Is React Truly Superior to Vue? Insights from Vue’s Creator

Recently, a heated discussion on Zhihu asked whether React is better than Vue. Vue’s author, Evan You, responded, urging people to stop pointless arguments and consider the original purpose of using these technologies.

He acknowledges that historically React may hold a higher status, praising its innovators for introducing breakthrough UI development concepts. React’s early positioning was to rethink best practices, attracting early adopters and fostering patterns that later became common knowledge. Backed by Facebook’s massive resources, React could push industry changes and benefit from extensive infrastructure.

In contrast, Vue was designed to lower the entry barrier for front‑end development, helping small businesses and individual developers build applications quickly and efficiently. Evan emphasizes his personal preference for independence and supporting the developer community.

React’s approach requires substantial resources to overcome initial adoption hurdles, while Vue focuses on ease of use for developers with basic web knowledge. Both frameworks have their trade‑offs: Vue’s API aims for simplicity, whereas React’s evolution (mixins, HOCs, render props, hooks) reflects continuous experimentation.

Performance-wise, the two are comparable in most scenarios. Vue 3 offers improvements over Vue 2, especially in update optimization and TypeScript support, while React is exploring compile‑time optimizations like prepack and concurrent mode. Neither can be declared definitively superior.

Usage statistics show React having a larger user base (approximately 1.36 million Chrome extension users versus Vue’s 704 k), though Vue’s growth rate is faster. However, such metrics have limitations and do not directly reflect real‑world adoption.

The core message is to move beyond “A is better than B” debates and focus on how these tools can help developers become more capable. Choosing a framework should align with project needs and personal goals rather than perceived superiority.

Conclusion

Vue strengthens areas where Angular and React are weaker, offering a forward‑looking architecture, while React’s extensive testing in large‑scale projects maintains its advantages. Both frameworks have promising futures, and developers should prioritize growth over rivalry.