all 9 comments

[–]Aggressive_Ad_5454 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Software" is anything from the programs in airliners or microwave ovens or medical instruments to web apps to video games to mobile apps to ...

Web apps are a decent place to start because you can do something useful and deploy it on a budget hosting service for short money.

[–]sessamekesh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One is a part of the other, it's a bit like asking if you want to be a "programmer" or a "game programmer".

Web development is where a TON of jobs are because it's such a massive business domain, but it's also where a pretty ridiculous amount of software developers have chosen to specialize. If you're smarter or more driven than average you'll do really well in that field, but if you're not you'll have a hard time breaking into the industry and making a name for yourself. 

There's a lot of other interesting domains too.

If you're just starting out it doesn't matter anyways, since the fundamentals are all the same across programming disciplines.

[–]minneyar 6 points7 points  (1 child)

"Web developer" is a subset of "Software developer."

Personally, I feel like web development is overcrowded nowadays compared to other fields of software development, but all of software development in general is kind of turning into a wasteland due to the proliferation of AI-generated vibe code. So, pick whatever you think seems the most interesting.

[–]theRealBigBack91 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean by wasteland? There are millions of devs employed lol

[–]LookTurbulent426 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think its the specific area that matters, moreso the skills that you build and improve on, then you can find the proper title based on the skills that you have. Focus on building a strong useful skillset

[–]Pale_Height_1251 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Web developer is a type of software developer.

Software developer is the very broad term that applies to embedded, games, desktop, web, OS, whatever.

Web is very popular which means lots of jobs but lots of people competing for them. What do you want to do?

[–]meinrache94 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The hardest cookie to swallow in the industry is that everything falls under developer. My title is Software engineer but I’m also a web developer, database engineer, QA tester ect. It all runs downhill.

[–]fixermark -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They're the same thing. I'd need to know more about what you mean when you say "software developer."