Quick summary
When it comes down to building an interactive single-page application, the debate between choosing Blazor and React becomes obvious before getting into the nitty gritty and picking one out of the two. Making the best decision for your company requires careful consideration of the similarities and differences between these web front-end technologies. The guide will lead you through the distinctions between the two to assist you in making the right choice.
Open-source tools called Blazor and React can be used to make interactive single-page applications (SPAs). Web UI components are made using a web framework called Blazor and can be hosted in various ways. On the other side, React is a JavaScript library that is utilized to build user interfaces.
Although both front-end solutions perform the same task, they are each especially suited for various applications. The competence offering front-end development services uses both strategies depending on the project's requirements. Let us now take you through both front-end solutions to help you choose the best option for your organization.
Table of contents
What is Blazor?
What exactly is Blazor, a big topic among the .NET technical community?
Blazor is an open-source web framework that enables developers to craft web apps using C# and HTML. Blazor framework helps you create a web UI for a client-side application written in .NET by combining C# with HTML and CSS. Additionally, since the apps are launched as web assemblies, they may easily operate on any browser.
Because there won't be a need for any third-party plugins during execution, the user platform will have complete independence. The compatibility with JavaScript distinguishes Blazor as the top option for developers.
This aspect allows the Blazor application to call JavaScript functions from the .NET method and the .NET method from the JavaScript functions. Let's now move on to the main characteristics.
Features of Blazor
Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly are two hosting types offered by Microsoft's quick, dependable, and highly productive open-source online development framework to simply handle client-side and server-side applications.
By now, it should be clear that Blazor is a direct rival to JavaScript Single Page Applications (SPA) and uses HTML rather than JavaScript. Let's now examine some of Blazor's standout characteristics.
1. HTML and CSS have no limitations
Blazor creates UI components using Razor templates, but the completed product is shown in the browser as HTML and CSS. Therefore, you may easily style and create responsive designs using every feature of CSS and its libraries.
Blazor also enables pre-processes like SASS in addition to these features. Additionally, built-in form and input components are supported, allowing for a high level of abstraction to be implemented.
2. It provides two hosting models
Simply put, Blazor offers two types of hosting: Server-side Blazor and Blazor WebAssembly. With the former, "Razor components" are processed on ASP.NET core, where your project may be easily hosted. To put it precisely, razor components are discrete interface elements that may easily execute code and support dynamic behavior. Through a signalR connection, the front-end transmits UI updates, JavaScript functional cells, and event handling.
Conversely, the former enables you to run your .NET application straight in the browser. It is accomplished by downloading the apps and their dependencies to the client's browser before running them.
Because browser WebAssembly doesn't require a server connection, the host is perfect for hosting static websites.
3. Hot reload
It is essential to rapidly note the results of application changes to analyze recent changes or mistakes in web development. With the introduction of .NET 6, Blazor developed hot reload, one of the most fantastic capabilities that enable developers to instantly analyze the output from the browser.
This feature unquestionably speeds up development and increases productivity. Most of you must be wondering how to enable hot reload now, correct? Well, read on...
Make sure .NET 6 is first installed on your system by running the following command to confirm:
dotnet --version
To use the hot reload feature, ensure that you must upgrade to .NET 6. After upgrading to the correct version, create a fresh Blazor application.
Then, inside the launchSetting.json file, add the following property under the webserver:
"hotReloadProfile" : "Blazorwasm"
With this, you are all set, and now you can simply use, and use this feature by executing the following command from the command line:
dotnet watch -- run
A notification indicating "Hot reload is active" will also let you know when the feature is in use. Each time you modify and save the code, the outcome will also update quickly. Simply said, it streamlines and accelerates the entire web development process.
4. Virtualization
It is a simple technique that restricts UI rendering to show only the portions the user can see rather than drawing every item at once. Virtualization is an incredible idea, particularly when working with large amounts of data that can take a while to analyze and display.
For example: if your page has over 1000 items, the users can only see 20 items at a time. The app's performance will be impacted by rendering them all at once. Simply put, until the user scrolls down the list, virtualization can only present 20 things in view.
The virtualization feature helps to lower UI latency and boost performance by calculating the number of objects to render based on the container's height and the size of the items. Are you wondering how to implement virtualization? Read on.
Well, there is a straightforward way to implement virtualization with Blazor. You must wrap the list in virtualized component rather than a Loop.
<div style="height:400px; overflow-y:scroll">
<Virtualize Items="@allBooks">
<BookSummary @key="book.BookId" Details="@book.Summary" />
</Virtualize>
</div>
5. Effective interaction with gRPC
With the help of the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) framework gRPC, services within and between data centers are effectively connected, enabling high-performance communication between endpoints.
Blazor only provides support for this ideal architecture, but because of browser restrictions, it is not possible to immediately create a typical gRPC browser client. To move between a browser application and a gRPC server, you will require a gRPC-Web. Let us now demonstrate how to implement gRPC.
Installing each NuGet package is crucial since a Blazor WebAssembly app will include client, server, and shared projects.
- Shared project:
Google.Protobuf, Grpc.Net.Client
- Server project:
Grpc.AspNetCore, Grpc.AspNetCore.Web
- Client project:
Grpc.Net.Client.Web
Additionally, gRPC makes use of protocol buffer language proto files. Additionally, communication between the service and clients must be facilitated. Therefore, only configure gRPC-Web in the server and the .NET client after adding the proto file and service to the common channel.
6. Lazy Loading
To improve the application's performance, employ the lazy loading capability in Blazor WebAssembly. It is a design pattern that improves load times by merely loading libraries as needed.
It delays loading the requested resources until they are needed rather than simultaneously downloading them, which speeds up the application's launch time. Again, because server apps do not download the assemblies to the client, they do not use this capability.
Now if you are wondering how to implement lazy loading, you must understand and remember that the process is quite simple. First and foremost, you must predefine the assemblies to be lazy-loaded in the .csproj configuration file of the application.
<ItemGroup>
<BlazorWebAssemblyLazyLoad Include="<AssemblyName>.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
This code enables the included assembly to be lazy-loaded.
Pros and cons of Blazor
Now that we have looked at the features of Blazor, let us walk you through the list of pros and cons that come with the same.
Advantages of Blazor for client-side
- It enables you to use a browser to run .NET apps.
- The single-page applications can be used in an offline mode.
- Because Blazor WebAssembly and JavaScript are compatible, programmers can use both .NET methods and JavaScript functions.
- Most browsers can easily run Blazor WebAssembly applications without the need for additional plugins or source compilers.
Disadvantages of Blazor for client-side
- It takes a while to load, especially for devices with bad connections. The same is true because you have to download the entire .NET runtime.
- It has .NET tools and limited debugging capabilities.
- Thin clients are not compatible with it.
Advantages of Blazor for server-side
- C# is used to create both server-side Blazor WebAssembly applications. It helps accelerate the development process and enables the developers to concentrate on more crucial procedures.
- It provides a quick and effective build time.
- The download size of the app's components is considerably smaller than that of the browser's WebAssembly, which enhances the application's efficiency.
- It functions on all browsers, even those that don't support WebAssembly and thin clients.
- It uses the entire .NET Core runtime.
Disadvantages of Blazor for server-side
- It lessens the scalability factor. The cause of this is that server-side Blazor apps employ SignalR connections to handle events. The number of events that can be handled from a client-side perspective using this form of connection is constrained.
- It has no offline support and must be constantly connected to the server.
- When used in a high-latency setting, it performs poorly.
What is React?
It is one of the greatest and most charismatic frontend makers and a JavaScript library for creating user interfaces. It is known to follow a component-based architecture, where the reusable components are crafted and composed to craft complex UIs.
React uses a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) to swiftly render UI components. React is renowned for updating the crucial DOM elements as soon as changes are made. It leads to improved performance and a more seamless user experience.
Support for JSX (JavaScript XML) is another essential component of React. Simply said, it enables JavaScript developers to directly write HTML-like code. It facilitates the creation of UI components more simply and makes the code easier to read. Yet again, to know about the ultimate React developer tools, you can look at the list and stay ahead.
Features of React
It is used to create user interfaces based on UI components as a declarative, open-source library. Web apps that require frequent data updates to their user interfaces are created using React. When utilizing React, it avoids reprocessing each line of code by using components. The majority of times, when we click on any component, the page must be completely reloaded. For illustration, consider Facebook, where we may access new posts by scrolling around the app while the other page elements remain the same. Now let us look at the React features and understand why businesses sign up for ReactJS development.
1. JavaScript Syntax Extension (JSX)
JSX is a JavaScript and HTML hybrid. It is frequently used in React to combine JavaScript and HTML effortlessly, making the code simpler to understand and debug. JSX is significantly quicker than standard JavaScript code, which aids in building high-performance React apps. A simple JSX code looks like this:
const name = ‘JSX sample’
const ele = <h1>This is a {name}</h1>
The fact that JSX is an invalid JavaScript code and cannot be executed directly on a browser should not be overlooked. It should be adhered to by simply converting it to browser-friendly JavaScript code using a Babel compiler.
2. Virtual DOM
An object representation known as a virtual DOM merely creates a virtual clone of the original DOM object. The entire user interface is rendered in the virtual DOM representation when the web app is modified. The old and new DOM representations are then put side-by-side.
Important to keep in mind is that the procedure is typically slower in most JavaScript frameworks because it only requires updating the entire DOM at once, which degrades the web application's performance.
React is recognized for using virtual DOM, which serves as a memory representation of the real DOM, to enhance performance.
3. One-way Data Binding
The data merely flows from the parent component to the child component in one direction with the assistance of a unidirectional data force. A child component's traits and properties cannot transmit data to a parent component, but they can communicate to change states in response to inputs. The paradigm helps to keep application activities quick and modular in the best manner feasible.
4. Structure of components
React separates the user interface into various components. Since each of these components is known to have a distinct set of features and capabilities, troubleshooting them is easy.
Additionally, these components can accelerate the development process because they may be reused. Other React component features include:
- Dynamic project properties: It enables the component to get information from its parent component.
- Nesting: This is used to describe a component that has numerous additional sub-components.
- Render method: It permits you to specify how a specific UI will be shown in the DOM.
5. Extension support
React is well-recognized for supporting various extensions, making creating an entire UI application easier. The extension support also makes it possible for React to support server-side rendering and the creation of mobile apps. Flux, Redux, React, and Native are a few excellent additions.
Pros and cons of React
Now that we have had a look at the features of React, let us walk you through the pros and cons of the React.
Advantages of using React
- It improves the performance of the application thanks to the virtual DOM functionality
- Utilizing reusable components speeds up the development process
- Due to the enhanced performance, SEO is improved
- It requires less code and is simpler to comprehend and troubleshoot
- It provides a variety of developer tools
- The library is often updated to provide greater features
- React has a fantastic user base that offers information and guidance on how to use the library effectively
Disadvantages of using React
- It needs adequate documentation, particularly for new updates and releases
- Developers must be aware of the most recent React improvements to keep up with the fast-paced upgrades
Comparison between React vs Blazor
You must now have a thorough understanding of Blazor and React, don't you think? To put it simply, Blazor is a full-fledged framework developed by Microsoft, while React is a library maintained by Facebook.
The prime difference between Blazor vs React is that Blazor uses C# and .Net as a primary language for both client-side and server-side development, whereas React uses JavaScript (or TypeScript) for developing user interfaces.
In terms of component model, Blazor uses a component-based model, whereas React uses a virtual DOM.
Blazor is easier for developers who are familiar with C# and .NET technologies, whereas React is easier for developers who are familiar with JavaScript. However, understanding React’s concepts and ecosystem can take time.
When it comes to deployment, Blazor can be hosted on multiple platforms, such as Azure, and integrated with ASP.Net Core for full-stack solutions, whereas React can be deployed on any platform that serves static files, often used with services like Netlify, Vercel, etc.
While talking about React vs Blazor, React is ideal for complex, user interface-driven applications, while Blazor is suited for complex, data-driven applications.
In terms of development, Blazor supports Visual Studio, offering numerous tools for debugging and profiling, while React relies on multiple third-party tools and libraries.
On the other hand, React is a well-known JavaScript-based UI library that supports several third-party libraries, packages, and extensions. The tools function effectively to speed up development and enhance React apps.
React, and Blazor is both referred to as "web app builders." Let's now examine many facets to better comprehend the distinctions between the two.
1. Architecture
The UI is rendered on the server and supplied as HTML to the client's browser when it comes to Blazor, which is known to adhere to a server-side architecture. The architecture has the advantage of offloading complex business logic to the server, reducing the burden on the client's browser. To establish a connection between the server and the client, the server-side Blazor uses SignalR. This connection just enables real-time communication.
On the other hand, React uses a client-side library that uses JavaScript to render the user interface on the client's browser. The same application's UI components are managed by Reacts' virtual DOM, which is known to reduce the number of changes needed for the actual DOM and simply leads to excellent speed.
2. Language
Blazor uses .NET and C# to build web applications. React, on the other hand, uses JavaScript. Even though C# is a more stable language and offers better security than JavaScript, the latter has a larger ecosystem of tools and libraries.
3. Learning curve
As a newbie, you can choose any language—C#, .NET, or JavaScript—regarding a learning curve. Again, Blazor would be simpler if you are familiar with C# and .NET. On the other hand, React is simple to utilize if you have experience with JavaScript.
4. Performance
Blazor frequently handles the server's intricate business logic, improving performance. Once more, let's not forget that server-side Blazor has a larger latency because of the roundtrip between the server and the client. Due to the extra time required to load the .NET runtime in the browser, client-side Blazor on the latter has a lower latency but may be slower.
React, on the other hand, employs a virtual DOM to minimize the number of changes that must be made to the actual DOM, which makes it faster and more efficient. In short, React is generally faster for DOM manipulations due to its virtual DOM, while Blazor might be slower compared to React, offering near-native performance with WebAssembly.
Now that we have looked at the web front-end solutions, you must wonder which you should opt for, right? Read on.
Should you choose blazor or react?
Blazor and React are excellent choices when seeking excellent web front-end solutions. Once more, there are a few factors you should think about, namely:
- Are you fully committed to using the most recent framework, such as Blazor itself, and ready to put up with a few hiccups along the way?
- Are you enthusiastic and eager to master React to reap the full rewards of the sophisticated UI library?
- Are you a seasoned C# developer looking for a quicker on-ramp to Microsoft .NET ecosystem's modern web apps?
- Are you a skilled JavaScript developer who wants to select your own set of libraries to support the creation of React apps?
You can develop stunning, responsive, and quick web experiences in either situation, so there are compromises regardless of which decision you ultimately select between the two.
Conclusion
Popular developments that can be utilized to create interactive web applications include Blazor and React. React is a client-side JavaScript library, whereas Blazor is a server-side web framework that uses C# and .NET.
Additionally, Blazor can handle business logic on the server, whereas React is quick and effective. Its virtual DOM is to blame for the same. Your team's skills, your tastes, and the project criteria you have for your upcoming project will all play a role in which option you choose.
FAQ
Is Blazor faster than React?
Yes, Blazor performs better than React when it comes to loading time, as it doesn’t need any separate JavaScript file. However, the virtual DOM of React enables faster rendering, which manages complex applications efficiently.
Why choose Blazor over React?
Simply put, Blazor is a great choice over React if you prefer C# over JavaScript. It also eliminates the need for a separate JavaScript engine, which makes it a little faster and more efficient.
Should I use Blazor or React?
To make a choice between the both entirely depends on your personal preferences and project requirements. If you are more comfortable with C#, and do not need to integrate with a lot of third-party libraries, Blazor would be the most appropriate choice.
On the other hand, if you need to integrate with a lot of third-party libraries or prefer to work with JavaScript, React can be a better choice for you.