What You Need to Know When Upgrading to Angular 20
You’ve finally got your Angular app running smoothly. Your team’s built custom components, hooked up RxJS, and wrangled state management—and now, Angular 20 is out.
You are not the only one to feel that. In case you experienced some difficult upgrades or changes in the past, Angular replacement may seem like a ride into the unknown to you. You are not just contemplating new; you are also considering stability, compatibility, and whether your dependencies will continue to play well with one another.
The good news is that Angular 20 is not a complete rewrite. It does, however, come with updates that can optimize your app's performance, reduce the complexity of your codebase, and ease the lives of your developers, just as long as you treat it with the correct details.
In this blog, you will have a straight, non-fluffy rundown of what is new in Angular 20, what changed (or was removed), and how now is not always the right moment to upgrade your project. We will also provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to smoothly upgrade without breaking everything.
What’s New in Angular 20?
Angular 20 has many additional features that simplify the work with and improve production builds, as well as make the runtime more efficient. The following are the key changes:
1. Improved Build Performance
Vite integration: Vite-based build systems can now be built in place of Webpack, reducing build times significantly.
Quicker rebuilds: This is more efficient, meaning the refresh cycles in development mode are fast.
2. New Standalone Component API Enhancements
Simplified standalone component syntax: Less boilerplate setup when bootstrapping components.
Better tsconfig tracking: Easier to manage which standalone components share typings and build outputs.
3. Improved Strictness
Stricter type inference: Angular’s type safety is pushed further—great for catching bugs early.
Template type-checking enhancements: You’ll see compiler errors for more potentially problematic data bindings.
4. Support for Native Web APIs
Built-in Web Components support: Improved support for custom elements and vanilla web APIs.
Declarative shadow DOM support: Native shadow DOM openness settings make component encapsulation simpler.
5. Developer Tooling Upgrades
CLI enhancements: Faster ng add and ng update commands, plus better prompts when installing third-party libraries.
Angular DevTools improvements: Native Angular inspectors now include performance profiling for Vite builds.
Is It Worth Upgrading Now?
Upgrading to Angular 20 makes sense if:
You want faster development cycles and production builds.
- You’re starting a new app or migrating heavy codebases — easier with Vite and standalone components.codebases—
You want the best type safety and fewer runtime surprises.
You might wait if:
You have a legacy codebase that relies heavily on deprecated NgModule patterns.
Your third-party libs haven’t released Angular 20-compatible versions yet.
You’re mid-sprint and want to avoid upgrade disruptions.
Quick decision checklist:
New or modern app? Upgrade.
Libraries still not ready? Hold off until compatibility catches up.
Mid-sprint? Wait until after release—don’t mix migrations with feature work.
Best Practices for a Smooth Upgrade
Here’s a step-by-step checklist to make the transition easier:
Pre-upgrade audit
Run ng lint and ng test to flag any existing warnings.
Use the Angular Compatibility Compiler to identify issues.
ng update @angular/cli @angular/core
Upgrade Angular CLI and core
This applies to automatic migrations.
Review the output—fix any warnings or errors manually.
Test thoroughly
Run unit tests, end-to-end tests, and manual smoke tests.
Pay special attention to routing and form features.
Move to standalone components (optional)
standalone: true,
imports: [CommonModule, OtherComponent],
selector: 'app-foo',
templateUrl: './foo.component.html',
})
export class FooComponent { }
- This simplifies dependency and tree-shaking.
Switch build system
Compare build times and runtime behavior with your current Webpack setup.
Update libraries & package.json
Run npm outdated to check for available updates.
Use ng update <library> where supported, or manually bump version ranges.
Clean up leftovers
Remove deprecated NgModule metadata.
Refactor router configs to use newer child-merging syntax.
Fix any build or runtime errors.
Final QA before deploy
Build your app in production mode with both build systems.
Test in the staging environment—target slow networks and browsers you support.
When You Might Want Help
Upgrading to a major version, especially one that changes build tools and component patterns, can be tricky. That’s where Angular development services can come in—especially if you're a hire-dedicated Angular developer-focused agency or angular development company looking to scale. Whether you need help migrating legacy NgModule apps or adopting Vite and standalone setups, services can speed up the process and ensure stability.
Final Thoughts
Upgrading to Angular 20 isn’t just another version bump—it’s a meaningful leap toward:
Faster build and refresh times with Vite
Easier code structure via standalone components
Stronger type safety and reduced runtime bugs
It’s not a no-brainer for every project, but if you:
Value a modern dev experience
Want future-proof type safety.
- Are you okay running migrations and testing?… Then Angular 20 can genuinely improve your app’s future.
And if you prefer a low-risk rollout, consider reaching out to an Angular development company or hiring dedicated Angular developers who’ve done these upgrades for you, giving you peace of mind and speed.
