| Framework: jQuery is a library. You can plug the library in your project and either use it fully, partially or not use it all. It’s like a plugin, a supplement to your JS project. | Framework: AngularJS is a framework. You have to play by its rules, either use it fully or don’t use it all. Angular.js is a MVC framework, it has model, view and controller which is one of the most popular software development architectures today. When developing with Angular, you have to start from the ground up with your architecture in mind. Although it’s possible to add Angular to your existing project, it’s just add more complexity in the long run. |
| Use: There are thousands of jQuery plugins out there, it's very often to just plug something in and forget about it. | Use: Angular has different structure, it’s recommended to use directives instead. Try to develop “the angular way” instead of just patching the code with old good plugins. It’s not even necessary to add jQuery to your project, Angular comes with jqLite (simplified version of jQuery for basic DOM manipulation). |
| Single Page Application: jQuery usually loads all the code at once and show or hide different parts of the DOM. | Single Page Application: The architecture of the Angular app is different, most of them are single page applications (SPA). Instead of loading all the code at once like we do with jQuery and showing and hiding different parts of the DOM, we load templates on demand (using http requests). That way the application stays more modular and easier to maintain, debug or update. I like the approach where you create controller, module, HTML template and CSS file for every view in your app. |
| Data Binding: Here mode (data) is the DOM in jQuery. | Data Binding: Data binding is one of the best features in Angular.js (one way or two way binding). This makes data completely independent from the presentation, unlike in jQuery where your model (data) is the DOM. For example, data comes from HTTP request (http module), it’s added to the scope ($scope.data) in controller and rendered in HTML template as {{ data }}. This way you as a developer know where data is coming from and where you need to go to make any changes. In jQuery if you have something like $(‘#data’).render(); it may render a whole new page and you won’t event know what it is or where this content came from. |
