Front end vs Back end: Which One Should You Choose

Imagine your favorite movie stops working right before it reaches the best part… Frustrating, right? This is why Netflix, the most popular video streaming platform, ensures smooth streaming. Netflix’s users expect smooth streaming, and Netflix delivers it. What makes this possible? The platform’s powerful back end architecture! This architecture processes large amounts of data to adjust to a user’s demands.

Due to this strong back end structure, users can enjoy uninterrupted binge-watching sessions for long periods. This is paired with an intuitive front-end display, allowing users to navigate through their favorite movies easily.

In this blog, we’ll dive into front end vs back end development. This will help you decide which career to choose.

What is Front end development?

Front end development is responsible for what you see on a platform. Hence, it focuses on the user interface and user experience. So, a website with a smooth design and calming visual display is because of high-quality front end development. This includes the text, colors, buttons, and animations. The main goal in front end is to ensure simple navigability and create a fast and secure user experience.

What does a Front end developer do?

Ever visited a website that amazed you with its intuitive user interface and sleek design? Those interactive animations and buttons you see are the work of a talented front end developer. Front-end developers manage the parts of a website that users see face-front and interact with.

• Develops user interfaces: Front-end developers create visually appealing and user-friendly sites. They use programming languages to build a website’s layout, design, and interactive elements.
• Ensures responsive design: Users access websites on various devices, such as tablets, mobiles, and desktops. This is where front-end developers ensure these websites are fully responsive and adjust to different screen sizes easily.
• Optimizes performance: Front end developers optimize a website’s speed and performance. They improve efficiency by using techniques that enhance the performance and loading times.
• Writes code: Naturally, as front end is a part of development, the developer is responsible for writing code. The developer focuses on writing reusable code for easy updates in the future.

What is Back end development?

Back end development is the opposite of front end. In front end vs back end, back end is responsible for everything that users can not see. This is what makes websites and apps work. In back end development, developers write code for the servers and databases. Altogether, what a back end developer does is bring a website to life. Without strong back end development, a website is unable to function.

What does a Back end developer do?

Impressed by how that one website or app works so smoothly, no matter how much you use it? That’s a technical back end developer’s work. Although you can not see what’s going on in the background, there’s a lot of technical stuff going around in the background.

• Develops Server-Side Logic: The core logic on which an app runs is written in code by a back end developer. Think of how you can’t cook food on a stove without fire. Back-end developers work on supplying the “fire.”
• Manages databases: They work with databases to store, retrieve, and manage application data. They also design database schemas and write queries that interact with stored data.
• Builds and maintains APIs: Back-end developers create Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These APIs allow front-end components and third-party services to communicate with the back end. This enables dynamic data exchange.
• Debugs and troubleshoots: They keep monitoring system performance to fix bugs. This helps them optimize slow database queries and deliver smooth functionality.

We already understand the basics of front end vs back end, so let’s see now which programming languages they use.

Programming Languages used for Front end and back end development

Software developers use programming languages and frameworks to do their work. In front-end vs back-end development, it’s often beneficial to learn more than one language. Each of these programming languages has a unique purpose. This helps deliver flexibility in full-stack development. Here’s a few of the programming languages used in front end vs back end.

What languages can be used for both Front end and back end development?

Imagine if you could learn languages that could benefit you in both front end and back end development. You can do that by learning these hybrid languages for full-stack development:

• JavaScript: JavaScript is generally used for front end development. However, due to its frameworks and libraries, such as Node.Js, JavaScript’s abilities expand to back end development as well.
• Dart: By integrating Dart with its Flutter framework, Dart can be used for both front and back end development. It’s an open-source language that’s easy to learn and work with.
• Python: Python, along with frameworks like Django and FastHTML, can be used by software developers for both front end and back end development. Generally, Python is used for back end development.
• C#: This language is also used mainly for back-end development. A framework of C# called Blazor also allows you to build the UI. This allows software developers to use C# for both.
• Kotlin: As a versatile programing language, Kotlin allows for both bank and front end development. This makes it a power move to learn Kotlin. As a modern language, it’s easier to learn.

These are some of the languages you can master for both aspects of development. Learning and perfecting both an put you in a strong position for full-stack development.

What are the main differences between Front end vs Back end?

We’ve had an overview of the main differences between front end vs back end development. Let’s review the skills and duties each of them has to help you choose which to go for.

What are the skills required for front end vs back end development?

Let’s see what skills both of these software developers have:

Front end developers

• Programming languages: Of course, the foremost essential thing front-end developers should know is programming languages. The three most common ones are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Familiarity with Frameworks: Frameworks are full of coding libraries and scripting languages. These frameworks are versatile. This is so because frameworks make it easier to handle the development and maintenance of larger projects.
• Testing and debugging: Front end developers have to perform functional and unit testing throughout the development process. This helps them confirm a website’s functionality. It also helps them debug errors in the code.
• Version control: Version control helps in the debugging process. With it, front end developers can track changes made to their source code. The main benefit to this is that they don’t have to start from scratch if issues arise.

back end developers

• Programming languages: The most essential thing in back end development is also learning the programming languages. The most common ones include PHP and Python.
• Server Handling: A back end developer mainly manages servers and databases. Basically, everything that goes behind the application. So, it’s vital to have good handling on servers.
• Knowledge of back end Frameworks: Similar to how frameworks help massively with front end development, it’s the same with back end. There are several open-source frameworks.
• Front end: Back end developers are behind the functions that happen through front end elements. This is why its vital to have front end knowledge for back end developers.

In front end vs back end development skills, these were the main differences.

What are front end vs back end developer duties?

Here are the duties or a front end and back end developer:

Front end developers

Since front end development is about what’s in front, it demands knowledge of designing too.

• Through creativity, front end developers are able to create interactive drop-down menus, elements, and animations that work on multiple screen sizes.
• They are responsible for delivering the visual user experience.
• Front end developers ensure that the platforms they work on are cross-browser compatible.
• These software developers work closely with designers to ensure every aspect is in the right place.
• Ever wonder how an animation on an app or website works the same every time? Its because the front end developers test and debug the code to ensure every visual element works smoothly. This includes integration and unit tests

back end developers

Since back end is mostly focused on the “behind-the-scenes,” it demands technical knowledge.

• As mentioned above, a back-end developer is mainly responsible for server-side development. This means it demands knowledge of managing APIs and server infrastructure.
• Back end developers are generally responsible for deploying the application they’re working on. It means back end developers should have DevOps & Deployment knowledge.
• They also ensure the user authentication and security of a website. One of the back end developers’ primary responsibilities is to protect the platform from cyber attacks.
• They are responsible for integrating third-party services into the platform.
• Back end developers are also responsible for performing tests. This could include schema, performance, and validation testing.

Conclusion

Full-stack web development has many types, with front and back end being the main ones. Whichever career you choose, you’ll have to know a little about both. That’s why we created a detailed blog about both. At Linkitsoft, we have a team of skilled back end and front end developers. They are equipped with all the skills mentioned in this blog. Our team of software designers are developers is focused on delivering the best.

Contact Linkitsoft today if you want a seamless app or website. With years of experience, we ensure that every back and front end aspect of your website will be perfect. Don’t wait around, tap those buttons and explore more!