MVC vs MVP Design Patterns: What Is the Difference?

MVC (Model-View-Controller) and MVP (Model-View-Presenter) are architectural patterns that help organize code in large applications. They separate application logic into separate components, making it more understandable, maintainable and testable.

MVC (Model - View - Controller)

Model-View-Controller is one of most popular patterns. It divides application into three layers:

Model

• Responsible for data and business logic.
• Receives and processes data (e.g., from API or database).

View

• Responsible for displaying data to user.
• Contains no logic except UI.

Controller

• Connects View and Model.
• Handles user actions and updates model or view.

Data Flow Example: User ➜ View ➜ Controller ➜ Model ➜ Controller ➜ View

MVC Features:

• View can request data directly from model.
• Controller "reacts" to user actions.

MVP (Model - View - Presenter)

Model-View-Presenter is evolution of MVC that facilitates testing and stronger isolates View.

Model

• Same as in MVC — manages data and business logic.

View

• Responsible only for display and has minimal logic.
• Knows nothing about model.

Presenter

• Manages logic between View and Model.
• Gets data from Model itself and passes it to View.
• View and Presenter are connected via interfaces, simplifying testing Presenter without UI.

Data Flow Example: User ➜ View ➜ Presenter ➜ Model ➜ Presenter ➜ View

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MVC vs MVP Comparison

When to Use

• refactoring.guru - patterns and refactoring
• patterns.dev - patterns