I find my .45 1911 has less recoil than the browning 9mm high power I used in the army. The 9mm has a higher velocity, whereas the .45 is subsonic, I find the 9mm has a sharper recoil, and the .45 comes back onto target quicker.
That's quite possible, owing to the design of the Browning HP, which is very different than that of most 9mms carried by police departments today. The Browning is designed very much like Browning's own 1911, a heavy (2.3 lbs) cast-framed single-action pistol with a noticeably stiffer (7.5 lb). trigger pull than the .45.
But compare that design to a standard 9mm carry gun like the Springfield XD series, the Smith & Wesson M&P, the Sig P226, the H&K P9 or the Glock 17, all of which are polymer-framed double action pistols which weigh considerably less loaded (1.5 lbs or so) and have (to a varying extent) much lighter triggers. Having fired all of the above myself (except the H&K), I have found them (assuming a standard 4-in. barrel police service model configuration) to offer greater sight picture control and less recoil than the Browning. Your mileage may vary, but that's been my experience.
That said, I absolutely love my .45's, both in the classic 1911 design and in the updated polymer-frame concealed carry version offered by Taurus. And there is no doubt that a .45ACP cartridge tipped with a JHP will take a bad guy down like nothing else (short of a Barrett .50 or anything else too heavy to lug around under one's coat).
My 115#, 5'5" fiance finds the M1911 .45 easier for her to handle than the 9mm Beretta with which she was trained in the USAF. Both are really a bit too large for her hands, but that's less of an issue with the M1911 because of the long pull for the M9 for the first round, followed by a single-action pull for the rest. She's also of the opinion that both muzzle blast and muzzle flash are worse with the 9mm than with the .45, but this is dependent on the ammo used, obviously. Nevertheless, the 9mm may require a hot loaded hollowpoint top approach the effectiveness of the .45 ACP at its usual GI loading, and this increases that flash and blast, particularly not a good thing at night.
And after I taught her how to properly hold a M1911 to beat someone to death with it, she found the M9 to be far less convenient for the same task in the same fashion.
Her choice? A .45 ACP lightweight commander, when she doesn't have to conceal it.... [she lives in an open-carry state] And when she needs a hideout rig, she generally carries the 9x18mm ex-East German Makarov pistol that I formerly owned. We came to an agreement.