Hire Front-End Developers With STARNAVI

The front end is a set of technologies and tools for building an application layer that provides interactivity – an opportunity to press buttons, choose menu items, submit forms, scroll pictures in the gallery, and do many other things. The front end is essential for each software product, such as an application or a website. Without the front end, one can create a command line, for example, and the only reason it’s possible is that a command line doesn’t need an interface; it’s just a window for printing prompts.

When a software product needs an interface – the set of features for moving through content – we need the front end. So the answer to the question “When is using the front end the right choice?” is “It’s required for each software product,” regardless of the industry, business scale, and the product’s type. Thus, you need to hire a front-end developer to build a website, a web or mobile application, an enterprise app, or an e-commerce platform.

The front end is closely related to web design and UI development; these two domains are often confused. Let’s clarify what both terms mean using a simple example. Let’s imagine we’re building a to-do list application. Here are the tasks a web designer and a front-end developer are responsible for:

• A web designer draws the graphics parts of the interface: buttons, menus, forms, cards, etc. A designer creates an interface and defines each element's appearance (its form, color, background, etc.).

• A front-end developer transforms a picture into a code that later can be connected to a server and rendered by a browser to provide an action a user wants to make. In the case of a to-do list application, a user can add or remove a task because the front end does its job. Due to the front-end technologies, every time a user interacts with an application, the changes become reflected in the interface.

To get a clear vision of the front end, one needs to understand how the front and back ends are different and how they interact to provide the application functioning. The back end is responsible for connecting an application and a database. When a user marks a task as completed, the back end exchange the information with a server; then, the front end changes the information in the user’s account. This way, the front and back ends and a UI collaborate to provide application interactivity and responsiveness.

When you hire top front-end developers, you expect them to build the application layer which makes an app interactive. Such a simple operation as pressing a button – for example, when a user logs in - involves several application layers, including the front end. UI defines how the button looks and where on the screen it’s situated. Due to the front end, a button is actionable (otherwise, it’s just a picture). The back end is involved in sending the information obtained from a user to the server, data verification, and giving a response (a user enters an account and sees the new page) if the data are valid. All three application parts work together, but they are often built by different professionals since big and complex applications require plenty of specific tools, and the workflow is immense.

To handle the tasks, a front-end developer uses three essential technologies – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – and plenty of frameworks, libraries, and other tools that help a programmer write code quickly with minimum errors. Frameworks and libraries contain plenty of pre-built features and pre-written pieces of code, allowing a developer to compose an application faster. Front-end essential frameworks (React.js, Angular.js, Vue.js, Ember.js) have built-in testing tools which make debugging easier.

Here are some examples of typical front-end developer’s tasks:

• responsive and accessible user interfaces building;

• website and application optimization to reduce the page loading time and file sizes;

• responsive web design creation – development of applications able to adjust their UI to the devices’ sizes they run at;

• interactive features implementation (animated illustrations, carousels, sliders, interactive maps, drag-and-drop features);

• testing, debugging, updating, and maintaining the websites and applications.

The set of tasks is wider for more experienced developers. When you hire front-end developers with five years of experience and more, you can expect an engineer to participate in application architecture development, implement automation into the development process, optimize applications performance, keep development standards, and mentor junior developers.

A front-end developer’s skill set primary determiner is the project peculiarities: an industry, a project type, scale, and the tech stack. When you hire dedicated front-end developers for an e-commerce platform development, candidates’ experience in creating a shopping platform is a plus. If your project is in the healthcare industry, developers’ knowledge of the industry’s standards and legal requirements for data security will help you meet the formalities. For a small project, expertise in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can be enough, while complex projects require mastery of front-end frameworks.

As for the tech stack, it drastically influences the front-end developers' requirements. You can expect from a developer a solid knowledge of React.js and its libraries if this framework is a key front-end technology. The choice of the leading back-end technology matters as well. If development is based on Python as a language for building the server-side application’s part, you can include in the list of a front-end developer’s desired skills at least the general understanding of how Python works.

The task's complexity and terms dictate developers’ seniority levels. For a software product with advanced functionality, such as a social media platform or an enterprise application, one needs middle to senior devs, especially if the expected time to market is relatively short. In contrast, for a simple application for a local business, a junior developer’s expertise can be sufficient if deadlines don’t press you: it could appear more cost-efficient to hire a front-end developer of junior level and provide a programmer with technical guidance than to employ a senior engineer.

With all reservations we’ve mentioned above, let’s make up a list of technologies basic for the front end of an online marketplace as an example:

• HTML and CSS for interface creation;

• JavaScript for interface interactivity;

• React.js as a framework;

• Redux as a library used with a framework;

• Bootstrap as a framework providing plenty of UI components and CSS styles for a user interface building;

• jQuery as a JavaScript library for DOM manipulation and AJAX requests simplification and cross-browser compatibility.

After compiling a list of technologies, you’ll have a clear vision of the front-end developers’ skills compulsory for your project. Before hiring, it’s reasonable to prioritize the skills by defining which are essential or optional.

A front-end developer is a part of any software development team since a rare website or application can be built without constructing a product's presentational layer - the front end. The software development market was estimated at more than 400 billion in 2021, and its CAGR is expected to mount by 11.7% between 2021 and 2030. The demand for front-end developers increases respectively. According to the Software House 2021 report, a little bit less than one-fifth of companies (18,2%) have more than 100 front-end developers in their teams. In 2022, there were 218,350 front-end developers hired in the U.S.

In the context of a discussion on front-end development popularity, it’s worth highlighting that the demand for different front-end tools varies over time. Frameworks vie for developers' community attention and constantly evolve, providing better practices and comprehensive solutions. According to the Stack Overflow data, in 2022, the top-5 of the most popular front-end frameworks included:

• React.js;

• Angular;

• Vue.js;

• Angular.js;

• Svelte.

The primary reason why front-end developers are in demand is the front-end technologies' versatility and the fact that this layer of development is ubiquitous. Whether you’re building an educational platform, health monitoring application, personal finance, or logistics management app, you need to hire front-end developers to create a responsive, intuitive, engaging interface and provide a seamless user experience. Using HTML, CSS, various frameworks, libraries, and utilities, the front-end developers will ensure your application’s ability to look concise and function properly on different devices. In close collaboration with the rest of the team, the front-end programmers will play a major part in your application maintenance and keeping it up-to-date with the latest technology trends and market demands.

The global average front-end developers’ hourly pay rate is estimated to be $61-80 with the annual salary of $51,000. In the U.S., the front-end developers’ salaries are higher and lie within $61,000 - $101,000.

The average salaries across the regions and countries look as follows:

• The U.S. – $68,600;

• Israel – $55,911;

• Australia – $51,493;

• Germany – $50,955;

• Canada – $44,069;

• Africa – $17,006;

• Brasil – $13,102;

• Ukraine – $21,956;

• India – $6,206.

The highest pay rates are traditionally associated with Western Europe and the U.S., and the lowest with Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. For American and Western European countries, collaboration with Eastern European developers is considered the best of both worlds, meaning reasonable devs’ salary expectations and a high level of expertise. In addition, Eastern European engineers’ culture code and work ethics are close to those of the Western world.

While calculating your staffing budget, use the following criteria for more precise estimation:

• Duration of cooperation. For a small site development, a couple of weeks are required while enterprise application development may take several months or more than a year.

• The developers’ seniority levels. A Ukrainian front-end junior developer earns $1,500 monthly; the respective rate for a senior dev is $6,500.

• Additional expenditures (searching, hiring, onboarding). Whether you hire with your in-house team’s resources or delegate the task to the third-party service vendor, it will have its cost.

To hire front-end web developers offshore cost-efficiently, consider collaboration with a staffing partner with expertise in the market you’re interested in. Through such a collaboration, you can avoid overhead costs, such as expenditures on recruiting and managing an offshore team. You get more than that: a staffing partner will manage the legal issues and help sign contacts and NDAs. STARNAVI as a staffing partner operating in the Eastern European market since 2016 will deliver you the whole range of services for your team augmentation. We’ll manage legal issues with compliance, design the benefit packages, and handle accounting.

STARNAVI front-end developers match your project’s requirements completely, hired cost-efficiently, and with legal compliance.

STARNAVI ensures match by the vast pool of developers who potentially fit the positions and robust vetting. We stay in touch with talented developers representing different specializations and pre-vet them to deliver our clients fast responses when they face the talent dip. Our vetting is based on the following criteria:

• tech skills, which we evaluate by a variety of methods, including tech interviews, code reviews, and live coding sessions;

• soft skills, which we assess in an interview; this group of skills includes, apart from communication and time management abilities, the motivation level, and the result-oriented approach to remote work.

With a comprehensive attitude to candidates’ assets evaluation, we provide the background for the long-term and productive relationships between a company and a front-end developer. STARNAVI’s team offers mentorship: we’re ready to support our candidates all the way through the project with information, advice, or friendly guidance. For our developers, we provide BPO services, including signing contracts, accounting, and payroll.

You can find a front-end web developer for hire using your in-house resources or delegate the task to a staffing partner. The first option is more demanding from a financial and managerial points of view, although it gives a feeling of total command over a task. Collaboration with a staffing agency protects you from spending time on micromanagement and allows meeting shorter deadlines. In addition, with a reliable partner, you still keep control over a situation; moreover, it’s up to you to decide to what extent you’d like to keep an eye on the ball. While underlying the advantages of hiring by yourself, experts often say that this approach allows contacting developers directly. Having STARNAVI as your partner, you’ll contact candidates in person after we finish the basic vetting procedures, such as tech skills and English level check.

We’ll list the steps the hiring process includes to focus your attention on the fact that to handle the task, one should need expertise in several domains, especially in vetting and handling formalities when an offer is made and accepted. So if your challenge is to find out how to hire a front-end developer, here are the steps:

• Releasing the information about a vacancy and getting feedback from developers interested in collaboration. At this stage, an employer uses freelance platforms (Freelancer, Fiverr, Toptal), job sites, B2B platforms for outsourcing (Clutch, GoodFirms, SoftwareWorld), job sites (Indeed, Glassdoor, Dice), job dashboards on websites for developers (GitHub Jobs, Stack Overflow Jobs), and social media (LinkedIn).

• Resumes screening and composing a list of candidates to interview. The tricky thing is that a significant part of the resumes aren’t relevant because developers aren’t searching for a job or the actual candidates’ experience differs from the one described in the resume. That’s why the next stage is important.

• Candidates’ pre-screening. You can use assignments or a brief interview to find out if candidates have the technical background required for your position.

• Interviewing. At this step, the goal is to evaluate candidates’ hard and soft skills. Usually, one interview is not enough to get a comprehensive picture of candidates’ strong and weak points.

• Hiring developers who fit. The step includes composing and signing contracts and NDAs, organizing accounting and payroll, and onboarding. The most challenging part in hiring top front-end developers offshore is legal compliance – building collaboration under local labor laws.

Delegating staffing tasks to a partner can ease the process significantly. A competent and seasoned partner’s expertise will cover all the steps. Your participation is expected to take place when you want it and when needed. A staffing partner will handle all legal formalities and organize the payroll and accounting with full compliance. With STARNAVI, you can choose the most appropriate payment model from several flexible options and save time while we vet developers, hire them and manage onboarding.