AngularJS controller this.model vs $scope.model

On the surface, in the context of Controllers, the two are interchangeable. Underneath, however, pushing everything into $scope is not always necessary while adding unneeded bloat to $scope. You are, of course, free to use whichever method is most comfortable to you, though.

Think of Controllers as Classes, especially when taking advantage of the "Controller as" syntax. One purpose of a class is for isolation and Controllers are no different, so with that in mind it makes sense to limit which properties and/or methods are exposed to $scope, then explicitly passing them to $scope as needed.

It is considered a good practice to encapsulate this to the controller with a variable to avoid conflict through confusion of this,

e.g

function myCtrl() {
  var _this = this;
  _this.prop = 'someValue';
}

Whichever name you use for this should be consistent. In a popular Angular style guide, John Papa suggests using var vm = this where vm stands for 'ViewModel'. His style guide, in this respect, is influenced by Todd Motto's style guide. I highly recommend checking out both.

You are encouraged to, and should when required, to pass in $scope to the controller when you need to access one or more methods of $scope such as $watch, $digest, $emit, etc. Although, bind only what is needed to $scope.

Other resources:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11605917/this-vs-scope-in-angularjs-controllers
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16619740/angular-should-i-use-this-or-scope
• http://toddmotto.com/digging-into-angulars-controller-as-syntax/