“Full stack developers vs specialized developers: Let’s learn who you should hire to achieve desired results with maximum proficiency.”

Technological advancements are fostering rapid growth and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you are also willing to dig deep into this sphere by following your vision for building web or mobile apps, then hiring strong engineering professionals is the first challenge you have to come across.

When we think about hiring developers, they are often classified into two categories i.e. full stack developers and specialized developers. The decision of whom to hire often leads entrepreneurs into a state of confusion.

If you are also dealing with a similar dilemma, then this blog is meant for you. Here in this blog, we will make a head-to-head comparison between the full-stack developers vs specialized developers to help you find out which one you should choose.

Let’s get started, but first, let’s gain a better understanding of developers.

Who are Full Stack Developers?

Put simply, full-stack developers can be referred to as all-rounders.

They hold the expertise in working on both the frontend and backend development of your project. This means they can assist you with starting from graphic designing to writing the business logic of your application.

For instance, if you are thinking of attaining your web app development using the MEAN Stack framework. In this context, a full-stack developer is one who holds expertise in MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node to help you meet all your development goals.

Benefits of Hiring Full-Stack Developers

Having the understanding of who are full stack developers, now let’s move ahead to explore the benefits of hiring full stack developers:

Economical

This is one of the biggest benefits of working with a full-stack developer. Since one person will handle both the frontend and backend requirements, the development cost will be lower.

Greater Efficiency

While working with a person holding expertise in all tiers of web application development you can expect the best level of collaboration between both frontend and backend development. Better collaboration is the key to improved efficiency.

Effective Troubleshooting

The best practice of troubleshooting is to identify the root cause as early as possible and solve the root cause to ensure the smooth working of the application. Full stack developers can identify the issue related to UI/UX design or backend logic solely and fix them without asking for external help.

Flexibility

Having expertise in multiple technologies, full-stack developers give you flexibility in the selection of the technology. Depending upon your project requirement, you can choose the best technology and steer your project to successful execution.

Complete Ownership of Coding

As said above, full-stack developers hold complete responsibility for the project coding. Therefore, if any issue occurs you can consult with the developer to make appropriate changes to it.

Drawbacks of Hiring Full-Stack Developers

Full stack serves a lot of great benefits to the business, also there are some drawbacks associated with them. In order to ensure your project development goes as smoothly as you have expected, it is advised to be aware of the drawbacks of hiring full-stack developers:

Lack of Knowledge Regards Latest Trends & Technologies

Technical landscapes are highly competitive today, and every participant is looking for a way to differentiate themselves from the competition by offering something unique in adherence to the latest technology trends. However, with full-stack engineers, the lack of the latest trends and technologies is the most obvious drawback.

Facing a Hard Time in Tracking Project

Full stack experts often deal with the major chunk of the project instead of breaking it into the smallest tasks. This makes it hard to keep track of the project’s progress.

The Average Quality of Service

As a general trade, when you opt to achieve multiple trades in a single attempt, the quality of work will be compromised for sure. A similar thing can also be experienced with full-stack engineers.

Who Are Specialized Developers?

Put simply, specialized developers refer to developers who hold specialties in working with one or two specific technologies. They hold a profound understanding of these technologies, they can be called masters developers of that particular technology.

For instance, if you are looking for a web application and the technology that you have chosen for backend development is Django. In this case, you can hire Specialized developers with deep expertise in the Django framework.

Benefits of Hiring Specialized Developers

Here you will get to know about the numerous benefits that you can avail yourself by hiring specialized developers:

High Quality of Work

Since specialized developers deal in specified technology only, they have a deep understanding of it, therefore you can expect high-quality work.

Stay on Top of the Latest Trends

Since they specialize in one specific technology, they have ample time to stay current with the latest development trends. The knowledge of the latest trend will allow them to develop solutions catering to the current needs of users. By doing so the chances of seeing success are likely high.

Easy Distribution of Task

Every developer working on your project will deal with a specific part of the project development only.

Drawbacks of Hiring Specialized Developers

Hiring specialized developers comes with a lot of advantages and emphasizes the quality of work following the latest advancements and trends. However, specialized developers also come with certain disadvantages as mentioned below:

1. Highly Expensive

This is one of the most obvious drawbacks of working with specialized developers. You have to hire dedicated developers for frontend and backend, therefore the cost is going to be higher in comparison to full-stack developers.

2. Teamwork and Dependability

The need for teamwork and dependability is paramount when working with specialized developers. For instance backend, developers entrust the frontend developers to lead the project from the beginning to the final stage. If communication between these team members is lacking, it could lead to the deadline not being met.

Full Stack Developers vs Specialized Developers: Whom Should You Hire?

After knowing the pros and cons of full-stack developers vs specialized developers. The next question you need to answer is who should you hire:

Here we’re going to give you an overview of when you should sull stack or when opting for the specialized developers is an ideal option:

When Should You Hire Full-Stack Developers?

1. When you’re working on a simple project: If you’re working on a simple project and looking for an efficient way to speed up the development process, then hiring full-stack developers is the best possible solution for you.

2. When you have a limited budget; Since full-stack developers are cost-effective ways to meet all your web app development requirements, you can hire them to release your digital solution without spending a fortune.

3. When you are in the initial stage of starting your business: If you’re a startup struggling in your earlier days to strengthen your digital presence, then full-stack developers can help you meet all development goals under your tight budget and time.

When Should You Hire Specialized Developers?

1. When you’re working on complex projects: Specialized or dedicated developers are proven to be the best addon when you’re working on a complex project. They will divide your project into multiple small segments and work toward achieving these goals to make sure your vision is translated into a sure reality adhering to your expectations.

2. When you’re preferring the quality of work over the cost: Specialized developers are well-versed in leveraging the latest trends and technology advancements. Therefore you can expect the paramount quality of work that will put you ahead of the competition.

How to Find Experienced Developers to Achieve Desired Outcomes?

Now, I hope you have made the decision about which kind of developers you should hire. This is the time when the real challenges are about to begin as you start working on the endeavor of how to find experienced developers.

ITFirms is one of the leading firms that evaluate app and web developers worldwide. Depending on multiple parameters such as developers’ expertise, location, years of experience they have, and how well-versed they are with the latest technologies.

We have compiled a list of some of the best web developers and top app developers for you to browse through, compare, and choose one that perfectly fits your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What skills do full-stack developers possess?

Full-stack developers are comprised of both frontend and backend technologies:

• Frontend technologies: HTML, CSS, BootStrap, AngularJS
• Backend technologies: PHP, Python, JavaScript, Laravel, and so on

What to look for when hiring developers?

Below we have given you an overview of the few most common traits that you should look for when hiring developers:

• Experience
• Excellent problem-solving abilities
• Confidence to overcome your project challenge
• A perspective on testing
• Communication skills

Full stack vs specialized developers: who are in demand?

Full-stack developers are in high demand since they allow entrepreneurs to save both time and cost. Additionally, specialized developers are also leading the race with quality of work as their top priority. The selection of which developer is the best choice for you depends on your project requirements. Therefore be acquitted with your requirements and select the developers that best met your project requirements.

The post How Do Full Stack Developers Stack Up Versus Specialized Developers? appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Here’s the pith of Front-End Development for your review, keep learning!

Do you want to become a web developer? Web development isn’t one job these days. There is a range of technologies and career options to explore. The core responsibilities are split two ways – between front-end developers who specialize in websites and applications and back-end developers who work with servers and databases – but you can also become a full-stack developer who oversees all aspects of a project. This write-up provides a map of the core technologies and advice about mastering them, complemented with the details you need to connect them to jobs. Front-End Developers comprise 1/3rd of the total Web Developers. Rest are Full-Stack and back-end developers.

They deal with code that manages the interaction between the user and the web browser. Most people think that it is the design of the page but it is the interactions that happen between the user and websites. Front-end developers are expected to know more about the servers, programming. About half of the web developers are identified as back-end developers.

Besides traditional job titles, developers share certain traits. Developers work within and outside teams for small to large companies where they work on small parts of bigger projects. Most developers participate in code reviews, which means having other people look at your code to improve each other’s work. The majority of professional developers also contribute to open-source projects. This means that they publish their work for everyone to see and contribute to. All web developers use open-source projects so that they can learn how to work with open-source code. It’s important to learn to appreciate critique and be willing to help improve the work of others. Developers have to learn different types of tools that shift between projects. Development is for you if you enjoy the process of continuous learning and challenges.

What does a front-end developer need to know?

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, HTTP(S), accessible projects, design methodologies, development approaches, version control, server technologies, Front-end frameworks, Back-end languages, Libraries, Developer Tools, API’s and services.

A frontend developer is involved in building web designs, handed over from a User Interface Designer, with the help of programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But it’s not that easy.

What tools does a front-end developer need to learn about?

An increasing number of frontend developer tools like – (1) Sublime Text, (2) Chrome Developer Tools, (3) jQuery, (4) GitHub, (5) CodePen, (6) Angular.js, (7) Sass, often make it difficult to decide which ones to pick for your next project.

Categorization of Front-End Development Tools

These can further be categorized into one of these groups – (1) JavaScript Framework, (2) JAM STACK, (3) UI Component Libraries, (4) Quality Assurance and testing, (5) Low Code Tools. Let’s discuss it in detail.

JavaScript Framework: It is one of the preferred platforms to build dynamic web applications. They make complex JavaScript processes such as DOM manipulation (Document Object Model), complex state management, routing between pages, and form data management. React.js is an example of a popular framework or library. It comes with a vibrant community, declarative syntax using JSX, ease of managing and sharing state using hooks, a large ecosystem of packages to solve specific problems, cross-platform capabilities with React Native and React 3D. Others are Vue.js and Angular.js.

Jamstack: It commingles JavaScript, Mark-up, and APIs, helping front-end developers build fast, highly performant and scalable web applications/websites. Gatsby and Next.js are emerging JAMSTACK frameworks. While both have some overlapping features, the latter is a React framework for developing single-page JavaScript applications. It statically renders sites like blogs, corporate websites, and magazines, e-commerce shops, SaaS software etc. It features built-in image optimization, eliminates the need for loading spinners by making it possible to fetch data at build time or on the server, and creates a route by adding a file to the page’s directory.

UI Component Libraries: We interface two questions while starting with any new project – whether to build your UI internally or to buy a ready-made library of UI components. An existing UI component library saves time, increases developer productivity, and reduces time to market. Other popular UI component libraries include Material UI, AntDesign, Radix UI, and Chakra UI – It is simple, modular, flexible, and easy to use. Additionally, it also features (1) Style props, (2) Accessibility – right colour, contrast, keyboard, screen reader, (3) Customizable components.

Quality Assurance and Testing: Front-end testing is pivotal to ensure the stability and reliability of web apps. Cypress is a JavaScript end-to-end testing framework that allows front-end developers and QA engineers to write automated tests for their web applications. It features automatic waiting, and real-time reload.

Low Code Tools: Such tools require little to no code to build fully-featured websites and web applications. An example is Retool – which connects the datastore like Postgres, MongoDB, or Firebase. It enables writing queries in SQL or JavaScript. It also connects these queries and logic to the pre-built components like Data tables, Charts, Dropdowns, etc. It further organizes the components to help visually display and customize data.

What should you consider while choosing a tool for front-end development?

Your first step should be to research to find out your work process and choose the most efficient tool that accomplishes a task:

• HTML5 Basics
• CSS3 Basics
• Advanced HTML5
• Advanced CSS3
• Advanced JavaScript
• jQuery Basics
• JavaScript Basics
• Advanced jQuery
• Bootstrap 4 Basics
• SVG Basics
• Advanced SVG
• Advanced Bootstrap 4
• Sublime Text 3 (Text Editor)
• Brackets (Text Editor)
• Atom (Text Editor)
• Google Chrome (Web Browser)
• Visual Studio Code (Text Editor)
• Firefox (Web Browser)
• Firefox Developer Edition (Web Browser)
• Opera (Web Browser)
• Microsoft Edge (Web Browser)

What are the three most popular front-end frameworks in 2022?

jquery, React.js, Angular, Vue.js, Backbone.js, Ember.js, Zurb-Foundation, Semantic UI, and some more.

What best practices should a Front-End Developer follow?

A front-end developer should be aware of:

• How do websites work?
• The difference between frontend and backend
• How to use a code editor
• Basic understanding of HTML-CSS-JavaScript
• Package managers
• Build tools
• Version control
• Sass
• An understanding of responsive design
• An understanding of JavaScript Framework
• An understanding of back-end basics like servers, databases, and programming languages
• An active GitHub profile
• Knowledge of developing their projects
• An understanding of NextJS/Redux for generating static websites or creating React Apps for building a standard React website with Redux for state management.
• Tailwind for writing CSS.
• SASS styled-components for more customization in React.
• A knowing of a storybook – a build process for creating components as it allows for modularity.
• An understanding of Jest, Enzyme, React Testing Library, Cypress using unit tests for the code and components before they are sent to production.
• An understanding of Sanity/Strapi – headless CMS to publish the content with the use of a GUI.
• An understanding of Vercel, Netlify, AWS – CI/CD provider in combination with GitHub to ease the review process.
• An understanding of headless architecture, isomorphic applications, Typescript, MicroFrontends, Web Components, GraphQL as an alternative to REST API to fetch declarative data from a single endpoint, component-driven development, and progressive web applications.
• CSS Frameworks – Bootstrap, Ulkit, Semantic UI, Foundation, Bulma, Tailwind CSS, Spectre
• JavaScript Frameworks – Angular, React, Vue.js, Ember.js, Meteor, Node.js, jQuery
• An understanding of HyperText Markup Language, Cascading Style Scripts, Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets, Leaner Style Sheets, JavaScript, Typescript
• Version Control System – GitHub, GitLab, AWS CodeCommit, Beanstalk, Apache Subversion
• An understanding of Micro-FrontEnd
• An understanding of testing and code analysis tools – Unit testing, Visual regression testing, acceptance testing, performance testing, integration testing, accessibility testing, End-to-End testing, Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing, LambdaTest, Chrome DevTools, Selenium, Needle, Page Speed, YSlow, Jest, Mocha, Jasmine, Cypress
• An understanding of web security and communication protocols – IPsec – Internet Protocol Security, IKE – Internet Key Exchange, SSH – Secure Shell, SSL – Secure Socket Layer, HTTPS – Secure Embedded Web Server, RADIUS – Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service, TLS – Transport Layer Security, SET – Secure Electronic Transaction, PEM – Privacy Enhanced Mail
• Knowledge of Static Site Generator (SSG) – Next.js, Gatsby, Hugo, GitBook, Jekyll, Eleventy, Nuxt, Docsify, VuePress, Gridsome
• Knowledge of project management tools – NPM, Yarn, Bower, JSPM

In Conclusion:

Front-end is a combination of graphic design (the look) and the user interface (the feel). Both these are uniquely independent but coalesce to give the result. Most of the technical work goes into the user interface using frontend technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Web development companies consider all these and more. To stay ahead, keep learning!

Please share your suggestions at info@itfirms.co

The post How to succeed in Full Stack and Front-end Development? appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.