Domains, delivery and craft
What is Web developer?
Someone who builds and maintains websites and web applications. The title covers a wide range — from configuring a theme to writing an application backend — which is why judging one by measured output rather than by job title is the only reliable approach.
Also called: website developer · front-end developer
How to assess one in an hour
- Ask for three live client URLs, not screenshots
- Run each through PageSpeed Insights on the mobile tab
- Open view-source and check whether the content is in the HTML
- Ask who owns the code, the domain and the hosting after launch
- Ask what happens if you leave in a year
What the answers reveal
Three slow client sites is a pattern rather than bad luck. Content missing from view-source means every non-rendering crawler sees an empty page. Hesitation on the ownership question is the single most informative moment in the whole conversation.
Titles that overlap and differ
- Front-end
- What the browser runs — markup, styling, interaction, accessibility.
- Back-end
- Server, database, payments, integrations, security.
- Full-stack
- Both, to varying depths. Ask which half is the stronger one.
- Designer
- How it looks and works before it is built. A distinct skill, frequently assumed to be included.
Where this is covered in depth
A definition can only go so far. Hiring an offshore developer: the questions that protect you covers this properly — 4 minutes, free, no email required.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan. These definitions come from client work rather than from a content brief — where an entry describes a mistake, it is usually one found on a real site. More about how I work.