Two of the most often used terms in the computer business are the front end and back end; in a manner, they have become buzzwords. These terms determine your work as a software developer, the tools you use, and your pay.

Let’s explore the differences between these two phrases, the reasons behind their creation, and the career paths available in software development.

What Is Front End vs. Back End? Understanding Site Rendering

We must comprehend the idea of site rendering before we can set out on this adventure. Site rendering refers to producing or rendering HTML output. Web developers utilize HTML, a markup language, to make web pages. What does it mean when it is claimed that site rendering can occur either at the server-side or client-side level? Note that the terms front-end and client-side are interchangeable. The same holds for the server side and the back end.

What Is Front-End Development?

A new type of site rendering emerged: client-side rendering or front-end development.

With client-side rendering, the content is rendered on your PC rather than a remote web server using JavaScript, which has become the standard web language. As a result, a server only needs to serve the raw web application while the browser generates the HTML output. Also, it indicates that a portion of the logic used to build a web page, particularly the presentation logic (also known as user interface logic), is handled on the client side.

Client-side rendering became popular with the rise of JavaScript libraries like Angular, React, and Vue.

What Is Back-End Development?

Server-side rendering, often back-end web development, was only sometimes the standard method for building websites and web applications. When you visit a page, you send the server a content request, and then the server processes and returns a response to your browser.

When a website renders server-side, all the operations necessary to create an HTML page your web browser understands are managed on the remote server hosting the website or web application. It includes processing any required logic for your web application and information queries against databases.

Your web browser is inactive while it waits for the remote server to complete processing the request and provide the response. Web browsers analyze the received response and show the content on the screen.

What Is Isomorphic Rendering?

Isomorphic rendering, often known as universal rendering, is a recent method in contemporary web development. The concept behind isomorphic rendering is to initially render a web application created with a JavaScript framework like Angular, React, or Vue on the server and then on the client.

Pre-rendering, which renders content at build time, is yet another rendering technique that adds to the confusion.

Where to render a site depends on the type of application and the demographics of the application, which vary from team to team and business to business.

What Is a Front-End Developer?

Now that we have understood site rendering, it’s easier to understand that front-end development is the art of building websites and online apps. 

Technologies Used by Front-End Developers

Most front-end developers use the standard web building blocks of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and client-side frameworks like Angular, React, Stencil, and Vue.

Yet, not all of the action takes place there. Client-side rendered applications still rely on remote back-end servers or cloud-based services and APIs.

What Kind of Jobs Do Front-End Developers Have?

Web designer: As you might have guessed, a web designer designs websites. Yet, the term “web designer” is somewhat broad. A web designer could be someone who never touches the coding and builds websites using tools like Photoshop or Fireworks. But, in another place, a web designer would create all the HTML, CSS, and even JavaScript that would go with it.

User interfaces (UI) designer: This person focuses mainly on design and is a visual designer. They typically aren’t engaged in the design execution, although they might have a basic understanding of HTML and CSS to help them better express their ideas to front-end developers.

User experience (UX) designer: They are front-end developers who analyze and research how users interact with websites. They also perform extensive testing and make necessary adjustments.

Front-end developer: They are also known as front-end designers can build websites without using back-end programming. They create static sites if they don’t hire a web developer or use the back-end. A static site resembles a restaurant or hair salon website. It doesn’t need any data to be stored in a database. Unless it’s time for a redesign, the pages will always remain the same. A front-end developer might need to be proficient in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS in addition to testing. This person could or might not have prior expertise using a design application to create the design. Front-end engineer is another name for this position. Front-end developers also work with specific front-end languages, such as JavaScript.

What Is a Back-End Developer?

Back-end development is building websites; web applications render server-side rather than client-side. It’s more complex than the front end. In addition to the statement above, back-end developers design services that access databases, file servers, cloud services, and other resources. Both client-side and server-side rendering apps can access and use these services.

Technologies Used by Back-End Developers

Back-end developers use the same technologies as front-end developers, i.e., HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to make apps that render on the server side.

Back-end developers also use software stacks that include web servers, operating systems, frameworks, programming APIs, languages, and more. Frameworks, languages, and APIs from these stacks are used to make server-side websites and web applications that other programs can use.

There are numerous popular stacks, each incorporating a programming language of choice, such as JavaScript, Java, Go, Python, C#, or PHP. Notable stacks include .NET, MEAN, and LAMP.

What Is a Full-Stack Developer?

Being a full-stack developer allows you to work on both the front and back ends. This is when the fun really starts. Full-stack developers can create sites and online apps that render on both the client side (front-end) and server-side (back-end).

Additionally, they develop services, parts, and APIs that access infrastructure like databases, file servers, cloud services, and more while encapsulating business logic and addressing particular business issues. They utilize the entire stack, which offers the best of both worlds.

What Is the Salary Difference Between Front-End and Back-End Developers?

According to Indeed.com, full-stack engineers make the most money ($107,248), followed by back-end developers ($120,500 on average). Third-placed front-end developers earn an average pay of $105,491 annually. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, which encompasses all three occupations, “the job outlook for web developers and digital designers is predicted to expand by 8% between 2019 and 2029,”

Wrapping Up

By this point, the difference between front-end and back-end developers operating on both ends of the wire ought to be more apparent. The back end is the server or, more recently, the cloud, whereas the front end is the browser.

A career as a front-end developer may fascinate you if you enjoy creating user interfaces, are passionate about design, and enjoy the visually appealing aspects of building programs. Front-end programming is exciting both from a coding perspective and visually; you’ll spend many hours implementing logic to make your site look and function as it should.

Back-end development is for you if you like building algorithms, working in the cloud, establishing services, and addressing business challenges.

If you value both and are equally enthusiastic about all parts of developing web applications, then a job as a full-stack developer is what you desire.