You know how to build applications with frameworks from start to finish. But what you don't have is a portfolio. What projects can you tackle to show off your full-stack developer skills?
Thankfully, there are many full-stack project ideas out there. We'll discuss 15 basic, intermediate, and advanced projects that you can use to build and flex your skills.
What You Need Before Starting a Full Stack Project?
Before you start your project, there are a few things you need:
- An IDE. Visual Studio Code and Atom are both common choices. Find a development environment that will make it easier to work with and compile your code.
- Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These are the three essential programming languages for building web applications. If you're not familiar with them, consider taking a Bootcamp.
- Github. You're not going to build a portfolio without Git commits, so it's time to get comfortable.
Other optional tools include a basic image editor (for assets), a development framework (for faster development), and a web server (to share your applications).
How to Use These Full Stack Project Ideas
Full-stack developers come from all backgrounds and experience levels. You may have a lot of knowledge regarding front-end design, but you're only now figuring out back-end development.
In many respects, being a full-stack developer is about problem-solving. A full-stack developer can use any one of dozens of languages and technologies. So, a full stack project idea will outline the general project requirements — but it's up to you to figure out how to achieve them.
Basic Full Stack Projects
These projects are perfect for beginners who want to build a strong foundation in web development. Anyone with basic front-end and back-end knowledge should be able to complete these projects, but completing them well is a matter of skill and experience.
1. To-Do List App
Everyone wants to do things "better." A to-do list app lets a user store information to be recalled later. This full-stack project should let the user:
- Store, retrieve, and modify "to do" information within a database
- View "to do" information in a clean, attractive format
- View the application on a mobile computer or desktop computer
2. Calculator
A calculator is a great chance to develop your layout skills. Calculators also require some input/output knowledge, as you need to capture data from the user's peripherals. Your calculator app should:
- Depict the visual element of a calculator cleanly on any platform
- React to the user's input, both through the mouse and keyboard
- Save the user's history, even if it just does so in a text file
3. Weather App
What's the weather like outside? Don't look out the window. Program an app instead. Your weather app should:
- Pull weather information from a database
- Change its appearance based on the weather
- Use an attractive stylesheet to deliver hourly and weekly forecasts
As an additional challenge, connect your app to a weather API to pull real-time weather information based on the user's location. There are free weather APIs available that you can easily connect to through JavaScript.
4. Quiz App
This is probably one of the most useful full-stack coding project ideas for portfolios; you can even use it to quiz yourself on full-stack development. Your quiz app should:
- Pull quiz questions and answers from a database
- Display questions to the user and prompt them for an answer
- Track and retain the user's score, eventually letting them "win" or "lose”
5. Interactive Resume
Why not give potential employers a treat? Build an interactive resume that doesn't just display your skills, but also prompts the user to inquire for more information. Your interactive resume should:
- Display your resume in an attractive, mobile-friendly format.
- Prompt users to send you their information (if they want to learn more).
- Show off dynamic, interactive CSS assets, such as parallax.
When you're just building your skills, you don't need to develop "killer" and unique full-stack app ideas. None of the above projects should be too difficult — focus on making them as perfect as possible.
Intermediate Full Stack Developer Projects
These projects are ideal for those with a strong foundation in web development and looking to add more skills to their arsenal. These projects will provide a legitimate "portfolio" piece.
6. To-Do List App with Authentication
Security is essential to modern engineering. Go back to your earlier to-do list app and incorporate authentication. Your app should:
- Let a user set and change their password
- Enforce solid password requirements
- Customize itself based on the user (if only by mentioning their login name)
For a challenge, ask yourself what you need to do to add multi-factor authentication to your app.
7. Music Streaming App
A music app is one of the most common full-stack app ideas. Everyone loves music. But what can you do to make your music streaming app better? At its most basic, your app should:
- Pull music from a database of songs
- Provide a music streaming interface
- Let users either select songs on a playlist or search for songs
To challenge yourself, build a suggestion engine. Track what users play and suggest similar songs based on their preferences.
8. Social Media App
Everyone wants to be the next Twitter. Bring some creativity to this project. If you could build a social media platform, what would you change? Your social media app should:
- Let users create and log into accounts
- Provide interactivity between users
- Store information within a database
9. E-Commerce App
Do you dream of eventually selling things through your full stack application ideas? Consider building an e-commerce app to do so. An e-commerce app is just a digital storefront. Your e-commerce app should:
- Pull products from a database
- Let users create accounts and purchase products
- Change product information, such as quantities, as items are purchased
Stuck on developing a payment processor? Paypal and Stripe have easy-to-use processing APIs that you can integrate.
10. Job Board
Maybe you don't want to build full-stack portfolio projects. Maybe you want to help other people get jobs. A job board can be a fun project, although you need to keep it updated. It should:
- Pull job information from a database
- Display job information based on search criteria and filters
- Let users save certain jobs or even respond to them
If you want to make this job board autonomous, consider programming it to scrape information from other sites.
These projects aren't likely to become a "full project" that you can make money from—but they're a great way to show off your skills. In reality, you can take any of the MERN stack project ideas and give them a clever twist.
Advanced Full-Stack Portfolio Projects
What if you want to build something that has the potential to become a usable app or business? Let's look at some advanced full-stack projects that will stretch your programming muscles.
11. A Real-Time Game App
Do you have a burning idea for a game that you've passionately pursued full-stack development to achieve? The time is now. To qualify as a game, your project should:
- Support user accounts and user data through a database
- Provide some interactivity or gameplay elements
- Have clear goals or provide some state of "winning" or "losing"
- Provide a profit model, either through subscription or in-app purchases
- Operate both as a desktop application and a mobile application
12. Workout Tracker App
Tracking workouts or exercises puts an interesting spin on a regular scheduling app. You can do this with any type of recurring hobby. Develop an app that will:
- Support user accounts and customization with authentication
- Schedule workouts/hobbies and reschedule missed sessions
- Let users determine the frequency and preferred scheduling of their workouts
- Connect users through support groups and competitive teams
- Intelligently send users reminders and alerts
13. Video Calling App
Video is now ubiquitous. But just ten years ago, video calling was exhausting. Think about how you could make the process of video calling easier. Create a video calling app that can:
- Let users log in to their accounts and connect with those on their contact list.
- Support multiple users within the same video conferencing room.
- Store video calls, on request, for reference later.
- Support one-on-one calls scheduled between users.
- Provide additional features such as text chats.
14. Image Sharing App
You've seen Instagram and Imgur. It's time to make your own image-sharing app. Image sharing isn't just popular; there are a lot of potential niches to fill.
An image sharing app:
- Let users upload, store, and manage images
- Provide filters so users can update and edit their images
- Compress images intelligently for better performance
- Automatically prune unused images of abandoned images
- Lets users pay for more space on or other premium features
15. Collaborative Editing App
This full-stack project tests whether you're ready to create a real-time application. A collaborative editing app will need to:
- Support multiple users in a single room editing a file
- Alert users if they are trying to edit something someone else has edited
- Combine edits intelligently or lock files when they are being edited
- Provide easy roll-backs to prior versions of a file
- Authenticate users and support multiple permission types (such as viewer and editor)
Even with advanced projects, you'll still need to get a little creative to give each project some value. But if you can figure out something unique, you could build something marketable.
Create Your Own Full Stack Project
With enough time and determination, you can build anything you’ve seen on the web. Find a website that you think you can improve. Do you think you can develop a better scheduling system? A better clicker game? Any amount of practice will make you a better—and more hireable—developer.
When you develop a portfolio, you ideally want to show off your skills. Don't obsess too much about making sure that your project is unique. Instead, focus on getting every element correct. Choose portfolio products with clean designs, interface with a database (or another source of data), and provide authentication.
It's better to build a simple project perfectly than to build an advanced project poorly.
The Complete 2024 Web Development Bootcamp
Start Learning Full Stack Development Today
Not confident about your full-stack skills? Maybe it's time to learn more. Before you dive deep into full-stack project ideas, consider taking a full-stack Bootcamp, full-stack refresher course, or a full-stack certification path.
Many online full-stack bootcamps and courses will also include projects that you can use to further develop your portfolio.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are Full Stack Projects?
Full-stack projects are web applications that use the full range of web development technologies, from the front-end to the back-end. Frequently, they use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
2. How Do You Start a Full Stack Project?
Before starting your project, you need basic knowledge of front-end and back-end technologies. You should also have a development environment, such as Visual Studio Code.
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