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There are plenty of inspiring websites that a front-end developer can check, and here are some of the most inspired websites one can come across in 2018:

Distance to Mars. Clearly one of the most innovative and fun websites in recent memory, it’s a simple website with a simple premise – create a sense of scale for the distance between the Earth and Mars, but with pixels. Clearly, a labor of love, its novel idea, and friendly design are sure to inspire plenty of front-end developers everywhere.

Inside Abbey Road. From the get-go, this website is a sensory treat and is handled perfectly by those who coded and designed it. Every nook and cranny of the legendary studio is available for exploration, a miniature version of Google Maps if you will. While being a beautifully handled website, Inside Abbey Road is chock full of features, from the integration of a mixing feature and an automatic commentary that leads visitors to its key features without forcing the content. Overall, this is a website that all front-end developers should look to for inspiration.

Crypton Trading. It might look simple at first, but scroll the mouse down and you’ll be amazed at what this website can do. It’s a winner for Site of the Day, and understandably so: the marriage of design and development to make this website possible is so evident from the first few seconds of visiting this website. It’s better to visit this website to know exactly how amazing it is.

Ogilvy One. Most front-end developers might have heard of this website, but this makes it all the more reason to include it in this list. The website is clear, crisp, easy to navigate, and makes sense of a complicated issue very easily through the use of effective design.

Web design and web development are completely different beasts from the ground up. Practically, web design refers to the aesthetic portion of a website, or what can be seen immediately by the webpage visitor. This requires a more visual-aesthetic skillset, as a web designer directly designs what people will see from a website.

This is practically as important as the code running the website, as websites are primarily a visual-oriented medium. If a website is easy on the eyes, then it contributes to more visits and potentially, return visits from previous visitors.

Web development, on the other hand, is taking that web design and putting that into practice by bringing the website to life- quite literally, with code.

One of the main core differences between web design and development is the tools involved. Design requires visual tools such as Adobe Photoshop, and more recently, Sketch. Figma is also a great tool used in web design, which offers both free and paid options used for both designing and prototyping websites.

Web development’s tools, primarily, are programming languages for the web. Those are HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP.

Both go hand in hand, as they support each other; great design, coupled with great code running it makes for a great website. Conversely, a website that’s coded properly lets great design shine and makes the design work as intended. In some cases, it even improves upon design by turning static layouts into dynamic webpages.

The first thing you’ll want to do when developing an app is research. This covers all aspects that might directly relate to the app, and that includes the target audience/market, what similar apps are already available and what separates you from them, and the logistics required to get the app done and published.

Additionally, since technology is constantly changing and improving, part of your research will be to find out which languages/software/frameworks you’ll need to get the app done at the best possible cost and time-efficiency, along with the manpower required to make the app.

First things first, you’ll need to ask yourself- is the app idea feasible? Feasibility could be dictated by so many things but the most important ones are (1) market research, (2) how novel, or what sets the app apart from so many other competitors of the same function.

Once you’ve figured that out, make sure that you have the features for the app down pat; check if you have the competencies to cater to the app’s programming requirements or in the case of outsourcing, make sure that the app development company you’re hiring has experience that can assist in the making of the app.

Here is the toughest part of app development, besides actual production: taking care of the cost for the app. Mobile applications can cost anywhere between $5000 to $1000000, and plenty of those in the industry will agree that they don’t come cheap; make sure that you have all the features that you need within the app and cut away the rest that you don’t need or don’t contribute to its functionality.

Yes, it does. The tech industry has struggled with the fact that it is impossible to create a fully-functional software product without multiple technologies. Generally, developing any complete software product requires several tools and programming languages, a combination known as a complete tech stack. Different approaches are used when it comes to software products since it includes the client’s side and a server. Although there are usually two separate stacks that cover each of the layers, full-stack development is utilized by building a web or mobile application from A to Z.

What Makes Full Stack Developers Special in 2018?

Full-stack developers are specialists who are equally capable of back-end and front-end development. With this in mind, one could say that the more skills a person has demonstrated as a professional, the more valuable he or she becomes. This makes the full stack developer highly coveted for a wide range of projects and the skills they offer in high demand.

This is a list of things to learn if you’re a technician or things to ask for if you’re a business owner:

HTML and CSS

Semantic HTML.

Learning the CSS Box Model so you could know its principles and distinctive traits.

CSS preprocessors — their benefits for software development.

Bootstrap

JavaScript

Learning the working principles of DOM and JSON.

Focusing on the language’s important features: prototypal inheritance, event delegation, etc.

Paying much of your attention to one framework of your choice.

Having a common understanding of testing frameworks.

Databases and Storage

Getting to know NoSQL databases and situations when to choose a certain one.

Peculiarities of relational data.

Understanding how to link a database and a back-end language you’ve chosen.

Web storage.

HTTP

Learning fundamental points about REST.

Designing RESTful API.

Using Chrome DevTools.

Learning more about SSL Certificates.

Architecture

Gathering information about platforms as a service.

Working on optimization of the app.

MVC.

Learning codebases from the GitHub large projects — people there know what they’re doing.

Git

Learning the full list of Git commands.

Examining a basic tutorial on Git usage.

Back-End Language.

The best way to answer this would be to compare it to frontend development.

Frontend development deals primary with the user experience, and it dictates or designs how a website looks and feels. Backend, on the other hand, deals with the “server” side of things. Backend development is the nuts and bolts of the programming that makes the website functional.

The backend is an integral part of the entire development process, as this makes sure that the mobile app you’re developing connects to backend cloud storage/processes. A good example of this would be push notifications, geolocation, user/login management and integration to third party systems (if applicable), among many other “server” processes.

A backend developer takes care of all these, and works hand-in-hand with frontend development so that the user experience gels well with server and business logic.

Backend developers don’t need to be fluent with most frontend languages, but should be fluent with .Net, Java, PHP and Ruby.

Since backend development deals with what can’t be seen immediately from the user experience, one of the key responsibilities of a backend developer is to ensure the efficiency and responsiveness of an app.

This is very important and app responsiveness/speed is a factor that makes or breaks the app experience for users.

Mobile development frameworks offer developers a basic skeleton that can be adapted for mobile app software.

1. NativeScript

NativeScript is a tool designed to facilitate how native platform APIs are accessed and how the source code is transpiled. Transpiling with NativeScript in this way uses the V8 JavaScript engine as a leverage for Android and JavaScript Core for iOS, making all device APIs directly accessible from the JavaScript code. Being familiar with NativeScript removes the necessity of being knowledgeable with plugins as well as Java, Objective-C, and Swift.

When it comes to the compiling phase, there is no need for WebView if you use NativeScript because all XML components are transpiled to native Android and iOS components before they are combined as an application binary. Using this process makes an application efficient and user-friendly.

2. Flutter

Flutter, backed by Google, can help you build native iOs and Android applications, but in a different way from some of the other cross-platform frameworks. In Flutter, you will be using Dart (Google's programming language) when developing Android and iOS applications. It uses a 2D rendering engine called Skia to create visual components on the screen. You can also easily do testing without restarting the application.

3. React Native

With React Native you’re building a truly native mobile application where React Native components are transpiled to native iOS and Android components, while using JavaScript and the React framework. If you’re already using React on the web, then React Native would be a logical choice in mobile development.

4. Ionic

Ionic is the perfect choice when you need to make a high-performing app. It can help you build native and progressive web applications that work perfectly on the latest mobile devices. Ionic also has an Ionic Market wherein you can download templates and projects built by other programmers. With the help of Ionic command line utility, you can build, emulate, and run your app.

5. Ext JS

The same reason why any kind of mobile development on any kind of platform is expensive: labor. While you’re paying for many other things within the app such as licenses or any other possible API agreements/connection, talent takes the lion’s share of a given budget for development.

Even when outsourcing, managers tasked with development are usually shell-shocked when they see the actual cost of app development; this should come as no surprise, though. Like the art industry, developers are paid for their talent and the work they put into learning all the various programming languages. Coding isn’t an easy job, and it’s expensive for a good reason!

According to PayScale, the average app developer salary is around $64k, with reported salary ranges of $43,000 to $100,000 per year. Some cities such as New York, Houston, Atlanta and Washington even report an average of $76-80k.

Add to that the fact that apps usually aren’t built by just one person; they’re built by a team of engineers and designers working together to create the app. Multiply the annual cost mentioned above by the number of team members that you need, and you should have a clear idea of why it costs so much. If you are savvy and pick the right team, you can significantly reduce costs with offshore development.

Your app’s level of complexity also dictates how long it will take to finish the app, and if you’re outsourcing development this will obviously cost a lot more if what you’re developing is incredibly complex.

Standalone apps normally cost less (these are apps that require no connection to the internet); but apps that consume data or connect to the internet need more time and money. If the app doesn’t just connect to the internet and needs log-in authentication, account management, etc., then it will need a server running in the background; this will then cost more than your regular standalone app.

On top of all this, developing for Apple has the annual cost of $99 ($299 if you’re representing an enterprise), during which period you have the ability to push as many apps as you want. Android, by comparison, has a $25 one-time fee with Play Store.

This all depends on what you truly prefer, and what form of development you find more interesting. Generally, frontend mobile developers are in great demand in the market right now, and it will be generally easier to find employment there.

Frontend development is for people who are more into the creative side of development as this deals primarily with UI/UX design. A lot of intuitive work goes into this along with a deep understanding of how development deals with user experience.

If you’re more into designing the moving parts that make up the user experience and are more of a visual and kinesthetic individual then this form of development is perfect for you. What you’re designing is the visual experience for your clients.

On the other hand, backend development primarily deals with what isn’t seen or felt by the user, and that includes server-side activity and information handling. You’ll be making a system that does the complex computations required within an app.

With web development, the need is more pronounced. But it’s becoming more prominent in mobile development with the advent of complex apps that require more server activity than the rest, and this is a very important and challenging role.

Ideally, it would be best if you’re familiar with both frontend and backend so that should you start developing, you’re aware of the workflows involved with both ends of the development stack. This makes sure that you remain a very competent developer in a market of hundreds of thousands of developers.

If you have the mental dexterity to switch between programming languages and understand the coding behind both mobile apps and websites intimately, why not?

Please note, however, that that isn’t for everyone. There’s a reason most developers specialize, choosing either web or mobile. Then they specialize even further, choosing to be front-end or back-end developers. In some cases, there are full-stack developers who are familiar with both stacks, but some contend that full-stack development isn’t really possible.

In the context of your question, it appears that you’re looking to pursue either web or mobile development based on the compensation you’re going to get; here are some statistics as of July 2018 that can help answer your question:

For app developers | For web developers

As you can see from the figures stated in both links, app developers earn more than web developers on average. However, note that these are average figures; this doesn’t take into account the main difference between app and web developers, in that web developers usually take more freelance work than app developers.

The primary reason as to why app developers aren’t taking more work is that app development takes a really long time. Not only is it difficult, but it’s time and labor-demanding. That’s not to say that web development is any easier; it has its own set of challenges that can prove to be a problem for developers everywhere (especially for front-end developers).

But ultimately, any kind of development is tough; you would be better off following what you’re really interested in and passionate about to be able to progress well.

Slack’s tech stack includes the following technologies and programming languages:

Programming languages used for Frontend/Backend: By and large the platform was written in Electron for cross platform Desktop development(C++, Various JavaScript languages for front end components, ECMAScript, PHP, Apache Server and MySQL.)

It appears they are also leveraging or have leveraged MacGap, and Java for other components of the application, likely mobile.

It should also be noted that Slack integrates with a crazy number of platforms, more every day.

Hosting and Server Infrastructure: Slack is most likely still on AWS for the vast majority of their needs. Amazon put out a case study that details how slack leveraged their infrastructure while they were growing.

This is not surprising as AWS is incredibly extensible. Roughly 60 of our clients at Zibtek opted to host their applications on AWS. For most applications, having the ability to elastically scale up and down resources as needed is incredibly beneficial and has material cost savings.

Here are some of the worst habits that beginner programmers pick up at the early stages:

Not being receptive of input. It might seem like you know everything especially when you’ve just coded a particularly challenging function, or you’ve finished going through a language’s documentation and understood it perfectly- trust me, there’s so much more to learn and it pays to be a little more receptive to further learning when it comes to programming or being a developer in general.

This goes for any profession in any industry, really- being more receptive not only gives you more information and learning, but it also helps create a better impression of your abilities in your development team’s eyes.

2. Not communicating. Most people seem to have this idea of programmers as people who sit on their desk, coding their day away, shunning human interaction; while that’s quite true when it’s crunch time, it isn’t like that most days. Some developers seem to build that bad habit that they don’t need to communicate- they just need to code and code and code to get the job done.

While being a diligent coder is indeed admirable, don’t forget to get in touch with your team for key points in development. There’s a lot more to development than coding and you need to exercise being communicative on a team if you want to be a successful developer.

3. Being overconfident in your code. This leads to bigger problems down the road, and makes your code just downright bad. A prime example of this is saying that you can just “fix things later” rather than fixing it immediately. You can see how this might affect things later.

This isn’t just applicable with fixes- if you do have the time and resources to do it, test your software, and then do some more testing to make sure that its working fine. It might seem like a pain but it will help you release a solid piece of software.

Now technology is getting ready to give life to our imaginations. Earlier Artificial intelligence and robots were only seen in Hollywood movies but now, the advancement in technology has helped us in bringing all those science fiction into our real life.

1) Replacing web coding with a self-learning algorithm

Artificial intelligence can make web programming easier. It can automate various basic tasks such as adding, updating the records to the database, predicting which bits of code are most likely to be utilized for solving the problem and utilizing those predictions to help web developers in finding the right solution. Moreover, AI algorithms can be used to create self-modifying codes from scratch without any human involvement. This helps developers to build smarter apps and bots at a much faster rate than before.

2) AI virtual assistants make it easy

Designing layouts and templates for web pages is always a tedious job. To ease this process, AI tools such as virtual assistants are being used. So after receiving the right data the AI virtual assistants will create personalized content with the required combination of brand, design, layout, and content required by that end-user.

Adobe Sensei - which can automatically analyze the entries and recommend design elements to the user.

3) AI for predictive SEO

Predictive engines built using Artificial Intelligence technologies can generate ideas that can point developers about the errors in the website architecture and also highlight the bad content which affects SEO. It also provides better solutions to connect with the target audience.

Market Brew is the first Artificial Intelligence Platform for SEO team’s help developers create precise, relevant conclusions based on the platform.

4) Automating client data collection

By using an AI-powered chatbot you can automate the process of collecting your client’s requirements and end-user stories without any human intervention and errors.

Kore.ai is one of those platforms that empower decision-makers with the information they require to drive the business results.

5) Providing best user experience with AI

AI integrated chatbox can take user experience and interactions to the next level. It can simulate a real conversation by learning from user interaction in each conversation with the user and adapting the responses and actions accordingly. They can improve visitor participation by responding to queries, commenting on blog posts and providing real-time assistance and customization.

A chatbot is one of them, it builds AI-powered customized chatbots with the presentation of knowledge, conversational abilities, personality traits, and context-sensitivity which can easily respond to customer-centric queries.

6) Testing & quality assurance made easy

Currently, software development teams are adopting AI to execute testing tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. .They not only bring speed but also ensure accuracy while processing massive chunks of data to derive meaningful inferences. The identification and repair of errors/bugs will no longer be a long and slow process. Thus getting a great app to the market becomes easy here.

CHATBOTS - The next-generation digital assistants!

The rise of AI-enabled software has the potential of revolutionizing how customers interact with online enterprises. In the near future, a chatbot is going to be the first point of contact between the customer and the online enterprise. The chatbot will analyze the needs of the customer based interaction, whether it be product query, troubleshooting, or sales.

Unfortunately, there isn’t. App files such as .ipa and .apk files aren’t like video or audio files that you can pass through a converter and come out in the different format.

Android and iOS devices are incredibly different and are competing technologies for good reason. They cater to very different devices and are built differently, quite literally, from the ground up.

This fact is well-evidenced by the cost of building native apps. When you say “native app”, this means that it was built specifically for one kind of device, whether iOS or Android. Naturally, native apps take more time and money to build, and can get expensive really fast if you’re releasing for both Android and iOS.

How so? When developing apps for both platforms, it’ll be like building two different apps. Android uses different programming languages, and iOS has its own as well in the form of Objective-C and Swift.

The frameworks are wildly different as well. This tells you that .ipa files won’t work at all on an Android device, and .apk files won’t work on an Apple device that only understand .ipa app files.

It’s for this exact reason that some companies or app development teams go “cross-platform”; this is a development process that uses web technologies wrapped in a native wrapper to cater to both Android and iOS. It is secondary when it comes to speed and performance compared to native apps, but their existence informs us that native app development is expensive, and that an immediate app conversion process doesn’t exist.

First things first- you’ll need to figure out what kind of apps you’re looking to build. Have a short-term app goal and a long-term app goal for what you want to build. For a short-term goal, base it on your current competencies: what frameworks and what programming languages are you familiar with enough to build an app with?

As soon as you build more skill with coding, you’ll find that you’ll be able to naturally code better and more complex app functions in the long run. Your long-term goal should be in alignment with that and should reflect the skills you’ve acquired thus far.

One of the most important points to consider is finding out what stack you’re supposed to be in; if you like designing the user experience and if you’re more creative than you are analytical, then consider going for the front-end stack. If the idea of creating server-side functionality attracts you, and if you like to be “behind the scenes” for any project, then consider back-end.

Both stacks are important responsibilities, and since they are wildly different, they have unique challenges of their own.

There are also two primary platforms, and that’s Android and iOS. For now I would recommend specialization as these use different programming languages and frameworks, and ideally, you should diversify and at least be familiar with a different platform. The documentation and tutorials for these platforms are provided by first-party support after all and are mostly free online.

If we’re looking at the market share for the mobile app platforms that exist today, Android development seems to pay more for mobile app developers.

Let’s take a look at a couple of figures that can help support this statement:

Android commands the lion’s share of the market currently, which beats iOS, its main competitor by leaps and bounds. Currently, it has 74.69% of the total global market share for mobile devices.

Android developers that specialize in native android development in the US have the highest average of $144,000 USD, beating out iOS developers with an average of $139,000. For cross-platform developers, it averages out at $101,572 USD.

This gives us a clear picture of the average native Android app developer’s profitability in development, but a few changes might occur in the coming years, such as:

3. React Native and Flutter are offering great features that aren’t naturally available within native app development. Here’s a great overview of the features that developers should be on the lookout for.

4. React Native is slowly catching up in terms of performance. The traditional issue with cross-platform mobile apps that make developers and companies reticent in employing this development method is that it always loses out to performance in terms of native development methods.

That gap in performance is slowly being rendered obsolete by React Native in recent performance tests by different developers, even testing against iOS’ Swift.

Earlier, JavaScript was acknowledged as an ideal platform for frontend development and frameworks like PHP, Ruby on Rails, Java, Python and more were preferred for backend development. However, with the release of Node.js, these facts have changed. Today, Node.js is embraced by companies to build feature-rich backend with the same level of performance and speed as provided by other frameworks.

You can quickly eliminate or remove the development bottlenecks enabling your team members to complete almost any task that they might receive on the sprint. If you are planning to use Node with MongoDB, which uses the NoSQL database, the data gets stored in JSON format. Now, you can expose it as a REST API that your mobile or web clients can consume.

Node.js excels when you use it to build real-time applications that have chat features such as WhatsApp or applications that use collaboration features such as Google Docs. The best way to improve the speed and performance in streaming applications, single-page applications, and web apps that are AJAX-intensive is by using the Node.js for the backend.

Android and iOS apps cost a lot of money for the simple reason that the talent behind building apps doesn’t come cheap. App development, whether for Android, iOS or cross-platform, is a challenging endeavor and, as such, needs to be paid for appropriately.

It is for this same reason that companies look for outsourcing solutions to supply the demand for their app needs; outsourcing, in general, helps you build apps without spending too much (although it’s worth noting that outsourced app development isn’t cheap either), with costs such as day-to-day operations taken out of the equation.

The average app developer in the US gets paid an average of $100k annually; multiply that by the number of people that need to work on an app and you get a rough estimate of why app development is costly.

More often than not, a complete team needs to work on an app, too; there are different stacks and different responsibilities involved, especially if you’re dealing with a complex app that requires advanced front-end with a robust back-end supporting it.

If you’re a developer and you’re looking to develop your own app, then that’s an entirely different story altogether; provided that you have the necessary competencies to build your own app from the ground up, then the cost is limited to only the licenses or the fees related to publishing your app on the respective app stores (for example, Apple has an annual fee of $99 where you can publish as many apps as you want within the given year paid for). Of course, you have to factor in what your own time is worth but you don’t have to pay for it directly.