Baffled by the distinction between front-end and back-end development? We’re here to dispel your confusion.
Front-end versus back-end development, full-stack developer versus front-end developer, UI developer versus front-end developer…the litany continues. For many, particularly those without a background in web development, these terms can be perplexing. In this article, we aim to unravel this complexity and delineate the key roles that various professionals play in building websites and web applications.
Web development is a vast technological sphere that focuses on crafting visually appealing and efficient websites and web applications. Professionals who create these solutions use a plethora of programming languages, frameworks, and tools in their work.
All these developers share a common objective — to guarantee that the final product is impeccable, functions seamlessly, and meets the ultimate goal specified by the client. However, there are two sides to the coin of web development.
One aspect pertains to what users observe on their screens. The other deals with the internal mechanics of the site, such as managing databases and dispatching requests to a server. These are, respectively, the front-end and back-end of a web solution.
If you’ve encountered these terms and pondered over the precise difference between a front-end and back-end developer, this article is tailored for you.
Front-End vs Back-End Web Development: The Key Contrasts
Front-End Development
Broad Overview
As previously touched upon when distinguishing between front-end and back-end development, the former focuses on what users observe in their web browsers. A front-end developer transforms a website’s mockup (an image) designed by a web designer into a functioning web solution with which users can interact.
To achieve this, the developer dissects the mockup into individual web elements, such as buttons, sliders, images, menus, forms, etc., and assigns specific behaviors to these elements using JavaScript (animations, hiding/showing, dynamic style changes, etc.).
Users can interact with these controls individually: select an option from a dropdown, complete a form, tick a checkbox, etc. This isn’t achievable with a mockup, which is simply a static image of the entire page.
Skills a Front-End Developer Should Possess
Front-end developers accomplish this segmentation of web page components using various tools, primarily three web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is one distinction between a front-end and back-end developer, who employs a different tech stack.
Let’s delve into the roles each of these three crucial front-end tools play.
HTML: The Framework of a Web Page
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, forms the framework of a webpage. HTML uses a set of descriptors called tags to assign a specific structure to a web page. Each web element has its distinct tag and position on a page. For instance, the ‘<form>’ tag allocates space for a form, while the ‘<p>’ tag denotes a paragraph.
CSS: The Visual Appeal of a Web Page
HTML establishes the structure of a site, nothing more. If you run a page that only contains HTML tags with some content, it will resemble ordinary text typed in a word processor. To make a web page visually appealing with elements having suitable styles (colors, borders, font face and size, etc.), front-end developers employ CSS or Cascading Style Sheets.
CSS is a technology that allows front-end developers to define the style of each web page component using specific properties arranged into rules.
Thanks to CSS, visitors perceive web pages as familiar web pages rather than plain text, controls, and images randomly clustered in one corner of the page.
JavaScript: The Interactivity of a Web Page
HTML and CSS are technologies that merely outline the structure and appearance of a web page. JavaScript, on the other hand, is a comprehensive programming language primarily used to render a site dynamic and interactive.
For example, JavaScript enables front-end developers to validate information users input into form fields in real-time (by instantly highlighting an incorrect field with a red border or similar).
JavaScript is also employed for incorporating exciting effects into a website, such as animating web page elements and creating infinite page scrolls. Despite being the most popular language among the global front-end development community, JavaScript does have some limitations.
One of its major shortcomings is verbosity. Front-end developers often need to repeat the same syntactic structures, resulting in lengthy and challenging to debug code. Another issue that front-end developers encounter is the escalating complexity of modern user interfaces with numerous interactive features.
This led to the development of JavaScript frameworks. Currently, the most notable ones include:
- React.js
- Vue.js
- Angular
Using these frameworks allows front-end developers to build website interfaces more rapidly, resulting in cleaner and more testable code.
Back-End Development
General Overview
Let’s proceed with our exploration of the distinction between a front-end and back-end web developer. As you might guess from the name, back-end developers focus on the behind-the-scenes operations of a website or web application.
Think of a front-end without a back-end as a car without an engine. Imagine yourself in the driver’s seat of such a vehicle. You turn the key and step on the gas pedal, but nothing happens. The car might have a beautiful interior with leather seats and a digital clock on the dashboard, but what good is a car that can’t move?
The back-end functions as the engine of a website. Try clicking the Submit button on a form on a site that only has a front-end. Nothing will occur. You won’t be able to add new users or dynamically update content on your website.
A website’s back-end is composed of three crucial components:
- A database, which is an assortment of related data tables. Back-end developers use various DBMS (Database Management Systems) to handle databases, including MySQL and Oracle.
- A server, which is a computer where the database is hosted.
- A unique application, known as a web server, that operates on a physical server, transferring data from a database and accepting requests from a website. Apache HTTP Server is one example.
The primary objective of a back-end developer is to ensure this data exchange process is seamless and free from errors.
What a back-end Developer Needs to Know
When contrasting front-end and back-end development, it’s clear that the latter uses a different technology stack. While most back-end developers have a strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, they excel in particular programming languages. They delve deeper into coding to comprehend the inner workings of an application or website because they are responsible for creating the engine that powers these platforms using specific programming languages. The most commonly used include:
- SQL or Structured Query Language. This is the primary tool for interacting with databases. Back-end developers use SQL queries to perform various database operations, such as retrieving, updating, and inserting data into tables.
- PHP or Hypertext processor. This scripting language can be directly embedded into HTML pages, which is highly convenient for web developers. When comparing front-end and back-end development, there’s a difference in where the code written in the two main programming languages is executed:
- PHP is executed on a server
- JavaScript is executed in a browser (although JavaScript code can also be run on a server through the JS framework Node.js)
Other back-end programming languages and frameworks include Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and more.
Back-end engineers should also be proficient in configuring web servers, testing code, creating APIs, and performing other critical tasks to ensure effective communication between the client-side and server-side.
Full-Stack Development: Combining Front-End Development and Back-End Development
Here’s some uplifting news. The discourse shouldn’t always be focused on the disparities between front-end and back-end development, as there are experts capable of managing both aspects. These individuals are known as full-stack developers.
They can navigate the complete journey from the conception of a web solution to its ultimate realization. These tech specialists have a comprehensive understanding of all the tools and technologies that front-end and back-end developers individually master. This includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP (or another server-side programming language), SQL, among other web development fundamentals.
Their role is to efficiently manage both the server-side and client-side tasks. However, it’s important to note that not all full-stack developers have an in-depth understanding of both areas. Their primary responsibility is to comprehend the whole web development process and pinpoint areas of congestion and problems.
Thus, when comparing a full stack developer with a front-end or back-end developer, it’s crucial to acknowledge that while the former can handle tasks on both ends, they may not be as adept as individuals specializing in either front-end or back-end development.
Owing to the fact that only one developer is needed to oversee all tasks involved in website creation, full stack development is often the preferred choice for startups and companies operating on tight budgets.
Wrapping It Up
The discourse of web development is divided into front-end, back-end, and full-stack development. Front-end development focuses on user interaction and visual aspects of a website and uses tools like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and frameworks such as React.js, Vue.js, and Angular.
On the other hand, back-end development is all about what happens behind the scenes including database management, server configuration, and data exchange using languages like SQL and PHP. Then, bridging these two is full-stack development, a comprehensive approach involving both front-end and back-end operations, albeit without the depth of specialization in either.
Ultimately, the choice between these development approaches depends on the specific needs of the project and the resources available.