Do web developers need a portfolio on their resume?

Almost always. A link to two or three live sites in the header lets a reviewer judge your work in seconds. Describe each briefly in the resume too.

How do I list freelance web development on a resume?

As a job: “Freelance Web Developer, Self-employed” with dates, then bullets for your best client projects with the stack and the result.

What skills should a web developer list?

HTML, CSS, JavaScript or TypeScript, your main framework or CMS, server-side language if any, Git, and specialties like SEO or accessibility you can back up.

How to write a web developer resume

By Mubeen Jawed, founder of ResumeForDev · Updated November 7, 2026

Short answer

A web developer resume should show the sites and web apps you built and what they did for the people who used them: faster load times, more sign-ups, fewer support requests. Name the stack in each bullet (React, WordPress, PHP, Node.js), include client or traffic scale, and put a portfolio link with two or three live sites in the header. Freelance and agency work counts as experience. List it like a job.

Key points

A portfolio link with live sites is close to required.
Freelance and agency projects belong in Experience, not hidden at the bottom.
Speed, conversion and SEO results are easy web metrics.
Name the CMS or framework. “Websites” alone isn't searchable.

Web developer vs. front end vs. full stack

“Web developer” is the broadest title: it covers agency builds on WordPress or Shopify, custom PHP or Node sites, and modern React apps. If the posting is mostly UI work, the front end developer resume guide fits better. If it includes APIs and databases, see the full stack developer guide. Either way, use the job title from the posting in your headline.

Before and after

Before:Built websites for clients using WordPress.

After:Built and launched 14 WordPress and WooCommerce sites for small-business clients, including a custom booking plugin (PHP) that handles ~600 appointments a month.

Example web developer bullets

Rebuilt a marketing site in Next.js with image optimization and static generation, raising the mobile Lighthouse score from 48 to 95.
Improved technical SEO across a 2,000-page site (sitemaps, schema, canonical tags), growing organic traffic 35% in six months.
Developed a Shopify theme with custom Liquid sections that cut the client's page-edit requests to the agency by about 70%.
Built a member portal in Laravel and MySQL for a nonprofit with 3,000 members, replacing spreadsheets and email sign-ups.
Fixed 90+ WCAG accessibility issues on a university site after an audit, adding automated checks to the deploy pipeline.

Web developer skills

Core: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript
Frameworks: React, Next.js, Vue, Tailwind CSS
CMS and commerce: WordPress, Shopify, headless CMS (Sanity, Contentful)
Server: PHP, Laravel, Node.js, MySQL
Other: Git, technical SEO, web accessibility (WCAG), Figma

On ResumeForDev, set your target role to “Web Developer”. Without a job post, the keyword check compares your resume against a full stack vocabulary. Paste a job description and the keyword check uses that post's terms instead; on Pro, the writer also tailors the bullets to it. Before writing, it asks follow-up questions about the numbers above, and it removes any number or skill you never gave it. Your first resume is free.

Frequently asked questions

Do web developers need a portfolio on their resume?: Almost always. A link to two or three live sites in the header lets a reviewer judge your work in seconds. Describe each briefly in the resume too.
How do I list freelance web development on a resume?: As a job: “Freelance Web Developer, Self-employed” with dates, then bullets for your best client projects with the stack and the result.
What skills should a web developer list?: HTML, CSS, JavaScript or TypeScript, your main framework or CMS, server-side language if any, Git, and specialties like SEO or accessibility you can back up.