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Ask HN: Need help to choose the front end technology for my startup

by himanshuy on 8/25/16, 1:54 AM with 2 comments

Need help to make an informed decision to choose the frontend technology for my startup. It is a recruitment application powered by machine learning. Currently, I am focusing on the development of the prototypes. It will help me to validate the product in coming weeks. After that, I will focus on delivering the MVP in the next 3-6 months. Little bit about my background, I have been a java engineer all my life and the sole founder of this company. For I have decided to build a Java based REST services and Postgres as the database. For the frontend platform, I am evaluating between Angular 2 and ReactJS. But still, have many unanswered questions around both the framework.

Angular 2: Pros: - Easy to pick up because of my java background, - I know Angular 1.5 little bit. Learned it by debugging issues in the previous projects. - TypeScript's syntax looks very familiar.

Cons: - Unstable (beta). - Material Design 2 is also in beta. - It does not fully support many components. - Not many developers have adopted it.

ReactJS: Pros: - Stable. - Large and very active community.

Cons: - Pure Javascript, which will be a big shift for me. - Not sure if all the great features of React are applicable for my app.

One of the biggest factor to consider that I will be hiring freelancers to do the frontend work. It is very important for me to choose a framework so that I can find good freelancers without spending a fortune.

I am also open to any other technology which fulfills these requirements.

  • by liquidcool on 8/26/16, 8:12 PM

    Seems like we have a lot in common, I'm also a Java guy (run largest JUG in SoCal) and am recently in staffing. Maybe there's room for collaboration? Contact info in profile.

    Either way, I'm also in the planning phases and for sure I'm going with Typescript. It's getting a lot of praise from both Java and JS developers and works with both Angular and React (although that does seem to favor ES6). In fact I just spoke with a startup that moved from Coffeescript to Typescript and React.

    I am leaning toward Angular 2, but mostly because Angular is about twice as large as React in the overall job market. The HN job market is tiny subset of that, so take that into consideration. It may change, but it's a huge lead. It's also written in Typescript, so it's Google + MS, and Google is using it for their big, external facing projects. My guess is that it will retain it's lead for at least a year, but both will be popular for a long time.

  • by codeddesign on 8/25/16, 2:14 AM

    Honestly...choose 1 and move on. I have yet to see a good argument where a startup failed because they chose angular or react. If you want truly stable, go with PHP. Either way, choose 1 and move on. You could spend a month deciding this. If you don't want to spend a "fortune" as you put it then build it in a language you are familiar with. If you aren't a programmer you will end up spending some money just because you don't have the knowledge of anything you stated above. There are a million languages you could program in. Your site won't succeed or fail simply because you chose a language that is winning a popularity contest today.