Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing: What’s the Difference?

An application can broadly be divided into two categories: frontend and backend. Before releasing a product in the market, it’s essential to test whether both the frontend and backend of the application are working correctly. Frontend testing is the testing of the user interface visible to the user by which users interact with the application. In contrast, backend testing is about testing the actual database and server logic under the hood, which is not visible to the application users.

In this article, you will learn about fronted and backend testing and the difference between both tests. You will also learn about the various tools and techniques used in frontend and backend testing.

Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing – Overview

What is Frontend Testing?

The frontend of an application is the visual appearance and user interface that users see and use to interact with the application’s features and functionality. In the testing life cycle, frontend testing is the process of testing the frontend side of the application to ensure there are no any glitch, functionality breaks, or significant problems present in the application.

A well-driven frontend testing makes your product bug free and ensures the user will get a great user experience.

What is Back-End Testing?

Backend testing is white box testing. It ensures an application’s database and server-side functionality are working as intended. For example, testing whether a user can log in after signing in will come under the backend testing.

Check here – Front End Testing Tools

Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing – Differences

The primary difference between Frontend Testing vs Backend Testing is that frontend testing checks the user interface of application whereas backend testing checks the database and server side of application.

Here’s a table depicting key differences between frontend testing and backend testing:

Frontend testing	Backend testing
Frontend testing is about testing the user interface of an application that the user sees and interacts with.	Backend testing is about testing the database and server side of an application and ensuring that it’s working properly.
Frontend testing is black box testing, meaning the tester will not be able to see the code logic behind the user interface and functionality.	Backend testing is white-box testing, meaning the tester will interact with the code logic behind any functionality.
Frontend testing doesn’t require any knowledge of programming language.	Backend testing required knowledge of the database and the language used in the backend.

Summary

To ensure an application’s overall functionality of an application, it’s important to test both the backend and frontend sides of an application. Frontend testing ensures that an application’s overall functionality works as intended in all operating systems and browser combinations. Whereas backed testing ensures the database side of the application is working properly.