Hello, I’m here to briefly talk about some prominent differences between a web developer and a mobile developer due to my research.
A web developer is a programmer who develops world wide web applications using a client-server model. Web developers develop websites with the use of HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL and other tools.
Mobile developers are a type of software developer. They specialize in mobile technology such as building applications for Google’s Android, Apple’s IOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platforms. Mobile developers develop unique applications which utilize GPS, Cameras etc. Mobile developers also use most of the tools that a web developer uses.
Some of the major differences between web developers and Mobile developers are stated below;
Firstly, web developers have more jobs available than mobile developers.
Secondly, usually web developers usually need mobile developers to put their apps on mobile phones which makes it easy to download and store as a mobile application on phone. Usually web developers entice the customers with the beautiful layout and responsiveness of the website but the mobile developers help to retain the customers through the process of downloading the mobile app. Mobile apps are useful for functions like Virtual Reality, GPS, Games/Gyroscope, camera (barcode).
Furthermore, web developers have a lot of skills to choose from (tools like; HTML (hypertext mark-up language), CSS (cascading style sheet), bootstrap, JavaScript, PHP (Hypertext preprocessor), MYSQL) and other frameworks though mobile developers use some of the same tools as web developers but they only utilize about 60-70% of the skill a web developer has. A web developer already has the knowledge of a mobile developer so they can also apply their skills to become both a web developer and a mobile developer.
In addition to, web development applications are very versatile compared to mobile developer applications because mobile development apps are specific to Android and IOS platforms but web development apps are cross platform, that is; the skills transfer directly to mobile applications.
Furthermore, web developers can start easily with apps like WordPress which is easy for anyone to understand then a web developer mainly starts with frontend development then full stack development, but mobile developers starting difficulty is higher than that of web development because they start from app designer to becoming app designer with backend knowledge.
In addition to this, the average salary difference between web developers and mobile developers according to Phoenix Arizona is $5815, with the Average salary of a mobile developer as $90,438 while the average salary of a web developer is $84,623. This doesn’t necessarily mean that mobile developers are better than Web developers because web developers have more available jobs than mobile developers. Mobile developers may get paid more because of the scarcity of qualified and experienced people in the field.
In conclusion, mobile developers are usually utilized by people with already established businesses (for example some business owners might want to create mobile applications), mobile developers also create applications with unique abilities like; GPS, Virtual reality, camera, etc. Beginners in mobile development also find it more complex to start than web development, they also have a slightly higher pay than web developers.
While on the other hand, web developers are more widely utilized by big companies and even beginner companies to draw customers before using a mobile developer. There are also many more jobs available for web developers than mobile developers because web developers have a lot more skills and tend to be the starting point of a big organization. Web developers also have a lot of skills which can also be transferred to web development, simply put, a web developer can easily become a mobile developer because of skills like; Frontend development which uses tools like – HTML, JQuery, CSS, BOOTSTRAP, codekit, Sass, MYfonts, Typescript and so on. Backend development which uses tools like – PHP, JavaScript, MYSQL, SQL and so on. This also leads us to full stack developers which combines both the knowledge of Frontend developers and backend developers. Where mobile developers only utilize about 60% to 70% of the knowledge a web developer has.
