DEV Community

Cover image for 10 Practical Project Ideas for Web Developers
Emmanuel Mingala
Emmanuel Mingala

Posted on • Edited on

10 Practical Project Ideas for Web Developers

#programming #vibecoding #productivity #sideprojects

The first time I wrote a program, I thought—

"I can build whatever I want! 🤩"

Back then, I just wanted to impress my friends or finish my assignments faster. But as I got older, I started craving projects that solve real-world problems.

Ironically, now that I want to build something meaningful... I often don’t know what to code. 😅

It’s a common struggle for many programmers—that’s why you see tons of “Top N Programming Ideas” videos on YouTube every month.

So, here’s my take on it. This list isn’t just for inspiration—it’s filled with practical projects you can actually use in your daily life and learn core programming skills while building them.

Here are my Top 10 Practical Project Ideas for Web Developers

I’ve listed the projects by difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each one includes key features to guide you, plus bonus ideas to help you level up. By building them from scratch, you’ll pick up valuable programming lessons along the way. Let’s begin!

1. To-do List

Difficulty: Beginner
to-do list example
Photo from Hover.dev

This is a very common starter project for web development. There are already lots of libraries and templates available out there for making one of these. But that defeats the whole purpose of enhancing your skills.

The best way to learn is to create one from scratch.

Key features:

  • Add items to the list
  • Reorganize items in the list
  • Delete items in the list

Bonus features:

  • Persist data on a database for saving progress
  • Add a deadline to help users prioritize their tasks

Key lessons:

  1. State management
  2. Handling form inputs and submissions
  3. Data persistence
  4. Conditional rendering
  5. Component structure and reusability

2. Personal Finance Tracker

Difficulty: Beginner
personal finance tracker example

Photo from Foolish Developer

In the Philippines, managing your sweldo (salary) can be a monthly puzzle — especially with 5.5 sales, unexpected grab food cravings, or that one Shopee budol. That’s why building a personal finance tracker is not only a solid web dev project, but also a helpful life tool.

It’s a pretty common project in coding tutorials, but don’t just settle for the basics. Make it your own — add categories that make sense for Filipino spending habits like ‘Kuryente’, ‘Pang-load’, or ‘Hulugan sa Lazada’. And if you're up for a challenge, try integrating charts or auto-reminders for bills!

Key features:

  • Add income and expense entries
  • Categorize transactions (e.g., Groceries, Bills, Transportation)
  • Display total income, expenses, and balance
  • View and filter recent transactions

Bonus features:

  • Monthly budget planning with progress bars
  • Graphs to visualize where your pera goes (using Chart.js or Recharts)
  • Recurring expenses like rent or Meralco bills
  • CSV export so users can keep offline records or share with a partner

Key lessons:

  1. CRUD operations with forms and local/global state
  2. Input validation and user-friendly error handling
  3. Data structuring and filtering based on categories or dates
  4. Working with chart libraries for data visualization
  5. UX considerations for mobile-first design (since many Filipinos use phones to track expenses)
  6. Optional: Using localStorage or a backend for persistent data

3. Medicine Tracker

Difficulty: Beginner
medicine tracker example
Photo from careclinic.io

Whether it's for lolo, lola, or even for ourselves, remembering to take medicine on time can be a real struggle — especially when juggling busy Filipino routines or caring for family members. That’s why a Medicine Tracker is a meaningful project for web developers. It combines practicality with empathy, and gives you the chance to build something genuinely useful.

While some beginner versions of this app just log medicines, you can level it up by adding scheduling, reminders, or even a simple health log. You can tailor the interface for the elderly, or create a multilingual version using Tagalog or Bisaya to increase accessibility.

Key features:

  • Add and edit medicine entries with dosage and schedule
  • Daily reminder checklist for medicine intake
  • Mark medicines as “taken” or “missed”
  • Show a calendar or list of upcoming doses

Bonus features:

  • Push/email/SMS notifications for reminders (can simulate this in dev mode)
  • Color-coded medicine cards (e.g., red for missed doses, green for taken)
  • Option to track medicine history for each user or patient
  • Multi-user support for caretakers managing medicines for others

Key lessons:

  1. Time-based logic and scheduling
  2. State management and conditional rendering
  3. Accessibility and user-friendly UI for older users
  4. Handling date and time data (e.g., using Day.js or date-fns)
  5. LocalStorage or backend integration for data persistence
  6. Optional: Notifications API or third-party SMS/email service integration

4. Personal Portfolio

Difficulty: Beginner
personal portfolio example
Photo from my personal portfolio

Every Filipino dev — whether you're fresh out of college or shifting careers from BPO to tech — eventually needs a personal portfolio. It’s not just a website; it’s your digital resumé, your first impression, and your space to flex the projects you’ve been working hard on.

You’ve probably seen hundreds of portfolios online, but this is where you get to show what makes you different. Add a section about your journey (kwento mo as a dev), highlight the tools you love using, and maybe even include testimonials from clients or classmates. It’s one of the most customizable and expressive projects you can build.

Key features:

  • Homepage with your name, short bio, and profile image
  • Projects section with screenshots, descriptions, and tech used
  • Skills list or tech stack overview
  • Contact form or links to email/socials (LinkedIn, GitHub, etc.)

Bonus features:

  • Add a blog section where you share your coding journey or tutorials in Taglish
  • Use animation libraries (like Framer Motion) for smooth transitions
  • Light and dark mode toggle
  • Deploy using GitHub Pages, Vercel, or Netlify for free

Key lessons:

  1. Responsive web design (for phones, tablets, and desktops)
  2. Routing with React Router or Next.js for multi-page layouts
  3. Component-based design for scalability
  4. Form handling and email integration with services like EmailJS
  5. Deployment and custom domain setup
  6. Optional: SEO optimization and Open Graph metadata for link previews

5. Web-based Photo Booth

Difficulty: Intermediate
web-based photo booth example
Photo from SnappyBooth

Filipinos love taking photos — whether it’s for a quick selfie, a birthday celebration, or just to pass time with filters and effects. An Online Photo Booth is a fun and interactive web project that challenges your frontend skills while giving users something they’ll genuinely enjoy using.

This isn’t your typical beginner project — it requires access to the device camera, some creative image processing, and a smooth UI. But once you pull it off, it’s a real crowd-pleaser. You can even customize it for debut, wedding, or grad events and offer it to friends or local clients!

Key features:

  • Access webcam using the browser
  • Capture and download photos
  • Add custom frames or stickers (e.g., party themes, Filipino fiesta icons)
  • Toggle camera modes (front/back for mobile users)

Bonus features:

  • Apply real-time filters (e.g., grayscale, sepia, blur)
  • Add themed overlays (e.g., birthday, graduation, or holiday templates)
  • Create a photo gallery for saved shots
  • Integrate with Firebase or cloud storage to save photos online

Key lessons:

  1. Using browser APIs (MediaDevices API for webcam access)
  2. Working with canvas for image processing
  3. Handling file downloads and uploads
  4. Managing responsive layouts for camera-based UI
  5. Optional: Real-time effects using CSS filters or WebGL
  6. Event handling and dynamic rendering with React or Vanilla JS

6. Real-time Chat App

Difficulty: Intermediate

real-time chat app example

Photo from DevPost

Let’s face it — Filipinos love to chika. Whether it’s catching up with friends, messaging classmates, or coordinating group projects, messaging apps are a huge part of daily life here. That’s why building a real-time chat app is a super engaging way to level up your skills — it’s fun, interactive, and packed with technical challenges that make you a better developer.

You’ll go beyond static pages and learn how to build apps that feel alive — with messages showing up instantly, users coming online/offline, and conversations flowing in real time.

Key features:

  • One-on-one chat with real-time updates
  • Display online/offline status
  • Typing indicators
  • Chat history with timestamps

Bonus features:

  • Group chats or channels (like a barkada GC)
  • Emoji picker and message reactions
  • File/image sharing support
  • Message edit/delete feature with version history

Key lessons:

  1. Working with WebSockets or Socket.io for real-time communication
  2. Client-server architecture and event handling
  3. State management for dynamic UIs
  4. Database modeling for chat systems (users, messages, rooms)
  5. Optional: Authentication and role-based access
  6. Deploying a backend and frontend that work together in real time

7. Kanban Board

Difficulty: Intermediate
kanban board example
Photo from my internship project

Whether you’re managing school tasks, freelance gigs, or your startup sideline, a Kanban board is a great way to visualize progress. Inspired by tools like Trello or Jira, this project teaches you how to manage drag-and-drop UIs, structured data, and task flows — all in one interactive app.

It’s a common project for leveling up your frontend skills, but you can always take it further. Try adding user accounts, shareable boards, or even features to help Pinoy teams or student orgs collaborate online.

Key features:

  • Create task cards with title and description
  • Organize tasks into columns (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done)
  • Drag and drop tasks between columns
  • Edit, delete, and archive tasks

Bonus features:

  • Add due dates, tags, or priority levels
  • Create multiple boards for different projects
  • Save task data to localStorage or a backend
  • Collaborative editing (multi-user support with sockets or polling)

Key lessons:

  1. Nested state management (columns > cards)
  2. Drag-and-drop libraries like dnd-kit or react-beautiful-dnd
  3. Reusable components and UI patterns
  4. Conditional rendering and event handling
  5. Optional: Backend API integration (for saving boards/tasks)
  6. UX design thinking — how to make task management intuitive

8. Build an E-commerce website

Difficulty: Advanced
build an e-commerce website example
Photo from freepik

Building an e-commerce site is like doing a capstone project on steroids. It touches on nearly every aspect of modern web development — frontend, backend, user flows, database logic, and even payment integration. Whether you’re mimicking Shopee, building a small sari-sari store system, or trying to help local sellers go online, this is a high-impact and skill-stretching project.

You’ll learn what it really takes to power apps that Filipinos use every day — from browsing products to checking out COD or Gcash.

Key features:

  • Browse products with images, names, and prices
  • Product pages with descriptions and add-to-cart functionality
  • Cart management with quantity control and removal
  • Checkout flow with form validation (address, contact, etc.)

Bonus features:

  • User authentication for checkout history and saved carts
  • Order tracking (status: pending, shipped, delivered)
  • Payment gateway integration (try Stripe in dev mode, or simulate GCash/PayPal)
  • Admin dashboard for adding/editing products and viewing orders
  • Search and filter products by category or price

Key lessons:

  1. Full CRUD operations for products, carts, and orders
  2. Authentication and user sessions
  3. Dynamic routing and state management (React Context, Redux, or Zustand)
  4. Integration with APIs or mock payment flows
  5. Relational database modeling (e.g., products, users, orders)
  6. Optional: Image uploading, pagination, and email confirmations

9. Discord bot

Difficulty: Advanced

Discord bot example
Photo from wppga

If you hang out in Discord servers for gaming, coding, or even K-pop fan groups, you’ve probably seen bots in action — from playing music to moderating chats. Building your own Discord bot is a super fun way to learn about APIs, event-based logic, and backend scripting.

It’s also very Pinoy internet culture-friendly: imagine building a bot that sends hugot quotes, reminds your ML squad of match times, or tracks assignments in your barkada’s study group server!

Key features:

  • Respond to simple commands (e.g., !hello)
  • Custom message responses (e.g., greet new members)
  • Moderation tools (kick, ban, or mute users)
  • Role assignment based on reactions or commands

Bonus features:

  • Music player with YouTube integration
  • Automated reminders or birthday shoutouts
  • Slash command support (/roll, /poll, etc.)
  • Mini-games or trivia for server engagement

Key lessons:

  1. Working with Discord.js or Discord.py SDK
  2. Understanding event-driven programming
  3. API rate limits, error handling, and command parsing
  4. Deploying a bot using cloud services (like Render, Replit, or Railway)
  5. Optional: Using a database (e.g., for saving server settings or user stats)
  6. Asynchronous logic and real-time event handling

10. Build your own React

Difficulty: Advanced
Build your own React
Photo from Build your own X

If you’ve ever used React and thought, “Paano kaya 'to gumagana sa loob?” — this is the project for you. Inspired by the Codecrafters challenge, this isn’t about using React… it’s about building your own mini version of React from scratch.

Yes, it’s brain-twisting. Yes, it’s not practical for production. But if you complete it, your understanding of virtual DOMs, rendering logic, and hooks will skyrocket. It’s like going from driver to mechanic — and that skill makes you stand out, especially if you’re aiming for deeper frontend roles or jobs abroad.

Key features:

  • createElement function (JSX equivalent)
  • Virtual DOM tree creation
  • DOM diffing and patching
  • Re-rendering logic on state updates

Key lessons:

  1. How the virtual DOM works behind the scenes
  2. DOM diffing and patching for efficient updates
  3. Component structure and rendering flow
  4. Building a basic hook system (useState, useEffect)
  5. How JSX compiles and interacts with the DOM 6.The mental model of React reactivity and performance

These projects aren’t just for practice — they help you grow real skills you’ll use in jobs, freelancing, or even passion projects. Start small, build often, and don’t worry about making everything perfect right away.

Just keep learning, keep coding, and most of all — enjoy the process.
Kahit dahan-dahan, basta tuloy-tuloy. 💻✨

Got a favorite project from the list? Or may na-build ka na sa mga 'to?
Share it in the comments — I’d love to check it out and cheer you on!

Top comments (0)