Code your way

Whether it be for business or personal use, there are a lot of details that must be considered before the creation of a web application, the most immediate of which is whether or not the site should be self-made or professionally done. Even if the funds are available for hiring a third party, is it the right choice? Before making any crucial decisions about design, functionality, or even a name there are some simple questions that should be answered before considering hiring someone more experienced with web development. What will the app be used for? How often might updates be required? Is coding really as difficult as it may seem? What features will be needed?

If you’re planning to create web app and know absolutely nothing about coding, this can pose a problem as coding is fairly difficult. Although there are a number of sites where you can learn how to code and develop apps, there’s a steep learning curve there most of the time, and if you’re unfamiliar or uneasy about trying to learn this yourself, then you may be better of hiring a professional.

From Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), to Ruby and other coding languages, including the different scripts, such as Java Code, the work put into coding an app can become very confusing and time consuming. However, creating application that looks both professional and functional is not impossible, it just takes time to learn the process. There are certain elements that may have to be omitted, such as animations or special features, without more advanced knowledge of coding.

On the other hand, hiring a service to do the programming and coding work saves time and effort but not without its own consequences: besides the expense, maintaining the application potentially means retaining the company for their services, and perhaps for far longer than anticipated. It also means giving up a certain amount of control, or rather having to delegate every matter of change involving the application with a third party. The developer chosen would also have full access to the app for a certain period of time, and this could mean sharing sensitive or proprietary data. In the end, after considering all the positives and negatives of either choice, the final decision ultimately comes down to which is best for your individual situation. There’s no technical right and wrong answer, so you need to determine what works best for you and then go ahead with that plan.

One final thing to think about for after you’ve got your final web application deployed and running is the idea of monitoring. Yes, it’s crucial to even monitor a little video player on your website. There are a number of web app monitoring services available, and if you aren’t utilizing at least even a free solution, all of those development dollars you put into your app might go to waste because no one can access it.