AsyncData is a method that lets you handle async operations before setting the component data when you want to fetch data and render it on the server-side. It is called every time before the component is loaded.

Fetch is a method used to fill the store before rendering the page but it doesn’t set the component data. It is called every time before navigating to the corresponding route.

AsyncData can access the vuex store and set component level objects whereas fetch can also access vuex store but cannot set component level objects.

AsyncData and fetch will be triggered in server-side during initial load.

Both will be triggered after the initial load and when the corresponding page routes are invoked.

Choosing asyncData or fetch totally depends on your architecture.

If your design use vuex store as a central repository you can use either asyncData or fetch.

If your design uses access data from the vuex store for the entire application use fetch.

If your design have options to set component level objects and the data fetched in a particular route is used only by a single component is asyncData.