Skip to content

Frontend, backend, database

How the web actually works

Reading 1 of 5

The frontend is what you can see

The frontend is the part that runs in the browser: the layout, the buttons, the animations. It is written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and it is shipped to every visitor in readable form.

Anyone can press right-click and view source. There is no such thing as a secret in the frontend.

  1. Frontendpublic, editable by the visitor
  2. Backendyours, where rules are enforced
  3. Databasethe rows worth stealing

Only the middle layer can enforce anything.

Frontend code is public code, whether you meant it to be or not.