Website Designer vs Developer: What’s the Difference? [Workbook Included]

As a busy Solopreneur, and Entrepreneur on the CEO rise, you begin to get the hang of what you need to prepare yourself and your business for online optimal performance. The continued website designer vs developer debate will not escape you either.

In reality, designers and developers have very distinct roles and are responsible for different aspects of building a website.

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You also begin to understand the difference between website designer vs developer the more you investigate and understand your needs the better decision you’ll make. Your job is to ensure that you and whomever you choose are on the same page.

The Designer

Your site designer is responsible for creating that sexy user-facing look that everyone interacts with. The pretty colors, the flow of the layout, the formatting of your content, the placement of all the elements that come together to present your brand and site to your visitors.

They are also responsible for making sure that the tools you use to collect information from your visitors (if you have any established or are creating from scratch) and allow them to pay you in a way that looks and feels comfortable enough to them so that no one is left frustrated.

Your site designer is also responsible for integrating your Brand assets into your site. From fonts to colors to visual and audio – all these are pulled together by your designer to allow them to represent your Brand the way, or better than, envisioned.

What your Brand is, your site should represent it. It’s ok to switch things up and tweak as your Brand shifts through growth.

The Developer

Your site developer is responsible for the functionality of your website. All the code is supposed to work as expected, but shit happens and you often end up with broken pieces or settling for something that works “close enough” to what you want.

As soon as a hiccup is introduced, the developer is the one to go under the hood of your site to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent this from happening again. Your developer is also vital to securing your website and all the data that passes through it.

No hacker should be able to slide in as smoothly as water through a crack. If there is anything that you would like to transform dramatically or perform in a particular manner, your coder should be able to get it done. The extra, extensive code development may come at an added cost – depending on your active Scope of Work.

As soon as a hiccup is introduced, the developer is the one to go under the hood of your site to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent this from happening again. Your developer is also vital to securing your website and all the data that passes through it.

The Fine-tuned Hybrid (Full-Stack Developer)

If you are able to lock down a designer and developer (or a 2-in-1) you’re in luck! She or he is responsible for all aspects of your site. They may be stronger in one aspect more than the other so be aware that certain tasks may take them longer. If they work efficiently, they may have a stronger skilled person on their team to help them where they fall short. This is no slight on them, but it would work to your advantage, as well as theirs, to have help and get the job done quicker and in collaboration.

Hire Based on Your Needs

Figure out which skills do you prefer, more proficient in design or development; all depending on your site needs.

If they work efficiently, they may have a stronger skilled person on their team to help them where they fall short. This is no slight on them, but it would work to your advantage, as well as theirs, to have help and get the job done quicker and in collaboration.

When you’re ready to hire and work with a site designer or developer (or both) you should remember that a designer does not equate to a developer and a developer does not equate to a designer.

The Rundown: Website Designer vs Developer

The developer may know how to get your site to work but they may be unsure about how to make it appealing and attractive to your visitors so they can become returning customers.

Same for your designer. They may know how to create a fly site where people want to just stare at it all day, but they may be unable to help you if code goes haywire or if you want to code the site to do tricks and wow your visitors with cool details like the weather in their location and have the website display snowflakes or raindrops accordingly.

Grab out our checklist Who to Hire?: Website Designer vs Developer.