Full Stack Developers vs Specialized Developers: you should go for which one?

Considering the availability of an unlimited number of Full Stack developers around us.  If you are planning to hire one for your project, then it could be a huge confusion. According to your project’s requirements, you can have options such as a full-stack developer or a specialized developer. Furthermore, a leading web application development firm can guide a business toward the right decision. First and foremost, let’s understand exactly the roles of these two. 

A full-stack developer is a professional who is qualified in front-end development and back-end development. For this reason, they are able to understand various layers involved with software development. They are capable of understanding the project at every level. With years of experience and work in their respective field, they earn the title of full stack developer. Full-stack developers are skilled in a number of technology stacks. They are considered an important asset for the business or enterprise. 

The next term that is concerned here is a specialized developer. Specialized developers hold expertise in a particular area. A specialized developer also works on all the aspects of development but will stick to their particular discipline. They keep themselves updated with all the latest trends in their field and expertise. 

There can be constant confusion about what kind of developer to hire?  For that, one has to analyze the skillsets of both developers. With that said, this guide will provide insights on the pros and cons of hiring a specialized and full-stack developer. 

Full-stack developer

Pros

Cost-effectiveness: When you hire dedicated full stack developer by your side, there will be no requirement to hire different individuals for front-end and back-end developers. This ultimately saves a lot for a company with a reduced workforce. 

Reduced development time: Full-stack developers can easily switch between the server and client sides. This saves a lot of time that used to go into the explanation between both parties. Also, they know the inside out of the whole development project, which helps in the reduction of the overall development time. 

Quick learners: Full-stack developers can easily learn new technologies when needed. Considering their versatile nature, it is easy for them to identify and fix different types of issues easily. Also, as they are proficient in all the areas and stages of development, they can skip a 

Cons

Efficiency: Considering that full-stack developers have to keep themselves updated with every technology trend, most of their time goes into learning. This can be especially difficult for businesses that are on a tight schedule. Full-stack developers have to constantly switch between front-end and back-end, sparing them no particular devoted time. 

Specific area knowledge: Since they have to know about all the technologies, languages, frameworks, and tools, it is not likely for them to have specialized knowledge in a particular area. They need to gather information from a large stack to troubleshoot their problems. Full-stack developers do not have time to indulge in a particular field or keep themselves updated with every latest trend and technology. So, a full-stack developer might find it difficult to keep up with the implementation in that case. 

Project tracking: Full-stack developers work on huge parts of projects, this makes it hard for them to analyse the completion of the parts of development. The reason is the constant switch among the different tasks of a project. 

Specialized Developer

Pros

High-quality work: These developers can create high-quality products even without any flaws or bugs. They hold a high degree of expertise in their field, due to which the delivered work has high quality. A specialized developer is able to produce more sophisticated and user-oriented results. 

Updated: Specialized developers are mostly updated with all the latest updates and trends concerned with their area of expertise. That is because they are focused on a particular part of the development and not the whole development cycle. 

Heightened efficiency: Specialised developers, being highly focused on a part of development, can provide better results than a full stack developer. They do not work on any area other than their expertise, which gives them full time to concentrate and work on a single task. 

Cons

High cost: Specialised developers are highly experienced in their fields, this makes their demand really high and their work as unique. But with the appreciation, the price to hire dedicated specialized developers gets exceptionally high. For small or newbie businesses, the prices could be a bit too high, but when analyzed, every invested penny would be worth it. 

High dependency: No doubt that they are experienced in their field, but for any part other than their expertise area, they will have to highly depend on others. For instance, if you hire a developer to work on Ruby on rails, then they won’t be able to work on NodeJS or ReactJS. Therefore The dependency rate in the case of specialized developers will be very high. 

How to choose the one – full-stack developer vs specialized developer

The confusion of what to choose between a full stack developer and a specialized developer can be reduced by analyzing the pros and cons of the development. But, to get a more clear view, it depends on the requirements of your project. There are several aspects of a project that helps in analyzing who to prefer.

Project size: 

In general, a specialized developer prefers a large-scale project while a full stack developer goes for a small-scale project. Therefore, with the different preferences of both kinds of developers, you must be 

Budget: 

This is one more important constraint to determine whether you should hire a full-stack developer or a specialized developer. If you don’t want to pay a hefty amount to the developers, then hiring a specialized developer might not be the right choice for you. In that case, a full stack developer would be the right choice for you as they can perform everything from management to coding. And if you are willing to spend a little more, you can go for a specialized developer. Their services would be more towards the quality side, with that being the reason for higher development quality. 

Work quality:

As already discussed, the quality of work differs in both cases, that is, it’s a bit high in the case of a specialized developer. If your project does not require that much of a quality constraint, then you can go for a full-stack developer. They can do everything from managing the project to the completion. 

Project flexibility:

If your project requires a range of skillsets, then full-stack developers would be your perfect choice. They can easily and efficiently work in different areas of a project, without having to invest any time into learning new skills to carry out project tasks. 

On the other hand, if there is no urgency in the completion of a task that involves a different skill, then it’s not worth assigning that task to a specialized developer who will take an unnecessary amount of time just to catch up on a certain part of the project. 

Complexity:

If the project gets complex, a full-stack developer will be able to handle it professionally as they are quite adaptive when it’s about the constant change of field. In contrast, specialized developers can be dependent which makes them a not-so-good choice in that case. 

CONCLUSION:

There is no particular way of choosing between the two options, it all largely depends on your project. Ultimately, you must keep in mind that specialized developers are more focused and deliver high-quality in their work. On the other hand, full-stack developers are highly versatile and adaptable to changes. In the end, it’s all about what factor you need the most, but whatever is decided, you need to ensure that the business needs are properly communicated to the developers so that they work accordingly.