Recursion is not intrinsically better or worse than loops—each has advantages and disadvantages, and those even depend on the programming language (and implementation).

Iteration and recursion similarities and differences The factorial of 5 is 120. The factorial of 10 is 3,628,800. Programmers can take one of two approaches when it comes to the Java factorial problem ...

Recursion is (in many, but not all) languages slightly slower, and it does have some dangers (smashing the stack), but used properly it's a completely legitimate, valuable tool for production code.