What is Angular? Non-technical Introduction

Why did Google create Angular?

Why should you use Angular for your next project?

What is the difference between Angular and other frameworks?

Angular is a modern open source framework aka web platform for building web and mobile applications. Angular is really popular and well known with more than 3 millions weekly downloads from npm.

Angular was created by Google in 2016 as a successor of AngularJS and is constantly improving. The latest version is Angular 17, and a lot of work has been done since the first release to make developers' job more productive and end-user experience more satisfied. With the power of Typescript Angular brings extensibility and industry best practices that help to build new features and keep code base maintainable over the time.

There are a lot of articles and tutorials for developers and numerous Angular communities around the globe. Angular works well not only for Google, but for many other companies, startups, universities and government institutions.

However one can find not many reviews of Angular customer experience. Apparently, the framework is so smoothly integrated into the client's company's environment, that customers may be entirely focused on their business vision realisation using the framework.

Still, let us talk about Angular value for a customer.

The main principle of Angular is modularity, expressed by Angular building blocks. The blocks are logical reusable code units that help to maintain immense code base health. As a result a company is powered by more efficient software that makes business more organised and cost-effective to meet corporate KPIs.

Think of Angular building blocks as Lego blocks that are glued with developer tools, Angular libraries and Angular best practices guides and expert advice. The Angular ecosystem is massive and includes a lot of third party well supported libraries used to design and build new applications, that helps to save time and to avoid common pitfalls.

Here are a list of Angular features and obvious benefits that brings value to customers:

1. Angular is a really productive framework.
2. The applications may be scaled for any size and thus operate fast on the client side. For instance, the lazy-loading feature provides loading modules or components on demand to minimise the amount of code that needs to be loaded at startup.
3. Angular is a solid solution. Every single module that is shaped by Angular Team is as well tested on Google scale including security and recent ecosystem updates.
4. A variety of Angular modules and tools provides an opportunity to realise the most ambitious dreams. The modular code blocks make it possible to bring new changes and improvements to the code fast without sustainability losses maximising the business value.
5. Cross-platform support which means consistency across all systems - desktop, mobile and web. The customer benefits from saving time and costs and reaching a bigger client audience with one implementation.
6. Angular offers cross browser compatibility, with the recent versions of Angular supporting all the versions of major browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others.
7. Great support from Google and expert communities

Talking about Angular, it would be honest to mention its competitors. To make customer choice more informed, we compared customer and technical properties of the leaders - Angular, Vue and Next - in one table.

Usually people compare Angular with React however this comparison is not quite right because Angular is a fully-featured framework while React is just a library. For those who are looking for Angular and React comparison it would be more correct to parallel Angular with Next that has React built into it. Angular and Next are similar framework scales with comparable features and purposes. However we are putting React in the table for your reference, because probably you will search for this information anyway.

As you can see Angular has features and advantages that make the framework highly compatible with all the abovementioned.

It must be noted that every engineering team is different but many engineering practices get travelled around in different forms. When it comes to building solid and reliable solutions, picking a right set of engineering practices will definitely pay off in the long run. Angular has many of its practices build-in that helps teams that choose Angular to be more efficient and productive. So, proper engineering practices like clean code and architectural principles of Angular serve as a real foundation for modern applications.

Hope we gave you clear and objective reasons why Angular is a cutting edge, versatile and reliable framework. And now we will try to dispel some common myths about Angular that may often frustrate a customer.

Dispel the myths

Huge learning curve

There are a few things that Angular is based on and they create an impression that Angular is too complicated.

One of them is TypeScript. However, over the years TypeScript became an industry standard and so these days it is no longer a valid point.

The second thing is RxJS, a library that simplifies asynchronous operations that some components of Angular frameworks are based on. The good thing is you do not have to be a master in RxJS in order to use Angular, it is enough to learn just a few basic operations to start with and use libraries like Rx Service. With the recent Angular Releases framework has become less dependent on RxJS which means that RxJS knowledge is less required for beginners.

There are a few concepts in Angular like configuration files, services and modules that might seem hard to understand for beginners at first sight. However, starting from version 14 modules became optional, in version 15 some configuration files are no longer compulsory so now new developers have to learn fewer concepts to get their foot into the Angular world. v16 release opened a new chapter in Angular application development that brings a lot of new innovations without breaking the old versions. The recent v17 release takes all those new innovations to the next level.

Inconsistency

One common myth about Angular is that it is inconsistent due to the frequent updates and changes to the framework. Some people believe that these updates can make it difficult for developers to keep up with the latest versions, which could lead to inconsistencies in the way Angular applications are built and maintained. However, this is not true. Angular is specifically designed to be cross-platform and provide a consistent user experience on any device or operating system. The updates and changes to the framework are intended to improve and enhance its capabilities, not to create inconsistencies or difficulties for developers.

Original Angular v2 was released back in 2016 and it was completely different from AngularJS v1.x. In result it makes some people believe that Angular is always dramatically changing with each new major release. But it is not true. Starting from Angular v2 the Angular team does not rewire the Angular top level API which stands the same for each version.Therefore your devteam Angular knowledge won’t not get obsolete and you won’t really need to rewrite your application with each new version of the framework.

Examples

Angular is really a good choice for your business. A lot of dev teams, companies and institutions use Angular framework for developing modern applications with a wide range of functionality and features.

Just think about it! Enormous number of applications are Angular based, and there are probably those you are using daily.

Google Trends is a web service used by a huge number of business people for analysing search trends from all over the world. And it is an Angular application. The service contains billions of words and related information and operates the constantly updated data immediately.

Reverso Context, a search engine for translations in context, is built with Angular. It has a library of millions of words and phrases with correspondent translations, grammar forms and synonym s in over 25 languages run in real time mod e push-based approach using Angular. The Angular fr amework manages these tasks and provides awesome application experience to 100 millions Reverso monthly users.

One can hardly find a person who doesn’t know the Forbes magazine, which lists the World’s Most Influenced People and is well known for its reports on world finances, industries, technologies, science, communications and more. Forbes is powered by Angular that helps to maintain its dynamic, user-friendly and engaging interactive content and display it in a way that resonates with its audience vision. The robust set of features offered by Angular, coupled with its user-friendly design, makes it a powerful tool for creating engaging, interactive web applications that drive user engagement and improve the effectiveness of Forbes' digital marketing efforts. No doubt, the trust of such a media giant means a lot.

Such well known air carriers as Ryanair, JetBlue , Air Canada , Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines also entrust their business to Angular. In that case the Angular application has a lot of data to process - it lets passengers view and explore different routes, book and buy tickets, track flights, etc. Even in 2021, during COVID pandemic, over 150 million passengers used the services including real-time tracking yearly.

One more high functional Angular application is ClickUp - a cloud-based customer and project-management tool. Its f eatures include communication and collaboration, task assignments and statuses, alerts and a task toolbar with a possibility of customisation. ClickUp has integrations with many popular cloud-based systems like Google services, Slack, Dropbox, Zoom, Integromat, Z apier, Miro, Loom, GitHib. These are only a few tools from over 1000+ possibilities. No doubt Angular consistency and engineering practices play a significant role in this highly scaled solution.

And of course we should add one more Angular-based example - Freelancer.com, a marketplace where more than 60 million employers and employees from 247 countries can find each other. The service provides opportunities for portfolios, cvs, vacancies and reviews, negotiating, job process tracking and payments. Angular modularity and best practices that comes with it keeps all processes clear and safe in this case.

We are living in the AI age. Bard is an Google's interactive AI tool, leverages Angular's robust framework for its efficient and innovative user interface. Serving a global audience, Bard allows users to interact with AI in a conversational manner, exploring a variety of topics and learning through intuitive dialogue. Angular's ability to manage dynamic content updates and handle user interactions in real-time ensures that Bard's platform remains both user-friendly and scalable. The adoption of Angular facilitates the seamless operation of features such as real-time AI responses, content customization, and user feedback loops, making the experience interactive and secure for all users.

One more interesting fact - in-car user interface of Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi and Volkswagen built with Angular.

How we can help

Angular Consulting was founded in 2018 by Aleksei Kuncevic - a Google Developer Expert who was one of the first Angular early adopters and Angular evangelist in Australia. We don’t work with Angular, we live and breathe Angular, sharing our competence with others and helping businesses and devteams to bring technical skills to the next level.

Are you looking for any help solving technical challenges with modern web technology like Angular? If so checkout our services page to see how we can help.

If you are excited about this blogpost, want to know more about Angular and share this knowledge with your employees or teammates, we are ready to hold an Angular Introduction session for your company.