Color Pickers Compared: ngx-color-picker vs react-color vs vue-color

Choosing the right color picker isn’t just about aesthetics — it’s about how well the component fits your framework’s data flow, change detection, and developer ergonomics. Let’s compare these three framework-specific solutions in real-world engineering contexts.

🧩 Framework Integration: How Each Package Talks to Your App

ngx-color-picker is built as an Angular directive and component, using @Input(), @Output(), and ControlValueAccessor to plug into Angular’s forms system.

// Angular: Reactive Forms + Two-way binding
@Component({
  template: `
    <input [(colorPicker)]="color" [cpOutputFormat]="'hex'" />
    <div [style.background-color]="color"></div>
  `
})
export class ColorComponent {
  color = '#ff0000';
}

It supports both template-driven ([(ngModel)]) and reactive forms (formControlName), and emits events like colorPickerChange for fine-grained control.

react-color exposes React components that follow standard React patterns — props for configuration, callbacks for updates, and optional internal state.

// React: Controlled component
import { ChromePicker } from 'react-color';

function ColorPicker() {
  const [color, setColor] = useState('#fff');
  return (
    <ChromePicker
      color={color}
      onChange={(newColor) => setColor(newColor.hex)}
    />
  );
}

Components like SketchPicker, HuePicker, and BlockPicker are standalone and composable. You decide whether to manage color state externally (controlled) or let the picker handle it (uncontrolled via defaultColor).

vue-color provides Vue single-file components that use v-model for two-way binding, consistent with Vue 2 conventions.

<!-- Vue 2: v-model integration -->
<template>
  <div>
    <chrome-picker v-model="colors" />
    <div :style="{ backgroundColor: colors.hex }"></div>
  </div>
</template>

<script>
import { Chrome } from 'vue-color';
export default {
  components: { 'chrome-picker': Chrome },
  data() {
    return { colors: { hex: '#194d33' } };
  }
};
</script>

Note: The package expects an object with hex, rgb, or hsl properties, not just a string. Also, vue-color has no official Vue 3 support — its last major update targets Vue 2, and using it in Vue 3 requires workarounds like createApp().use(Vue2Compatibility) or community forks.

🎨 Supported Color Formats and Customization

All three support common formats (HEX, RGB, HSL), but differ in flexibility.

ngx-color-picker lets you specify output format globally or per instance:

<input [(colorPicker)]="color" [cpOutputFormat]="'rgba'" />

It also supports alpha transparency and can toggle UI elements like the hue slider or preview box via inputs like [cpUseRootViewContainer] or [cpPresetColors].

react-color returns a consistent color object regardless of picker type:

// onChange gives you:
{
  hex: '#fff',
  rgb: { r: 255, g: 255, b: 255, a: 1 },
  hsl: { h: 0, s: 0, l: 100, a: 1 }
}

You extract the format you need (e.g., color.hex). Customization is done via props like disableAlpha, presetColors, or by composing sub-components (e.g., using Hue and Saturation separately).

vue-color mirrors react-color’s API closely (it was originally a port), so it also returns a full color object:

// v-model binds to:
{ hex: '#194d33', rgb: { r: 25, g: 77, b: 51, a: 1 }, ... }

But customization options are more limited — you can’t easily hide individual sliders or swap layout components without forking.

⚙️ Event Handling and Change Detection

ngx-color-picker emits multiple granular events:

• colorPickerSelect: final confirmed color
• colorPickerChange: live updates while dragging
• colorPickerCancel: when user cancels

This aligns with Angular’s emphasis on explicit event streams and works well with RxJS if needed.

onColorChange(color: string) { /* live preview */ }
onColorSelect(color: string) { /* commit to state */ }

react-color uses two main callbacks:

• onChange: fires continuously during interaction
• onChangeComplete: fires once when user releases mouse

<ChromePicker
  onChange={(color) => livePreview(color.hex)}
  onChangeComplete={(color) => saveFinalColor(color.hex)}
/>

This matches React’s typical pattern of separating “draft” and “committed” states.

vue-color only provides v-model (which updates continuously) and a @change event that behaves like onChangeComplete:

<chrome-picker v-model="color" @change="onColorChosen" />

But there’s no built-in way to get live drag updates without watching the model, which may trigger excessive re-renders in complex apps.

🧪 Maintenance and Framework Compatibility

• ngx-color-picker: Actively maintained, supports Angular v14+ (as of 2023), and publishes Ivy-compatible builds. No deprecation notices.
• react-color: Widely used, stable API, and compatible with React 16–18. Still maintained, though updates are infrequent due to maturity.
• vue-color: Not recommended for new Vue 3 projects. The official npm package and GitHub repo show no Vue 3 support, and the last meaningful update was in 2020. For Vue 3, consider alternatives like primevue/colorpicker or element-plus’s color picker.

🔁 Real-World Usage Scenarios

Scenario: Theme Editor in a Design Tool

You need live preview, alpha support, and Photoshop-like UI.

• ✅ React: Use react-color’s PhotoshopPicker.
• ✅ Angular: Use ngx-color-picker with [cpDialogDisplay]="'popup'" and custom presets.
• ❌ Vue: Avoid vue-color in Vue 3; use a different library.

Scenario: Simple Brand Color Selector in a CMS

Just need HEX input with a popup picker.

• All three work, but ngx-color-picker and react-color offer cleaner integration with form validation.

Scenario: Mobile-Optimized Inline Picker

Need compact, touch-friendly UI without modals.

• react-color’s CompactPicker or Swatches work well.
• ngx-color-picker supports inline mode via [cpPosition]="'inline'".
• vue-color has inline variants but lacks responsive tuning options.

📊 Summary Table

💡 Final Recommendation

• Angular teams: ngx-color-picker is your best bet — it’s idiomatic, well-maintained, and deeply integrated.
• React teams: react-color remains the gold standard for flexibility and UI fidelity.
• Vue teams: If you’re on Vue 2, vue-color works fine. But if you’re on Vue 3, look elsewhere — this package is effectively deprecated for modern Vue.

Don’t force cross-framework components. A color picker might seem simple, but the devil’s in the details: change detection timing, event granularity, and framework lifecycle alignment matter more than you’d think in production apps.