What is the difference between Front-End and Back-End Web Development?

A Website without visitors is like a ship lost in the horizon!

And it is the combination of both Front-End and Back-End Web Development that ensures this ship is never lost!!! However, there is a lot of confusion that prevails over this topic. And if you are a beginner in this field, I am sure you are very confused about all these terms and what they imply (I sure was!!!). That is the reason this article tries to find an answer to "What is the difference between Front-End and Back-End Web Development?"

Well, Front-End and Back-End Web development are like two sides of the same coin - The existence of one depends on the existence of the other! While Front-End Web development handles the parts of the website that are visible to the users, Back-End Web development is the mystical part that often remains unseen. To understand more about these, let’s understand what Front-End and Back-End Web development is in detail...

What is Front-End Web Development?

Suppose you want to create a website for your art gallery. So how should the website look? Well, artsy of course!!! And while looking artsy, it should also have all the relevant information about your gallery such as its address, details about your art-pieces, their prices, etc. Are you getting where this is going? Front-End web development basically deals with making your website look like it should! This includes all the details of your website that the users will see and communicate with. All those artsy images, live animations, navigation menus, etc. that you add to your website are a part of Front-End web development. So the better your front-end is, the higher the chances of good user experience (And also of all your paintings selling out!!!) The main technologies required for Front End development are HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. And that’s not all! Extra knowledge of third-party libraries like jQuery, Angular and ReactJs, etc. is also extremely helpful.

What is Back-End Web Development?

Your website about art gallery is doing great and you are getting lots of footfall! Now, what if you also want to sell your artwork on your website rather than just advertising your art gallery? That’s not possible using just front-end development as it deals with mostly how a website looks to the users. And this is where Back-End Web Development comes in to save the day!!! Back-End Web Development deals with the "back-end" of the website that is hidden from the users. It handles all the complex grimy tasks like data organization and storage and communicates with the front-end to make sure that the site is running smoothly. If any user fills a form in your website or purchases an artwork, the browse basically requests the server-side to process and return the relevant information that is then displayed on the screen using front-end code. There are multiple languages that are used in Back End Development such as Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJs, etc. While every developer claims that their favorite language is the best, all of these languages have a market demand for suitable projects.

What’s the Difference Between The Two?

As you have seen above, Front-End Web Development and Back-End Web Development have quite a few differences. While front-end is heavily based on designing to make your website as attractive as possible, back-end deals with all the complicated and messy stuff that actually makes your website run (like database operations, user authentication, application logic, etc). This is the reason that front-end is often known as client-side while the back-end is commonly known as server-side for a web application. In spite of the differences between Front-End Web Development and Back-End Web Development, they are actually two sides of the same coin!!! Both of them are equally important and a website only works correctly when they work in tandem.

Which Should You Learn?

Both Front-End Web Development and Back-End Web Development fulfill equally necessary but very different roles in web development. If you are confused about which to opt as a career choice, then it is better to understand your inclinations and choose accordingly. Are you an artistic person with a passion for creativity? Do you enjoy designing and bringing your designs to life? If yes, then Front-End Web Development is the career for you as it heavily deals with the aesthetics and design of a website to create a first-class user experience. Or are you an intensely logical person with an avid interest in puzzles? Do you enjoy algorithms and optimizing systems to obtain better solutions? If yes, then Back-End Web Development is the career for you as it deals with the data organization and system optimization in a website. In case you are interested in both Front-End and Back-End Web Development, never fear!!! You could become a Full Stack Web Developer and dabble in both of these fields.