Front end Development Vs. Back end Development: All You Need to Know

Are you just starting to code and confused about some basic terms like front-end and back-end development?

Front and back-end coding is required to create a website from scratch. In other words, web development has two sides to it: the front end and the back end. While the front end is all about the visual experience of the viewer, back end coding deals with databases, web servers, and behind the scene processes.

Let’s look at these two types of development in greater detail.

Front end development

A front-end developer works keeping the user in their mind. Front-end coding is a type of programming that’s only focused on creating those features and elements of a website that every user visually sees.

So whenever you open a website and browse through its pages, videos, and content, you're looking at a work of a front-end developer. The front end is also often referred to as the "client's side" of the web application.

If you’re a front-end developer, your main task is to make the site's visuals more engaging for the users. This ensures that more and more people visit the website, and the bounce rate is reduced to a minimum. Moreover, it also deals with interactive parts of the site that includes buttons and chat boxes.

Some of the common elements that front end coding helps us create are the following:

• Layouts
• Images
• Animations
• Buttons
• Navigation
• Graphics
• Content organization

Back end development

As the name suggests, the back-end development is focused on the ‘hidden’ part of the website. A back end isn’t visible to the user. The back-end coding is what makes a site functional on the internet in the first place.

For this reason, back-end development is often referred to as the "server's side" of a web application. For example, if you're operating a social media site, you'll need storage for the users' data and information. A place where you'll store this data online is known as a database.

Some of the most popular databases used by most web applications are SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL. These databases are operated from a remote computer. A back-end developer’s job is to manage and maintain the site’s database and securely store the website’s contents on a server.

Successful management of back-end functions of a website ensures that your front-end features keep functioning properly as people browse through and interact with the site's content.

Back end development mainly deals with the following tasks:

• Building the site’s code
• Debugging and troubleshooting web applications
• Framework utilization
• Database management

What are the major differences between front end and back end development?

Now that we’ve understood the broad difference between the two ends of web development, it’s easier to understand some other key differences.

Here are a few key distinctions that set apart the two types of development.

They work on two different sides of the web application

As we've seen, the front and end development cater to two entirely different but essentially complementary parts of a website. They come together to make the website dynamic and functional so that the users can access the content and interact with the application in real time.

Front end and back end developers both have different expertise

Although both ends of the development are equally vital, the developers of each end have different expertise. While a front-end developer ensures an engaging and interactive user experience, the back-end developer ensures that the website is responsive and accessible in the first place. Moreover, since back end often requires more technical knowledge, back end developers are often paid higher than their counterparts.

Front end and back end development requires different programming languages

Whether you're a front-end or back-end developer, you'll need to learn the basic coding languages for each. These programming languages help developers communicate with computers using written code in a given language.

Front-end developers mainly use CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to make a website more engaging using different styles, fonts, colors, and other things.
• HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most widely used and a standard language for creating web pages.
• JavaScript is often used to make the front end of the website more fun and interactive for the users. For instance, you can use JavaScript to add a game to the website.

On the other hand, back-end developers mainly use C++, PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, and Node.js. Each language serves a different purpose depending on the nature of back-end development needed. For instance, PHP is a scripting language used for servers. Whereas Python is a generic programming language that can help in creating various back-end processes like payment options, sign up forms, etc.

Learn front end and back end development at Bayise

While some developers excel at both sides of web development, it's not a good idea to start learning the front and back end simultaneously. As a beginner, you must focus on the end of development and master its skills before you move on to learning the other end. It’ll help you stay focused, and you can make quick progress.

If you want to learn front-end or back-end development, Bayise can help you. It’s one of the best online tutoring platforms that offer a wide range of online IT certification training, coding language courses, and cloud computing certifications.

They also offer online copywriting services and web development courses at affordable rates. If you want to learn skills from professional IT trainers, Bayise is your answer.

Sign up today to benefit from their services.

Isabelle J. is an online tutor. She has been an IT instructor for the past few years. Being a certified IT trainer herself, she encourages people to learn top IT skills and provides tips on finding high-end jobs in the industry.