A 101 guide for hiring web development services

We all know that man is a social animal. Since stone age days we have been drawn by the internal urge to reach out to other fellow beings. When we lived in caves, we invented painting, when language and script became our medium of communication, we took to writing and storytelling. Letters, pamphlets, newspapers, radio, and TV have all been our tools of communication. Today internet has become the umbrella medium through which we communicate to other people across the globe. From relations to art, everything today has shifted online. 

And in this process, web development has played a major role. If you are a tech guy reading this page, probably you will already know what I’ll be discussing in this article. But, if you have never taken the journey of creating your web page or online site, you are in the right place. This article is a dummy guide to web development. 

With a growing demand for the online presence of every professional pursuit, web development has also widened its horizon. Today, websites are made for dating, matrimonies, cooking, shopping, personal grooming & development. Web development includes data management, Content management system, gateway integration, SAAS, cloud-based storage system, and much more. So, we will be covering the topic in different parts. Let’s start by explaining what web development is.

Meaning of web development 

It is a process through which we develop a website, web application, mobile application, or electronic business for World Wide Web, popularly known as the Internet.

What does web development include?

A web development team will contain IT professionals called web developers who build the website by writing markup and coding. However, web development services range from error correction/modification on a website to software development, and much more.

How is a website build?

There are two important components to any website. One which is visible is called the frontend and the other which is not visible to the viewers is called the backend but important for the proper functioning of the website. Well simply put, when you open a website on a browser what you see: the texts, image, the color, navigation menu, and how things are placed on the screen are part of frontend development. But other than image and what you see on the screen, there are information and codes stored in the server end which helps the interface of the website to work smoothly. That is called the backend component of the website. Every web development company will have the frontend and backend developers or full-stack developers who can work on both the components. 

The key point to note: Both frontend and backend have their languages and frameworks. For every frontend language such as JavaScript, there is a backend language such as PHP which interacts with frontend or client-side scripting. Now when you approach a web development agency their developers may be proficient in one or more Frontend and Backend development languages and frameworks. It’s always suggested that while choosing a web development agency make sure they have diverse knowledge with programming languages and frameworks. 

What are Languages and Frameworks?

Yes, as a layperson who has not studied coding much, this might pop up in your head as a question. Since we are dealing with web development in detail let’s explain the difference between a programming language and the framework. The programming languages are the basic rules for writing code. Now, this code can be twigged here and there by each developer as per his understanding. Initially, this created problems of compatibility. So, the frameworks or libraries containing codes that are pre-written or predefined to make developer’s work simple were created. 

There are different types of Frontend and backend languages and frameworks listed below

1. Front end languages: HTML, CSS & JavaScript
2. Front end frameworks & Libraries: AngularJS, React.js, Bootstrap, jQuery, SASS, Semantic-UI, Foundation, Materialize, Backbone.js, Express.js, Ember.js 
3. Back end languages: PHP, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, Node.js, C#, Ruby, REST, GO
4. Back end frameworks & Libraries: Express, Django, Rails, Laravel, Spring

A key point to note: Knowing which language and framework have been used by your developer to develop the website can help you in the future. This information can ease your forthcoming upgrades and cross-platform integrations that you may wish to undertake. 

Services offered by a web development company. 

Moving on, once you hire a web development company, you’ll have to be very clear regarding the services you will seek. Let’s take a look at some of the services offered by a web development company. 

• Full Website development: This includes the full-stack development work, which will involve backend and frontend development along with unique requirements that a client may seek in the form of calendar management, event booking, gateway integration, API integration, Content management, Data management and much more.  
• Content Management System: If you own a content-generating operation such a blog, online magazine, on informative Page that offers a lot of content perhaps you’ll need CMS which is a software application. CMS is used to manage content by different editors and update them from time to time without having any knowledge of coding. It includes apps such as Joomla, WordPress, Magento, Ghost, Wix, and Drupal. These applications come with a set of templates where your content is displayed on the client’s end while the data is stored in the database. The template is the webpage. Any developer can easily set up a web page based on the CMS app and add tools and widgets for you to update the content periodically. 

• Web Application / Business Software: If you own an online store you probably know what are shopping carts? As a user, you may have many times used the customer feedback forms online or online Video editing app too. These are website applications that run on a web server instead of our computer’s operating system. Your business may need a mobile app, or a web app. Say for example you own a restaurant and you wish to hire a web development company to develop an app where customers can make reservations online. That will be named as a web application. 

Business software is a unique software that responds to the exclusive business need. The software is used by the business to perform various functions to increase their productivity, streamline their work, or simply manage the database. Now an e-commerce site may need such business software that caters to its unique trade-related challenges and for this, they’ll hire a web development company to build software from scratch. 

• E-commerce development: E-commerce business in layman term are those businesses where people buy and sell stuff online, for example Amazon. With the onset of Covid-19, more and more shops have made the jump to the e-commerce section. Cloud kitchens, e-commerce grocery shops, online coaching centers and even cleaning services now have an online presence. To go online, businesses either need to create a mobile app or website where people can reach out to them. It is a full-stack web development job and includes many other development roles such as shopping cart app development, online payment system and online ordering system integration, inventory management, social media integration, booking, availability and reservation system, content management system, third party integration, API integration and much more.

Conclusion

Many other services are offered by web development agencies which range from simple modification to complete e-commerce solutions. In our upcoming blogs, we will tackle each service offered in detail to help you make a learned decision while hiring an agency for web development. So, keep an eye on our upcoming blog.

Also, let us know whether this blog was helpful to you? We appreciate your feedback and inputs.

Cheers! 

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Published on: Mar 03, 2021