What’s the Difference Between Front End vs Back End Development?

Internet live stats  indicates that as of June 2021, there are more than 1.86 billion websites live on the internet today. And this number is growing.

With so many sites covering every topic that a person could think of, what makes one website stand out from another?

What makes social media sites like Facebook and Instagram stand out so much more than the no doubt countless 1000s of other failed social media sites that never make it out of their developer’s friend group.

We discuss the differences between front-end vs back-end development that are responsible for making the good, the bad, and the ugliest of websites that populate the internet.

What Is Front-End Development?

Front-end developers are responsible for everything that a user sees when they visit a website.

Layouts, buttons, colors, images, logos, and text are all a part of the front-end. And they are controlled by the programming language the developer used.

This is so important because it is what the user will immediately be judging the website on and engaging with.

Briebug, front-end development experts, outlines some of the key functions of front-end development here.

What Is Back-End Development?

So, with what might be viewed as the most important stuff up front, what and why is there a back-end at all?

Well, the back-end is what makes the front-end possible. All of the information that greets the user is contained in the back-end as well as the server to host the website in the first place.

This side of the website is much less glamourous, but without it, there wouldn’t be a functional website to interact with,

Front-End vs Back-End

You may wonder why there is even a distinction between these two categories.

A website is a website so surely someone should be able to just step in and make it all go.

There are full-stack developers out there who are capable of working between both disciplines and taking care of both sides.

But it is important to think about how different both of these operations are and whether using just one individual or group is best.

Think about it in terms of a car. When a new car is being made, there are two major parts of the products that need to be completed, the design, where a group focuses on making a beautiful looking vehicle with some features that will really improve the driver’s experience.

Everything in this part of the process is focused on the user interaction and how they will feel about the vehicle.

And then we have the engineers who make the car functional and perform as well as possible.

Software engineering is much the same, with the focus shifting to the operation and functionality rather than the simple attractiveness or extra features that are important, but different to functional needs.

These two development styles are very different and you wouldn’t typically hire a designer to do work on your engine, or invite the engineer around to do your decorating, but both are vital for the completed product.

Seems Simple Enough

The difference between front-end vs back-end really isn’t that complicated. There is no need to dive into the technical terms because it is clear the individual importance of both roles.

But that certainly makes it all the more impressive when you do see a full-stack developer at work.

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