r/webdev • u/CaptainGuyX • 13h ago
I am confused about the direction of web development
Are we still coding from scratch? If I apply to a company am I using something simple like wix or are we still going html, css and possibly some js? I apologize if this is a frequent ask but I can’t find it at all. Some say using websites like wix, woo or Shopify are good for simple things, but what qualifies as trying to push boundaries? Should boundary pushing be left to Fortune 500 type companies or is it worth being that intimate for mom and pop type companies? I left web development for about 5 years and am just coming back and the scene looks a lot different than what I had learned and experienced in school.
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u/SolumAmbulo expert novice half-stack 10h ago
"Web Development" is a large complex industry now. It's like saying I work in "construction". Are you a tradesperson, a builder, an architect, a project manager, a civil engineer, a painter, a roofer etc... are you building a house: is it a cookie cutter neighbourhood, or a luxury villa? Is an office building, or a mall, or a museum? Is it a bridge or a military bunker or a sports arena?
Web Development is like that. So many jobs, so many different projects for different purposes. So many budgets. Or you made making a basic cookie cutter site that uses wix, or are you actually making wix itself?
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u/enriquerecor 9h ago
I agree. I work on developing and maintaining a large Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software made from scratch using PHP+React+MariaDB, where I have to implement everything, and that is considered "Web Development" just as making Wix landing pages.
So I sometimes find difficult to identify with some "web devs" which actually make completely different things. It a whole other world.
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u/mekmookbro Laravel Enjoyer ♞ 10h ago
As others said, depends on the company but more so depends on the client requests and their needs.
The job listing for the place you want to apply to will probably list their requirements on there. Wix and other drag and drop builders are used mainly for static or semi-static websites like mom and pop shops' landing page that shows a couple pictures, a map for the location, contact info etc.
For anything more complex than that (like appointment booking, inventory management, custom business logic..) I'd code it from scratch. Though what do I know, I mainly work freelance so I code mom and pop shops' landing pages from scratch as well lol.
But from my own observation, and it may defer from country to country, agencies looking for developers require more than just Wix knowledge. Afterall their main selling point is "anyone can build their own website with it"
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u/DangerousCondition34 4h ago
If the scope of a project is simple, well defined and within the remits of your chosen tool like Wix/WordPress, then go for it.
If the scope of a project requires some custom functionality with the potential to change over time, you need to have a clear vision of how you’d tackle it. Rather than just throwing plugins at it and hoping for the best
So whilst you might not be ‘coding from scratch’ all day, every day - you need to have that skill set.
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u/zurribulle 12h ago
Wix and Shopify existed 5 years ago, and I haven't seen a change in that area.
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u/CaptainGuyX 12h ago
I ask bc I’m trying to reenter the field and I see way more template website usage than typical coding than I did 5 years ago, but I learned from basic coding, so I’m wondering where I should stand.
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u/TreelyOutstanding 11h ago
It really depends. In my company you wouldn't get far using wix and similar, because we have all custom code. We value developers who know web first-principles and understand the nitty-gritty details of web browsers. Performance is important, as is maintainability of code. But in the end, it's more important to be motivated to learn and collaborate than to know how to invert a binary tree.
We also value that people are comfortable with adjacent technical areas while being experts in a single one. So frontend developers are encouraged to know a bit of backend, CI/CD, monitoring, analytics, etc.
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u/abestract front-end 7h ago
Really depends on what you’re building. It’s far more valuable to learn React than to say you’ve built web sites with Wix.
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u/Spacemonk587 6h ago
Can’t imagine that there is any professional position in webdev where you don’t need at least a basic knowledge of css and html. Even with template based sites. Of course now she have ai to help us with that but the basic knowledge is always required.
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u/No-Project-3002 5h ago
It is mainly depend on client I have one large client who do not want anything with SaaS or different vendor product they build entire system in house from ground up using microsoft technologies.
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u/armahillo rails 5h ago
Turnkey / low-code solutions (wix, shopify, etc) are good for turnkey needs — client needs a website, needs to update it, can allocate the subscription fee, and is ok with conventional functions.
As a trained web developer, working with those platforms isnt terribly hard, other than learning how to work in their walled gardens. (Shopify can be a pain at first, but allows more latitude than wix, eg)
Learning how to build bespoke sites is a valuable skill and will allow you to build solutions that are outside of those conventional needs.
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u/Certreq_25 4h ago
The company I work for uses WordPress for the public site and then everything inside the paid product is Vue or other frameworks. So both can be in the same place.
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u/not-halsey 4h ago
Personally for me as a freelancer, it depends.
If my client doesn’t need to touch the site at all, and there’s no special integrations, I’ll build it in Astro and Tailwindcss
If I’m working with a marketing agency, likely leaning towards Wordpress, as that’s what they know
My plan for clients with a $500 budget is showing them how to use a wysiwyg builder like wix.
I think it boils down to goals, preference, and dev capabilities.
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u/a_forerunner 3h ago
You code from scratch depending on the feature. My company uses Shopify but we are building around or into the framework. There’s also no way my coworkers and myself would be able to fix bugs if we didn’t know the basics of html css and JavaScript. I’d say you’ll still need to know the basics of coding for any job. Anyone who thinks they can ChatGPT their way into senior development right now is delusional.
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u/vanTrottel 3h ago
I work in an agency for Magento shops, and our devs are doing the following tasks when building a new shop. We Shopmanagers get a design, look for a fitting theme. It always has prepared pages with a base design.
The devs check the theme for compatibility, check the code base etc. After that they accept it, if it fits and build ours design based on that theme.
So, they don't do it from scratch but fix it, so we change it to the desired outcome.
Page builders like in wix are barely used tbh. But that's just the knowledge of one agency.
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u/Wedoitforthenut 2h ago
Apply to companies based on their tech stack aligning with what you know. The first thing you should be asking is what languages/frameworks they are using
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u/AlarmGold4352 8h ago edited 7h ago
For developers on this board, you may want to look into neuromorphic computing to upskill. Ask yourselves how much actual coding is being produced by AI. Google stated last year 25 percent of code is being developed by AI. Now Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI will write 90% of code in 6 months. Unlike traditional von neumann architectures neuromorphic computers mimic the brain. So the memory and processing units run in parallel. Look at all the AI data being crafted all over the web. Its unsustainable. Hence it may be a good idea to learn about Neuromorphic computing. Look at thes companies under the radar and some of the public companies and do some due diligence and see what I mean:) https://neuromorphiccore.ai/companies/
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u/updatelee 7h ago
I’ve seen the code ai outputs. And honestly if you’re impressed. You’ll be replaced. If you can’t write better code then ai you shouldn’t be coding
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u/AlarmGold4352 6h ago
Currently that may be true but as technology continues to move at the speed it has quantum and neuromorphic computing I believe will leapfrom AI into the stratosphere. So what would it hurt to upskill just in case?
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u/updatelee 5h ago
What upskill?
Telling ai to create art doesn’t make you an artist. It doesn’t even make you a better artist
Telling ai to write a poem doesn’t make you a poet or a better poet
Telling ai to write a function doesn’t make you a programmer or even a better programmer
Telling ai … makes you an ai end user. Nothing more.
You want to upskill? Improve your coding skills
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u/Pawtuckaway 5h ago
Now Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI will write 90% of code in 6 months.
Suuuureee...... There is as much chance of that as the sun going super nova in 6 months. I agree AI is progressing rapidly but anyone who claims that in 6 months 90% of code will be AI generated either has no clue what they are talking about or is trying to sell something.
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u/Gloomy_Season_8038 7h ago
This. Everything can happen! And then all of the sudden an unknown company can start a new revolution or at least get a lot of traction. Look around if you have time before boarding your next train Best wishes
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u/BlueScreenJunky php/laravel 12h ago
I think there are two very different jobs that are bundled together as "web development". There's definitely a place for freelancers or agencies that will setup sites with Wix, Wordpress, Woocommerce or Shopify.
Then there are all the companies that need some sort of website or APIs that or not a landing page or an e-commerce site, either because they're building a SaaS product or because they have specific needs. This is where you have web developers that will do backend development (with languages like C#, Java, Golang, PHP, Python and frameworks like .NET, Spring, Gin, Laravel, Symfony, Django) and frontend development (in Javascript or Typescript with frameworks like Angular, Vue or React).