8 Best Books to Become a Full-Stack Developer in 2024
The web development landscape has been changing rapidly. A full-stack web developer is a person who can develop both client and server software and can produce end to end solutions. In other words, full-stack developers are the Swiss Army knife of the code world.
In this article, we have put the spotlight on the best books for full-stack developers through a collection of book reviews. Each book review will highlight the taste of the book, the contents covered, and how it can benefit you.
Why Learn Full-Stack Development
Full-stack development requires you to think and act like a full-stack developer.
Easy switching: A professional Full Stack developer can switch between front and back end development based on the requirements of the project.
Full-stack developers are in demand: Top companies are hiring Full Stack Developers. If you want to boost your career opportunities, you can get tons of job opportunities by learning full-stack development.
Great pay: Companies handsome salaries to full-stack developers because they reduce operating costs for the company.
Know the bigger picture: A full stack developer has higher insight about how the business needs to be developed due to end-to-end visibility.
Better productivity: A full-stack developer knows multiple technologies and can make technical decisions faster. Faster decision making, along with creative liberty and control over the project, increases their productivity.
Versatility: A full stack developer can better understand all aspects of new and upcoming technologies. They can resolve complex programming problems in less time and money.
What Makes Best Full-Stack Development Books?
What makes a full-stack development book good? Good question, but there’s no easy answer!
There are a few criteria that make a book worth reading.
The contents are well-organized and well structured.
The book is concise and easy to understand.
Contain exercises, examples, and practice problems for hands-on experience.
Engaging and able to hold the attention of readers.
Best Books for Full-stack Developers
If you’re daring enough to attempt full-stack development, these books are sure to whet your appetite for full-stack resources.
It is important to find an outstanding book that can guide your learning. Here, we have reviewed a list of excellent books for full-stack developers:
1. Best Book for a .NET-based Stack: ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9
ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9: Full-stack web development with .NET Core 3.1 and Angular 9 by Valerio De Sanctis is a 2020 book that helps you to build a simple, yet fully functional modern web application using .NET Core 3.1, Entity Framework Core and Angular 9.
The book adopts a full stack approach to handle data management, Web APIs, application design, testing, SEO, security and deployment. After reading the book, you will be able to:
Implement a Web API interface with ASP.NET Core and consume it with Angular using RxJS Observables
Create a data model using Entity Framework Core with code-first approach and migrations support
Set up and configure a SQL database server using a local instance or a cloud data store on Azure
Perform C# and JavaScript debugging using Visual Studio 2019
Create TDD and BDD unit test using xUnit, Jasmine, and Karma
Implement authentication and authorization using ASP.NET Identity, IdentityServer4, and Angular API
Build Progressive Web Apps and explore Service Workers
The book contains step-by-step implementation tutorials that make this book easy to understand. The contents covered in the book are:
Front-end and Back-end Interactions
Data Model with Entity Framework Core
Fetching and Displaying Data
Forms and Data Validation
Code Tweaks and Data Services
Back-end and Front-end Debugging
ASP.NET Core and Angular Unit Testing
Authentication and Authorization
Progressive web apps
Windows and Linux deployment
By the end of this book, you will be able to create efficient web applications using ASP.NET Core and Angular.
2. Best book for learning full-stack principles: The Full Stack Developer
The Full Stack Developer: Your Essential Guide to the Everyday Skills Expected of a Modern Full Stack Web Developer by Chris Northwood recognizes skills beyond the technical and gives foundational knowledge of the wide set of skills needed in a modern software development team.
Plan your work including Agile vs Waterfall, tools, scrum, Kanban and continuous delivery
Translate UX into code: grids, component libraries and style guides
Design systems and system architectures (microservices to monoliths)
Review patterns for APIs (SOAP, AJAX, REST), defining API domains, patterns for REST APIs and more API goodness
Study the various front-end design patterns you need to know
Store data, what to consider for security, deployment, production and more
The contents covered in the book include
The Modern Web
Planning Your Work
User Experience
Designing Systems
Ethics
Front End
Testing
JavaScript
Accessibility
APIs
Storing Data
Security
Deployment
In Production
Constant Learning
Think of this as a complete guide for any full-stack JS development and try to keep an open mind along the way.
More books you may like:
3. Best book for learning a modern web stack: Modern Full-Stack Development
Modern Full-Stack Development: Using TypeScript, React, Node.js, Webpack, Python, Django, and Docker by Frank Zammetti build a solid foundation of knowledge and quickly expand it by constructing two different real-world apps. The book highlights how adding Django, Webpack, and Docker to the mix resolves any issues by creating a potent full development stack on which to build applications – two possible stacks, really!!
The contents in a well-organized way and the writing style is easy to follow. After reading the book, you will be able to:
Review the basics of TypeScript and writing both React and Node apps with it
Construct a project with NPM and Webpack, configuration and usage
Utilize client-side and server-side development
Employ REST APIs and database usage across two tech stacks, Node and Python/Django
Deploy apps using Docker
By the end, you will have a solid grasp of building apps with React, Node.js, and TypeScript. This book will simply polish your full-stack development skills from good to outstanding!
4. Best book for learning full-stack with Spring Boot: Hands-On Full Stack Development with Spring Boot 2 and React
Hands-On Full Stack Development with Spring Boot 2 and React by Juha Hinkula is a comprehensive guide to building full stack applications covering frontend and server-side programming, data management, and web security. The book will help you to unleash the power of React Hooks to build interactive and complex user interfaces.
This book starts with a brief introduction to Spring Boot. The book guides you to build scalable full stack applications designed to meet the demands of modern users. After reading the book, you will be able to
Create a RESTful web service with Spring Boot
Grasp the fundamentals of dependency injection and how to use it for backend development
Discover techniques for securing the backend using Spring Security
Understand how to use React for frontend programming
Benefit from the Heroku cloud server by deploying your application to it
Delve into the techniques for creating unit tests using JUnit
Explore the Material UI component library to make more user-friendly user interfaces
The book is divided into sixteen chapters and includes the following topics:
Chapter 1 talks about setting up the Environment and Tools - Backend
Chapter 2 covers Dependency Injection
Chapter 3 talks about using JPA to create and access a Database
Chapter 4 guides you to create a RESTful Web Service with Spring Boot
Chapter 5 talks about Securing and Testing Your Backend
Chapter 6 talks about Setting Up the Environment and Tools - Frontend
Chapter 7 guides you to get started with React
Chapter 8 talks about consuming the REST API with React
Chapter 9 covers useful Third-Party Components for React
Chapter 10 talks about setting up the Frontend for our Spring Boot RESTful Web Service
Chapter 11 talks about adding CRUD Functionalities
Chapter 12 talks about styling the Frontend with React Material-UI
Chapter 13 talks about testing your Frontend
Chapter 14 talks about securing your Application
Chapter 15 talks about deploying your Application
Chapter 16 covers Best Practices
By the end of this book, you'll be able to build modern full stack applications with Spring Boot for the backend and React for the frontend.
5. Best Book for a Vue-focused stack: Fullstack Vue: The Complete Guide to Vue.js
One other worthy book I recommend is Fullstack Vue: The Complete Guide to Vue.js by Hassan Djirdeh, Nate Murray, and Ari Lerner. It is a tutorial-driven book that will have you writing Vue apps in no time. The book includes many examples combined with technical explanations. It explains the concepts in a simple and understandable manner.
The book is divided into eight chapters. Every chapter focuses on a different part of the ecosystem.
Chapter 1 guides you to get started with Vue.js
Chapter 2 covers Single-file Components
Chapter 3 covers Custom Events
Chapter 4 gives the introduction to Vuex4
Chapter 5 covers Vuex and Servers
Chapter 6 talks about Form Handling
Chapter 7 covers Routing
Chapter 8 guides you on Unit Testing
Each chapter in the book comes with a complete project that uses the concepts in a practical and runnable format. This book is a must-read to master the Vue.js framework.
The great news is that you are not getting just a book, but access to live code examples.
6. Best Boog for Completionists: Full Stack Web Development: The Comprehensive Guide
Full Stack Web Development: The Comprehensive Guide by Philip Ackermann is your all-in-one overview of full stack web development, from design and interactivity to security and operations. You’ll learn about frontend tools, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, APIs, and more. Also, you’ll work with backend technologies, including Node.js, PHP, web services, and databases.
Web Basics: Get an overview of how web development works and learn about terms like URL, HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and DNS.
Webpage Design and Creation: Master frontend development! Discover the key elements of HTML and walk through CSS frameworks, style guides, and architecture. See how to use variables, constants, data types, and operations with JavaScript—and much more!
Backend Programming: Walk through common web architectures and understand the programming languages behind every modern website. Test, secure, and optimize your web applications.
The book includes detailed code listings, diagrams, charts, tables, and note boxes. You’ll take an in-depth look at web architecture and deployment, and see what it takes to optimize websites for accessibility and implement single-page applications.
This book is designed to guide you on your way to becoming a full stack developer. It is primarily aimed at anyone who needs a good overview of full stack development.
7. Best Book for JavaScript and React Developers: Modern Full-Stack React Projects
Modern Full-Stack React Projects: Build, maintain, and deploy modern web apps using MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js by Daniel Bugl and Matthias Zronek helps you polish your web development skills by working on real-world projects for different use-cases of full-stack web development. The book guides you through the entire process of advancing from a frontend developer to a full-stack developer.
Here’s what you’ll learn from the book:
Implement a backend using Express and MongoDB, and unit-test it with Jest
Deploy full-stack web apps using Docker, set up CI/CD and end-to-end tests using Playwright
Add authentication using JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Create a GraphQL backend and integrate it with a frontend using Apollo Client
Build a chat app based on event-driven architecture using Socket.IO
Facilitate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and implement server-side rendering
Use Next.js, an enterprise-ready full-stack framework, with React Server Components and Server Actions
Throughout the book, you'll learn how to build, test, and deploy a blog application and a chat application. You'll also explore MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js (MERN) stack, best practices for frontend and backend development, different full-stack architectures, unit and end-to-end testing, and deployment of full-stack web applications. The contents covered in the book are:
Preparing For Full-Stack Development
Getting to Know Node.js, NPM, and MongoDB
Implementing a Backend Service Using Express, Mongoose ODM, and Jest
Integrating Frontend with the Backend Using React and TanStack Query
Deploying the Application with Docker and CI/CD
Adding Authentication and Roles with JSON Web Tokens
Improving the Load Time Using Server-Side Rendering
Making Sure Customers Find You with Search Engine Optimization
Implementing End-to-End Tests Using Playwright
Aggregating and Visualizing Statistics Using MongoDB and Victory
Building a Backend with a GraphQL API
Interfacing with GraphQL on the Frontend Using Apollo Client
8. Best Book for MERN Developers: Ultimate Full-Stack Web Development with MERN
Ultimate Full-Stack Web Development with MERN by Nabendu Biswas guides you to design, build, test and deploy Production-Grade Web Applications with MongoDB, Express, React and NodeJS.
Develop a strong foundation in MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js) stack technologies.
Master the setup and configuration of Node.js applications, exploring essential concepts such as Express.js for efficient server-side development.
Learn to connect and interact with MongoDB and create models for effective data management.
The book provides a solid foundation for anyone who wants to learn MERN stack development. The book covers all the top technologies in the JavaScript ecosystem: MongoDB, ExpressJS, ReactJS, and NodeJS. The topics covered in the book are:
Getting Started with MERN and Setup
Starting a NodeJS App
MongoDB Connection and Models
JWT Authentication and Hashing Password
Auth Middleware and Protecting Routes
Creating Frontend and React Router
Redux Setup with Slice
Login and Logout Functionalities
Dashboard Creation and Task Form
Using Thunk and Completing App
Frontend Testing
Backend Testing
Deployment
After going through the book, you’ll be able to create any MERN app with ease and can also modify the project in the book to create other apps.
More Ways to Learn Full-Stack Development
They serve as a great resource for those who want to learn best through reading.
There are no wrong choices! So, once you know what type of stack you wanna do, you can just grab whatever books interest you the most.
Full-stack developers know that there’s a lot to learn in this field. That’s why these books are merely the tip of the iceberg and will only take you so far.
If you have made it this far then certainly you are willing to learn more from online courses. Here's a list that can help:
Coursera: Full-Stack Web Development with React Specialization by Jogesh K. Muppala helps you master front-end web, hybrid mobile app and server-side development in four comprehensive courses.
Udemy: Beginner Full Stack Web Development: HTML, CSS, React & Node by Mark Wahlbeck is a 31.5-hour high-rated course. It helps you to learn web development with HTML, CSS, Bootstrap 4, ES6 React and Node.
Codecademy: Full-Stack Software Engineer career path helps you to begin with the front-end, move on to the back-end, then learn to connect the two. By the time you’re done, you’ll have the well-rounded skills needed to enter this in-demand job market. For more on Codecademy Pro, see my Codecademy Pro review.
That’s not all. If you’re looking for free resources, we also suggest here over 70 coding resources that are free online.
Go forth and build! We'd love to hear more about what you've built or what you want to build.