and collection of ready-to-use libraries that accelerate the development process by providing developers with generic functionalities. Low-level concerns that are common to many apps on the market are no longer a problem – all it takes is implementing a library.
The best part? Developers can easily modify them to their liking. That's the great thing about using this framework for web and mobile app development.
How does Angular differ from AngularJS?
As a technology, Angular has a long history. AngularJS is more than a decade old - it's one of the oldest web application frameworks! During that time, the community surrounding Angular supported by Google managed to solve many different problems and introduce a slew of valuable features.
However, at some point, the framework stopped addressing the concerns of modern web application development. So, now all the experience was used to create a brand-new version of Angular: Angular 2.
First released in 2016, Angular 2 was met with caution but then gained the approval of developers after the Angular team improved its shortcomings. This new structure took over the name of Angular. The old structure is called AngularJS, and it's going to be supported until June 2021.
What are the benefits of using Angular?
1. Rich ecosystem
Angular is surrounded by an active community of developers. This brings a lot of advantages to any software development project. First of all, Angular offers the most important libraries and solutions, so developers don't have to rely on third-party code where future maintenance is not guaranteed. With Angular, you also get access to well-written documentation that is constantly improved.
Developers can also reap benefits from development tools provided out-of-the-box that make coding easier. There is no need to waste time looking for a solution - the community behind Angular is one of the biggest forces out there and ready to answer any question.
2. TypeScript
It's TypeScript that takes Angular to the next level over other JavaScript frameworks. TypeScript allows developers to save time and emanates possible errors since developers can debug their code while writing code. The language allows typing of an app that makes it more scalable and easier to find bugs.
3. Flexibility
Angular is a framework and does everything that a framework is supposed to do. It offers developers a number of off-the-shelf solutions that solve problems. Still, it's possible to diverge from mainstream Angular whenever you feel like it. So, teams can retain flexibility and easily come up with their own solutions.
4. Excellent quality of libraries
Angular offers support for the most used libraries. As a result, your project will have fewer bugs and get better security. The official component also makes introducing new developers to your project easily, because it's likely that they already know the libraries.
5. Testing
When using Angular, developers get all the testing tools out of the box. They can develop software faster and at the same time refactor it. There's no need to focus on the reading code again and again. Typescript also helps to eliminate errors and save your team's time (and your money).
6. Modular structure
Modularity makes application scaling easier. In Angular, components can be easily reused or replaced. This also helps the app to work much faster and deliver a more optimal user experience. The lazy loading feature means that a module is downloaded only when a user needs it – for example when they navigate to a page where the module is used.
7. Material UI library
Material UI is the official Google library of interface components for web applications used in both mobile and desktop. Using it is bound to speed up the development time dramatically. The components are well tested and constantly improved by the community, and their performance cost is minimal.
List of apps you can build with Angular
Angular opens the doors to new opportunities, provides plenty of off-the-shelf solutions, and accelerates the entire development process. However, the ultimate choice of technology depends on the requirements of your project. Angular is an excellent pick for a number of applications - and here's a selection.
1. Single-page applications (SPA)
Single-page applications are the most popular solutions for websites today. The idea is that users interact with a single page where all information appears dynamically. SPA delivers a better user experience in comparison to traditional multipage applications. Angular data management and routing make building SBAs much faster and help teams to develop excellent performance.
2. Mobile applications
Angular is more than just a framework for web development. You can use it to build a mobile app as well. The idea is to use the framework to build a web application that runs on any mobile device. Note that you can combine Angular with NativeScript, which is another open-source framework that allows developing iOS and Android apps. Developers can also use Ionic to create hybrid apps that provide a great experience and allow sharing the majority of code between iOS and Android platforms for better team performance.
3. Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
Progressive Web Applications should adapt to the user's screen, be available online, and retain their functionality even when the user loses connectivity on a mobile device. Building PWA with Angular is really easy because it has a special command for that, accelerating the process.
4. Enterprise web applications
Enterprises and government institutions often need advanced pieces of software, and this is where Angular can help as well. First of all, it's scalable and has components that can be used in many other projects. It offers a modular and unified architecture that helps to control the development process. Moreover, it addresses the highest security standards.
5. Web interfaces with captivating animations
Animations are more and more often used by companies to gain a competitive advantage. If done wrong, however, they might deliver a poor user experience. The team behind Angular created a module as part of the official library that allows designing and implementing animations without any risks.
6. Server-side rendered (SSR) apps
These are web applications that can be rendered either in the browser or on the server. In the second scenario, the server is responsible for pre-populating user data to improve the load time of the site. This also improves the website's visibility in search results, spreading the word about the brand and promoting the product. Angular offers useful pre-rendering solutions that make starting the development much simpler.
Angular mobile apps and much more
Angular is an excellent choice for any kind of web or mobile application, including content management systems (CRMs), single-page applications (SPA), static websites, design systems, e-commerce applications, or banking solutions. It's all down to your project requirements, the size of your team, and the scope of your product.
Angular is supported by Google and offers a vibrant community that can answer any question. It's definitely a framework for the future.
Are you planning to use Angular in your next project? Share your experience in the comments; we look forward to hearing about how teams use Angular to build ground-breaking digital products.
