Bootstrap vs Angular – How Do Their Pros & Cons Influence Your Project

Bootstrap Overview

Bootstrap tool is an open-source CSS framework developed by Twitter. Actually, it uses a mix of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. The core idea behind creating this tool was to better align the technical work of the developers and the creative work of the designers since with the help of Bootstrap, the first can create the code without the risk of getting surprised with the result at the end, while the designers can also be sure of the final prototype quality, responsiveness and overall look. Bootstrap is consistent, and the web apps created with it look the same across the browsers and devices, eliminating the need for additional testing and check-ups. 

Using this framework in the process of web app development is also trouble-free, plus the framework is easy to master. This tool is quite popular among developers and business owners, it has a wide community, and because of its open-sourced nature can also offer a variety of additional tools to choose from.

Pros

The practical expereince of our developers suggests that using Bootstap can promise the following benefits and business values. 

• Your future app is unlikely to have cross-browser bugs if you create it with Bootstrap. This is the most consistent and predictable framework to date. The websites created with this framework are ultimately responsive at no additional effort. 
• Your designers and developers get a better opportunity for teamwork since using Bootstrap is seamless, plus it has some options for future website customization.
• The documentation is very clear. Your developers are unlikely to face unsolvable or unspecified issues, plus there is a great supportive community behind this framework. 

Cons

However, this promising technology still has its cons. Below are the main ones - keep them in mind to make a fully-informed choice for your project. 

• Bootstrap websites are easily recognizable since they all have almost the same UI, design, structure, and user flows. Still, it can be both a disadvantage (when you need a solution that will definitely stand out) and an advantage (when you strive for a pain-free development process, simplicity, and predictable result).
• Despite all the simplicity and user-friendliness, the developers still have to write a lot of code. Some developers even complain that HTML for some of the components should be more intuitive and pleasant to review later. 
• Because of the code amount, the websites created with Bootstrap can be heavy and slow-loading.

Bootstrap Use Cases

As for the Bootstrap use cases, the Lyft website is powered by it.

Still, the list of companies using this framework can be much longer - they choose it because of simplicity and affordability. Below are more options to create with Bootstrap. 

• Dynamic websites. In this case, the developers can enhance Bootstrap with jQuery. 
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). To create a static PWA, the developers can make use of Bootstrap grids, which are pretty convenient. 
• eCommerce website. There are a lot of eCommerce templates to choose from for Bootstrap development, while they can be both minimalistic, for example, to create a business card website, and full-fledged to power an online store with all the necessary features for delivering a modern shopping experience. 
• Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). Creating an MVP with the help of Bootstrap can also be a winning idea since the framework perfectly matches the development speed and nice design at an affordable cost. 

Popular Apps Built with Bootstrap

Angular, Bootstrap, and other frameworks become outstanding when tailored to the use case and the app’s specifics as accurately as possible. Below are some of the famous apps built with Bootstrap. Pay special attention to the Angular js Bootstrap UI they come with. 

Vogue

The application of a world-famous fashion magazine is created with Bootstrap. It comes with a stylish design and a lot of images that don’t slow down the website performance. This is a progressive web app the users can access even without an internet connection. 

Apple Maps Connect

As for this application, it proves that Apple-specific programming tools aren’t the only ones to create apps for iOS. Bootstrap, Angular, and some other technologies can also be used for this goal, and the frontend of Apple Maps Connect is created with the first one. 

Lyft 

This example of the application built with Bootstrap showcases the balance of style, intuitiveness, simplicity, and meaning. The website of Lyft looks pretty simple, however,  its UI is actually straightforward, while the experience it promises is quite pleasant. 

Paypal

The website of PayPal is another solution having Bootstrap at their core. Their website is a simple landing page - creating such a solution with this framework is more than fast and easy. 

Whatsapp 

Whatsapp website is also built with Bootstrap. Like the solutions we have reviewed above, it also comes with great simplicity and understandability. However , keep in mind that now we are talking about Whatsapp landing page - the one the users can download the app from. The app itself is made with completely different technologies. 

Summarizing the famous applications created with this tool, it becomes possible to reveal one more use case of Bootstrap. This is one of the top choices for simple landing pages that will be used for advertising or business representation on the web. However, it is also possible to use it to build projects with large scalability potential and global recognition in the future.

As for the benefits of Bootstrap from the business perspective, the simplicity of UI creation it can promise allows for prototyping an MVP pretty quickly and proceed with user acceptance testing having a bare UI prototype only. Such a lean strategy is cost-effective, comes with the opportunity to get a quick market response and avoid costly mistakes.

A-Team Global Case Studies

Below are some apps we have created with Bootstrap as a part of the tech stack. 

• Glassica business website. This website turned out to have a nice design, clear UI, perfect responsiveness, and usability. This is just the case when Bootstrap shows its consistency best, and promotes the effectiveness of both design and development teams. 
• Online language courses platform. We have chosen Bootstrap to create an educational platform because of the high responsiveness it can promise across browsers and devices. From a practical standpoint, the students can learn from any browser and device without facing UX issues. 
• SuperChampione online shopping app. This is the app that showcases the applicability of Bootstrap for full-fledged eCommerce apps. The website was inspired by the idea of Groupon - it helps users to find the best deals. 

Angular.js Overview

Angular is one of the most popular Javascript frameworks ever. Both Angular and Bootstrap are used for frontend development. Angular belongs to the MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, Node.js) technology stack and showcases its benefits best when used in pair with the tools perfectly compatible with it. Still, it has some outstanding features that make using Angular app development effective even when the framework is used alone. 

Pros

Here are the features that make Angular outstanding, ever-green, and promising, when used by skilled developers. 

• Two-way data binding and MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. These are two of the most prominent benefits of Angular.js which are directly connected to each other. Because of these capabilities, the application can instantly respond to any changes in the Model and showcase them in View. In this way, the developers can create UI components faster.
• Server-side rendering. Angular works through Application Programming Interface (API) calls to the server making the web pages fast and responsive. This is also the reason why Angular is a good choice for Single Page Apps and progressive web apps (PWA). The latter becomes possible by using an Angular service worker.
• Dependency injection makes testing Angular-powered apps easy. Because of this feature, the Angular app’s components become more flexible and modular, which means the developers can test and debug them more effectively. 
• Being created by Google, this framework is supported by this tech giant, it has a wide community of developers, and has been popular for more than ten years already. Angular updates are also frequently launched. As for the last point, not all of them are equally user-friendly, still, the developers agree that Angular keeps pace with time. 

Cons

Despite all the benefits, Angular has some minor pitfalls. 

• Mastering Angular can be difficult. This framework can cover a lot of use cases, so unlocking the ultimate benefits out of Angular needs practice and experience. The developers with no skills in working with MVC and dependencies injection may also find Angular challenging to handle. 
• The websites created with Angular may have limited SEO opportunities.
• Some developers say Angular.js lacks security. 

Angular.js Use Cases

As for Angular.js use cases, it can cover a lot of projects of different industries. For example, UpWork and Netflix are created with the help of this framework.

Angular can also be a good choice for the following types of apps:

• Single Page Apps. This is the top use-case of Angular because, with its help, the developers can create highly responsive SPA quickly, and make them more robust with server-side rendering. 
• Progressive Web App. With the help of a service worker, programmers can easily transform an Angular-powered web app into a progressive one - that is, the one that works without an internet connection, saving the user data in cache. 
• Dynamic Content Apps. Angular can also be a good option for apps with dynamic content since it instantly turns HTML content into a dynamic one. 
• Angular.js can also be helpful for creating lightweight apps with static content and highly responsive design. 

Popular Apps Built with Angular.js

Let’s proceed with comparing Angularjs vs Bootstrap technical opportunities by reviewing the applications built with Angular. 

P.S. Some of them use Angularjs UI Bootstrap as well. 

Mixer

Mixer is a streaming service created with Angular. This website perfectly showcases how Angular.js can be used for data-intensive and real-time applications. 

Gmail

Angular is Google’s product so there is no surprise in the fact that Gmail has Angular.js as one of the technologies at its heart. The choice of Angular for Gmail app development is likely to be driven by its server-side rendering to make the app load faster and provide better UX. 

What’s more, Gmail comes with some features of progressive nature Angular is perfect for. For example, after you have opened the app with the internet and then, turned it off, you still can access some recent emails.

PayPal

We have already mentioned PayPal when reviewing the apps made with Bootstrap. However, this website employs Angular as well. When Bootstrap Angularjs are combined together, these two frameworks can promise an even more straightforward UI at better website performance.

PayPal also uses the checkout.js tool - a well-developed feature for the checkout process. Thanks to it, you can instantly make an instant payment without leaving the website. 

Forbes

The website of Forbes is created with Angular as well. This is a good example of how Angular performs for a website with high traffic loads and tons of content, staying user-friendly and highly responsive. 

This is also a good use case of Angular.js for dynamic content websites since the suggested articles are frequently updated and suggested depending on the user behavior.

Weather.com

This is one of the leading weather forecast websites, and it is made with Angular. This example showcases how Angular can perform at data-intensive applications, still providing a nice design, great performance, and frequent data updates. 

On this website, you can also access HD videos filmed from the air, and even the huge amount of data doesn’t slow the website down. 

The list of the outstanding apps created with Angular.js can go on. This is a pretty powerful technology to create both lightweight and heavy solutions, while the latter is unlikely to have UI drawbacks and performance issues.

Let’s proceed with the solutions our developers have created using this technology. 

A-Team Global Case Studies

• Accommodation booking system. This is the use-case showing that Angular can be highly performant and effective for large and heavily loaded apps as well. The accommodation booking system we have developed for our client comes with three sets of diverse features - for the website owners themselves, platform users, and hotel managers. The latter can register their accommodations on the platform and manage the booking within it, plus make use of the features to boost their hotel in search results. Users can book a hotel instantly, with minimal data input, and pay safely with PayPal, while the owners use an intuitive dashboard that comes with different levels of access restriction for different roles. 
• Educational video hosting. This is an application that allows users to download, share and promote their educational videos, workshops, and courses. The biggest challenge of this project was integrating a dedicated server to handle the huge amount of content without sacrificing the user experience. We chose Angular along with other technologies to ensure the app’s stability, and high performance, plus save time for prototypes building - we reinvested it into a dedicated server integration. 
• Social media cross-posting app. Despite the essence of the app sounds pretty simple, we have faced several challenges during its development with Angular. One of the project goals was to generate more leads from the affiliate website, and for this purpose, we had to integrate the app with an affiliate platform using REST API. Also, developing a clear, intuitive, and insightful reporting system was difficult since the task was to understand the actual engagement and interests of the users. We also empowered a website with a coupon and voucher system so that users can quickly create promos and share them across social media. As for Angular applicability, in this case, this app shows how the framework can withstand heavy loads without losing performance and speed up the process of prototyping. 

However, the technical opportunities of Angular.js can go beyond the cases we’ve described above. 

Get in touch with us for Angular development services and consulting!