In today’s race, technopreneurs demand developers who are more than just specialists in a particular technology. The tech business needs globalization and unification, and here is where the buzzword and a decent profile called Full-Stack Developers came into existence.
Businesses and enterprises usually prefer full-stack developers as they can meet the rising bar of standards and skills. For the tech business, building software is costly, complicated, and requires many developers, which altogether makes the budget over the odds for them.
A single developer known as the full-stack developer can perform all the front-end, back-end, database, and everything else. What else a hiring manager can expect if he/she is getting all the required traits within a single developer.
But, yes, over time, a question arises whether hiring a full-stack developer would be a wise choice or not. This blog will give you a look at the pros and cons of such developers and answer all your queries at the time of hiring.
Table of Contents
Who are Full Stack Developers?
Full-stack developers are the developers who can work with both the front end and back end of a web and application.
They are well-versed and experienced in multiple technologies like:
| Frontend development (Angular, Vue.js, Node.js, React, js)
| Backend development (Java, PHP, .NET)
| Markup languages (HTML and CSS)
| Databases (MongoDB, Firebase, MySQL, PosterSQL)
| Software testing (Katalon Studio, Postman, Selenium, TestComplete, etc.)
| Scalability, architecture, and roadmap of the project
All of these and some other skills can be acquired through online web development courses.
Contrary to many people’s belief, a full-stack software engineer doesn’t necessarily write all the codes of a site by himself. Many a time, he spends his majority of the time either in the backend or the front end code of a site.
Writing lines of code is a small portion of the task because there are many customizable tools, frameworks, and libraries mentioned that the full-stack developer could implement instead of writing the code himself.
This is the reason why businesses and enterprises prefer to hire full-stack developers instead of specialized developers from a particular technology.
Pros of hiring full-stack developers:
1. Problem-solvers
From a business point of view, full-stack developers are the perfect choice for startups and small businesses. They are excellent problem-solver and can handle every aspect of the project right from the beginning till its deployment.
2. Wide range of technology skills
Since they are full-stack developers, they prove to be a great package for businesses as they pose multiple skills in different domains and can grasp things easily.
They look at the project with a 360-degree perspective and have enough knowledge and experience to add cutting-edge features to it.
3. Executive and management skills
A Full-stack developer pose executive and management skills and have extensive knowledge of front-end, back-end, and middle architectural layers. Usually, they overshadow the front-end and back-end developers individually.
Full-stack developers are highly versatile and all you need to do is to look at a vast number of programming skills in the developer’s portfolio. In short, they must be a pro in diverse technology stacks.
4. Years of experience
Since full-stack developers are well versed in various phases of software development like front-end, back-end, testing, QA, the architecture of code, and many more. This extensive knowledge does not come all of a sudden, this is a result of years of experience dedicated to different types of web projects.
Ultimately, it an add-on for both the developers as well as the companies hiring them.
5. Change the specialized area
Since a full-stack developer is knowledgeable in various technology stacks, you can ask the developer to develop an interest in it and work on that particular technology, language, or framework. It will prevent the business to hire any other specific developer and pay extra bucks to them.
Latest news: Top Full Stack Web App Development Companies
6. Cost
When a company hires a full-stack developer, you get a choice to replace the front-end, back-end, and QA tester individually. This ultimately eliminates the hurdle of hiring them and conducting interviews.
7. Timely delivery by full stack developers
Full Stack developers ensure timely delivery of the project because they have the ability to share the responsibilities among all the team members. It makes easy coordination among them and ensures that the project is delivered on time.
You will not have to employ multiple developers for a single project in case you have a shoestring budget and still require a spectacular website.
8.Full-stack developers are the jack of multiple technologies
One of the great benefits of hiring a full-stack developer is that they are there with the entire project development and help you with the whole design and structure. Hire full stack developers whose portfolio has more number of technologies mentioned.
9. Troubleshoot issues
Experienced and professional full-stack developers adept with every aspect and stage of the project development. Since they pose years of experience in web development, they can easily identify errors and implement long-term solutions fr the optimal functioning of the web or mobile application.
Cons of full stack developers:
Till now, we have seen the benefits of hiring a full-stack developer, let’s move to the disadvantages of hiring them.
1. Not able to keep up with the latest trends and technologies
A full-stack developer is one who expertise in multiple technologies over a small period of time. At times, it becomes difficult for them to keep up with the latest trends, tools, and technologies of all the areas of expertise and justify their profile as so-called full-stack developers, the jack of all the trending techs.
2. Too much knowledge sometimes become a curse
Though it is cost-effective to hire a full-stack developer, it seems to be an unfair choice to hire them compared to hiring the specialized ones. A developer who is specialized in a single technology or platform will surely perform way better than the one whose knowledge is equally distributed among several technologies.
A specialized developer will always have an in-depth understanding of the particular technology than the one whose attention is diversified over different languages over a period of time.
3. Difficulty in implementation by full stack developers
Though the full-stack developers have in-depth expertise in various technologies, it becomes cumbersome for them when they are about to implement it.
4. Slows down the process
Being well-versed in various programming languages, full-stack developers need to switch between the languages while working on the project. But it becomes a time-consuming process for them as the developers need to rewind the basics of it and peek into the books to brush up on small things.
5. Increasing number of stacks
IT is not only about Front-end, back-end, and database; it’s more about the latest technology stacks like AI, ML, data analytics, blockchain, IoT, and much more.
The stack will be growing immensely over time, and at times, it becomes difficult for the full-stack developers to learn and focus on new technologies as they are permanently overloaded with tech stacks.
They need to take time from their busy schedule to learn new techs otherwise, the title of full-stack developers will be snatched from them.
Concluding Thoughts
While a full-stack developer comes with a knowledge of multiple technology stacks in the same bag, it is ideal for a startup. However, the reality is that it is good to be a pro or specialized in one language only.
In short, it’s a bit of luck by chance, in case you feel that the concerned developer expertise in all the tech stacks, then go ahead and hire a full-stack developer. You need to look at the prerequisites of your project and then make a fair choice.
Full Stack Developers are the ones who has knowledge about all the key elements of development and you quite explain well the full stack development services.
Full-stack developers are indeed the best choice.