Tech hiring Software engineering
Hire full-stack developers who ship whole features.
A full-stack developer works across the whole web application: the interface in the browser, the API behind it and the database underneath. The title is claimed more often than it is earned, so we assess both ends separately and tell you where each candidate is strong and where they are merely competent.
01 The role
What you get, when you hire a full-stack developer.
A full-stack developer takes a feature from an idea to something a user can click, without handing it to anyone else on the way. They design the table, write the migration, build the endpoint, fetch the data in the browser, lay out the screen, handle the error states, write the tests and deploy it. For a small team, removing those hand-offs is the whole point.
Breadth is easy to claim and depth is where it goes wrong. Most full-stack developers are stronger at one end, and the weak end shows as an interface that works but is awkward and inaccessible, or as a tidy screen sitting on a data model that will not survive the next requirement. The skill that matters is knowing where your own depth runs out and asking before it costs the product.
The role is also more varied than the old MERN and MEAN labels suggest. A full-stack developer today may write TypeScript on both sides with Next.js, or pair a back-end framework such as Laravel, Django or Rails with React, Vue or a server-driven front end. What they share is ownership of the contract between the two halves. A React or Node.js specialist goes deeper on one side and expects a colleague on the other.
What they ship
- A first version of a product, from sign-up and billing to the core workflow
- Complete features on an existing product: schema, API, screen and tests
- Internal tools, admin panels and dashboards over company data
- Authentication and permissions that are consistent in the UI and the API
- Payment, email and third-party integrations, with screens to manage them
- Prototypes sound enough to keep once they have proved the idea
- Deployment pipelines and preview environments for a small team
02 Skills and stack
The stack, sorted by how much it matters.
“Full-stack” only means something next to a named stack. Tell us yours, for example Next.js with PostgreSQL or Laravel with Vue, and which half of it carries more of the work.
Core
The role cannot be done without these.
- JavaScript and TypeScript
- A component framework: React, Vue or Angular
- HTML, CSS and accessible, responsive layout
- A back-end language and framework
- SQL and relational data modelling
- API design and the client–server contract
- Authentication and web security basics
- Testing at unit, API and end-to-end level
Tooling
Varies from team to team.
- React with Next.js, or Vue with Nuxt
- Node.js (NestJS, Express), Laravel, Django or Rails
- PostgreSQL or MySQL; MongoDB where it fits
- Prisma, Drizzle or the framework’s own ORM
- REST, GraphQL or tRPC
- Tailwind CSS or a component library
- Vitest or Jest, with Playwright or Cypress
- Docker
- GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
- Vercel, AWS or a similar host
Adjacent
Useful, not required.
- Redis, caching and background queues
- WebSockets and real-time updates
- Cloud infrastructure basics
- Monitoring and error tracking (Sentry, Datadog)
- React Native or another mobile framework
- UI design sense and Figma
- Product analytics
03 When to hire one
Hire a full-stack developer for the right problem, or hire someone else.
We would sooner point you to a different role than fill the wrong one. Both lists are worth a minute.
Hire a full-stack developer when
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You are hiring engineer number one, two or three
A team this small cannot afford a front-end person waiting on a back-end person. You need people who can each finish a feature alone.
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You are building a first version to test with customers
The aim is a working product in weeks, built soundly enough to extend. One or two full-stack developers get there with less coordination than a split team.
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Features stall at the hand-off between front end and back end
Each side finishes its half and waits for the other. A full-stack developer in the squad closes the gap and often fixes the contract that caused it.
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The work is internal tools and admin screens
Back-office software is mostly forms, tables and business rules, with little that needs deep specialism at either end. It suits a capable generalist.
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Your stack uses one language throughout
With Next.js, or Laravel with Livewire or Inertia, the boundary between front and back is thin by design, and splitting the work between two specialists adds friction.
Look elsewhere when
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The interface is the product and its quality is the selling point
A design-heavy, highly interactive front end needs someone who thinks about rendering, accessibility and state all day.
Hire React developers -
The server side is where the difficulty is
High traffic, many integrations or real-time systems call for back-end depth that most generalists do not have.
Hire Node.js developers -
You need native iOS and Android apps
Web full-stack skills do not cover app-store releases, device APIs and offline behaviour.
Hire mobile developers -
You expect them to run the infrastructure as well
Deploying an app to a managed host is reasonable. Owning Kubernetes, networking and on-call for a growing system is a separate role.
Hire DevOps engineers -
You need a whole product built and have no technical lead
One full-stack developer with nobody to review design decisions is a single point of failure. A team with its own lead carries less risk.
See dedicated teams
04 How we assess
Four stages, before a full-stack developer reaches your shortlist.
A CV says what someone claims. We test what they can do, then send you the evidence with the shortlist.
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Stage 1
Profile review
We look for projects where the candidate demonstrably built both sides, and we check which side shows more care. A polished interface over a generated back end, or a solid API with a neglected screen, tells us where the real depth is.
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Stage 2
Technical test
A timed test covering JavaScript and TypeScript, front-end fundamentals, a back-end language, SQL and web concepts, with coding exercises and a problem-solving task. Results are read by area, so a strong score at one end does not hide a weak one at the other.
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Stage 3
Conversation with our team
Our engineers ask the candidate to trace one feature they built through every layer: the schema, the endpoint, the data fetching, the component and the tests. We ask which layer they would want reviewed by a specialist, and listen for an honest answer.
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Stage 4
Review and levelling
Reviewers score accuracy, speed, problem-solving, communication and teamwork, then assign a level from our engineering framework. For full-stack roles the notes say which end is stronger and by how much, so you can match the person to where your work is heaviest.
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Then
Your shortlist
Assessed candidates, with notes and scores.
The engine
Evalia
Assessments run on Evalia, the assessment platform we built ourselves. Across the ProDevs network, more than 100,000 assessments have been completed.
The levels we assign are public. Read the engineering framework, or see how a hire runs from brief to offer.
05 Seniority
Three levels. What each one can own.
The title on a CV tells you little. What matters is how much a full-stack developer can be handed without someone checking each step.
Junior
Owns a small feature across the stack
- Adds a field or a screen and follows it through migration, endpoint and component
- Works inside patterns the team has already set on both sides
- Usually far stronger at one end; needs review on the other
- Best placed beside a senior engineer, not as the only developer
Mid-level
Owns a feature, with no hand-offs
- Designs the schema and API for a feature and builds the interface on top
- Handles loading, empty, error and permission states without being asked
- Writes tests at the level where each bug would actually be caught
- Deploys their own work and watches it in production afterwards
Senior
Owns the product’s technical shape
- Chooses the stack and structure for a new product and keeps it simple
- Decides what to build, what to buy and what to leave until it is needed
- Sees when the team needs a specialist and says so before quality slips
- Sets conventions on both sides so later hires can be productive quickly
Indicative salary
Full-stack developers. Annual, in US dollars, for remote roles with US, UK and EU companies.
- Mid-level
- $30–55k
- Senior
- $55–85k
- Typical US equivalent
- $125–195k
Indicative market ranges as of August 2026, based on ProDevs placement experience and published market data. The exact figure depends on stack, seniority and time-zone requirements. See the full cost breakdown.
06 Interview questions
Interviewing a full-stack developer? Ask these.
For your own interviews, after ours. Each question comes with what a strong answer tends to show.
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Pick a feature you built alone. Take me from the database table to the pixel on screen.
A good answer shows: An even, detailed account of every layer, including why the table and endpoint are shaped as they are. Notice where the detail thins out: that is the end the candidate is weaker at, whatever the CV says.
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Which end of the stack are you weaker at, and how do you cover for it?
A good answer shows: A direct answer with an example: asking for review, leaning on a well-tested library, reading before building. “I am equally strong at both” is rarely true and suggests the candidate has not been tested at depth on either.
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How do you keep the front end and the API in agreement as both change?
A good answer shows: A mechanism, not good intentions: shared TypeScript types, a generated client from an OpenAPI or GraphQL schema, tRPC, or contract tests. They should know what happens to users on an old client when the API changes.
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Where do you enforce a permission rule: in the UI, the API, or the database?
A good answer shows: The server is the authority, and the interface hides what the user cannot do as a courtesy only. Candidates who rely on a hidden button have a security gap. Good ones mention testing the rule at the API level.
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A page is slow. How do you tell whether the cause is the browser, the API or the query?
A good answer shows: They measure before guessing: the network panel for timings, server logs or traces for the endpoint, the query plan for the database. A full-stack developer’s advantage is being able to follow the request all the way down.
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When would you render on the server, and when in the browser?
A good answer shows: A decision based on content and interactivity: server rendering for pages that must load fast and be indexed, client rendering for app-like screens behind a login. They should know the cost of each in complexity and hosting.
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You have two weeks to ship a first version. What do you deliberately not build?
A good answer shows: Evidence of product judgement: hosted authentication and payments, a plain admin, no premature microservices or custom design system. They can also name what they would not skimp on, such as data integrity and backups.
07 Ways to engage
Permanent, team, payroll or project. Four routes to a full-stack developer.
A permanent hire is the usual route, not the only one. Choose by how long the work lasts and who should employ the person.
- Placement fee, of first-year salary. One-time.
- 10–15%
- Replacement guarantee on direct hires.
- 2 weeks
- To a first shortlist, for most roles.
- 48h
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Direct hire
A permanent employee on your contract and your payroll. One-time placement fee of 10–15% of first-year salary.
Tech hiring -
Dedicated team
A full-stack developer inside a team we assemble and run for you: product, design and engineering on your roadmap, for a monthly retainer.
Dedicated teams -
Outsourcing & payroll
A full-time person in a country where you have no legal entity. ProDevs employs and pays them: 20% of salary if we find the person for you, or 5% of salary, capped at $500 a month, for payroll and compliance on someone you have already chosen.
Outsourcing -
Freelance project
A defined piece of work with a clear end. You pay the agreed price per milestone through escrow, plus a 5% client fee. Free to post.
Freelancers
08 Around the role
A full-stack developer is one seat. These are the others.
In a small company the full-stack developers are the engineering team, working straight from conversations with the founder or product owner. In a larger one they sit in a product squad beside specialists and take the features that cross the front-end and back-end boundary.
- Founder or product manager
- Turns a rough requirement into a scoped slice and says plainly what can ship this week.
- Product designer
- Implements the design and raises early what the data model makes easy or awkward.
- Front-end and back-end specialists
- Takes cross-cutting features, and asks them to review work in their own area.
- QA tester
- Explains how a feature behaves at every layer so that tests cover more than the screen.
- DevOps engineer
- Keeps the application simple to deploy and reports what it needs from the environment.
09 Client testimonials
Hear it first-hand, from companies that hired.
Founders, operators and executives describe working with ProDevs, in their own words.
Play video: Client testimonial: Olufemi Seyi, COO, Casafina development company
Play video: Client testimonial: Aproko Doctor, Building AwaDoc
Play video: Client testimonial: JT Liddell, Promenade CEO
10 Questions
Hiring full-stack developers, answered.
Something else? Book a call (opens in a new tab) and ask us directly.
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Is one full-stack developer better than a front-end and a back-end developer?
For a small product, usually yes: one person finishes features without waiting on another, and there is less to coordinate. As the product grows, each end develops problems that need depth, and two specialists outperform two generalists. Many teams start full-stack and add specialists once they know where the hard problems are.
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Are full-stack developers really good at both ends?
Rarely to the same degree. Most are strong at one end and competent at the other, and that is fine provided you know which. Our assessment looks at front-end and back-end work separately, and the notes that come with each shortlisted candidate say which side is stronger.
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Which stack should a full-stack developer know?
The one you run. Common pairings are React or Next.js with Node.js and PostgreSQL, Laravel with Vue or Livewire, Django with React, and Rails with Hotwire. If you are starting fresh, choose a stack your first hire knows deeply and that you can hire for again later.
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What is the difference between a full-stack developer and a software developer?
On this site, software developer is the general role, used when the stack or the split of work is not yet decided. Full-stack is a specific brief: one person expected to own features across the browser, the API and the database, and assessed on all three. If that is what you need, ask for it by name.
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What does a full-stack developer in Africa cost?
For remote full-stack roles with US, UK and EU companies, indicative annual salary ranges are $30,000–$55,000 at mid-level and $55,000–$85,000 at senior level. A direct hire through ProDevs also carries a one-time placement fee of 10–15% of first-year salary, with a two-week replacement guarantee.
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How quickly can we hire a full-stack developer?
For most roles you see a first shortlist within 48 hours of agreeing the brief, and most companies find their hire within two to three weeks. The developer joins on your contract, or through our outsourcing and payroll service if you have no legal entity in their country.
Talk to ProDevs
Tell us about the role.
Tell us the level and the stack. We will tell you how quickly we can put assessed full-stack developers in front of you.
Project work
Need it for a project instead?
Not every job needs a full-time hire. Describe the work, get proposals from vetted freelance full-stack developers, and pay per milestone through escrow. Free to post.