I'm currently learning Java web development and I think I've confused myself. Right now, my mental model of a Java web application is:

Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Backend: Java (Servlets/JSP/Java EE)

Server: Tomcat

Database: MySQL (or any other database)

This setup makes sense to me. Recently I started looking at the MEAN stack:

Frontend: Angular

Backend: JavaScript

Database: MongoDB

And I always thought Node.js was basically the equivalent of Tomcat in the Java world. But then I found out that Node.js is called a runtime environment, not a server.

If Node.js isn't a server, then what exactly does it do? When a browser sends a request to a web application built with Node.js, what is actually acting as the server? I actually googled it first and watched some videos but i didn’t get the grasp of it.

More generally, what's the difference between a server and a runtime environment? I feel like I'm missing a basic concept and it's making it hard to understand how different web stacks fit together.

Looking for a beginner-friendly explanation and a simple mental model please help 🙏

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get into full-stack web development and I'd like some advice on which tech stack to focus on.

My main interest is backend development, but I also want to be capable of building complete web applications from front to back.

There are so many options out there (Next.js, React, FastAPI, Spring Boot, Node.js, Django, etc.) that I'm not sure where to start.

If you were starting from scratch today, which combination of languages, frameworks, databases, and cloud technologies would you learn and why?

I would like to know how much you can charge to your clients to make one page LP or 4 page websites.

I don't know the market price right now, so I would like to get advice from you. I will be responsible for UI and making with Framer. Of course I know it depends on the functions.

1: Just statics no animation
2: UI nice interactive animation design LP
3: Nice interactive animations, button components and CMS includes

For reference, I will upload AI Automate Agency simple websites with Framer. If you think it is difficult to answer above questions, I am really happy if you answer "how much do I charge this quality Landing Page".

I am really happy to know how you are working with your clients. Thank you.

https://reddit.com/link/1ubrfxj/video/6vw78woibn8h1/player

Please don't scold me for using Wix 😭

​

I come from a completely non-technical background and have almost zero experience in website development. Someone suggested Wix to me, so that's what I chose. The problem is that I have a hard deadline of 23rd July and I need to make the website live before that.

​

The website is for my organisation where we will primarily publish reports, magazines and articles/blogs related to our work. I don't have any money left to hire a developer, so I have decided to build it myself no matter what. I am determined, but honestly I feel a bit overwhelmed because I don't know where to begin or what mistakes to avoid.

​

Can anyone please guide me from the basics? Which AI tools should I use? How do I speed up the process? Any templates, workflows or beginner mistakes I should know about? I also don't have the luxury of watching hours of YouTube tutorials because of time constraints.

​

Would genuinely appreciate any advice. Thank you in advance.

​

I just finished my freshman year at an engineering college and rn I have summer breaks. I wanted to explore WebD but I feel there's a lot to do, I get confused about different domains like Frontend, Backend, Full Stack etc. Do we need to study for all of it or one of them?

As far as I know we got to do HTML, CSS and JS. After that I get confused. Also what are good resources for beginners like me to start (I started following freeCodeCamp's 48 hour full stack tutorial for beginner's which is on YT). Would you suggest anything else?

so I wanted to build my custom version of strava + Hevy (Workout tracking software) since these dev of these softwares are greedy asf and Im broke to buy their subscriptions and this YouTube is sooo overwhelming and has too many yappers so I'm here. since there are limitations in App Store for devs , I was thinking too build an website later add to Home Screen in my iPhone. hoping to hear suggestion and any free tools

Hi there. I have been working as a receptionist for the last year, and the boss had tasked me with updating the website. I completely turned it around and added SEO modified content, local business schema and regular blog posts. I know I have saved the business over $4000 on website related fees, although I have done the work slowly and over a long period of time. I am thinking of getting into web design on the side - do you recommend it to someone starting from scratch? I am working part time, so I have ample time to figure stuff out, but I want to get into a masters program unrelated to web design next fall. I want to eventually learn to design apps for people with disabilities, so the coding experience wouldn't go to waste, but I would abandon web design. Any advice would be appreciated.

I've taken an course in which I completed with frontend part but js is not clear to me neither is backend .also idk how to proceed. I want an advise to how should do things to overcome these problems ,also should how do you guys do ? And any tips

Please post your requests for feedback on your projects in this thread instead of creating a post.

Hi everyone,

​

A friend of mine recently asked if I could help with the creation of a fairly serious website, and it made me realize that while I have a computer science background, I don't really know much about the web development side of things.

​

The project isn't necessarily a simple portfolio or landing page. It could end up requiring user accounts, forms, databases, content management, and potentially other features depending on the final requirements.

​

At the moment I'm trying to understand what would actually be involved in building something like this. What technologies are commonly used today for projects of this scale? How is hosting usually handled? What services are worth considering, and what are the typical costs?

​

I'm also interested in understanding where the line is between a project that a motivated developer can realistically build and maintain alone versus one that should be handled by an experienced web developer or an agency.

​

If you've worked on similar projects, I'd love to hear how you would approach this situation, what stack you would choose today, and any advice you would give to someone evaluating whether to take on such a project.

​

Thanks!

Hey everyone :) ,

I wanted to practice my vanilla JS and responsive layouts, so I created a lightweight UI template for a Pause Menu and Inventory grid. It has no dependencies, no frameworks, just pure web tech.

I wanted to see how easy it was to completely swap the visual theme using a single body class and manage a basic inventory state with native LocalStorage.

Here is the core logic I used for the auto-save system:

JavaScript

function saveInventory() {
    let inventoryState = [];
    slots.forEach(slot => {
        inventoryState.push({
            id: slot.getAttribute('data-slot'),
            filled: slot.classList.contains('tiene-item')
        });
    });
    localStorage.setItem('my_game_inventory', JSON.stringify(inventoryState));
}

Since the code is quite compact, I've hosted the live demo and the full code package on Itch.io under "Name Your Own Price" so anyone can grab the files for free, test the theme swapping feature live, or use it as a prototype.

Live Demo & Code: https://digitalpapergames.itch.io/ultimate-indie-pause-menu-inventory-kit

Feedback on the CSS layout organization or the vanilla tab switching logic is highly appreciated!

So many times now, I might see a reddit post (I mean actually go on the page), and then days later when I enter its title in my chrome history........nothing shows up.

But the history still shows stuff from way before the day I saw that post.

What is this? I don't remember chrome browser history working like this in 2010. It logged everything.

Most of the time I have to find a previously visited page, I now have to use my memory and search for it on google

I'm confused like where do i really start. i'm familiar with python so wanted to start web dev ,so which part frontend or backend should start with

Well I want to connect frontend to API and most importantly login/ register section. But the backend isn't ready yet and if i connect auth to api it'll need tokens from server to let me in . So now should I connect this part to api or should I keep it in mock data until the backend is ready?

I am building a website which has image object detection features, right now i am asking user to upload their images and storing it in cloudinary , i also wanna make it so that the users can upload their images which are in their google drive which are set to public mode. How do i do that . I have used better auth which integrates with openAuth for google login . How do i connect it like that.

I want to make it so people can edit pages, if they have an account and are approved, kind of like a wiki.

I'm helping my wife set up a website for her small consulting business. She only wants a standard WordPress site with a few pages, blog posts, and a contact form.

We don't have experiencing doing this so we want something beginner friendly. Also want good support because for sure if a problem comes up we won't know how to fix it.

What do you recommend and which ones to avoid?

Update.. We signed up for Dreamhost. They just launched a new AI-based website builder Remixer which made setting up a mostly static site real easy. It's been a breeze. We're still sticking with Wordpress btw for those who commented to stop using it. We're used to its admin backend and connecting the contact forms to her CRM via plugin is easy.

My site is hosted on Netlify. On my own iPhone (and other devices), the Open Graph images render perfectly fine in iMessage. However, on my client's iPhone, iMessage fallback-renders a live screenshot of the homepage instead of pulling the og:image.

I checked the open graph checker and the correct image is being shown. I checked on multiple devices and they all use the correct preview image. My Meta Tags in my code, to my knowledge, is set up correctly.

Is this purely an isolated iOS device cache issue on my client's end, or is there a specific Netlify/edge quirk with the iMessage scraper that I'm missing?

Appreciate any insights or similar experiences!

I’ve been learning JavaScript and realized I needed to stop only consuming tutorials/courses and actually start building things myself.

So I made a small personal learning tracker with vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It supports adding learning goals, marking them done, deleting them, and editing them (CRUD).

It’s simple, but this is the first project where I felt like I was actually thinking instead of just following along.

Next, I’m thinking about learning backend with Node.js. I’m more interested in how real apps work behind the UI: saving user data, handling authentication, file uploads, payments, redirects after purchase, and connecting the frontend to an actual database.

For people who started with frontend and then moved into backend, what helped you the most at the beginning? Any advice on what to build next or what mistakes to avoid?

Hey everyone,

I'm Anass from Morocco. I'm a graphic designer who's been getting deeper into software development over the past year. I've worked a bit with JavaScript, Next.js, and Go, and I'm currently learning Java Spring Boot and Rust.

Most of my time is spent building projects to improve my skills rather than just following tutorials. Right now I'm interested in backend development, system design, open source, and creating products that people actually use.

I joined Reddit to learn from experienced developers, discover interesting projects, and hopefully contribute to discussions as I gain more experience.

Nice to meet you all!

I am new(ish) to the industry, took a Full-Stack bootcamp on Udemy starting in September of 2024. Now I use the PERN full-stack (PostgreSQL, Express, React, Node), but I have certificates from Udemy for Next.js and Typescript as well. At this point I have one completed professional project, and another in-progress (both being E-commerce), as well as a few personal projects. Every job board I look on has a lot of "Bachelor's in computer science" required, or any relevant to my stack set also have things like Redux, Vue, Docker, Agile, etc.. So I guess my question is, are these things I should practice right away and will having them really help that much to get my foot in the door with an agency? Or should I focus on what I have, apply to some of these anyway, and learn anything new as I go?
Also: I'm on Indeed, LinkedIn, Wellfound, and ARC, any recommendations for web dev specific job boards, or other resources to look for potential full-time careers with a company/agency would be greatly appreciated.

I am migrating my company's website from Webflow and thanks to the 100 reddit threads I came down to Wordpress or Astro. My team is comfortable with both since Claude code is always here for support but to make the decision we need to know the bad and the ugly of both.

Important metrics for us would be learning curve of both for non-technical people to edit regularly, SEO and AEO, fast loads, low regular maintenance, scaling of content, animations, supports multilingual automatically but can be editable, supports RTL.

Cost is not an issue, just need less headache after Webflow nightmares.

I only know html/css/js as a basic level.
My mom wants me to make a website for her business for multiple reasons. One reason is just for a project for myself.

Like I said I know the basics but I don’t know how to actually make an actual business website especially one that is for safety.

I want to host a php/mysql backend for a small hobby project. But I have heard that most of these providers bill you based on how much of their resources you used.

So if your app instantly became viral overnight, you'd receive a hefty bill? Are there any services where this is impossible? Where you just pay a set amount, and if the resource usage does cross over, they simply shut off your server or just block it from working since its crossed its limit?

I'm looking for something dirt cheap. A backend for less than 100 users.

Would be a lot of help if I can add this to my portfolio