It seems anything remotely written in or affiliated with Javascript gets compared with Angular these days.
- AngularJS vs React.js
- AngularJS vs Node.js
- AngularJS vs Ember.js
- AngularJS vs Microwave
- AngularJS vs PHP
- AngularJS vs jQuery
- AngularJS vs Bear Grylls
- AngularJS vs AngularJS
One thing I see being compared a lot is Angular and Meteor. Whoa. Hold on just a second there.
Let us all just take a step back here for a moment. Angular and Meteor are not the same. They’re not even in the same league. Angular is a roller derby and Meteor is the stadium. While Angular can be used inside of Meteor and Meteor can be used in place of Angular, they are not the same.
Repeat after me: Angular and Meteor are not the same.
Write it down, print out flyers, put it on billboards, send yourself an email and CC your friends and family: AngularJS and MeteorJS are not comparable. Apples to oranges.
AngularJS is a Javascript framework. MeteorJS is a stack, I’ve seen it called a super-stack, mega-stack, full-stack and pancake stack. In many ways, Meteor is a platform built-ontop of Node.js which can have components added and or removed.
While AngularJS is pretty much set in its ways and will not go down without a fight, Meteor lays down its arms and lets you override every aspect of it.
If you want to get specific, Blaze which is the View Templating component of Meteor and comparable to AngularJS. You can even replace Blaze with AngularJS if you feel like you need to.
A better way to view things is Angular is the windscreen of a car, Meteor is the entire car and road that it drives on. Angular is concerned with the front-end aspect, but because MeteorJS is full-stack and isomorphic it handles everything from the front-end to routing and the back-end. You can create universal state applications using it.
Having said all of that, I don’t like Meteor. It feels too monolithic and when things go wrong, it can be hard to find an answer. For a stack that is being used by more and more startups, when shit hits the fan you can feel a little stranded at times.
