Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

My job now is in localisation. Basically all the real front end work done by the main company and i'm a contractor just tweaking basic things.

I personally found CSS harder to learn than backend (retrieving things from DB, adding few lines to expose it as API). Putting things in certain places on the browser screen is still tough for me.

You can't learn things? I don't think "since 2007" is that long to be honest. I'm a bit confused how you can't be "good at ES6" in a way where you wouldn't struggle with gradual advancements in every other programming language.

Maybe you just don't like frontend development, and would prefer backend, but I wouldn't say one is easier than the other. Backend development can go through churn and change and unreliability all the same. It has its own annoying problems to work through.

It's not easier, just a very different environment to work with, it all depends on the technology choice to be honest.

I've worked for some larger-ish tech companies the past 6 years and the choice for backend technologies is simply more mature than the hodge-podge of changes in the frontend, there has been some consolidation on backend frameworks/technologies/patterns over the past decade that has helped me a lot.

I think you can say that backend engineering with some technologies is much more mature than the current environment on the web frontend. Not easier, just that you don't have to care about swapping major parts of your build infrastructure every 3 years anymore.

I find it easier, simply because backend is typically the one language. It's easier to understand when there are fewer layers to everything. All I have to do is ensure the routes correctly serve/receive JSON and that's where my worries end.

Honestly, if you're resonably comptent in JS you can make the jump to backend, or even systems programming. Linus Groth is the second-in-command of SerenityOS, and he has come from only writing JavaScript to writing parts of a JS virtual machine. (ref: https://linus.dev/posts/my-journey-with-serenityos/)

try to focus on the things you are good at and enjoy doing. It seems that you don’t enjoy the more design side of things (animations, layout, pixel perfect) and perhaps nor the infra part (setting up es6 libs), but what do you enjoy? Do you like the actual code part? The more core javascript bits, building business logic? Then standard backend might be a fit for you, if not, there is still much more areas you can go to, share with us what you enjoy doing

As a front-ender I also have this feeling. The key to overcome this feeling of being overwhelmed is to specialize.

Some people like building whole thing from scratch and gluing a bazillion of technologies, but this is not for me. I prefer to own a small area and specialize in it.

There's many sub-specializations in front-end that are not about UX/tweaking UI/animations/architecture/mashing up libs: internationalization; performance; accessibility; build and deployment; security etc.

Those specialized jobs happen mostly in bigger companies though, small companies simply don't have that much resources and prefer do-all people. And of course doing a specialized thing for too long can wear you too.

I'd say, yes.. Backend can be as little as one or two languages on one well-controlled platform, with a primary focus on maintainability and performance.

Frontend is three languages on multiple slightly different platforms (browsers), in addition to maintainability and performance, it also has to look subjectively good.

I'm a backend dev.

There is a bias in software: if you can see it visually it’s worth less.

That bias has generally resulted in lower compensation for front end work irrespective of inherent technical challenges. The result of that bias impacts hiring and trust which then dictate approach and implementation.

I would suggest that you try out for yourself. Try to follow a Django tutorial from beginning to the end, and if that's something you might enjoy doing.

Backend work is not "easier" than frontend, it's a different world where you have to learn to deal with other type of problems.

But I'm surprised that you think your job pool is becoming smaller, there is multiple magnitudes way more demand for frontend work now than in 2007. And it doesn't take much to learn about responsive layouts and React/Vue/whatever if you already have 14 years of experience working on frontend projects. Have you considered looking for a developer group with people who could help you get started with npm and other more modern tools? Nowadays you can get access to a lot of support by joining a Discord server, people are generally supportive and can ease your learning.

Depends on the backend I guess.

It can be very easy: Call an API/ORM, validate, format then return a JSON.

As everything, it can also be more complex: SQL optimisation, DB schema migrations and rollbacks (liquibase is a good start), micro-services, CQRS, DDD, kafka, monitoring, observability etc..

Both frontend and backend can be easy or hard.

I've done both, though not lately. I don't think one or the other is easier, but they definitely have different challenges.

I think that backend can feel less chaotic. It has its complexities but my personal opinion is that the things you use are less prone to deprecation. Ways of doing things change and that can require you to learn new things. Some examples of change are:

A few years ago I had never heard of Kubernetes, but now it’s one of the most in demand things. Cloud formation was the cool kid at one point and then it changed to terraform and to a lesser degree cloud formation SDK

But that still feels more stable to me than what people deal with on the front end where people can’t even agree on a framework to use (how many are there now for JavaScript?) lol

While frontend always deals with the visual aspect of stuff, backend can mean different things to different people.

For some cases, backend is simply to load an object from a DB, convert to JSON and send it the client.

But backend can also mean "provide a list of movie recommendations against what user has already seen and convert that list to JSON".

I've tried native mobile dev, web frontend and backend dev. The nuance of frontend dev is that you need to pack a lot of things into one process, so it requires more sophisticated coding skills. reactive patterns or stream based approach is a good-to-go knowledge to have. backend is easier to code, however the nuance is to split and scale it once you getting more traffic, proper configurations, dependency management, deployment etc. based on my subjective perspective obviously, there are far more things to consider. in general, do what you love ^_^

Definitely backend easier than frontend. On backend you just write code and only machines interact with that. On frontend you are building interfaces that are accessed by thousands of different devices with different screens, different components and different users which may require different accesibility options.

If by backend you mean web backend. I would say that backend development is slower moving in terms of changes to technologies and frameworks used than front end.

But you'll need to understand what's going on at a deeper level (Data design/Caching/SQL/scaleability etc) so there will be things to learn - but they are much more transferable across technologies than the front end, and at the start you can rely on tech lead/senior devs to have that knowledge for you.

As a backend developer I think it's easier than frontend, but at the same time my company can (over time) hire frontend developers, but good backend developers are basically impossible to hire, at least here in London.

I'd say the opposite because of responsibility. A bug in the BE can cost a lot of money and time to your business, not so much (usually) in the FE.

Backend context is more in your control Frontend context not so much.

A backend engineer usually does not write code to run on multiple different versions of CPU. A frontend engineer has to support multiple browsers. A backend engineer worries about scale, a frontend engineer not so much. https://ashishb.net/tech/server-vs-mobile-development-where-...

If you remove all unnecessary complication, then front-end is probably easier in general. But, front-end is usually rife with complication.

Easier in some ways, harder in others.

Easier:

+ You don't need to write a thousand edge case code to cover different devices

+ There's less "trial and error" trying to figure out what sequence of CSS properties is needed to adjust some of the simplest of designs

+ More choices of languages available (should Javascript / Typescript not float your boat)

+ More consistency in that you only need to worry about your backend language and maybe SQL (if you're not using an ORM -- which frankly developers shouldn't imo)

+ Easier to write unit tests

Harder:

- Lazy code becomes more than just an annoyance, it will have performance impacts on your servers thus directly costing your company more money

- You can no longer rely on other people to deal with security for you. Mistakes aren't just going to be rendering bugs

- You don't have something immediate that you demo if there isn't already a UI mocked up

- You need to rely more heavily on unit tests

And if your back end developers are also doubling as DevOps then your job will get exponentially harder still as you then have to manage infrastructure as well. But a lot of places will have dedicated infrastructure guys.

Personally I much prefer backend development to frontend development. I (personally) find it more predictable and easier to reason. However a lot of people prefer frontend development if just because you get to see instant results of your code

Programming is hard. Learn to do both - don't pigeon-hole yourself. You will be drowning in job offers after 5 years.

I made the move from pure back-end to full-stack some years ago. I find that backend paradigms tend to not evolve as quickly, so perhaps this pace suits you better.

The consumer of a back-end is either a front-end under management, or via public APIs, and both usually live a lot longer than most JS frameworks and website designs.

Still, if you don’t mind drawing things in browsers and just don’t like the pace of things, you could pick a front-end framework designed to have a low rate of sudden changes, e.g. Elm.

Either way, if you’d prefer not to have to learn too many new things, learning how to make back-ends with Node and ES6 probably provides you with most value in the shortest time. Just say no to new dependencies all the time. ;)