What's the Difference Between a Web Developer, a Programmer, and a Webmaster - Practical Advice

So what's the difference between a web developer and a programmer? Hey guys, my name is John Jonas and I'm talking today about web developers and programmers and webmasters. So over the years with the invent of the Internet, there's been all kinds of words that we've used to describe people who build websites. And I want to clarify some things and make this easier for you for when you go to recruit someone to work for you. So in the, I want to say 2000, in the early 2000s, we used to call people webmasters. A webmaster was someone who took care of the web for you. And it's not really a term that we use anymore because it's not really a position that we would hire someone for anymore. We've learned to separate that into two different roles. And I would call it a front end developer and a back end developer. Or often we'll say we need a programmer. Which a programmer would be someone who works on the back end of your website, someone who writes code in a programming language. So HTML is not a programming language, or CSS is not a programming language. Something like PHP or Ruby or Python, something like that. C or C would be a programming language and that's a programmer. And they're not going to make your website look pretty. Another word that we often use for talking about a programmer is a developer. So people often don't call themselves programmers anymore. They'll call themselves software engineers or they'll call themselves a web developer. And so developer gets a little bit mixed up here. But a programmer is definitely not someone to build your website unless that website is a custom set of software. So on the other side of it is the other half of replacing a webmaster would be a front end web developer. So the back end is the custom programming that's going to interact with a database or it's going to record information or send emails or whatever that is. The front end of it is what's going to interact with people. And that would be more of a web developer, like what we use instead of webmaster. Someone who's going to build the website kind of. So this person will be someone who knows HTML and CSS and maybe JavaScript. So those are like the three common things that are being used today to build a website. So when, if you're looking for someone to build your website, you're probably going to look for a web developer. And with that you're probably also going to look for a graphic designer. And if you're looking for some custom code for some custom software to be written, you're going to look for a programmer. Now in any case, you're probably going to want a web designer to design the website and a web designer is not going to build the website and a web developer is not going to write back in code and a web programmer is not going to create the front end of your website. It's all confusing, but it's important to understand these kind of three different people, really the two different the front end person and a backend person. The front end is going to take a designer's design and turn it into HTML and CSS and put it on the website and put it on your hosting account is going to make it look right and it's going to make it functional. And then a programmer is going to take your custom software ideas and write back end code for it which will interact with what the front end web developer does. So before you go hire a programmer or before you hire a web developer, important that you separate these two identities. Now there are some people that will do both. They're not super common though. Usually a programmer will be able to do some HTML and css. They're not going to be great at it. Rarely will you find a good person who's good with front end web development, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, who's also good at doing the back end programming and database stuff. That's rare to find a good front end person who can do back end. It's more common to find someone who's a programmer who also understands JavaScript and most programmers will know some HTML and CSS. Before you go to hire someone, the first step is to separate your role. Make sure you understand who you're hiring. For now, here are some tips when you go to do this. Number one, if you're not technical, if you've never hired somebody before, ask someone who is. Ask someone you know who is. Ask them, look, I'm looking for this kind of a thing. Am I looking for a front end developer or a back end programmer? And they'll be able to tell you like, well you're not really looking for custom stuff. You should probably use Shopify or you should use WordPress or something like that, right? Another good thing to do when you go to hire someone like this is to start them off on a trial basis. So if you, especially if you haven't hired someone before and you don't know if you're hiring someone great or not, start them off with a trial and pay them weekly. And that way you can say like oh boy, this really isn't working out once, you know, or you can pay them weekly so they're sure that you're actually going to pay them. They're not doing a month's worth of work and you're not paying them. So the trial is going to be slightly less pay than what you would pay them long term. You're going to try and give them some instructions as you work with them and then you're probably also going to try and look at the work that they've done. Not necessarily the front end or the deliverable, but if you can get someone you know to look at their code and see like, hey, give me what you've done this week so far and let's just look at it to see like someone who has experience will be able to look at it and be like, oh my gosh, this is terrible. Or yeah, this person really knows what they're doing. So what is the difference between a web developer and a web programmer? I've explained that to you today. In my next video I will show you exactly how to hire a good web developer or a good programmer and the steps to go through. My name is John Jonas. I created OnlineJobs ph, which is the largest marketplace for finding virtual workers from the Philippines. So where you can find really, really talented programmers or web developers or designers or anything for that matter, anything that can be done online, you can find it at onlinejobs Ph. There's social media people, there's SEO people, there's real estate virtual assistants, there's content writers, there's just general virtual assistants, there's appointment centers or lead generators, all kinds of people. There's over a million resumes on onlinejobs Ph, where you can find people and connect with people who you can then hire full time or part time or per project to come and work for you.