In earlier versions of Angular, every component had to be part of a module. Even the simplest component couldn't exist on its own — it had to be declared inside an NgModule.

This was like needing a whole kitchen just to make a cup of tea. Sounds bulky, right?

That's why, over time, the Angular team started moving toward simplifying the structure. This led to the introduction of a new approach — Standalone Components.

What Is a Standalone Component?

To create one, you simply add the standalone: true flag inside the @Component decorator and specify any required dependencies using the imports array:

Here, adding standalone: true is a special option inside the @Component decorator that tells Angular this component is independent — it doesn't need to be declared in an NgModule.

Also, we specify a list of external dependencies (imports) that the component requires. In the traditional module-based approach, these dependencies were passed to the module's imports. But when components work without a module, their dependencies need to be declared directly inside the component — and Angular acts as a module internally for that component.

Why Is Angular Moving Away from NgModules?

NgModules played an important role in large applications:

• They helped organize the code;

• They gave control over the scope (visibility);

• They were useful for optimization.

But over time, it became clear that many of these things can be done at the component level — more simply and intuitively.

In other words, standalone components are the modern way to build components without modules. They simplify the structure, make components self-sufficient, and easier to use.

Angular continues to support modules but recommends using standalone components for new code.