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Web developers to solve problems across the stack from front-end coding to SEO to server-side; PHP to MySQL, AJAX/JSON, JavaScript to HTML5/CSS3. Find Web Development WFH freelancers on January 21, 2025 who work remotely. Read less

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Top Frequently Asked Questions

Finding your developer Web Development FAQs

What key skills do front-end web developers have?

Here are 30 key principles of front-end web development, explained in a way that highlights when and why they are crucial:

1. Semantic HTML
When: During structure definition.
Why: Ensures content is meaningful to both machines and humans, aiding accessibility and SEO.

2. Responsive Design
When: Designing for various screen sizes.
Why: Ensures your site is usable on any device, crucial for user experience and reach.

3. Mobile-First Approach
When: Starting a new project or redesign.
Why: Prioritizes mobile users, who are often the majority, ensuring performance on smaller screens first.

4. CSS Flexbox and Grid
When: Layout creation.
Why: Provides modern, flexible ways to manage layouts, improving responsiveness without excessive media queries.

5. CSS Preprocessors (Sass/Less)
When: Managing complex stylesheets.
Why: Offers variables, nesting, and mixins, making CSS more maintainable and scalable.

6. Accessibility (A11y)
When: Throughout development.
Why: Ensures your site is usable by everyone, including those with disabilities, improving inclusivity.

7. Performance Optimization
When: From the start and during optimization phases.
Why: Reduces load times, enhances user experience, and impacts SEO.

8. Progressive Enhancement
When: Building features.
Why: Ensures basic functionality for all users, then enhances with JavaScript for capable browsers.

9. Browser Compatibility
When: Testing phase.
Why: Ensures your site works across different browsers, reaching a wider audience.

10. JavaScript ES6+
When: Modern web app development.
Why: Utilizes new features for cleaner, more efficient code.

11. State Management
When: Developing complex applications with changing states.
Why: Helps manage data flow in large applications (like using Redux or Vuex).

12. Single Page Applications (SPA)
When: Building dynamic web apps.
Why: Offers a smoother, app-like experience without page reloads.

13. Web Components
When: Creating reusable UI elements.
Why: Promotes component reusability and encapsulation.

14. Modular CSS
When: Scaling CSS for large projects.
Why: Reduces specificity issues and makes stylesheets manageable.

15. CSS-in-JS
When: When integrating styles with components in frameworks like React.
Why: Allows for dynamic, component-scoped styling.

16. Event Delegation
When: Handling events in dynamic content.
Why: Improves performance by reducing the number of event listeners.

17. DOM Manipulation
When: Interacting with the page's content.
Why: Efficiently updates the UI based on user actions or data changes.

18. Asynchronous JavaScript
When: Dealing with API calls or loading resources.
Why: Prevents blocking of the main thread, enhancing user experience.

19. Lazy Loading
When: Loading heavy resources or images.
Why: Speeds up page load by only loading content as needed.

20. Service Workers
When: Building offline capabilities or PWA.
Why: Enables offline functionality, caching, and push notifications.

21. Web Animations
When: Adding dynamic effects or transitions.
Why: Enhances user engagement with smooth, performant animations.

22. Form Validation
When: Collecting user input.
Why: Ensures data integrity and improves user experience by providing immediate feedback.

23. Web Sockets
When: Real-time applications are needed.
Why: Allows for bi-directional, real-time communication between client and server.

24. Security Practices
When: Always, but especially with user inputs and data handling.
Why: Guards against XSS, CSRF, and other threats, protecting users and data.

25. Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
When: Fetching resources from different domains.
Why: Manages security for cross-site HTTP requests.

26. Code Splitting
When: Managing large JavaScript bundles.
Why: Improves initial load time and performance by loading only necessary code.

27. Browser Caching
When: Optimizing for return visitors.
Why: Reduces server load and speeds up subsequent page loads.

28. SEO Basics
When: Content creation and site structure.
Why: Ensures your site is discoverable by search engines, driving organic traffic.

29. Testing (Unit, Integration, E2E)
When: Throughout the development cycle.
Why: Ensures reliability, functionality, and prevents regressions.

30. Version Control
When: From project inception to completion.
Why: Manages changes, facilitates teamwork, and allows for rollback if needed.

These principles are not always applied linearly but are considerations that should be integrated into your development process at various stages:

During Planning: Accessibility, mobile-first, responsiveness, SEO, performance.
While Coding: Semantic HTML, CSS methodologies, JavaScript best practices, modular design.
In Development: State management, SPA, web components, testing, version control.
During Optimization: Performance optimization, lazy loading, code splitting, browser caching.
For User Interaction: Form validation, web animations, event delegation.
For Security and Scalability: Security practices, CORS, service workers for offline capabilities.

These principles guide developers to create web applications that are not only functional but also efficient, user-friendly, and accessible.

What skills do backend web developers have?

Backend web development involves creating and managing the server-side of web applications, focusing on functionality, data management, and integration with the frontend. Here are the key skills required for backend development, along with the software that supports these principles:

== Key Skills of Backend Web Development: ==

Programming Languages:
Explanation: Proficiency in at least one server-side language is essential.

Languages:
- Node.js (JavaScript): For building scalable network applications.
- Python: With frameworks like Django or Flask for rapid development.
- Ruby: Often used with Ruby on Rails for its convention over configuration philosophy.
- Java: With frameworks like Spring for enterprise applications.
- PHP: Especially with frameworks like Laravel or Symfony for web development.
- C#: Used with ASP.NET for robust, scalable applications.

Database Management:
Explanation: Understanding how to design, query, and manage databases.
Skills:
SQL and NoSQL database management.
Database design principles (normalization, indexing).
ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) for interacting with databases through code.

Server Management:
Explanation: Knowledge of how to deploy, manage, and maintain servers.
Skills:
Understanding of server environments like Apache, Nginx.
Configuring web servers, SSL certificates, and server-side security.

API Development:
Explanation: Creating and managing APIs to allow communication between different software systems.
Skills:
RESTful or GraphQL API design and implementation.
Knowledge of HTTP methods, status codes, and authentication mechanisms.

Authentication and Authorization:
Explanation: Securing applications by managing user identity and access controls.
Skills:
Implementing OAuth, JWT (JSON Web Tokens), or session-based authentication.

Security Practices:
Explanation: Protecting applications from vulnerabilities.
Skills:
Understanding of HTTPS, encryption, SQL injection prevention, XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) protection, CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) prevention.

Caching Mechanisms:
Explanation: Improving application performance by caching data.
Skills:
Use of Redis or Memcached for in-memory data storage.

Scalability and Performance:
Explanation: Designing systems that can handle increased loads.
Skills:
Load balancing, horizontal scaling, database sharding.

Testing:
Explanation: Ensuring code reliability and maintainability.
Skills:
Writing unit tests, integration tests, and possibly automated system tests.

Version Control:
Explanation: Managing code versions for team collaboration.
Skills:
Proficiency in Git, understanding of branching strategies like Git Flow.

Containerization and Orchestration:
Explanation: Isolating applications for consistency across environments.
Skills:
Docker for containerization, Kubernetes or Docker Swarm for orchestration.

Cloud Services:
Explanation: Leveraging cloud platforms for deployment and scaling.
Skills:
Familiarity with AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure.

Asynchronous Programming:
Explanation: Handling operations without blocking the main execution thread.
Skills:
Understanding of asynchronous patterns, event-driven programming.

== Software and Tools Supporting Backend Development: ==

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs):
Visual Studio Code - For multiple languages with extensive plugin support.
PyCharm - Python-specific IDE with Django and Flask integration.
IntelliJ IDEA - For Java and Kotlin, with Spring support.
RubyMine - Tailored for Ruby development, including Rails.

Frameworks:
Express.js for Node.js - Minimalist web framework.
Django or Flask for Python - Full-stack and micro frameworks respectively.
Ruby on Rails - For rapid development with Ruby.
Spring Boot - Java framework for microservices and standalone applications.
Laravel - PHP framework for elegant syntax and robust features.

Database Tools:
MySQL Workbench, PostgreSQL, MongoDB Compass for database management.
ORMs like Django ORM, SQLAlchemy (Python), or Hibernate (Java) for database interaction.

API Development Tools:
Postman or Insomnia for API testing and documentation.
Swagger or GraphQL Playground for API documentation.

Version Control:
GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket for hosting Git repositories.

Testing Frameworks:
JUnit for Java, pytest for Python, Mocha or Jest for JavaScript.

Containerization:
Docker for creating containers.
Kubernetes or Docker Compose for managing multiple containers.

Cloud Services:
AWS CLI, Google Cloud SDK, Azure CLI for managing cloud resources.

Security Tools:
OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite for security testing.
Let's Encrypt for free SSL certificates.

Monitoring and Logging:
ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for logs.
Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring.

These skills and tools collectively enable backend developers to create robust, efficient, and scalable server-side applications, ensuring they can handle complex business logic, manage data effectively, and integrate with various external services or frontend applications.

What's an easy analogy for explaining front-end and back-end development to people?

Imagine you're at a fancy restaurant with a unique dining experience:

Front-End Development is like the dining room of the restaurant:

Visuals and Ambiance: This is where you see the beautifully designed menu, the elegant table settings, and the overall decor. Front-end developers are like the chefs who craft the presentation of your meal, ensuring everything looks appealing. They use HTML for structure (like setting the table), CSS for styling (the decor and ambiance), and JavaScript to make the dining experience interactive (like a waiter who can respond to your requests in real-time).

User Interaction: The front-end is all about how you interact with the restaurant. How easy is it to navigate the menu? Can you customize your order with simple interactions? Just like how a well-designed front-end makes navigating a website intuitive and enjoyable.

Immediate Experience: If something doesn't work - if the menu is hard to read, or the touch screen for ordering is unresponsive - you notice it immediately. This is akin to bugs or design issues in front-end development affecting user experience right away.

Back-End Development is akin to the kitchen and management system of the restaurant:

Behind the Scenes: You don't see the kitchen, but it's where the magic happens. Back-end developers are the chefs cooking the meal, managing recipes (data), and ensuring everything is prepared correctly. They work with databases (like managing inventory and recipes), server logic (how orders are processed), and APIs (communication between the kitchen and the dining room).

Data Management: Just as the kitchen manages food storage, ingredients, and preparation, back-end developers handle data storage, retrieval, and manipulation. They ensure that when you order a steak, the kitchen knows exactly what cut, how it should be cooked, and what sides go with it.

Performance and Scalability: If the kitchen can't keep up with orders, or if there's a bottleneck in food preparation, your dining experience suffers. Back-end developers optimize performance to handle many orders (requests) smoothly, much like ensuring the kitchen can serve many diners without delays.

Security: The back-end is also responsible for safety - ensuring no one can tamper with your food or see what others are ordering unless they should. In web development, this translates to securing data, managing user authentication, and protecting against cyber threats.

Integration:

The Waiter: Here, the waiter acts like the bridge between front-end and back-end. They take your order (front-end interaction) and communicate it to the kitchen (back-end). APIs are similar in web development; they're the protocols that allow the front-end and back-end to talk to each other, ensuring your order (request) gets processed correctly.

Dining Experience: If the front-end is all about making you want to dine there, and the back-end ensures you get your meal, the integration of both ensures a seamless experience - from the moment you decide what to eat to the moment you savor the last bite.

In this analogy, a successful restaurant experience relies on both the front-end (the dining room's appeal and interaction) and the back-end (the kitchen's efficiency, safety, and capability). A developer's job in either area is crucial for the overall "dining" experience on a website or application, where one without the other would leave diners (users) unsatisfied.

Is PHP good for mobile web development?

When considering alternatives to PHP for mobile web development, several languages and frameworks stand out due to their performance, scalability, community support, and features tailored for modern web applications, especially those targeting mobile users. Here's a look at some options that are generally considered superior for mobile web development:

1. JavaScript (with Node.js)
Why it's better:
Full-Stack Capability: JavaScript allows for both frontend and backend development, promoting code reuse and a unified language across the stack.
Non-Blocking I/O: Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, which is ideal for handling numerous simultaneous connections typical in mobile scenarios.
Performance: Due to its architecture, Node.js can handle high-concurrency scenarios efficiently, which is crucial for mobile users expecting fast response times.
Rich Ecosystem: npm (Node Package Manager) provides a vast array of packages and tools, facilitating rapid development and maintenance.
Example Use:
Frameworks like Express.js for backend routing and Next.js for server-side rendering can create highly responsive mobile web experiences.

2. Python (with Django or Flask)
Why it's better:
Readability and Simplicity: Python's syntax is clear and concise, which speeds up development and reduces errors.
Scalability: Django, in particular, is known for its scalability, handling large volumes of traffic well-suited for mobile web applications.
ORM: Django's ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) simplifies database interactions, which can be complex when dealing with mobile data synchronization.
Batteries Included: Django offers a full suite of features out of the box, including security features, which are critical for mobile applications.
Example Use:
Django for complex, data-driven mobile web applications or Flask for lightweight, microservices-oriented mobile backends.

3. Go (Golang)
Why it's better:
Performance: Go is compiled to machine code, offering speed comparable to C or C++ but with much simpler syntax.
Concurrency: Built-in support for concurrent programming with goroutines and channels makes it excellent for handling multiple mobile clients simultaneously.
Scalability: Go applications can scale horizontally with ease, fitting well with the demands of modern mobile web traffic.
Static Typing: Leads to fewer runtime errors, which is vital when dealing with mobile app backends.
Example Use:
Useful for building APIs or microservices that serve mobile applications, where low latency is crucial.

4. Rust
Why it's better:
Safety and Concurrency: Rust ensures memory safety and thread safety without garbage collection, making it excellent for performance-critical applications.
Performance: It's often faster than Go for CPU-bound tasks, providing a high-performance backend for mobile web services.
Modern Features: Rust's ecosystem is growing, offering web frameworks like Actix or Rocket for building robust web services.
Example Use:
Ideal for systems where security and performance are paramount, like financial services apps or gaming platforms.

5. Ruby (with Ruby on Rails)
Why it's better:
Convention over Configuration: Rails provides a lot of functionality with minimal setup, allowing developers to focus on features.
Rapid Development: Known for its speed in development, Rails can be particularly advantageous for startups or projects needing quick iterations.
Community and Gems: A vibrant community and a rich ecosystem of gems for almost any functionality needed.
Example Use:
Suitable for projects where development speed and ease of maintenance are prioritized, though it might lag in raw performance compared to others for very high-load scenarios.

Why These Might Be Better Than PHP for Mobile Web Development:
Performance: Mobile users often have less patience for slow load times due to varying network conditions. Languages like JavaScript, Go, or Rust can provide faster response times.
Scalability: Modern mobile applications can see sudden spikes in traffic; languages like Go or Python with frameworks like Django are built to scale efficiently.
Modern Tooling: The tools and frameworks around these languages are often more aligned with current web development practices, including RESTful services, real-time features, and better integration with cloud services.
Security: With an increased focus on security in mobile applications, languages like Rust or Go offer built-in advantages due to their memory safety and concurrency models.
Community and Ecosystem: While PHP has a large community, the ecosystems around JavaScript or Python are particularly vibrant for web development, offering extensive libraries and frameworks for mobile optimization.

Choosing the "best" language depends on project requirements, team expertise, scalability needs, and the specific mobile web development challenges you face. However, for many modern mobile web applications, these alternatives to PHP can offer significant advantages in terms of performance, developer productivity, and scalability.

How do PHP developers create websites?

PHP web developers will usually pick a framework like Laravel or CodeIgniter to translate designs and wireframes into high-quality code. Because Laravel is simpler and more intuitive for beginner web developers, it's often used as the PHP framework of choice to design, build and maintain high performance, reusable, and reliable RESTful Web Services and PHP web applications. Professional PHP developers who build complex web applications will address performance, quality, and responsiveness as priority issues and then identify and correct bottlenecks and fix bugs; which can all be done inside HostJane boards.

What's the best framework for development?

If you have the funds and time, opt to develop your website in a front-end framework like Node.js with Typescript or React (originally created by Facebook), the best web frameworks for top-notch SaaS apps and e-commerce stores and available under an MIT license. You will have a fast, scalable, easy-to-use and cross-browser compatible website that avoids spaghetti code and can accommodate latest APIs for rapid prototyping and great performance. Here are our top picks for best frameworks:

1. React
2. NodeJS (inc Express)
3. Angular
4. Vue.js
5. Django
6. LitElement (JavaScript library made by Google)
7. ASP.NET
8. Ember
9. Laravel
10. jQuery
11. Ruby on Rails
12. CodeIgniter

How do web developers plan and build websites?

Whether they're building a modern React or Angular JS application or using a framework like Bootstrap, jQuery and SASS to building websites from scratch (not templated!) with a UI/UX and front-end dev focus; your developer should involve you in the build process. Writing clean, maintainable and efficient code is guided by the requirements of the client - the process is configured to your tastes, ideas to provide support for not just the functionality you need, but HOW you need it. Should you use MySQL or Postgress? Do you need any message-queueing like RabbitMQ or Kafka? Will you need a JavaScript testing framework such as Jest or use of microservices and containers (which may require Docker)? These can only be answered when the developer has customized the build to your plans, so every website should have a unique planning stage.

How do webservers work?

In its simplest form, a web server is specialized software that websites use to answer calls from web browsers, and then server responses usually as web pages. Web servers "talk" to browsers through the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) language, sending images, audio and video and saved files (.html) to respond to browser calls. Every website needs a web server layer, the most popular are Apache, Microsoft IIS, Nginx (pronounced as Engine X) and, LightSpeed Web Server: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/web-servers-work/.

Learn more about web servers: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_is_a_web_server

What is UX/UI in web design?

UX stands for User Experience and covers the complete journey of a user on your website or app, from how user profiles are created, to how users can navigate across your site from product right through to the checkout and payment pages. Every user creates a story in navigation paths that can be analyzed and learned from to prototype and wireframe better experiences. In most cases this means better revenue, lower bounce rates and better word of mouth, so it's worth taking your time to get this right. UX depends on UI, which is concerned with the User Interface; in other words, what people see on the page from text font to spacing to the colors and visual elements used in a webpage. Striking the right balance of text, logo branding, buttons and navigation elements, customer research has shown has a large bearing on how much users will like your site or app. Here's some examples of websites that do both UI and UX extremely well: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-website-designs-list

Should I use Joomla or WordPress to build my website?

If you hire a WordPress web developer experienced in custom Gutenberg (an ace in PHP, JS, MySQL) and the WordPress API (https://developer.wordpress.org/), you can make enviable static websites and WooCommerce storefronts that hold their own against the world's biggest brands from Ted Blog to The Next Web. Using ACF - Advanced Custom Fields, React and Angular with WordPress API backend and integrating with MailChimp/Mandrill, you'd be surprised how powerful WordPress can be. To an extent the same is true with Joomla web development: the built-in functions like Jfactory, JPlugins and Joomla Components, Joomla Modules and Joomla Plugins can create a rich UI in JavaScript, HTML and SASS, or SCSS (https://developer.joomla.org/coding-standards/scss.html).

A developer said my code needs refactoring. Is that important?

The goal of refactoring is to produce the most secure, high performance, maintainable code version using industry best practices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_refactoring), but the phase in the lifecycle when Software as a service (or SaaS) businesses optimize their code varies by many factors. Specialist refactoring programmers are concern with 1 central question: Can there be a better way to serve code that makes it more comprehensible and less exhaustive on the server? If the answer is yes, then refactoring, or "restructuring" your website or application's code into a rearranged version which preserve the intent of the code (what it actually does) but makes it more stable, easier to build with, maintain or modify in a transformed "refactored" version, then it's worth spending your time doing this tweaking. Remember, refactoring is about making changes for the better not doing major re-writes, so you can do unit tests to have peace of mind the code still works as you want it to.

How do you distinguish 'web design' from 'web development'?

Web design is a subset of web development, which is typically seen as a much deeper group of technical processes and operations (connected to the source code) involved in the bringing of a website or application to working availability on the internet or an intranet. Web development or dev isn't just about creating the site, it's about maintaining the finished build.

To name a few other web development processes in full-stack dev:

- Client-side scripting (Examples: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery)
- Server-side scripting (Examples: ASP.NET, C, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby)
- Database design (Examples: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, IBM DB2, Apache, MongoDB)
- Web content
- Network security
- Cache
- Search Engine Ranking and Optimization

More than CSS and layout of graphical elements or stock images on the page, web design includes a holistic set of values that make an app or site functional and complete.

Good file organization, having a mobile-friendly responsive navigation and security that acknowledges the latest industry protocols is all part of that. Good code etiquette is the keystone to good web design; the web designers we want at HostJane know how to integrate factors such the site's target audience and the business or projects call-to-action goals into the design layout across all devices.

How can I avoid working with an inexperienced web developer?

Like other freelance platforms, HostJane provides reviews for web developers but no actual vetting. So what should buyers look out for when assessing a web developers past work. The best way to decide if you want to work with a developer is to examine their portfolio or ask another developer you trust to examine their work before you hire them. If they don't have a current portfolio on HostJane, ask them to provide samples of previous, recent builds or projects similar to your proposed one.

What kind of schooling does a good web developer have?

Don't rule out a developer without a degree. Some of the best freelance web devs often don't have formal university computer science qualifications or a related degree. It's best to judge on their past work, reviews, how they communicate with you.

For front-end developers, look for an extensive grounding in common programming languages like HTML, PHP, Javascript, ASP.NET, Angular.js and comfort working in XML and implementing CSS. Back-end developers usually have experience in Python, Java or Ruby - depending on the project you will want to assign jobs to people with clear ability. If your project is a React build that should be in the developer's toolkit; don't hire anyone who might be learning on the job.

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