What is the difference between the views and components folders in a Vue project?

First of all, both folders, src/components and src/views, contain Vue components.

The key difference is that some Vue components act as Views for routing.

When dealing with routing in Vue, usually with Vue Router, routes are defined in order to switch the current view used in the <router-view> component. These routes are typically located at src/router/routes.js, where we can see something like this:

import Home from '@/views/Home.vue'
import About from '@/views/About.vue'

export default [
  {
    path: '/',
    name: 'home',
    component: Home,
  },
  {
    path: '/about',
    name: 'about',
    component: About,
  },
]

The components located under src/components are less likely to be used in a route whereas components located under src/views will be used by at least one route.

Vue CLI aims to be the standard tooling baseline for the Vue ecosystem. It ensures the various build tools work smoothly together with sensible defaults so you can focus on writing your app instead of spending days wrangling with configurations. At the same time, it still offers the flexibility to tweak the config of each tool without the need for ejecting.

Vue CLI aims for rapid Vue.js development, it keeps things simple and offers flexibility. Its goal is to enable teams of varying skill levels to set up a new project and get started.

At the end of the day, it is a matter of convenience and application structure.

• Some people like to have their Views folder under src/router like this enterprise boilerplate.
• Some people call it Pages instead of Views.
• Some people have all their components under the same folder.

Choose the application structure that best suits the project you are working on.

I think its more of a convention. Something that is reusable can be kept in src/components folder something that is tied to router can be kept in src/views

Generally re-usable views are suggested to be placed in src/components directory. Examples like Header, Footer, Ads, Grids or any custom controls likes styled text boxes or buttons. One or more components can be accessed inside a view.

A View can have component(s) and a view is actually intended to be accessed by navigation url. They are generally placed in src/views.

Remember that you are not constrained to access the Components via url. You are free to add any component to the router.js and access it too. But if you are intended to do it so, you can move it to a src/views rather than placing it in src/components.

Components are user-controls in analogy to asp.net web forms.

Its just about structuring your code for better maintenance and readability.