Difference between Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack Development

Quick Summary: Get your basic clear with this blog explaining the core meaning and difference of Front end vs Back end vs Full stack development. This comprehensive guide will help you choose the right tech-expert for your upcoming project.

Are you convinced that a full-stack developer is a must or you are under the impression that full-stack is just a hype? Welcome all the answers to your queries and choose the suitable career for yourself.

Introduction

Imagine a construction worker learning how to seat windows and line up bricks without first understanding how all this will hold up? Well, it’s almost the same with software! This is what you will learn in this article.

The term “developer”, however, has now become very generic as under this heading there are actually very different tasks and functions. In fact, developers usually specialize in certain programming languages and activities which aim to create and manage different aspects of a website.

In particular, three types of developers can be identified: Front-end developer, Back-end developer, and Full-stack developer. What differentiates these three figures? Let’s try to find out more

What is Front-end development?

Everything you see on your screen is considered as front-end. Front-end means what’s ahead, so it’s what can be viewed by the user when visiting a website or opening an application. This layer can also be called a “Client-side,” that is, “part of the client.” Imagine a wall clock, where you have the hands where the numbers of the hours, the art of the clock background, the frame, etc. All of this would represent the front end of the clock. Already the gears, springs, the pile, and all the internal mechanism we cannot see would be the back end.

Bringing this same reasoning to the development of websites and applications, the whole visible part, or that affects the visible part of an application is part of the front end. For example, Menus, Buttons, Images, Fonts, and Forms, all this is part of the layer that can be seen, therefore the front end. It is possible that a website can be built using front-end; it’s known as a static site.

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Front-end developer: skills and tasks

A front-end developer usually works with languages ​​such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as frameworks and libraries, such as Angular, React, Vue.js, etc. The front-end development does not deal directly with the database, complex application servers, and various other things.

This professional takes care of the front-end part of a website, i.e. the part visible to users and the part with which they interact. To create web pages, a Front-end developer essentially uses three programming languages: HTML (to create structure and content), CSS (to provide the page with colors, styles, fonts, and background images), and JavaScript to give to the page greater dynamism and possibility of interaction. Usually, when you Hire Front end developer, he has skills in user experience, essential to provide the user with a simple and intuitive user experience.

What is Back-end development?

Imagine the system of an ATM, you insert your card and then your password. The interface where you enter your password is the front-end and is being serviced by the ATM (it’s the client / client-side part). So far, so good. But after you press confirm, have you ever wondered how the ATM checks if your password is correct?

For security reasons, it would not be smart to store all the passwords in the ATM itself. And imagine if someone decides to change their password, all the boxes would have to update at the same time. So, here is what we call a server, which is nothing more than a computer, or a network of computers that “serve” certain information to a client computer. Hence comes the term server-side, representing the server-side.

That’s where the back-end layer comes in, which we do not see. Once you enter your password in an ATM, the cashier’s computer will send your password to a server that will process your data, check if your password checks your bank account, and return a message of success or error, allowing you to or not access to the functions of your account.

The backend is the part of the software that runs on the server, so it is also known as server-side. It is the back-end that provides and guarantees all business rules, database access, security, and scalability.

While the front end may also have some rules and validations, it is the backend that must ensure data integrity. Developers who prefer to specialize only in the backend are generally not very good at leaving beautiful pages with good usability but are better at business rules, database, and all things running on the server.

Back-end developer: what it does?

The Back-end developer, on the other hand, works “behind the scenes” of a website. In fact, when you Hire back end developer, it takes care of its server-side operation and of interventions that have no impact on the graphical interface and therefore on what users see by visiting the site.

These developers work with programming languages ​​such as Java, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, or even JavaScript (yes, there is a way to run JavaScript on the server as well). Each programming language is a world apart with communities, events, frameworks, books, courses, etc.

What is Full-Stack Development?

Whoever works both front-end and back-end is known as “Fullstack Developer.” This is a complete type of professional who can deliver a project from start to finish without necessarily needing help from another person to create a part of the system. To become a skilled and valued FullStack Developer on the market, the first step is to know the basics of architecture and technologies you will use. It is a big mistake to start learning software development by technologies without understanding the basic architecture.

Skills & Tools for a Full Stack Developer

To illustrate everything, what are the skills that a good full stack developer must have to be considered Full Stack with a capital “F”?

• Back end: exceptional knowledge of PHP, Phyton, JAVA, Laravel, and Symfony.
• Front end: essential knowledge of JS + Node, Vue, React and Angular.
• Knowledge of relational and nonrelational DBs, hence SQL and MongoDB

Front-End vs Back-End vs Full Stack Development

In this sense there are many languages and frameworks that a full stack developer could know and use, but it is not essential that he knows them all. It would be sufficient to focus on some of the main technologies and gradually, thanks to the experience in the field, which keeps updating and learning new ones based on the needs and demands of the market.

Trend and Market Demand of Full Stack Development

According to the results of the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020, 54.9% of web developers define themselves as full stack developers. This clearly does not imply that everyone knows all the backend and frontend development technologies available, but that they are able to operate effectively on both fronts because they have experience of the logic that regulates them.

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Essential technologies for a full stack developer

Undoubtedly the basics are HTML and CSS, which allow you to build the skeleton of a web page: HTML allows the addition of content while CSS formatting management. Also according to the annual Stack Overflow Survey, JavaScript is the most widespread programming language, both frontend, and backend. For this, it is essential that a full stack developer learns and respects mastery. It would then be an excellent extra point to know one of the most popular JS development frameworks, such as Angular or React.

As far as backend technologies are concerned, it is not easy to define which one is best to learn: even, in this case, the understanding of the logic of development and creation of databases is becoming increasingly important as well as the in-depth study of the chosen language. Among the most widespread backend technologies to choose from, there are certainly SQL, Java, Python, and PHP. NodeJS is another valid additional option. Being in a JS development environment does not require the knowledge of a new language.

Last but not least is the knowledge of databases to store data: relational like SQL (which remains the most widespread), non-relational like MongoDB, and the connections between them and the chosen backend language.

Why Choose to be a Full Stack Developer

The biggest benefit of working as a Full-Stack Developer is the range of opportunities you can fit in because as a Full-Stack Developer, you can work with a variety of technologies. The market always has open positions if the person is good and do well what he does is very difficult to be unemployed because you can work as a CLT, as a PJ, freelancer, remotely (for domestic companies or out of the country), that is, there are many options and many open positions that you can run.

Also, you can work in several areas of a product, so I have the opportunity to gain not only technical knowledge but also business knowledge, I can participate in several technical and business discussions and also help in the decision of new tools, methodologies, and technologies to be used in the projects.

Conclusion

Choosing between Front End and Back-end or Full Stack is a dilemma that can only be solved through an analysis of:

• What are your career goals? Be a professional expert in a particular area, or acquire a more flexible and versatile profile?
• Do you want to know how to develop a web site/application from start to finish and thus conduct your projects yourself?
• Do you need to broaden your opportunities or intensify your knowledge in the industry you care about?
• Being a complete professional is a requirement that you consider essential?

A full-stack developer is the one who has all the keys to the house; there isn’t any door that he cannot open. The full-stack developer has all the exceptional expertise to work on front-end and back-end development simultaneously and holds the potential to get the job done single-handedly. So, if you are looking to hire full stack developer who has acquired all expertise across all the stacks and have familiarity with all the components mentioned above then get in touch with the expert at [email protected] to discuss further.