Front End vs Back End: What Are The Major Differences?

In the world of web development, front-end and back-end are two of the most popular terms. While these terms may be pivotal for development of an app or a website, they are strikingly different from each other. Today, we will analyze Front End vs Back End in Detail.

Both sides need to operate efficiently and communicate appropriately to come together as a single unit in order to enhance the functionality of a website. Technology Stack For Web App Development also takes these two into consideration. So, you should know about it.

Programming includes an extensive range of topics and skills, and those interested in building a career in this industry may find it challenging to find the perfect role for themselves.

This article will cover in-depth details about Front End vs Back End development, the technologies used, skills that a developer needs to possess and the average salaries that they can expect.

Let’s get started.

What is Front End?

Front end, also known as the “client-side” of the application is the part of the website that the user sees and interacts with.

It includes everything that the users directly get to experience including images, text styles and colours, tables, graphs, buttons, navigation menu and more. The languages used for front-end development are CSS, HTML and JavaScript.

One should hire dedicated developer for developing the front-end of their application.

Everything that the user sees when they open a website or a mobile app including the design, structure, content, and behavior is implemented by experienced developers and for that purpose, you need to hire Front End Developers.

When it comes to Front End vs Back End, it is important to note that performance and responsiveness are the two crucial objectives of front end.

The developer has to ensure that the pages appear accurately on devices regardless of their size.

Front End Languages

The front end is designed using the following languages:

HTML

HTML or HyperText Markup Language is a language used to develop the front end of web pages. It’s a combination of Markup and Hypertext language.

The Markup language helps define the text documentation within the tag that expounds the web page’s structure. The Hypertext on the other hand is used to define the connection between the web pages.

JavaScript

The question is, Is Javascript Front End or Backend? JavaScript is a popular scripting language designed to make the site interactive. JavaScript Frameworks helps in enhancing the website’s functionality so the user can play cool games or use web-based software easily.

CSS

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a straight-forward language designed to simplify the process of developing presentable web pages.

It allows the developer to add style to web pages while being independent of the HTML that makes the individual pages. So, it’s important to know Front-End vs Back-End difference.

Technologies Used for Front-End Development

While there are innumerable options out there, most developers use the web’s de facto building blocks JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and the client-side frameworks including React, Angular, Vue and Stencil.

React.js

React is a component-based, open-sourced front end library responsible for the application’s view layer.

It is maintained by Facebook and is an efficient, flexible and declarative JavaScript library used for developing user interfaces. Many famous companies are using React JS as a part of their technology stack.

AngularJS

AngularJS is a front-end open source JavaScript framework used primarily to design single-page web applications.

The framework has been growing and expanding uninterruptedly that helps in providing new and creative ways for designing web applications.

It transforms the static HTML to dynamic HTML. Furthermore, being an open-source project makes it easy for everyone to use it and change it as required. The data is bound with HTML and it extends the HTML attributes with Directives.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is an open-source and free tool collection used for developing responsive web applications and websites.

It is one of the most popular CSS, JavaScript and HTML frameworks for designing quick and responsive sites.

SASS

SASS or Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets is an extension of the CSS that is robust and reliable.

It is used so as to extend the functionalities of the standard CSS of a site adding variables, nested rules, selector inheritance, mixins and more with ease.

jQuery

Being an open source JavaScript library, jQuery helps in simplifying the interactions between a Document Object Model and JavaScript or in easy words, an HTML/CSS document. It is a lightweight JavaScript library that makes it much easier to use JavaScript for your site.

This is achieved by DOM animations, Ajax interactions, browser event handling and cross-browser development.

It takes up a lot of straightforward tasks that use several lines of JavaScript code to accomplish and then uses methods that help the developer achieve the same thing in a single line code.

Few other frameworks and libraries are:

• Foundation
• Semantic-UI
• Materialize
• Express.js
• Backbone.js
• Ember.js

Front End Developer Skills

When it comes to front end vs. back end, a front end developer is someone who is responsible for implementing interactive features and web designs including buttons, navigation and other components that ameliorate the overall usability.

They use programming languages like JavaScript, HTML and CSS to ensure that the client-side of the website runs glitch-free.

This is done so that the users can interact comfortably with it. When you visit any website, the work of a front-end developer can be seen in the layouts, navigation and the way the site appears in your phone.

Some of the skills required for a front end developer job include:

• The ability to develop a responsive design
• A good grasp over front end programming languages
• The ability to comprehend front end development features and tools including content management systems, automation, version control systems, frameworks and APIs.
• Knowledge of testing and debugging

Some Front-End Jobs

User Interface Designer

A User Interface (UI) designer is basically a visual designer who focuses on the design of the website or web application.

They are not involved in design implementation but may know about the basics of CSS and HTML so they can convey their ideas to the front-end developers more effectively.

Web Designer

A web designer is an IT professional who has the responsibility of designing the layout, taking care of the visual appearance and the site’s usability. Their job title is quite broad.

It could be someone who isn’t concerned with the coding and is simply responsible for designing the website in Fireworks or Photoshop.

However, in the majority of locations, the web designer has to do all the designing as well as creating the CSS and HTML to go along with it.

User Experience Designers

The User Experience designers are professionals who work in the front end, assessing and researching about ways people use a website. Changes are then made in accordance to the results based on multiple testing.

Front-End Developer

A front-end developer, also known as front-end designer is someone who is concerned with designing a website without any knowledge about back-end development.

They create a static site where the pages almost entirely remain the same unless it needs redesigning. This kind of site could be for a hair salon or a restaurant that does not need any data to be stored in the database.

The main aim of designing a site is to make sure that the users are able to access information that is relevant and in a format that is easy to comprehend and read.

A front-end developer should be well versed in programming languages like JavaScript, CSS and HTML and may need to possess basic knowledge on testing.

A front-end developer may or may not have any prior experience in developing the design in Photoshop or Fireworks. IT professionals who are experts in specific front-end languages are also considered front-end developers.

Front End Developer Salaries

As per recent studies, the average salary for a front-end developer in the US is nearly $119,200 and can range anywhere between $95,700 and $140,000.

The average salary in San Francisco is $149,400, $130,400 in Seattle and $144,200 in New York.

Quite similar to other professions, the salaries are based on the professional’s experience, education, and industry.

What is Back End?

Talking about frontend and backend, the server-side of any website is the backend. It is responsible for storing and arranging data while also ensuring that everyone works fine on the client-side of the site. It’s that part of a website or web app that users cannot see or interact with.

The parts and features designed by the backend professionals are accessed indirectly by the users through the front-end app.

The backend also includes activities like working with system components without scientific programming or the user interface, creating libraries and more.

Back-End Languages

You can design the back-end using the following languages:

PHP

Used by the majority of websites all over the world, PHP is a popular programming language specifically designed for developing websites.

Maintained by a reliable and active open-source community, PHP can work seamlessly across several platforms including Mac, UNIX, and Windows.

Executed on the server side, this programming language is also a server-side scripting language.

Java

One of the most widely used programming languages; Java is for web, android, and desktop development.

While new technologies and languages may come and go, Java has proven itself time and again as a reliable language.

Not only is it highly scalable but its components are also readily available making Java a popular choice among developers.

C++

Developed by Bjarne Stroustrup, C++ is a middle-level programming language that runs on a variety of platforms including Mac OS, Windows, and several versions of UNIX.

It is a general-purpose programming language that has gained popularity in recent times for competitive programming.

Python

Python is an open-source programming language that has slowly emerged as one of the most important and popular languages amongst back-end developers.

Owing to its easy syntax, it allows developers to efficiently integrate systems while working quickly.

Node.js

Node.js is open-source and offers a cross-platform runtime environment that enables developers to execute JavaScript code outside the browser. It’s crucial to note that NodeJS is neither a framework nor a programming language.

Node.js is for developing server-side and networking applications. Applications made using Node.js are written in JavaScript.

Additionally, Node.js offers an extensive library of several JavaScript modules that simplify the development process to a great extent.

Technologies Used for Back-End Development

When creating applications that render on the server-side, back-end developers use similar building blocks as the front-end developers including CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.

Software stacks including web servers, frameworks, operating systems, programming APIs, languages, and more also brought to use by the back-end developers.

All these components in the stacks used to render web applications and server-side sites and to provide services that other applications consume.

A few popular stacks include MEAN, LAMP, .NET. However, there are many more that consists of a programming language of choice like JavaScript, C#, Go, Java, PHP or Python.

The popular back-end frameworks

• Django
• Express
• Rails
• Spring
• Laravel

Other scripting/back end program languages

• Ruby
• REST
• C#

Back-End Developer Skills

The back-end developers focus on the inner-workings of a website or a web application in order to design its server-side. They do this by using back-end frameworks and languages like Ruby, Rails or Java.

When comparing front end vs back end, the back-end developers are also responsible for constantly monitoring the functionality of the site and making alterations and appropriate updates as and when required. This enhances the behind-the-scenes functionality.

Some of the skills required for back end developer jobs include:

• Appropriate utilization of the framework
• Database management
• Proficient knowledge of the Programming language as well as the framework
• Knowledge of security compliance and accessibility
• Basic understanding of front-end technologies including CSS, HTML and JavaScript to communicate with the front-end team members

Some Back-End Jobs

For an IT professional to work as a back-end developer, they need to have a strong grasp over programming.

Some companies look for developers who have the ability to work with multiple languages while others might want someone who is proficient in a specific language.

A smaller organisation might want to hire a full stack developer, someone who can take care of both front-end and back-end development.

In such cases, a developer needs to be well-versed with the technicalities associated with both Backend vs Frontend development.

Job Options:

• Back End developer
• Full stack developer
• Java Developer
• Software Engineer
• DevOps Engineer
• iOS Developer

Back-End Developer Salary

As per studies, the average salary for a back-end developer in the US is nearly $127,200. In New York, the average salary for a back-end developer is about $141,250, $116,275 in Austin and $159,700 in San Francisco.

Quite similar to other professions, the salaries are based on the professional’s experience, education and industry. So, you can’t simply compare Backend vs Frontend on salary basis

Difference Between Frontend and Backend development

When it comes to front end vs back end, it is crucial to note that they are both the sides of the same coin.

This means that even though they are a lot different from each other, there is a connect as well.

The front-end is all about the user experiencing the visual aspects of a site. On the other hand, back-end deals with everything going on in the background.

The command line and the graphical User Interface form the part of the front-end that the users can interact with. On the contrary, the back-end is the part that the users cannot interact with.

If you are a developer and love working on designs, user interface or the visual aspect of an app, then designing the front-end of web applications is for you.

However, if you are someone who enjoys writing algorithms, solving business problems, creating APIs and services and working in the cloud, the back-end is for you.

If you enjoy both Backend vs Frontend, then a career as a full stack developer is what you should think about.

Frontend vs Backend: Summary Table

Chintan Gor

CTO, eSparkBiz

Enthusiastic for web app development, Chintan Gor has zeal in experimenting with his knowledge of Node, Angular & React in various aspects of development. He keeps on updating his technical know-how thus pinning his name among the topmost CTO's in India. His contribution is penned down by him through various technical blogs on trending tech. He is associated with eSparkBiz from the past 14+ years where one can get premium services.