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Developer vs front end developer

The differences between developers and front end developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a developer and a front end developer. Additionally, a developer has an average salary of $100,076, which is higher than the $92,147 average annual salary of a front end developer.

The top three skills for a developer include javascript, python and java. The most important skills for a front end developer are javascript, front-end, and html css.

Developer vs front end developer overview

DeveloperFront End Developer
Yearly salary$100,076$92,147
Hourly rate$48.11$44.30
Growth rate21%13%
Number of jobs262,570124,876
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age3937
Years of experience44

What does a developer do?

Developers are usually system or application developers in a company who work on specific projects related to networks or applications from conception to implementation. They attend planning sessions to ensure that the program is feasible. They are responsible for designing the system through coding and basic user interface design. They also work on troubleshooting any challenges that may be met at the testing stage of the program's development. They solve challenges and ensure that minimal problems will arise upon publishing the system or application. They also manage the evaluation to ensure that the program's goals are accomplished and that the end-users are satisfied with the results.

What does a front end developer do?

Front-end developers architect and develop applications and websites through web technologies. They are responsible for the implementation of visual elements that every user sees and interacts with on web applications. They are often supported by the back-end web developers who are in charge of server application logic and integration. They must know CSS or HTML. They should be equipped with CSS processing skills, browser developer tools, version control, JavaScript framework, and responsive design skills.

Developer vs front end developer salary

Developers and front end developers have different pay scales, as shown below.

DeveloperFront End Developer
Average salary$100,076$92,147
Salary rangeBetween $76,000 And $131,000Between $68,000 And $124,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateWashingtonCalifornia
Best paying company-Lifetime
Best paying industryFinanceFinance

Differences between developer and front end developer education

There are a few differences between a developer and a front end developer in terms of educational background:

DeveloperFront End Developer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Developer vs front end developer demographics

Here are the differences between developers' and front end developers' demographics:

DeveloperFront End Developer
Average age3937
Gender ratioMale, 74.9% Female, 25.1%Male, 77.3% Female, 22.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 6.5% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 15.8% White, 58.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage8%9%

Differences between developer and front end developer duties and responsibilities

Developer example responsibilities.

  • Manage continuous integration, configure the servers using Jenkins.
  • Analyze and manage the project throughout SDLC, written/review specification documents.
  • Configure and manage JGroup multicasting communication for apache tomcat web servers.
  • Upgrade internal loan and prospect tracking system to be more responsive and utilizing the latest in CSS & HTML.
  • Implement this application, using object-orient Perl to dynamically generate HTML with embed JavaScript, interacting with back-end databases via DBI/DBD.
  • Integrate content feeds via JSON, XML, and RSS from both internal and external sources into web content management components.
  • Show more

Front end developer example responsibilities.

  • Manage Linux web and database servers.
  • Used SVN as source control management giving a huge speed advantage on centralize systems that have to communicate with a server.
  • Manage social media including Facebook advertising.
  • Interact with java controllers (JQUERY, Ajax, and JSON to write/read data from back end systems).
  • Receive business logic specifications and design documents, and translate them into HTML, CSS, JSON files, JavaScript code.
  • Gather data from API / web services via AJAX- JSON calls and updating the DOM within the result sets.
  • Show more

Developer vs front end developer skills

Common developer skills
  • JavaScript, 7%
  • Python, 6%
  • Java, 6%
  • C++, 5%
  • API, 4%
  • CSS, 4%
Common front end developer skills
  • JavaScript, 10%
  • Front-End, 10%
  • Html Css, 6%
  • UI, 6%
  • HTML, 5%
  • Java, 5%

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