The software development scenario has been on an evolving spree for the last couple of decades. We have certainly moved on from using a single programming language to a plethora of programming languages, tools, and frameworks.
With the advent of the web and mobile applications in recent years, we have seen a couple of buzzwords like frontend, backend, Full-stack, etc.
In this article, we will present some of the facets of Full stack development and present some facts which may help you understand the reason behind its growing popularity.
Full Stack Development has been making a lot of noise in recent times. If we read technology articles or get a glimpse of the job market, then we will realize that Full Stack development is in great demand and the future looks extremely promising as well.
According to Indeed, the average full-stack developer earns $104,396 annually. Their data is based on reports from 5,000 salaries
So, the first question here is, what is Full Stack Development?
In simple words, the development of a web or mobile application has multiple facets like frontend, backend, database development, and testing. To make this development streamlined, one should possess expertise in multiple areas.
In a traditional development process, a developer would have to gain expertise in one of these fields and keep working in that domain.
However, with the paradigm shift in software development and growing demand for seamless technology and solutions, that extends across server-end, client-end, and mobile application, the Full Stack Development has gained popularity.
In Full Stack Development a single developer can undertake end-to-end development of web apps, websites, and mobile apps using different sets of programming languages, frameworks, and tools, which can help them build the frontend, backend, database, and carry out the debugging as well.
Full Stack development process helps us take complete ownership of the entire design and implementation of the process suitable for the development of a web app.
A full-stack development team can bring an in-house capability to offer a complete solution for web and mobile software development. If we talk about Architecture, then we have the 3 basic layers here.
Software development companies across the world are gradually moving towards Full stack development because it offers them an alternative where all steps right from the inception of ideas to the actual product deployment can be orchestrated under one roof.
Full-stack development helps us take care of all activities like software design, building frontend and backend architecture, developing the code, testing the app, and many other processes fulfilled based on different criteria.
As we mentioned above, full-stack development covers every aspect of website, web, and mobile application development. Full-stack development offers an amalgamation of emerging technologies, including frontend, backend, and database development.
Here we will give you brief information about the kind of tools, technologies, and frameworks available for Full stack development.
Frontend development’s primary objective is to ease user interaction by building a highly interactive User interface. It includes activities to assemble the different components of the website using a different set of frameworks and languages.
Building a frontend is certainly a challenging job as developers must cope with the constant change in end-user requirements along with the evolving technology, which changes the methods of user interaction gradually.
Here we have listed a few Tools, Languages, Technologies, and Frameworks, which are contributing to the popularity of Full stack development.
The most used front-end languages for web development are as follows.
It is unarguably the most used and most popular scripting language. It offers some unique features which help developers to design highly interactive websites and web apps for the end-users.
JavaScript makes it easy to enhance the website’s functionality, enhance its security and execute interactive web-based software or games on the site.
It stands for Hypertext Markup Language, and it is a combination of Hypertext and Markup language which offers a traditional method of web page frontend development.
Here the Hypertext handles the link between various components and pages of a website, whereas the Markup language offers the capability to define the web page documentation and its structure.
It is known as Cascading Style Sheets, which makes web pages attractive with the application of several styles. Here it is important to note that CSS can be used independently of the HTML to make enhancements in web pages.
Full stack development makes good use of widely used frameworks for the development of web applications. Here we have a few popular web development frameworks.
It is an open-source framework, which is primarily used to develop single-page web applications. It is an evolving framework that has attained massive popularity in recent years as it continuously offers out of the box methods to build exceptional web apps.
Angular actually changes the static HTML into dynamic HTML, which gives the flexibility to the developers to do innovative coding, apart from that as it is an Open-Source tool, hence it could be altered based on specific requirements.
It is another open-source framework, conceived and supported by Facebook. It offers a highly flexible JavaScript library, which can be utilized for building exceptional user interfaces.
React provides a component-based library that handles and manages the view layer of web apps, which makes it immensely popular among programming enthusiasts.
It is another highly popular open-source framework, which offers a smooth interaction between the JavaScript and Document Object Model.
It is known for simplification of several processes like handling browser events, Ajax interactions, traversing and manipulating HTML documents, cross-browser development, and DOM animations using JavaScript.
It is among the most robust CSS extension languages available in the market. It is utilized to extend the functionality of the variables, nesting, and CSS of a website, etc.
It is a free and open-source framework, comparatively new if we compare it with competitors. It offers a few exceptional features to create highly responsive websites and web apps. It is based on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and could be used to build highly responsive mobile-first websites.
Apart from the above, we have a few other popular frameworks and libraries used for front-end website development like Express.JS, Ember.JS, Backbone.js, Semantic-UI, and Foundation.
It is also known as Back-office or content management system. It is an important part of the web app, which is not visible to the end-user, and could be directly accessed by the Software developers and Database administrators. The backend acts as the very foundation on which the front end of the application functions and thrives.
There are several programming languages that help us build a robust and stable backend architecture. A few of the most popular are mentioned below, which are indeed responsible for the growing popularity of Full stack development.
It is one of the most popular and versatile scripting languages, which is used for the development of both the frontend and backend of websites and web apps.
It is one of the oldest backend development programming languages, which was explicitly developed for web development. It is a server-side scripting language known for its robustness and reliability.
When it comes to several capabilities like availability, robustness, scalability, and additional features, then Java wins the race hands down, and that’s the reason why it is among the most widely used programming languages on the face of this planet.
It is one of the oldest OOPS based programming languages, which is also known as a widely-used general-purpose programming language.
It is also used for the development of backends for websites and web apps. It is a default choice for anyone who wants to develop projects without Java and JavaScript.
Here interesting thing is, that it is neither a general programming language nor a framework. It is used for the development of backend services such as Web apps, mobile apps, and APIs.
It is freely available and an open-source tool, which offers a cross-platform runtime environment, where JavaScript code could be executed outside of the browser.
Python was launched a few decades back, but it has attained unimaginable popularity very recently. It offers a remarkable ability for rapid development and highly efficient integration with systems.
Apart from the above, we have a few more backend programming and scripting languages, like C#, REST, Ruby and Go, and REST, which makes full-stack development an area that offers a wide variety of programming options.
Full stack development is in demand, as it offers some of the most exciting backend frameworks:
It is a freely available and open-source development framework, used for the rapid development of APIs. It is based on Python, which offers minimal coding, thereby it enables rapid and high-quality backend development.
This framework is based on Spring, which offers developers the ability to develop production-grade websites and web apps using Java.
It is a freely available and open-source framework, which is based on Node.js. It is popular for its minimalistic approach to the development of backend web and mobile applications.
It is highly popular among developers for its non-restrictive nature, which makes it a de-facto choice for building robust backend apps and highly efficient APIs.
It is a full-featured backend development framework that helps developers build robust and highly scaled backend web applications. It offers a wide range of build components.
It is another freely available and open-source framework, which is known for its high degree of developer-friendliness.
It utilizes the capabilities of programming languages and offers predefined solutions for repetitive tasks. It is an advanced framework that provides all the relevant components, that any developer expects.
In layman language, a database is a collection of interrelated data organized into tables, which is backed by a mechanism that facilitates quick insertion, retrieval, modification, and deletion of data.
It offers the ability to fetch reports and view data in specific Views created by the end-user. Database selection plays a vital role in full-stack development, some most used databases are:
Oracle is among the oldest and most widely popular Databases. In Oracle, the data is treated as a unit for storing and retrieving information, driven by a programmed query. It offers a highly efficient and robust database server, which handles a huge number of data transactions on a real-time basis.
It stands for Structured Language Query, which is indeed a language utilized for the management of a relational database along with performing the usual operations like creating, maintaining, or retrieving the required information.
It is an open-source document-oriented database, which is a NoSQL or non-relational database as well. The basic structure of MongoDB is quite different from the usual table-like relational database. It offers a unique mechanism to store, retrieve and manage the data.
Full-stack development is highly popular not only because it is an amalgamation of widely used Tools, Technologies, and Frameworks.
It is popular for a few other offerings as well. Here we have listed a few distinct advantages offered by the Full Stack Development approach.
Full Stack Web Development is an amalgamation of front end and back end development, which allows developers to easily switch between server-side and client-side tasks based on their project requirements.
It also allows a developer to roll out a solution based on the requirements and vision, instead of explaining the design and code to another person for development and execution.
It is popular because developers are not tied down to just web development. It offers a high degree of flexibility, where developers can be involved in designing a complete structure or focus on any specific level of the project based on the requirement.
It is certainly the most important advantage it offers. The existing full-stack developers can offer better quality in the same, instead of hiring additional developers for front and back end development. It helps organizations to save costs to a great extent.
The full stack development approach helps an organization or a team of developers take ownership of the entire design and implementation of a project. It is easy because the capability of the development of the solution is very much available in-house.
Time is money, and this is an important trait for any business. When it comes to the development of an application or modification of an existing one, time consumption is a critical success factor for any development organization.
A full-stack development approach offers the ability to devise feasible solutions so quickly, as a single developer can focus on both frontend and backend development.
It helps to save time up to great extent, especially on the communication and execution part, as there will be lesser people involved in the overall development process.
Full-stack development can help an organization to enhance its productivity. As it offers coordinated development of both frontend and backend in a highly collaborative environment, which ensures a sizeable enhancement in the productivity of the developers, thereby saves cost and time for the business.
A full-stack development team can easily and efficiently divide the development and design work, depending on the workflow and business requirements. Several developers can work in tandem and help an organization meet the project delivery deadlines very easily.
A full-stack development company always stays up to date with emerging technologies and tools. It is easier for full-stack developers to upgrade their skill sets, as they already possess extensive knowledge about all the aspects of development techniques.
Full Stack Web Development is still an evolving technology, and people are still exploring the potential of developing robust and scalable websites and apps. It offers a unique proposition, where we have a laid down process to work on all three layers i.e.
Presentation (UI/UX), Business Logic (Backend), and Database. The amazing part is, that a developer is not restricted to utilizing a certain set of tools, technology, and frameworks. They are free to handpick the resources of their choice to develop the required solution.
The full-stack development approach is gaining momentum due to the unique cost benefits and other features it offers. Full-stack developers are skilled and well-versed in both frontend and backend development, which enables them to offer a complete and seamless solution based on the client’s requirements.
Additionally, their seamless expertise in various technologies and tools ensures that the project is completed rapidly with a high degree of quality to perform complex tasks.
It is the reason why more development firms are hiring Full Stack Developers instead of having separate teams of frontend and backend developers.