CHAPTER 8

Types of Developers

When you have a strong knowledge of the types of development, it’s time to dive into the sea of types of developers.

It’s imperative to get an idea about the types of developers and their roles in the web development world.

If you’re curious to know different types of developers, here’s the detailed chapter curated for you.

The web development landscape is changing rapidly, giving the latest and new technologies a new edge to succeed. When there’s a flood of web development technologies, there should be individuals responsible for working on them. That’s how the need for web developers took a turn.

Different Types of Web Developer

With the emergence of new technologies, the need for new areas of specialization pop into existence. In addition, it generates the need for seasoned developers who have also have a stronghold on the latest web development technologies.

Earlier, there was no rush of numerous technologies for vivid web developers. But today, with the burgeoning technology advancements, here comes the need for individual technology professionals.

Let’s look at the different types of developers available in the market.

What are the different types of web developers?

Front-end Developer

• Specializes in the programming of visual interfaces
  
• Focuses on the website’s aesthetics and layouts
  
• Creates the code and run it on a web browser or the computers’ of the users’ device
  
• Possesses an understanding of human-machine interaction and design web layouts based on them
  
• Prolifically deals with cross-browser compatibility issues and troubleshoot them using the best practices
  
• Emphasizes tweaking and making the visual presentation of a website much more impressive and interactive
  
  

Back-end Developer

• Possesses the capability to design, implementation and create functional logic
  
• Responsible for improving the performance and scalability of a web application
  
• Back-end is enormously complex and is done by the developers to clear the clutter of a website’s functional aspects
  
• A back-end developer build a website (using suitable technologies) with SEO-friendly features so that it can easily be crawled and indexed by the search engines
  
  

Full-stack Developer

• Capable of handling both front-end and back-end development for a web application
  
• Holds grip on different web development technologies and database systems
  
• Can manages both sides very efficiently
  
• Can take a full charge to initiate and run the website as per client needs
  
• Has skills to build an advanced and fully functional web application for SMBss
  
  

Web Developer

• These are software engineers who specialize in building fascinating websites
  
• They can either front-end or back-end developers responsible for taking charge of a complete website
  
• A full-stack developer any also fall in this category
  
• Web developers use numerous programming languages to create technically sound and full-fledged web applications
  
  

Mobile Developer

• Writes codes for the applications that run natively on consumers’ mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets
  
• A mobile developer comprehends the intricacies of a mobile operating (Android and iOS) and create the solution by keeping them in mind
  
• A variety of frameworks and programming languages including Java, Swift, and Objective C are used to build a feature-rich and alluring mobile application
  
  

Middle Tier Developer

• They write non-UI code that seamlessly runs on a browser
  
• These types of developers are often called non-core code developers who create and run the code on a server
  
• Middle tier is also known as the plumbing of a web application
  
  

Desktop Developer

• Works on the development of software applications that usually run on desktop operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS
  
• GUI developers often use XAML, Cocoa, WinForms, Gtk, etc.
  
  

Graphics Developer

• Hire Graphics developers to build web solutions to accomplish lighting, rendering, shading, shadowing, culling, and management of images and other project needs
  
• They are responsible for integrating trending technologies in the game and different other videos
  
• These types of developers have found applications in the video production industry
  
• Frameworks used for graphic development include OpenGL, DirectX, Unity 3D, WebGL
  
• Sometimes it requires C, C++, and Assembly for more advanced website creation
  
  

Game Developer

• They are hired to build gaming applications for the entertainment industry, specifically
  
• They possess specific knowledge and skills in website designing
  
• They are masters of creating and implementing simple to complex gaming experiences
  
• Frameworks that gaming developers use include Unity 3D, OpenGL, DirectX, WebGL
  
• Languages that are being for game development purposes include C, C++, and Java
  
• Generally, developers use Adobe Flash as a standard gaming development platform
  
• Today, HTML5 and JavaScript have become the new gaming development platforms
  
• Also, developers primarily rely on Java and Swift ideal technologies to develop Android and iOS games
  
  

Data Scientist

• Developer who writes programs to analyze data sets are Data Scientists
  
• They take complete charge to conduct and implement statistical analysis, data visualization, machine learning, and predictive modeling
  
• Languages that data scientists widely use are R, Python, and SQL
  
  

Big Data Developer

• Developers who are responsible for writing codes/programs to store and retrieve a vast amount of data into the system are Big Data developers
  
• They make programs to ease the operations for warehouses, relational databases, ETL (Extract Transform Load) systems, data lakes management, and many others
  
• Generally, a big data developer knows how to work with big and distributed storage systems like Hadoop, MapReduce, and Sparx
  
• SQL, Python, Java, and R the other languages that are used by Big Data developers to accomplish complex data storage tasks
  

DevOps Developer

• You can hire these types of developers if you’re in need to develop the systems that handle building, deployment, and administration of back-end software
  
• DevOps developers usually use limited technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, Apache Mesos, Jenkins, HashiCorp stack (Terraform, Vagrant, Packer, Vault, Consul, Nomad), etc. to get this type of development done
  
  

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

• These types of developers are demanded to build the software used for validating the quality of other software systems
  
• They create various automated tests systems and tools to ensure that all the processes and products run as expected
  
• Technologies used to create such software systems include Ruby, Python, and Selenium
  
  

CRM Developer

• This array of developers are specialized in creating the systems that collect consumers and users data
  
• Ideally, these types of developers are asked to create customer relationship management systems that can help businesses in improving their customer satisfaction level
  
• They develop the tools that assist the buyers (customers who use it) in getting knowledge on something particular
  
• These types of CRM tools are developed carefully and can easily be used by taking help of representatives, sales representatives, and account managers
  
• Technologies used to develop CRM systems comprise Salesforce, SAP, Sharepoint, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
  
  

Embedded Developer

• These types of developers are not common as they work with hardware to build real-time systems, microcontrollers, set-top boxes, electronic interfaces, different consumer devices, hardware drivers, and IoT devices
  
• Serial data transmission systems also fall in the embedded development category
  
• Mostly, Embedded developers use languages such as C++, C, Java, and Assembly to give these systems a new and advanced functionality
  
• Developers also use many toolkits and frameworks as per project requisites
  
  

Low-level Developer

• These developers write programs that are very close to the hardware
  
• They write codes usually in low languages such as C and Assembly
  
• You can consider Embedded developers as low-level developers, but they can’t always be pronounced the same
  
  

High-level Developer

• On the contrary, they write codes that are very far and not related to the hardware
  
• High-level codes are written in Python, PHP, Perl, and Ruby
  
• Web developers can sometimes be considered as high-level developers, but not in each case
  
  

WordPress Developer

• WordPress is itself an individual web development platform, but it can be added in the list due to its increasing market prominence
  
• WordPress developers hold specialization in creating impressive websites for almost all types of businesses
  
• They use ready-to-use themes and plugins to develop best-in-class websites to accomplish business purposes
  
• These developers use WordPress system, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP to carry out seamless WordPress development
  
  

Security Developer

• Developers who are proficient in creating systems, methods, and procedures to test an application’s security fall under the category of security developers’
  
• They observe, check, exploit and fix the security flaws in a system and make it flawless to be used by the users
  
• These types of developers are often known as “white-hat” ethical hackers who attempt and discover the system’s vulnerabilities
  
• Security developers usually write programs for tools by using Ruby and Python programming languages
  
• More advanced security developers learn and understand to use C and C++ to make testing tools more robust
  
• In some cases, developers also use reverse engineer libraries and other commercial software to find hidden errors and system vulnerabilities

After briefly introducing different types of developers, we want to let you know the roles and responsibilities of a few major types of developers that are highly demanded across the web development world.

PHP Developer

79% of the total websites use PHP. As a result, it has become the most demanded web development language across the web industry. The fact is that the emerging demand and popularity of this language have simultaneously increased the need for PHP developers.

Usually, a PHP developer is responsible for writing server-side programs for web applications. Generally, PHP developers create back-end support for a website, connect to the database, and make the front-end more interactive.

Who is a PHP developer?

A PHP developer handles all the tasks required to develop a user-oriented web application. In addition, they are often demanded to develop and integrate themes and plugins in a particular framework that is selected for website development.

Besides, PHP developers are expected to tackle a host of tasks, and thankfully, they are doing it with full dedication.

Skills a PHP Developer Possesses

• Knowledge of PHP
  
• Knowledge of jQuery, Ajax, and MySQL
  
• Full-stack developers also possess knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
  
• They know how to work with Unix/Linux, how to integrate APIs, and how to work with MVC framework architecture
  
• They have an understanding of CakePHP
  
  

Roles and Responsibilities of a PHP Developer

The tasks include specific activities, but these are not limited to the ones mentioned below:

Code creation - Creates code to develop new and innovative web applications in a timely and most efficient manner.

Program analysis - A PHP web developer checks if the code they created is correct and working fine when executing with other modules

Explore various architectural considerations - Checking for which website architecture is fine is also the task of a PHP web developer. They research and find the best considerations they think will help database design and increase the website’s performance.

Communicate with teams - The best PHP developer doesn’t alone initiate and implement the website’s planned considerations. Instead, a PHP developer plans for the development and communicates with the entire associated team to visualize and provide their feedback for the same. It helps them solve the conflicts, establish the development priorities, and select the best aspects to be integrated into a web application.

Project development and database optimization - They make development and database synchronization easier by using their technical knowledge and skills. A PHP developer also plans to keep the web application updated and fine-tuned with the latest trends.

Website testing - Professional PHP developers also hold an immense understanding of website testing, helping professionals find and fix various issues, including functional and compatibility concerns.


Overall Maintenance - A PHP web developer’s job is not just by developing and integrating the themes and plugins and testing them for their flawlessness. Instead, they also have to work after the project launch to provide maintenance support to check if the website is also running fine at client’s end.

How to hire a PHP developer?

Hiring a PHP developer is mandatory but, simultaneously, the most challenging task to accomplish. To get this done, one needs to become a subject matter expert. The hiring model is smooth and well-defined, but still, there are a few aspects that need to be considered while hiring a PHP web developer.

Here are the hacks:

“How to hire professional PHP developers?” - It’s the most asked question among business owners who want to develop a PHP-based website.

True that there are plenty of choices to hire a PHP developer. You can directly opt for a web development company or bid on a freelancing portal to get the best talent.

We have made a curated list of aspects to answer this important question. Let’s go through them.

Hiring based on Categorization

Categorizing the developers eases the work of finding a suitable one for the project. Here, you can bid for the type of developers you want for your PHP website development.

• Beginners - These are the developers who have just started their journey in PHP development. They are right to hire as they are in a growing phase and can quickly adapt to the things that are asked to implement.
  
• Mid-level - Mid-level PHP developers or companies are competent to hire as they have already developed and delivered a few projects and know how to handle PHP project requirements.
  
• Experienced/Professional - They are masters of PHP web development and possess ultimate knowledge in complex project accomplishment. These PHP developers are highly recommended to hire as they are professionals who encapsulate website ideas and blend them by injecting real-time features.
  
  

Sources to Hire PHP Developer

It would be great to know the right sources to hire PHP developers. Below are the best places you can search to accomplish your goals.

• PHP Developer Community - PHP is already known as a world-accepted programming language and manages broad community support. Developers and PHP giants help junior developers, and expert professionals find solutions for some queries. If you want to hire PHP developers, looking at the community would be highly beneficial.
  Certified PHP Development Companies - The best source you can approach is the certified PHP companies that are engrossed in rendering high-quality PHP services to their clients. You can hire their team to execute your project flawlessly.
  Freelance Portals - If you’re on a low budget and wish to complete your PHP development with minimum overhead cost, hiring PHP developers from freelancing websites would be a great option. Here, you have the freedom to choose the PHP developers as per your project requirements and budget constraints.
  
  

Other things to consider:

• Experience - No matter whether you hire a mid-level or experienced PHP developer, reassessing the experience is always a good practice. So, it is your responsibility to analyze the proficiency of a developer or a company by asking the number and types of projects they have delivered.
  
• Previous Projects - It’s mandatory to check whether the hired PHP developer has previously worked on a project of your type. To cross-verify, you can ask them to show their past projects that have been successfully delivered to their clients.
  
• Technology Stack - Only possessing knowledge of PHP is not enough to get an interactive project done. To become proficient, PHP developers must have strong command over XHTML, HTML, MySQL, AJAX, CakePHP and, Zend. If the selected PHP developer company has a track record of all this, you can go for it.

Asp.Net Developer

ASP.NET is an open-source server-side website or web application development framework, helping web developers produce dynamic and highly-interactive web applications.

What is an ASP.NET developer?

An ASP.NET developer is utterly responsible for designing, customizing, and developing software applications as per business needs. The responsibilities are not limited to this as a .NET developer also include project determination, analysis of project requisites, support, and maintenance.

What is the role of an ASP.NET developer?

As per the analysis and developers’ interviews, many tasks have been proficiently handled by ASP.NET developers.

• Design, implementation, and development of web application
  
• In-depth analysis of existing software problems
  
• Identification and development of system requirements
  
• Programming (coding) .NET applications
  
• Overall management of software projects with different sizes
  
• Complete assistance to the software support team

Skills an ASP.NET developer possesses

• DExperience with .NET languages including - C#, VB.NET, F#
  
• Must know how to use libraries and .NET stack
  
• Should know how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for website architecture and project planning
  
• Must possess the skills to handle and interact with reliable and trending databases such as MySQL and SQL Server
  
  

How to hire ASP.NET developers?

As you’re on the lookout for a professional ASP.NET developer, you need to be aware of a few mandatory options.

Dive deep into the basics

This initial step is all about knowing about the basics of an ASP.NET developer. Conducting the process will let you know whether or not the hired developer holds the knowledge of .NET frameworks and other essential aspects.

Ask about the experience

Looking into the years of experience of a developer on the particular technology is again a crucial step in the process of hiring ASP.NET developers. Years of experience automatically specify a developer's skills and ability to handle the project. It is a crucial step that you can follow to take a final call.

Knowledge of technical aspects

Apart from the technical aspects, an ASP.NET must learn to work with different databases, including Oracle, Microsoft SQL, CouchDB, and MongoDB. Also, he must have the know-how of ASP.NET MVC, HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, and Bootstrap. Apart from this, an understanding of OOP is also required to become a proficient ASP.NET developer. You can ask such questions to your selected company.

Skills to present the project

These days, the most important factor is communication. Ask your developer if he can present his project flawlessly to his teammates and even clients if needed.

WordPress Developer

A WordPress expert is someone who completely understands WordPress and is familiar with almost all the associated functions.

What is a WordPress developer?

Many individuals have different opinions about WordPress developers. However, they are all right at their side, defining the developers as their knowledge.

Technically, WordPress developers carefully create and implement websites for businesses that wish to have full control over their business portals.

Luckily, WordPress is the most demanded and the world’s best CMS (Content Management System) that allows developers to create interactive web applications that are integrated with advanced features and functions.

WordPress developers also develop themes and plugins to make other users' development tasks more accessible than ever. In short, if you hire WordPress developers, you don’t need to be worried about the quality and functionality of your website.

What do WordPress developers do?

A WordPress developer is known to handle the below responsibilities. But the roles are not limited and can be increased as per technology updates and project requirements.

• Designing and implementing new functionality and features
• Establishing the website’s architecture
• Ensuring high-performance of website
• Ensuring availability with managing all the technical aspects of WordPress CMS
• Composing an effective and highly-responsive web design by integrating beautiful theme and functional plugin
• A WordPress developer has a stronghold on various technical aspects such as HTML (HTML5), CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, jQuery, and AJAX
  
  

How to hire WordPress developers?

You indeed need to try some new ideas when hiring web developers from the market. However, the same concept applies here in that it requires comparatively less effort to choose a WordPress developer.

Discover the mandatory steps:

Consider your needs

Having an idea of the project always works better. Even if you’re not developing the website personally, it’s great to have a close tab on all your needs that you want to integrate into the project. It helps you receive a full-fledged and business-oriented web application.

You can make it easier by planning and documenting -

• The goal of your website
  
• The types of web pages you want to integrate
  
• The specific features to facilitate users with ultimate user experience

Get an estimated cost idea

Generally, you don’t need to worry about the expenses when developing a WordPress website. But still, some aspects require money to be spent, and you need to be aware of those.

Your project expenses are primarily based on -

• The scope of the website development
  
• The complexity of project requirements (it will cost high if you want to integrate advanced functionality plugins)
  
• The developers' skills and experience (a professional developer generally costs higher)
  
  

What to look for in a WordPress developer?

Analyzing the skills and other important aspects of WordPress developers’ is the most crucial step in the hiring process. The same can be done by screening them on different below factors.

• How much is a WordPress developer charging?
  
• Do they possess a portfolio of previous work
  
• Can they provide the live links for the client project references, testimonials, and reviews?
  
• Does the selected developer hold experience in WordPress project development?
  
• What tools and other platforms do they use to accomplish the project?
  
  

Start seeking for the right candidates

The last thing you can do is search for potential candidates on different reliable platforms. Seeking the help of a trusted WordPress development company may also result in better web application development.

Laravel Developers

Elegance, simplicity, and proficiency are the three pillars that prolifically define Laravel in the world of web development technology.

Laravel is a (free) open-source PHP framework developed and intended for the quality development of numerous web applications. It’s a back-end framework that administers almost all the website’s server-side activities.

What is a Laravel developer?

Laravel developer is generally an IT professional specialized in building exquisite and feature-packed web applications. In addition, he is responsible for working with the Laravel framework in coordination with PHP programming language.

What does a Laravel developer do?

A Laravel developer handles N number of tasks during web application development. Here are a few mentioned in the below list.

• Possesses extensive knowledge of PHP
  
• Writes clean, semantic, test-driven, secure, and easy-to-maintain codes
  
• Knows how to build reusable codes and libraries for future use
  
• Fool-proof database designing and maintenance
  
• Debug and troubleshoot application programs
  
• Perform back-end tests to improve the website’s performance
  
• Collaborate with other front-end and back-end, and mobile app developers associated with the project
  
• Work with project managers to gather project requirements and find the technical complexities
  
• Apprised of new web application trends to incorporate them in WordPress website

How to hire Laravel developers?

If you want to hire Laravel developers, you need to follow a few simple steps. However, we bet you’ll get the right direction to get the type of developer you want for your website development.

Plan your project

Be prepared and decide whether your project is a long or short-term venture. Next, decide your project's budget and find the candidate that best fits the requirements.

Look for the right experience and skills

A Laravel developer must have adequate knowledge of PHP and HTML. See the resume and analyze if they have the right skills to work on your project.

Communicate directly with the developer

When you communicate directly with the developer, you’re more aware of his knowledge and the work he has done previously on different projects. It’s the best practice of hiring a web developer as it lets you see if the candidates have the confidence and guts to handle the proposed project.

Outsource developers from reliable sources

Browsing for the best Laravel web development companies will significantly help you get the desired candidates. For more references, you can go with reliable freelancing websites. Moreover, opting for experienced remote developers is also a good option, but to achieve the desired goals, you need to be aware of a few offshore web development practices.

Magento Developer

If you have been exploring the best eCommerce website development companies, you must have found the Magento development companies. These entities are involved in developing online eCommerce stores based on Magento, so Magento developers must accomplish this particular task.

What is a Magento Developer?

Based on their specific skills, Magento developers are categorized into two types: 1) Front-end Magento Developer 2) Back-end Magento Developer

Both of these Magento developers are specialized in their roles and work together to achieve the desired web development goals.

What does a Magento developer do?

You can go through the below list to know the technical tasks of a Magento developer.

• Installation and configuration of Magento platform to start and create eCommerce stores
  
• Development of Magento themes based on multiple designs
  
• Creation, installation, configuration, and testing of payment gateways such as Authorize.net, PayPal, and SagePay
  
• Proper configuration of stores so that these can support multi-currency and multi-lingual setups
  
• Integration of third-party applications and systems that may include CRM (customer relationship management) software and different accountancy systems
  
• Conduct and perform Magento store audits to determine loopholes and gaps, restricting the website’s speed and performance
  
• Check and analyze the loading time and speed of the Magento stores
  
• Make the website search engine optimized
  
• Installing all the required security measures to protect the store from cyber attacks
  
• Providing after-sales support and maintenance to make the web application flawless

How to hire Magento developers?

Laravel is a vast PHP development framework, but the hiring process for the developers will still be the same as others. There might be a few different aspects. Let’s look at the facets that need to be considered before hiring a Magento developer.

• Write decent yet precise brief explaining your project details and requisites
  
• Understand front-end and back-end developers to hire and handover the project
  
• Set a budget for your proposed project
  
• Investigate and search for both Magento development agencies and freelancers
  
• Have a look at the ratings, reviews, and testimonials
  
• Meet them directly to check and experience their communication skills
  
• Initially, hire the Magento developer for a Pilot project
  
• Identify their specialties and additional skills

Ask a few questions that should include:

• What similar projects have you previously worked on?
  
• Why should we hire you?
  
• What expertise do you have to offer the industry?
  
• Can you work within the timeline and budget we offer?
  
• Do you have experience with Magento 2?
  
• What’s your strategy to test the development cycles?
  
• Keep collaborating with the team for better ideas to be injected into the eCommerce portal
  

Moving to the next chapter will give you a clear picture of the types of developers with a comparison brief.