Every firm out there wishes to build good web applications and creative websites. Thus, the role of “Web Developer” stands out as the most promising and highest-paying position, as indicated by Mondo’s annual Tech and Digital Marketing Salary Guide. With the increasing reliance on digital platforms, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also predicts a 15% increase in demand for web developers by 2026 in the U.S.
Web development is often viewed as one complete process, and thus, the difference between front end and back end processes seems confusing. In this article on Front End vs. Back End, we will understand the exact definitions for both functionalities, along with their respective tool stacks.
Following are the topics we will cover through this article:
Check out our Front end vs Back end Development video on YouTube designed especially for beginners:
What is Front End?
Front end development mainly focuses on the user interface part of the website, basically the part of the website with which users see and interact. It includes all the elements. like the button checkbox forms and images.
The expert who develops the front end of any web application is known as a front end developer. Their role involves bringing Figma designs to life using front end programming languages and frameworks. Front end developers play a crucial role in web development.
What is Back End?
Back end development means the server-side logic building, which generally isn’t visible to users. Its main focus is to ensure website functionality and connectivity. This includes managing APIs, handling data transfer with the back end, and database management tasks like storing and deleting data.
The professional responsible for writing the back end logic is known as the back end developer. Their role involves creating a database schema and developing APIs to manage and manipulate the data stored in the database.
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Components Needed When Building a Website
Whenever there is a requirement for building a website, web developers have many things that they need to work on and take care of. Several components are essential for its functionality and design, which are as follows:
Theme: The website needs an elegant-looking theme that goes hand in hand with the product being offered by the brand.
Layout: A good website is one that is structured and laid out very well, making it easy for customers to interact with and make purchases.
Styling: When we live in a world of trends, it is vital to keep the user experience as the top priority by making the website look catchy and attractive.
Presentation: Ensuring a good user experience and making customers happy is prime. With a good presentation of the website or the web application, you achieve better results!
Database: All the data that is on the website needs to be stored and handled somewhere, right? That’s where the database comes into play. We store all the data in database, and then use back end programming languages to manipulate this data.
User Handling: Not everyone is an admin of the web page. There are designers, admins, owners, users, testers, etc. Providing provisional access is vital to a website’s security structure!
Security: Taking all required precautions and using state-of-the-art methods to implement tight-knit security to product data and user data on the website is a must!
Performance: Making a website look and function beautifully is one thing, but making it load quickly and function efficiently is another story overall, isn’t it? Performance plays an important role in any brand’s website.
System Design: Backend architecture is the backbone of any web application. It is the part of the application that handles the logic, data, and communication between the client and the server. It also includes database modeling and routing.
Now, here’s the scenario! Read the above components again. The first four components are taken care of by front end developers, while the next four are taken care of by back end developers!
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Technologies Involved in Web Development
Web development offers a vast range of development tools and technologies based on the features of the website you are targeting. Mainly, web development technologies are divided into two parts, which are front end development technologies and back end development technologies.
Let’s explore each of them in detail:
Front End Development Technologies
1. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
HTML is one of the most powerful front end technologies. It helps to build web applications faster. It creates a structure for your web page, and then you can add the elements to your website.
2. React JS
React JS is a flexible JavaScript library that allows you to develop single-page applications. React is one of the easiest libraries to use, as the APIs of React are easy to understand and implement.
3. Next.js
Next Js is a flexible React framework that provides premade building blocks, which helps you build a website faster. Next.js provides more optimization and configuration tools as compared to React.
Back End Development Technologies
1. Node js
Node js is a JavaScript run-time environment, which lets you execute JavaScript code outside of the web browser, making it possible for server-side JavaScript development. It provides a wide range of features for building server-side applications, such as file management systems and HTTP requests.
2. Django
Django is a server-side Python-based web development framework. It is one of the popular server-side frameworks because it is a high-level programming language and supports rapid development. It also provides robust security.
3. Spring Boot
Spring Boot is a Java-based open-source framework. It works on a Java virtual machine. Which means it requires JDK in your system. The reason Spring Boot is popular is that it makes it easy to work with microservices.
Go through How to Become a Backend Developer blog to know how to become one.
Difference Between Front End and Back End
Now, let’s take a look at the difference between front end and back end development by considering some important points that you should know when you are planning to learn about web development and its career offerings.
| Comparison Factor | Front end Development | Back end Development |
| Languages Used | Front end developers primarily make use of 3 languages: HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. Also, frameworks like React are used | Back end developers need to be proficient in PHP, Ruby, Python, Node js, & Java. They need to be familiar with MySQL and SQL Server |
| Skills | The basics of domain purchase and web hosting knowledge are good to have | They need to have critical thinking skills mainly. Data handling, storage, debugging, and analysis skills are also vital
|
| Top Frameworks | Front end developers make use of frameworks such as React, Angular, Vue.js, jQuery, Next.js, etc. | Back end developers use frameworks such as Laravel, CakePHP, Django, Flask, Express.js, Spring Boot, etc. |
Key Differences Between Front End and Back End
Front end and back end are broad terms that basically group different software layers and technologies together to build a web application. The key difference between front end and back end development lies in their focus and functionality.
Let’s try to understand the difference:
Development Goals: Front End vs. Back End
The main goal is to build a functional website and to do so, the front end and back end have different goals. Front End development aims to create a positive user experience by optimizing quality and performance. The goal is to build user-friendly websites that are easy to navigate on any device.
Back-end development focuses on creating efficient and logical solutions. The main aim is to establish a reliable back end architecture with a cost-optimized database.
Concurrency: Front End vs. Back End
Concurrency means the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time. Every user has their own copy of the website on their local browser, which is obviously the front end of the website, so there are no concurrency issues in the front end.
On the other hand, the back end handles multiple requests and responses at a time. To manage this problem, back end development has to use several ways to handle requests and responses, which include multi-threading and asynchronous Programming, using callbacks and promises, and locking and synchronization.
Caching: Front End vs. Back End
Cache is temporary storage where we store a copy of our web application, which helps us improve overall performance by reducing the load time of the website.
In front end development, we generally store the header data and the images in cache memory, which makes it easy to load when a user tries to access the website a second time.
In back end development, we try to store API responses and database query results in cache memory by doing this we try to reduce the load on the server optimizing the overall performance of the website.
Security: Front End vs. Back End
In front end development, we focus on user-facing components security, majorly includes things like input validation, disabling some settings, and retracting some features based on condition.
For example, consider a blog website only the writer of any blog can make changes to their blog viewer are not allowed to make changes to the content of the blog.
In back end development, the main focus is on data security and transit of the data between database and UI. It includes all the authentication aspects, like session and token creation and management. It also includes encrypting sensitive data like passwords and payment information before storing it in the database. For example, preventing users from accessing profiles or payment pages without logging in, or by simply altering the URL, is managed of at the back end.
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Front End Developer Vs. Back End Developer
Both Front End and Back End Developers play essential roles in web development, but they have distinct responsibilities, skills, and focuses. Let’s check out the main differences between them.
| Features | Front End Developer | Back End Developer |
| Responsibilities | Creating UI for applicationsCollaborating with UI designersTroubleshooting and debugging | Server-side logic buildingDatabase connection and managementSecurity and authenticationMiddleware integration |
| Average Salary in India (per annum) | ₹6,60,000 | $13,36,601 |
| Average Salary in the US (per annum) | $47,170 | $155,363 |
| Job Demand in India | 12,000+ jobs (LinkedIn) | 13,000+ jobs (LinkedIn) |
| Job Demand in the US | 7,000+ jobs (LinkedIn) | 21,000+ jobs (LinkedIn) |
Conclusion
If you are good at art and you like visual designs and creating user experiences, then you’ll thrive in front end development. On the other hand, if you’re drawn to working with data, algorithms, and optimizing intricate systems, a back end developer role might be more suitable for you!
Want to put your hands on both and try to see if you can manage both of them? Of course, Full Stack Development offers the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in both front end and back end development – a perfect chance to master both.
If you wish to become proficient in front end as well as back end technologies in Web Development, you can take a look at Intellipaat’s latest offerings: Web Development Online Courses. By enrolling in any of these programs, you can become an expert Web Developer and receive a Course Certificate as well.
So, what do you think is the right career path for you? Head to the comments section and let us know!
FAQs
Which is more difficult front end or back end?
The front end is much easier as compared to back end if you have a vision for designing and knowledge of simple Javascript and CSS concepts. The back end can be challenging as it requires lots of logical thinking and strong programming skills.
Which tech stack is best for fullstack development?
- React.js
- Next.js
- MERN
- MEAN
Which is the best language for back end development?
The most popular back end language is JavaScript, which will be used by around 97% of active websites in 2024. You can choose any of the Javascript frameworks for back end development, such as Node js and express.js.
What should I learn first front end or back end?
If you are someone just starting with web development, you can start by learning the front end first, then you can work on the back end and integrate both together.