Web Design vs. Web Development: What’s The Difference?

Want to become a web designer but don’t know where to start? We’ve all been there. In fact, many beginners don’t even know who they want to be: some look for web design courses, and some for web dev ones. But who wins in a battle of web design vs. web development? And what’s the difference anyway?

Web design vs. web development: what’s the difference?

While those two fields are very similar, they do have a lot of differences. Choose wrong, and you may regret it. When we talk about web design, we mean the visual elements of a website, the overall look, and the structure. Web designers think of a way to make a website stand out and look for the best images, fonts, etc. Web designers can also be different — for example, UI/UX designers are a different breed responsible for user experience.

If you’re a creative person and know design programs like Adobe Photoshop, Figma, or Sketch, it’s possible you’ll make it as a web designer. But becoming a web developer is a whole other ordeal.

Think of it this way: web design is what you see. Web development is how it works. You can’t just draw a web page and call it a day — you need to build it from the ground up, and that’s a skill not many possess. To become a successful dev, you must learn a few languages like CSS, JS, and HTML.

Web design jobs

You can combine the two areas, of course, becoming a true pro. But we suggest not overextending oneself. Better think about whether you want to be a front-end developer or a back-end dev. The difference is straightforward: the first one takes the ready-made designs and makes them a reality, while the second takes care of a “backstage,” managing APIs and databases and managing the server side of things.

Web design vs. web development is a battle with no winners: we all need them all. Those fields cannot exist without one another, but don’t try to learn it all — better find the one that suits you best.