Are you fighting for a good performance? Go with Vue.js

As one of the most popular programming languages, JavaScript has many frameworks that facilitate implementing a particular group of frequently recurring tasks, but choosing the best one is always doomed to wrap up into endless and pointless discussion. It is not a "true or false" case; but rather "he said, she said", where everyone has their points, and we are no exception. Vue Storefront, which is based on - yes, you guessed - Vue.js advocates this particular framework, and we will try to explain why.  

Hear us out. 

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The Holy Trinity of JS frameworks

Angular

Angular, using TypeScript, was launched by Google in 2010 and has been continuously developed and supported ever since. It allows for extremely efficient rendering of projects as it works in the browser and is HTML based, so no queries need to be sent to the server. It has extensive routing tools and allows for easy management of form validation. Angular has extensive toolkits that are completely self-sufficient for even the most complex projects, so you do not have to look outside the framework for solutions to rooting, for example.

React

React.js as open-source software was released in 2013 by the Facebook team. React.js is currently the most popular front-end JavaScript framework. It is an efficient and flexible tool for creating interfaces for web applications. Thanks to the use of the virtual DOM model, React.js is very effective at updating page content. Once created, the code can be easily used multiple times, even between different applications.

Check our in-depth comparison of Vue vs React .

Reacts benefits

The undisputed advantage of React is the average entry threshold. It is a mature framework that ensures high operational efficiency. Moreover, it unites one of the largest communities, which translates into quick help in solving problems. React makes JavaScript coding easier, providing cross-platform support and handling dependencies. It is UI-focused; as with all developer tools and easy adoption,  designing UI templates is smoothe.

Vue.js

Vue.js is the youngest from this triad. It was developed in 2016 by a former Google employee. What makes it stand out the most is the combination of some of the features of Angular and React and the remarkable simplicity in creating modern and headless websites and web applications. Speed and efficiency are the main advantages of Vue, which determine its choice for both single-page and multi-page projects, for which the exceptional loading speed is important.

Obviously, every one of these three frameworks can be a good choice for building frontend solutions , despite the fact that Angular is considered the go-to solution when we are dealing with large enterprise-scale projects, React is praised due to its extended ecosystem, and Vue.js is often seen as the lightest and the most developer-friendly, it is not the wand that makes the magician. It is true, but still - when there are no arbitrary disposals when it comes to choosing a tech stack - these common opinions may be a good indication, and it is worth considering no matter if we want to buy or build the frontend from scratch.

Vue benefits

However, Vue is considered the most flexible and relatively straightforward ultra-light framework, providing lightning-fast site performance. Vue.js weighs only about 18 to 23 kilobytes, and it has a significant impact on improving the performance of websites. We don't have to mention that in eCommerce, it is crucial.

Build or buy? 

The answer to this question depends on various factors, such as the size of the company, the software that is being made, or the skills of the team. 

The advantages of proprietary solutions are obvious. They are developed based on your own experience, which makes it possible to create any software you need to solve any individual problems, and - especially - when we are dealing with the monolithic system, this flexibility is very appealing. Monoliths often can't offer it making even the tiniest frontend adjustment a very complex operation. 

Then, custom frontend seems like liberation, and it is easy to forget about its drawbacks. And there are at least a few. It often delays time to market and, in special cases, causes you to fall into the trap of sunk costs. Creating your own programs, especially in large international companies, is also extremely difficult because it requires you to assemble your own team of programmers and manage their work. 

In this case, choosing the right tech stack comes down to choosing between Vue.js and React. 

However, these are also disadvantages to purchasing software  no matter what tech stack we wou, because - accordingly - its flexibility is always limited. Rarely anything can't be changed, as tech vendors typically provide some additional themes or plugins to make customizations possible, but still, the possibility of interfering with the system is severely narrowed. Having said this, purchasing software doesn't exclude the challenge of getting the right team to customize and maintain the frontend, even though it may be a smaller one and its responsibilities are different.

Vue Storefront - frontend that blends “buy” and “build” advantages

So… Is there a third option that would blend the advantages of custom and purchased solution? There is. Vue Storefront is a framework that provides a great deal of the features out-of-the-box, and yet, it does not define how the webshop must run and look. Retailers can work with the default features, customize them at any time, or opt for a hybrid model.  Vue Storefront provides just the right combination of flexibility and a shorter time-to-market. The design offers all the PWA -based business logic, but merchants remain in complete control of how their store will look and "behave." 

Choosing Vue Storefront opens up numerous options for adding 3rd party services such as Headless CMS , search, payments, loyalty programs, etc. It doesn't matter if the services you need are already available on the market (in this case, we provide native integrations) or services that need to be done from scratch. 

As we hope to emphasize, it is based on the most straightforward JS framework, Vue.js, and this choice secures lightning-fast site performance and positively impacts Developer Experience. It is simply easy to work with. 

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Vue Storefront is a dev tool that tries to blur the line between business and developer's world. It can't be set up without devs' support, but definitely - thanks to Headless CMS integrations -it can be used on a daily basis without it.

It is entirely up to them and their business needs.