Full Stack Developers vs. Specialized Developers: Which Is Best for Your Business?

The bar for standards and abilities is becoming higher due to the fast developments in the IT industry. A developer must possess a wide range of skills and be an expert in a particular area. As a result of this need, full-stack developers are swiftly overtaking other types of developers in the eyes of many businesses.

But is it always a good idea to recruit a generalist rather than a specialist?

A lot of you are asking the same thing. We will provide some thoughtful responses in this post. Let's first define full stack and specialized developers before moving on.

What Is a Full-Stack Developer?

A developer that can work on the front end and back end of a website or application is known as a full-stack developer. A full-stack developer, to put it simply, is a developer that can work on projects that require creating user-facing websites and databases, as well as working with customers throughout the project's planning stage.

A developer who is a full-stack programmer is knowledgeable and skilled in a variety of fields, including:

Comparing the Skill Sets of Full-Stack and Specialized Developers

Although full-stack engineers are supposed to be knowledgeable about multiple programming languages and the stages of software development, they are only experts in some technical fields. A full-stack developer is skilled in UX design, web development, and app development; however, specialist android app developers may be more suited for developing high-quality mobile or online apps. Full-stack developers often have a working understanding of a combination of the following languages and frameworks, which specialized developers concentrate on a particular topic and have extensive knowledge of it:

Client-side Front-end Languages:

• CSS
• HTML
• JavaScript

Frameworks for the Front-end

• React.JS
• Vue.JS
• Angular
• Back-end Lingo
• Ruby
• Python
• C++
• Javascript
• PHP
• Java
• GO

Frameworks for the backend

• Node.js
• Rails by Ruby
• Django
• Laravel
• Flask
• ExpressJS
• Spring

Contrary to popular opinion, a full-stack software engineer only sometimes writes every line of code for a website. He often spends most of his time working on a website's backend or front-end programming.

Moreover, a full-stack developer's duties go much beyond just developing code. It is because developers may utilize a variety of adaptable frameworks, tools, and libraries nowadays rather than creating all of the code themselves.

Full-stack developers are desirable candidates for businesses looking to hire android developers due to their expert understanding of deploying front-end and backend technologies and frameworks.

What Does an Expert Developer Do?  

As the team indicates, a developer who is an expert in one area and whose work is focused on that discipline is referred to as a specialized developer. It does not imply that a senior full-stack developer would not have the same knowledge needed to create and deploy an application as a technical developer.

It simply indicates that the specialist developer would be the go-to person for that specific topic, which might be anything like design, database design, domain modeling, or entity framework.

Full Stack vs. Specialist Developers 

Pros and Cons of Full Stack vs. Specialist Development

We knew the fundamental distinction between a full-stack developer and a specialized developer. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of employing them.

Let's start by examining the benefits and drawbacks of employing expert developers.

Pros of Specialized Developers:

Delivered work was at a high standard for each project component.

Hiring expert developers has several benefits, one of which is the assurance of consistently receiving high-quality work for every aspect of your project. Because all specialist developers are knowledgeable about their respective technologies, their work is of a higher caliber than that of full-stack developers.

Keeps current with emerging trends and technology

Since specialist developers are experts in a particular field, staying current on all the newest trends and technology is simple.

Convenient Responsibility Distribution

It becomes simple, effective, and pleasant to divide tasks among the team members and the project's requirements. Each specialist developer may divide the whole project into manageable tiny jobs.

Cons of Specialized Developers:

High Price

A single full-stack developer may do the same task for less money than employing two specialized engineers for the front end and back end, respectively.

Relies

Specialized developers rely more on other team members since they are experts at what they do and have a high level of ability. For instance, in one project, one developer can only go on once the other, the more specialized developer, has finished his portion of the work.

Let's examine the benefits and drawbacks of employing a capable full-stack developer.

Full-Stack Developer Advantages

A Multi-Talented Person

A full-stack developer is knowledgeable about all the many phases of software development, including front-end, backend, QA testing, code architecture, and many more. When several developers are working on various product components, this adaptability enables full-stack developers to identify and resolve Omni-purpose problems swiftly.

To identify the issue without a full-stack developer, specialist developers must have a meeting, which takes time.

Cost

It is simple to replace two or more specialist developers with one full-stack developer. Therefore, employing a full-stack developer may cut the cost of recruiting by lowering the number of employees needed.

Flexibility

A full-stack programmer provides excellent flexibility since he is knowledgeable about both the client and the service side, making it simple for him to transition between duties. By removing misconceptions between the development sides, the presence of a full-stack developer shortens the development time.

The front-end developers can meet with the backend developer to discuss the problem in the presence of a full-stack developer.

Cons of a Full Stack Developer

Erratic Time Management

When many Full Stack engineers are working on critical components of a project, there is a significant danger of unreasonable time management. It may be due to a condition of heavy workload and a collection of incomplete chores. As the developers would be preoccupied with finishing the outstanding jobs rather than focusing on new tasks, this might cause the whole project to stall.

Unable to Follow the Most Recent Trends and Technology

Because they work in so many different domains, full-stack developers sometimes need help to stay current on the newest trends, tools, and technologies.

Control Responsibility

The developers don't break up their work into smaller jobs while on projects with a whole stack development team. Instead, they just complete project components that are coherent. Because of this, it is difficult for the team members and clients to control, evaluate, and –most importantly –define when the project is finished.

When Should You Hire Specialized or Full Stack Developers?

As we have shown, both full-stack and specialized developers have advantages and disadvantages. However, you can still be trying to decide whether to work with a full-stack developer or a specialist developer. To understand the two better, let's look at the criteria for choosing between a dedicated developer and a full-stack developer.  

Size of the Undertaking

The magnitude of the project has a significant impact on the developers' selection. For instance, employing full-stack engineers makes sense if you are a startup or have a modest task. It's because you have a wide variety of technology and duties at that point, along with limited resources.

Hiring Full-stack engineers for medium-sized projects makes sense. A big team of professional developers should be hired for significant projects, nevertheless, since it's necessary to carefully follow the documentation process and apply the right tools and technologies.

Project Difficulty

This criterion and the first one are reasonably similar. Because hiring a full-stack developer is the best option if a project, regardless of size, has a manageable amount of tasks, defined functionality, and straightforward execution.

Similar to this, it will be a better decision to work with professional developers that can provide more expert solutions if the project is complicated, that is, if it includes a lot of jobs.

Task Adaptability

Full-stack developers are the best option if your project's needs need to be firmly established and are liable to alter on occasion. Full-stack engineers are skilled at moving between jobs quickly and multitasking. As a result, they can easily adapt to such regular adjustments. On the other hand, altering needs might be challenging if your team consists of numerous specialist developers.

If your project has strict specifications, you should hire a group of specialized experts.

Budget

As was previously said, employing a full-stack developer is more cost-effective than assembling a specialized team. So, if money is tight, hiring a full-stack developer is the best option.

A high-Caliber Project

The project quality is a crucial factor to consider when deciding between full stack and specialized specialists. More work will be needed to provide a solution of the highest quality.

A top-notch solution requires total immersion to create. And only a group of expert developers can create such immersion.

Conclusion

For a startup, full-stack developers are the best option. For superior and sophisticated solutions, specialist developers are the way to go. Full-stack developers and specialist developers both have advantages and disadvantages. You must thoroughly grasp your project before deciding between them. This post helped you better understand the fundamental distinctions between full-stack and specialist developers and their advantages, disadvantages, and application.