What’s the difference between web design and web development?
9th October 2025
posted 9th October 2025
You’ve probably come across the terms 'web design' and 'web development' when talking about websites, but what do they both mean?
In this blog, we'll explain the difference between website design and website development.
Website design vs website development
Building a website is like building a house. The web designers are like the people who draw the house plans and make it look nice inside. Web developers are the builders who put it all together and make sure it's sturdy and doesn't fall down. Both work together on the same house (the website), but they do different parts.
What is web design?
Web design is all about how a website looks and feels. Their job is to make the website look nice, clear, and easy to use.
Web designers choose:
- The colour scheme
- The page and content layout (where things go)
- The fonts used (letters and text)
- Pictures and buttons
What is web development?
Web development is about making the website work. Their job is to make sure the website does what it’s supposed to do.
Web developers:
- Write the code
- Build the pages so they can open and load
- Make sure things function how they should
- Make sure you can edit the front end using a custom-built website editor.
- Fix problems if something breaks.
A practical example
You're making a website for your jewellery business. A web designer will make sure it’s classy and elegant, with big pictures of jewellery and a “Buy Now” button that’s clear and easy to see. A web developer will build the site so people can click that button, fill in their order, and make a payment.
Do you need both?
Most great websites use both web design and web development. The designer makes it look good, and the developer makes it work as it should. In our case, you work with our designer to create a great-looking website, our website developers make sure it all works properly and that you can edit the text and images using our customer-built content editor.
Summary
Web design is how the website looks, and web development is how the website works. Both are important if you want a website that’s pretty and powerful!