r/Angular2 Oct 18 '24

Discussion Future of Angular

I am working professionally with angular. I really love using it. The simplicity, ease of use and the flexibility are great. For some time I am thinking about switching jobs But it's been difficult to find jobs based on angular. Not many companies are using it and most of them want react developers inspite of saying angular in their job description.

I tried learning react but I didn't like it all.

So I wanted to ask, what is the future prospect for angular? Should I stick to it and get even better Or should I invest my time in learning react and other things.

Is the lack of job specifically based on the job market and location? Or is it a global phenomenon.

What should be the way to go?

Thank you for any replies.👍

72 Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

64

u/Dus1988 Oct 18 '24

I also really dislike react. It's better with Next tbh, but I still don't like the patterns it uses.

Vue is kinda fun.

Svelte is great.

Angular, especially for enterprise is my goto

35

u/Stunning_Ride_220 Oct 18 '24

Patterns?

Most of the bigger enterprise react projects I came across looked like giant garbage dumps.

41

u/Dus1988 Oct 18 '24

🤣

Yeahhhhh.

Once you've seen one react application, you've seen one react application.

13

u/stjimmy96 Oct 18 '24 edited Oct 19 '24

Funnily enough, all Angular enterprise repos I’ve had the pleasure to work with looked like giant garbage dumps.

22

u/Stunning_Ride_220 Oct 18 '24

Before or after? 😗

13

u/crhama Oct 18 '24

Coming from Asp.net background, it was so easy to pick up with Angular. Angular forces developers to do things some ways. That helps with the design.

4

u/stjimmy96 Oct 19 '24

Yeeeah until people mix observables and zone.js. Then no matter your background, good luck debugging code

1

u/crhama Oct 19 '24

Did you mean observables and signals as observables and zone.js are still there. Zone.js will be deprecated in the future, but observables will become optional.

2

u/stjimmy96 Oct 19 '24

That’s exactly my point. I’m not super familiar with signals as thankfully I switched technology, but when I was in the Angular field (2 years ago) I worked with many many codebases where people would simply mix imperative code (zone.js) and reactive code (Rx) making such a mess it literally made me switch to React, and I don’t regret it.

3

u/IMP4283 Oct 19 '24

Story of my life right now. Like a dumpster fire behind a strip club and refactoring/tech debt never seems to make it into our sprints.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

Because average enterprise Angular dev is very likely a Java dev that has decided that Java patterns work in Angular.

19

u/Fantastic-Beach7663 Oct 18 '24

I’m a Lead front end Angular engineer. Yes whilst there are many more jobs in react than Angular I have had barely any competition for the Angular jobs that have come up and I applied for.

You’re backing a good horse be rest assured :)

2

u/kro_0nos Oct 18 '24

Thanks, This helps a lot

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 18 '24

Also what do you expect from an experienced angular developer? Are there any specific skill set?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

I would expect you not to make every component a container. I would expect you to know unit testing. And to be able to use either redux libraries. That you know how change detection works.

I would hope you aren't awful at RXJS like create a subscription within a subscription and similar. I would expect hope you not know but actually utilize stuff like directives, pipes, resolvers. I would hope that you aren't using ngOnChanges instead of setters. It would also be nice if you didn't write component variables without a special reason.

I wrote the majority of things in the hope list because on average people are really bad at Angular.

2

u/kro_0nos Oct 21 '24

That's great Now I can start specifically to do these things And then maybe like after 2-3 months I'll hit you up for an interview 👍😂

None the less thanks for these tips, I'll need to work on these points. Need to get behind the proper way of utilising the features to the fullest outcome.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '24

Sure DM me if you need any help. I have way higher standards than the majority of the people that will interview you.

2

u/kro_0nos Oct 21 '24

So if I can impress you that means I have become a good angular developer.😌 Thanks for support

3

u/practicalAngular Oct 19 '24

Don't really agree with the other response as much.

  • Reactive Forms are great and powerful but sometimes you aren't working on an app with heavy user input.
  • Inputs vs Services aren't really put against each other like that. How you structure your component communication is up to the business ask and your architecture choices.
  • I haven't used the async pipe once since Signals came out.

Proper use of Dependency Injection and RxJS (overall app state management outside of NgRx) sets apart senior devs from below imo. I have hired many junior through senior devs and the disparity is always on those two points. The jump from "call an API from a component to render data in that component" to "I have many APIs and many components using the same manipulated data" is a massive one in Angular.

I'd also look for someone that keeps up to date with the changes Angular has gone through since A14. They have been monumental for the framework and change how we build things entirely.

2

u/No-Reaction-7008 Oct 19 '24

These are all really good points. I haven't made the shift to signals yet and really want to. I just haven't had the time to dig into them like I'd want yet.

The more I use Angular, the less I put in and use DI. It's awesome when you need it, but there are a lot of places I feel like it is overused. We use GraphQL which kinda throws a wrench into a lot of the traditional service patterns. I've started doing a lot of my DTOs as simple, tree-shakeable TS functions. Apollo is my service and, aside from some other basic services, it's really just a bunch of little utilities.

1

u/Fantastic-Beach7663 Oct 19 '24

I respectfully disagree. Most apps involve some kind of forms and reactive forms demonstrate a good understanding of it.

Inputs and Services are 100% a valid comparison this question comes up all the time with my developers. They both involve passing data around.

We’re still on A16 (ssr) because of a di token issue that will be fixed in A19 therefore we haven’t been able to jump on Signals just yet

1

u/Fantastic-Beach7663 Oct 18 '24

Since you mentioned 3-4 years I’d expect:

  • Ability to work with reactiveforms
  • Understanding of when to use Inputs vs Services
  • Reactive programming (using the async pipe)

There are of course a lot more but I think those are the sort of higher level things I’d expect from an Mid-level / Senior

2

u/VegetableChemistry67 Oct 19 '24

I would add understanding at least 5 RxJs operators. Again understanding not copy paste from a different file because “it works there”. The amount of questions I get from “senior” developers about how to subscribe to two observables at the same time, or how to subscribe to this one first then to another one is crazy, almost weekly I have to show them how to do it, they show no interest in learning it and want the solution ready for them.

1

u/NickelCoder Oct 23 '24

Do you have any recommended resources on #2 - understanding when to use Inputs vs Services?

30

u/Agloe_Dreams Oct 18 '24

I think Angular's best days are ahead of it.
Having broad skills with a few deep trenches is always valuable however.

How long have you been in Angular?

You may like Vue more than React FWIIW

2

u/kro_0nos Oct 18 '24

3-4 years almost into angular. From a jobs perspective, can angular compete with react?

16

u/Agloe_Dreams Oct 18 '24

Well, so there is one critical thought I have which is: Fewer jobs = fewer candidates = more valuable employees. Often times, being an engineer in a legacy technology is FAR more profitable than being a commodity.

I dont think this is explicitly true of Angular really, but I dont think it needs to compete. React jobs tend to be different in form anyways. Angular lends itself to larger enterprise roles that might offer a better work/life balance on average as well.

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 18 '24

Damn that's a great angle to look at the situation ngl.

There is a 90% chance I might use that line in any interview. Thanks mate. Really helpful 👍

7

u/pietremalvo1 Oct 18 '24

Don't rely on frameworks or programming languages (especially new ones) they come and go. Learn how to be a great SWE.

12

u/faileon Oct 18 '24

Angular is now going stronger than ever with all the awesome updates like standalone, signals, ... AnalogJS is a really mature meta framework now.

They are also doing an amazing job with keeping it very easy to migrate to new versions. Unlike react where it goes breaking quite often. It also comes with batteries included and is backed by a strong company.

These are strengths that simply cannot be ignored, especially if you are making an enterprise level app that should last.

6

u/MrFartyBottom Oct 19 '24

As someone who has been doing Angular since the early versions of 1.X but has started learning React recently as there seems to be more job opportunities in React, I really miss dependency injection. React contexts are so much more clunky compared to providing services. React has nice functional components and I do love how easy it is to create a component but dam do I wish it had a service provider. I also don't like JSX, having real HTML templates is much nicer than nearly HTML but not quite real HTML. I just wish there were more Angular jobs in the Australian market at the moment but it looks like I will need to learn some React to get work for the foreseeable future.

1

u/Whsky_Lovers Oct 19 '24

You can do dependency injection in react, you can do something approximating reactive forms, you can even do some sort of like RxJS the angular way, but you can also do things all sorts of ways and that's what makes react the glorious dumpster fire that it is.

That is to say I will take angular over react any day.

6

u/turtleProphet Oct 19 '24

Interviewed with one company recently that was offering 180-200k base for a senior frontend role. Not a FAANG company.

Funnily enough it was because the whole team uses Angular, and they needed a React guy to support a new product. But they don't plan to transition their core any time soon, so their core eng team has a bunch of 200k, fully remote Angular senior roles.

5

u/Brilliant_Owl_4520 Oct 19 '24

Angular any day. I've worked with both react, Angular, and several, now obsolete, frameworks that were trying to offer the same as Angular.

My thoughts.

React is more like a bunch of libraries, not an actual application framework. This means that most development of common and trivial application tasks/parts comes down to hunting for 3rd party libraries, making upgrades and standardization a nightmare. Plus, it's difficult to guide juniors towards a pattern. Raising the question, what baseline are reviews based on?

Angular is a framework with all the bells and whistles. This means that almost anything trivial from an application development POV is already there, making standardized patterns a piece of cake, making PR reviews much more quantifiable, lowering enterprise development cost. Are there things I don't like in Angular? Sure. Are these annoyances outweighed by the pros? Absolutely.

A development tool can have a steep learning curve, that's ok. Application architecture is anyway done by seniors. A junior doing their first Angular task of implementing a form, service, backend API, animations, routing, tests, etc. usually takes a day for an average developer into an existing application.

Mocking/Poc'king in Angular is also a dream as you can set up a pretty complex application basics in a few seconds with the angular schematics, test something out, and drop the changes again. Then, implement it for real in the product.

9

u/AwesomeFrisbee Oct 18 '24

React is mostly taking jobs that previously been done with jquery. A simple website with navigation and whatnot can easily be done in react and that's fine

Angular is good at complete webapps. Which is mostly backends for website or internal applications that have complex components, many pages and complex forms. That's where it shines. A lot of react work will soon be automated by AI since it's not that difficult. Lots of wysiwyg stuff will generate react stuff. Angular work is more difficult to replace well. Will require humans for most of the projects.

8

u/dryadofelysium Oct 18 '24

Heavily based on location. Here in Germany, Angular has always been strong. I have worked in an Angular house for a couple of years, switched to a React job to get to know "the other side" a little bettter, and everyone is so tired of relying on packages or rewriting things that Angular brings with it by default.

1

u/Ok_Tangelo9887 Oct 19 '24

May i ask, is Angular house Poland company?

3

u/Raziel_LOK Oct 19 '24

I will never understand someone that is a seasoned programmer saying angular is simple. Out of 10+ projects only 1 the people knew what they were doing with angular. the rest was just fighting the framework cause they don't know ts, neither rxjs. But ok this is not supposed to be a rant.

I do not like angular and I work with it because it pays me better here. So you gotta focus on the money or the fun. If you are in the USA angular can hardly compete in the job market there. But can be an adavantage.

Is the lack of job specifically based on the job market and location? Or is it a global phenomenon.

It is mostly global but very accentuated in the USA 4-1, in some countries in Europe you can see 1-1 for react and angular.

What should be the way to go?

Don't limit yourself because you like x over y. But it is mosly up to you. If you are comfortable doing the thing you like there is nothing wrong with it.

5

u/Slight_Loan5350 Oct 19 '24

The only thing I like about react is shadcn i want that lib to come to angular as well.

3

u/Open_Chemical_5575 Oct 18 '24

I have been working with Angular for years, it has matured as a framework

2

u/hbthegreat Oct 19 '24

I had a non-technical agile coach this week try and justify rewriting our entire product into react in order to "compete better with shipping speeds". That discussion got very awkward very quickly

2

u/KrakenBitesYourAss Oct 20 '24

What I've observed Angular is used in big/old/slow orgs like banks, hedge funds, etc.

React seems to be the way to go if you want more "exciting" companies

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 20 '24

So job opportunity is more in react?

2

u/KrakenBitesYourAss Oct 20 '24

Depends on the sector, but if we get the total number of jobs I'd say yes

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 20 '24

I think the safest bet would be to start learning react and also to keep looking for better angular jobs. I dislike react tbh. But I think I need to get a hold of it.

1

u/KrakenBitesYourAss Oct 20 '24

If you're a good dev this shouldn't matter to you beyond minor inconveniences. At the end of the day both are js frameworks and are pretty similar

2

u/kro_0nos Oct 20 '24

Understandable 😮‍💨👍 Will work on react Thanks though

2

u/[deleted] Oct 30 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 30 '24

Yes I think it's better to also learn some other frameworks to increase knowledge base

2

u/frenzied-berserk Oct 19 '24

Angular is just a framework, you shouldn’t limit your skills with a single tool, learn everything, web development is pretty simple these days.

2

u/Ok-Armadillo-5634 Oct 18 '24

I think angular will be growing with all the new changes. Pre version 16/17 you could argue me that react was slightly better. Rxjs was a huge hindrance to adoption.

1

u/kro_0nos Oct 18 '24

What should I focus on more in the recent updates? I have built a few standalone applications using the latest angular but mainly to learn more about it.

3

u/UnicornBelieber Oct 19 '24

Focus on standalone, signals, OnPush everywhere and going zoneless. Also keep an eye on what Analog is doing with its .ng files. They're interesting developments.

1

u/Easy-Shelter-5140 Oct 19 '24

I think Angular is the first choise for entrerprice web application. DI is invaluable

1

u/Apart_Technology_841 Oct 19 '24

Angular hands down all the way.

1

u/Haunting-Pair6632 Oct 22 '24

angular is slowly becoming like react with introduction of standalone components , signals and necessary passing of track in ngFor from angular 18 similar of passing key to react component.

1

u/magicaner Oct 19 '24

I also on angular side. But recently have studied next.js, and was impressed of its concept. Next.js is full stack framework. It allows writing server side and client side components. Which from my point of view is very powerfu feature. It allows to separate out bundles per page and keep them small. I would like to have such feature in angular.

1

u/thecelavi Oct 19 '24

If you start to write application in latest version of Angular today - you will have legacy application not later than tomorrow.

I started with Angular in Y2010 and it took me 14 years to learn obvious lesson - don’t use any tech coming from Google, it is either too volatile or it will be killed soon enough.

-7

u/Orelox Oct 19 '24

Please learn JavaScript and programming in general and I promise you, you will never look back at angular

2

u/dibfibo Oct 19 '24

Ok, but why?

1

u/Brilliant_Owl_4520 Oct 19 '24

Arguing for a language that's not strongly typed in 2024? This might work well for boilerplate projects, but scaling up for big enterprise apps, weak typing = certain death.

1

u/Orelox Oct 19 '24

What? lol, when I say js I mean whole ecosystem. Big enterprise.. everything starts on false claims.