Website development is not an easy task as nowadays the more fast, smooth and well-designed website you have, the better. Creating a website helps with promoting your business, getting more sails, showing people your works, etc.
Sure, if you enjoy coding there should be no issues with developing a website but what to do in case you have little or no technical background? In this case, the best option is hiring a web developer who is qualified enough to turn your ideas into reality.
The market is currently full of people who know and do coding and/or design, however, in order to find the right web developer let’s review the main specialties first.
Website design vs website coding
There is a difference between the person who does website design, draws menu or sidebar icons and the person who works on site functionality. Moreover, it may be hard to find a web designer who can write a simple yet effective code or look for a coder with great Photoshop knowledge.
Graphic designer is the person who works with your website appearance – creates images, icons, selects fonts and many other. A graphic designer does not work with implementing features or creating a user interface but prepares a representation of the site and creates sources.
Web designer does not usually work with creating sidebar icons – at least this is not their main task. Instead, these people build the whole site from scratch. Website designer specializes in creating sites – from templates to actual websites and its content. Finally, when it comes to adding such features as user profile system, applications implementation, graphics or audio integration we need a competent website developer to build the core of our project.
Web developers are usually divided into two categories – front-end and back-enders. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Front-end development
Into the area of front-end developer responsibilities falls the part of the website users and visitors see. Front-end developer knows JavaScript, frameworks, understands the basics of server work. They are expected to be able to work with DOM, API, SVG objects, compose SQL queries, etc.
Front-end developer should be acquainted with:
- mobile development
- cross-browser and cross-platform development
- adaptive coding
- web-fonts
- SEO optimization
Back-end development
Back-end developers focus on website performance and functionality. They know how to process the architecture of a site, have the required database skills and good knowledge of back-end programming languages. Back-enders focus more on frameworks and server side, their skills include but are not limited to JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Python, and other programming languages knowledge.
Moreover, developers often solve the issue of storing a great amount of data in application databases. A database is one of the most important parts of all web applications as it is designed for storing user data, posts, comments, and other details. Most common databases include MySQL/SQLite, Mongo DB, and PostgreSQL.
Main skills of back-end developers
- PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, Perl, Node JS proficiency, Symfony, Codeigniter, Yii, Zend frameworks;
- understanding of HTML, CSS, и JavaScript;
- ability to work with large amounts of information
- database administration, web application scalability
- knowledge of safety standards
- experience in working with version control systems
Full-time vs freelance
After getting to know which people can help you with building a website and what skills they should have, it’s high time to choose between full-time developers and freelancers.
In case you need nothing else apart of the website building, e.g. you can manage your website content without any additional assistance, hiring a freelancer seems to be a good option. First of all, check their portfolio paying attention to rates and reviews. Secondly, contact the person and explain what options should be added, the complexity of the website, the main features, etc. Finally, it’s better to negotiate the full price and development time at once to avoid any future misunderstandings.
On the other hand, if you have little desire of managing the content or updating the website with new features, hiring a full-time developer may seem a much more suitable option. Also, if something goes wrong, you can always get in touch with the person responsible for website management.
What to pay attention to when hiring a developer
Whether you have decided to hire dedicated developers or freelancers, there are a few points you should pay attention to in order to find competent specialists.
- Education and skills. We have already mentioned the fields good back or front-end developers should be proficient in. You might want to check the full list of the person’s skills to make sure they can create the website according to your requirements.
- Portfolio. The best way to understand if the developer you are going to hire is a true professional is to check their previous works. In case you’re working with a freelancer, make sure to check rates and reviews written by other clients.
- Experience. Usually, developers are divided into three categories – juniors, middles, and seniors according to their experience in this field. It’s completely OK to think of hiring web developers with little practice for a simple website, but for a more serious and complex project, you might want to seek for people with 5+ years of experience.
- Communication and response time. Positive attitude, desire to find a competent solution and short response time will make your cooperation with the developer productive and pleasant.
In conclusion, we would like to mention that it’s up to you to define if you need to hire a web designer, front-end, back-end developers or all three at once. Build a template of your website, describe its main features and design, check if the person you want to hire is experienced enough to help you. One more thing – be sure to check portfolios and general rating and you will find a person who can create the website for you in no time.
