My associate and I believe that today, backend development is too complex. Even for a basic functionality, it involves numerous technologies. This observation highlights the need for more streamlined methods.

We have focused on a new approach aimed at enabling frontend developers to create backends more easily.

In this context, we have conducted a survey to better understand their perception of backend development.

Goal of the survey

The survey aimed to confirm whether front-end developers, including freelancers and those in startups or SMEs, frequently encounter backend development requests and if this raises a concern for them.

Survey analysis

Frequency of backend Requests to frontend developers

64.6% of participants confirm receiving backend development requests within the year.

35.4% do not receive any such requests.

For the following analysis, we focused on the developers who receive those requests.

Typology of these developers.

Experience

48.4% of them are mid-level developers, 39.1% are juniors and only 12.5% are seniors.

Preferred stack

More than half use React (51.6%). Many also use Svelte, Angular, or VueJS (28.1%). A few of them work with CSS, JavaScript, and HTML (10.9%), often indicative of junior or citizen developers.

Work environment

The distribution of developer work environments is quite balanced.

Handling of backend requests

40.7% of these developers either refuse or reluctantly accept the requests (as represented in red and yellow in the chart).

48.4% handle these requests (as they are full-stack developers).

Obstacles

For the 40.7% who are reluctant, i.e. 26 participants, the main obstacle to handling backend development requests is experience. Indeed, they don't feel confident enough in this time-consuming and complex area.

Word cloud of the main obstacles identified by participants

More than three-quarters of these 26 developers expressed a wish to be able to take on backend development requests.

Conclusion

Our survey indicates that frontend developers frequently encounter backend development requests. Their reluctance to take on these tasks is due to a lack of experience. It clearly highlights a need for simplified backend development solutions, particularly targeting junior to mid-level frontend developers.

Our survey also aimed to understand two additional aspects:

1. The types of requests received by frontend developers.
2. The challenges faced by full-stack developers.

However, the responses were too general to identify clear trends. Future in-depth qualitative research might be needed to gain a better understanding of the key areas in backend development that are most challenging or in-demand for developers.

Survey population

• Geographical area of participants: Europe
• Number of responses: 101

What's next ?

The results of this survey, combined with our market research, have helped us refine our product that is currently in development.

Here's our roadmap for the coming weeks:

1. Launch of v0.1: This initial version will act as a tangible demonstration of our commitment to the developer community. It's an 'early access' release for testing our approach and is distinct from a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
2. Development of our pitch deck: We're creating a pitch deck for applying to incubators, showcasing our vision and progress.
3. Project release and feedback collection from early stage users: Our aim is to assess whether this v0.1 will generate enthusiasm among developers for the next v1.

If you're interested in following our progress, please leave us your email.