Understanding The Difference between Hacker, Programmer, Developer and Security Researcher

Let’s have a look at the Difference between Hacker, Programmer, Developer and Security Researcher as these are the trending terms and professions these days and you must know what exactly they are and what people do in these professions. So have a look at complete guide discussed below to proceed.


People new to the tech study are somewhere confused between the three types hacker, programmer, and security researcher. This makes it tough for them to choose their field and hence carry on for the study. There is a definite difference between these three fields and even the work done by these people are also different. The hacker can do what a security researcher can do and a programmer can do what a developer can do yet still there are huge differences between them. For those people who are really cared about finding the difference between these, it is the best place to learn more. Here in this article, we have written about the difference between the Hacker, Programmer, Developer and Security researcher such that you can get to know about their different tasks and their alternate skills. If you are interested in reading about this information or find it helpful for your usage then please read it down. All of the proper information is provided in the main section of this post as is given below, remember to read till the end of the page so that you get the whole knowledge regarding the topic. So, let’s get started!

What is the Difference between Hacker, Programmer, Developer and Security Researcher?

I’m writing this guide because of the questions that my friends ask me when I do Hacking around them as being a Certified Ethical Hacker lots of people ask me to do hacking and sometimes development also. So I keep on telling them about the actual difference between these things as users always get confused with these things. I know you must be not knowing about the exact difference between these unless you are one of this profession. So have a look at detail descriptions below.

1 Hacker



One who tries to find the way to pierce inside the security of any network, website, tool or portal while there is no accessibility provided. The hacker does whatever without the legal permissions and this can be named as Blackhat hacker. The hacker who do all of the hacking things with the permissions just to find if there are any flaws in the network or the digital creations is named as White hat hacker. A hacker just does not know in-depth about the codings and the programming languages but they use different techniques and platforms to perform the tasks. Like I do with the codes as being an Ethical hacker I know the flaws that can be there that can allow hackers like us to get inside the system and hack it.

2 Programmer

The one who finds the all-new programming languages like Java, Php, HTML, etc and researches on those for the new functions and possibilities. The programmer handles the backend processes of the systems and hardware. Usually, the programmers work on the servers and the hardware units to add the digital possibilities to it. Like they find the node between the hardware and the software means how a hardware can be controlled by the system codes and how the working of something can be modified by their automation etc.

3 Developer


Through the coding, the developers make the all-new tools, websites, applications, software and much more that can be finally used by the users for some functions. There can be several types of developers including the mobile app developers that are different than the website developers. They are the ones who work on the interface things that how a software or code will be interacting with the users for which that is made.

4 Security Researcher



With whole new techniques and actions, the security researchers find for the holes in the creations that can be possibly pierced by the hackers. Thus, the researchers are completely working on the new aspects that however do not exist. I’m also focusing on the same so that I can get some new security flaws and get the website admins alert of that.

Finally, after reading this article you have got to know about the difference between the hacker, programmer, developer and security researcher. All of the information given here is written in such a way that anyone can get about the important aspects easily. Hope that you might be liking the information given in this article if it is so then please try to share it with others too. 

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