Having a good, interactive, and attractive website is of utmost importance for business organizations in today’s competitive age. The interactive websites help users to communicate with the brand. This, in turn, leads to better information retention, increased engagement, more personalized experiences, lead generation, and improved brand image of the company. 

According to recent reports, the global developer population is expected to reach 28.7 million people by the year 2024. The main aim of developers is to create aesthetic, functional, and navigational websites. This is where a full-stack development comes into play. It refers to the process of developing a complete website or any web application from the start to the end. It tends to include working with the latest tools and technologies along with front-end web, back-end technologies, and database development. 

As a result, professional full-stack developers with good technical knowledge and skill sets are in high demand as they can perform the task of both front-end developer and back-end developer as and when required making them a valuable asset for any business organization. But before going deep, let us first understand what exactly full stack development is.

What is full stack development?

The term “full-stack” mainly refers to the collection of all the latest technologies and skill sets that are required to complete a project. Each of these is known as a “stack”. To put it in another way, “full stack development” as a whole can be considered as a collection of all the essential skills and abilities required for developing a website or web-based applications on both the back end and front end. This tends to include various libraries, frameworks, and tools for both server software and client. These are helpful for the seamless functioning of websites. 

Now, what are full-stack development types?

With the advancement of technologies, MEAN and MERN stacks can be considered the two best frameworks for full-stack web development. MEAN tends to stand for MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js and is useful for front-end development while the MERN stack includes MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js, all of which are based on JavaScript and are useful for developing backend users interfaces of a website. 

A professional full-stack developer has the responsibility for the entire web development from scratch. This includes everything from writing the codes that make a website or a web application work to designing an interactive user interface for a better customer experience. They should have a good understanding of both backend and frontend web development. They should be able to write codes in various programming languages and have a good understanding of how various web development technologies work. According to a recent report in Times Of India, full-stack developers have become one of the most soughed professions because of their increasing demand in the field of web development in recent times. There are over 10,000 job openings for experienced full-stack developers on popular job search portals such as Glassdoor, Linkedin, and Nakuri.

Understanding front-end development 

Front-end development refers to the process of designing and building the graphic user interface (GUI) of any website for a better customer experience. Front-end development involves the development of the parts of a website that the user interacts with such as text boxes and buttons. If we take the example of the Instagram login page – the graphics on the page, the text boxes that are present to enter the email ID and passwords, and the login buttons are all part of the front end of the website. A skilled full-stack developer should be aware of various front-end development tools and technologies. 

Some of the common programming languages that are used for front-end development such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript.

A good responsive website (UI) helps improve the overall customer experience. By optimizing the images, content, and layouts, users can now easily consume and interact with the web content which in turn results in a positive customer experience (UX). Good experiences help to maintain customer loyalty towards a brand or a product.

Understanding back-end development

Backend development refers to those web development activities that are done at the back end of the programs. Back-end developers tend to ensure that a website performs correctly by focusing on back-end logic, databases, application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and architecture. For instance, the authentication that occurs after a user has given the data and clicked the log-in button happens on the back end of a website. It is the responsibility of a full-stack developer to be aware of all the latest backend development trends. 

A backend framework tends to automate some aspects of web development thereby making it simpler and faster. Some of the well-known backend frameworks include Django, Laravel, Flask, Express, Ruby on Rails, CakePHP, Node.js, Python, MySQL, and MongoDB.

Business logic, which is also known as domain logic, can be considered as the algorithms, rules, or commands that tend to operate on the backend of business software and dictate how the software creates, stores, and processes data. It is important to keep in mind that the business logic should be at the back end and never in the front end. It is mainly because Keeping business logic at the front end tends to expose the overall algorithm making the website or application more vulnerable to hacking since anyone can view javascript and change it. The backend of any website is more secure as no one can look into the backend (ideally). Moreover, business logic will tend to make the front end heavier and slower. 

Also read: Why Choose Node.js For Your Web Application Development?

What are the 3 layers of full-stack development?

There are three main layers of the full-stack development process. They are as follows-

• Front-end or Presentation layer

A front-end or the presentation layer refers to that part of the website or application that is exposed on the user end. It deals with the front-end part to create an interactive user interface. Some of the popular front-end development languages include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and JavaScript.

• Back-end or Business layer

The back-end layers are the part that is hidden from the users. The business layer deals with all the data validation and logical operations in the backend part of the interface. Some of the most popular and widely used backend languages are Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Node.js, Django, and . NET.

• Database layer

The database layer is where everything is stored. It deals with storage operations such as fetching, storage, and modification. The various components of a database system include hardware, software, data, processes, and database access language. MySQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL are some of the different types of databases.

Latest Full-Stack Development Tools and Technologies

From project management tools to integrated development environments (IDEs), a full-stack web developer will have a plethora of options to choose from. This might create confusion for the developers. 

Considering this, here is a list of the best full-stack developer tools that are available in the market. These tools are highly popular and are helpful to make development more accessible and more efficient. 

1. Backbone

Backbone.js allows a full-stack developer to add structure to the JavaScript code thereby making the whole app development process simpler. This tool tends to convert the data into modes that can be managed easily by the developers. Backbone.js is a very useful tool that is helpful for the development of one-page applications. In addition, it is also helpful to keep the programming code organized and straightforward. It should be noted that the backbone helps to create custom events for the models too. It tends to make upgrading the codes easier with the help of models. 

2. CodePen

A full-stack developer must be proficient in both front-end and back-end tasks. CodePen tends to provide the perfect solutions for all the front ends. It is easier to build websites with the help of CodePen as it tends to support numerous libraries and frameworks such as React and Vue.js. As a result, a web developer tends to get a supportive and versatile development environment to work in. Furthermore, with the help of the CodePen tool, the overall appearance of the website can be changed more efficiently and quickly. Developers can now add new pages to a website without writing new codes because of the prefilled API function. 

3. Visual Studio Code  

This can be considered an important source code editor that is power-packed with various features such as syntax highlighting, code refactoring, etc. Visual Studio Code is the product of Microsoft and hence it can be used with many languages and frameworks including Ruby, JavaScript, Rust, etc. The IntelliSense feature tends to offer smart code completion that is based on variable modules and functions. Moreover, it also tends to enable GitHub and GitHub integration.

4. TypeScript 

TypeScript can be considered as a typed superset of Javascript that can run on any device or browser. A full-stack developer tends to spend a lot of time writing Javascript code. TypeScript enables them to compile the code for better functioning of the application. Furthermore, it has multiple features that help in the static verification of the code.  

TypeScript supports many Javascript libraries and works on multiple platforms. Since TypeScript is an open source, it is always getting new updates which makes this tool even more efficient and smoother to work with.

5. WebStorm

WebStorm can be considered a powerful JavaScript-integrated development environment (IDE). It tends to help full-stack developers to write Javascript with less effort. Webstorm has many attractive features such as code completion and on-the-fly error correction which helps a full-stack developer to write codes faster with fewer mistakes.

Another interesting feature of the WebStrom is that it has a wide range of themes and color schemes. This in turn makes this tool fun to work with. WebStorm is also an excellent choice for editing and reviewing.

What are the responsibilities of a full-stack developer?

Various responsibilities of a full-stack developer include- 

• They work with the development teams and product managers to ideate software solutions
• Develop the front-end of the applications through attractive visual design
• Test various software to ensure responsiveness and efficiency
• Design severe side and client-side architecture
• Write effective application programming interfaces (APIs)
• Check troubleshoot, debug, and upgrade software
• Design effective data protection and security settings
• Build features and applications that are fully responsive and mobile-friendly
• Embracing  continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) only ensures a smoother workflow but also helps deliver robust and user-friendly websites and web applications

Also read: A Step-By-Step Guide To Hire The Best Android App Developer

What are the benefits of full-stack development?

Some of the benefits of full-stack development are as follows-

• Saves time and money 

Hiring a full-stack developer tends to lower the overall web development cost for a business organization because a single developer tends to be well-versed in both front-end and back-end technologies.

• Unique codes

With the availability of a full stack developer, the project manager need not coordinate between a frontend and backend developer to make a web application work. A full-stack developer can single-handedly design and develop web applications and write unique codes easily. 

• Easy maintenance and updates

Designing and developing web applications using full-stack developer technologies allows full-stack developers to resolve updates easily based on customer requirements. Since they have significant knowledge in both backend and frontend technologies and codes, they can easily optimize the web application and website as and when required.

What are the challenges faced by full-stack developers?

Some of the challenges that are faced by a full-stack developer are as follows-

1. Working with various technologies 

A full-stack developer needs to be well-versed in a wider range of programming languages and frameworks that are essential for both front-end and back-end development jobs. For front-end jobs, they might use CSS, HTML, and JavaScript while for backend jobs they might use Ruby, PHP, Rails, or Node.js. It is to be kept in mind that with the advancement of technology, these frameworks and tools keep changing. The main challenge of a full-stack developer is to keep up with the evolving technologies.

2. Managing both front-end and back-end development

Another challenge that is faced by a full-stack developer is managing both front-end and back-end development. At times the front-end and back-end development tasks are managed by two different teams and as a full-stack developer it is their job to manage and coordinate the two teams. This can be a daunting task. 

3. Testing and debugging code

A full-stack developer needs to test and debug both front-end and back-end codes. This can be tedious and time-consuming but it is essential to ensure that codes are error-free before the website goes live.

Final Words

Full-stack development can be considered an important term in the world of web and software development. It has been a popular choice over the past few years for the development of powerful and engaging web applications and websites. 

In today’s competitive age, there has been a rise in the demand for skilled full-stack developers who can work on all parts of a website and web applications, from back-end coding and database management to front-end designs and user experience. A business organization should hire a full-stack development company offering the best full-stack development services. Wait no longer. Hire the best full-stack developers in the market today!