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Front-end Vs back-end Developer Career: What to Choose?

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Today, web development remains to be one of the most lucrative careers in the world. Now, when it comes to starting a career in web development, most people are usually split between two specialties: front-end and back-end development.

Front-end development focuses on what the users or visitors will see as they interact with an application, program, or application. On the other hand, back-end development is where the processes that make these interactions operate smoothly are made. 

However, one question remains—which way to go: front-end developer or back-end developer? In this post, we shall discuss the two options and help you choose where to start. Let’s delve in!

Understanding a front-end developer

Front-end development

This is part of web development, where the front-end elements are coded and created. The front-end elements are the features that the client or end-user can view and access directly from their computer or smartphone. 

So, we can say that front-end developers are responsible for the features that you see. Besides, it’s their responsibility to improve user experience to make sure that it functions seamlessly. One of the responsibilities of front-end developers is to create the general design and aesthetics, debug, and work with static code analysis. 

Skills of front-end developers

The main responsibility of front-end developers is to implement the visual components of a website and the interactive features like buttons, navigation, and any other feature that improves the overall usability of a website.

CSS, HTML, and JavaScript are the languages used to ensure that the client-side or visual side runs seamlessly. This ensures that users interact comfortably and freely with the website. Some front-end developers work as web designers, while others handle mock-ups for web designers.

The skills of a front-end developer include:

  • Good understanding of front-end programming languages (CSS, HTML, and JavaScript)
  • Creating a responsive design
  • An understanding of how to do testing and debugging
  • Knowledge of the front-end development features and tools like content management systems, automation, version control systems, frameworks, and APIs. 

The jobs of front-end developers range from skilled developers experienced in certain coding languages to those with a wide variety of skills past front-end development. Because front-end development involves visual aesthetics, the jobs also include content creation and graphic design. However, it would help if you understood that different skills overlap between front-end development jobs, and some tiles might have different meanings in different titles. 

Common job titles in this career are:

  • front-end developer
  • front-end web designer
  • UI developer
  • Full-stack developer
  • front-end SEO expert
  • HTML/CSS developer

The average salary for front-end developers in the US is $119,000. However, it can range somewhere between $95,700 and $140,000. Please note that the salaries depend on location, education, industry, as well as experience. 

Understanding a back-end developer

Back-end development 

This refers to web development that happens at the backside of a website. Unlike front-end development that focuses more on the client-side, back-end development focuses on the server-side website application integration and logic. 

Thus, back-end developers write code that helps applications and databases to communicate. So, we can say that back-end developers handle what we don’t see—their job is to handle the back-end part of a website. This includes databases, servers, and applications. 

Skills of back-end developers

The primary responsibility of a back-end developer is to make applications and web pages work through back-end programming languages and frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Java. Also, back-end developers monitor how a website is working and make changes and updates to enhance the functionality of the website. 

Essential skills for back-end developers include:

  • Programming languages (PHP, Java, Python, and Ruby)  
  • Framework utilization
  • Database management
  • Understanding of accessibility and security compliance

Professionals from Entrance, Houston software development experts, say that back-end developer jobs generally require someone with a strong understanding of programming. Some organizations hire back-end developers with strong skills in specific languages, while others require developers to have experience in different languages. Smaller companies, however, might need someone experienced in both front-end and back-end development, also known as full-stack development. 

Common job titles in this career are:

  • back-end developer
  • Full-stack developer
  • Java developer
  • Software engineer
  • iOS developer
  • DevOps engineer

The average salary of a back-end developer is around $127,000. However, it can range between $140,000 and $160,000 depending on the location, industry, experience, and education. 

The verdict

By now, you have a good idea about front-end and back-end development as a career. So, if you like aesthetics than working on challenging algorithms and creating complicated systems, a career in front-end development might be the best option for you.  

However, that doesn’t mean that becoming a front-end developer is easy. To perfect your skills in this career, you must learn different frameworks and programming languages. Please note that this is not a one-day job—you will need to practice for years to qualify for larger projects. 

Back-end developers, on the other hand, find it easier when starting their careers. If you’ve mastered the required languages and frameworks, you won’t have a hard time learning back-end development. The main reason behind this is that back-end developers have narrow fields to specialize in, while front-end developers must learn everything, from JavaScript to CSS and HTML. 

 

Masri
Masri serves as the Chief Content Editor at BestKodiTips. With three years of experience, she excels in creating technical content, focusing on how-to guides, Android and Kodi tutorials, app reviews, and addressing common technological challenges. She ensures to stay abreast of the latest tech updates. Outside of work, Masir finds pleasure in reading books, watching documentaries, and engaging in table tennis.

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