Web Designer and Web Developer, What’s the Difference?

When you’re looking to hire a person to create a website for you, picking the one expert that you truly need Web Designer & Developercould save you plenty of money and hassle. Let us take a look at the difference.

Web Designer

A web designer is someone who, as the word suggests, designs the site. They are typically responsible for the general look and feel of the site. They design the logo, page design, font and the general topic of the website. They tend to be highly skilled professionals in regards to aesthetics. They often will provide you with a visual idea of how you want your site to check by providing a mockup. These are the people that make your site look great.

Web Developer

These are the men that add functionality to your site. Often working together with a web designer, a web developer takes the visual representation of your site and make it into a functional website. Web developers are usually highly skilled in coding, PHP, HTML, CSS, etc…

So how will knowing the difference help me?

Many mistakenly employ a web developer when all they want is a web designer, and many frequently employ a web designer and expect a lot from them. Before you pay someone too much or pay too little and expect too much, let’s list out which sort of website you require.

If your website is:

  • To inform visitors about the product and services you provide
  • Only a sign-up page for people to register for your newsletter
  • A page for people to get your contact information or how to locate your business

For these, either a web designer or a web developer can do the job for you. Sometimes you can also do it yourself, with many Drag and Drop website builders such as Weebly and a lot of plugins available on the world wide web, almost anyone can create a website. But always remember a fantastic impression of your site usually brings back visitors, so our advice is to have a great web designer.

However, if you wish to create an e-commerce site then you might need to have these attributes:

  • e-commerce software
  • payment gateway (ex. eNETS, PayPal, Stripe, AliPay, etc)
  • software that syncs between your online shop and main store

Your website now grows more sophisticated and may need a customised solution. You would likely require a web developer AND perhaps a designer.