What are the pros and cons of Ruby on Rails?

Things you must know about Ruby on Rails to improve the web development process. 


As technology evolves in 2023 to meet the changing needs of developers and users, frameworks play a crucial role in application development. However, what was efficient and popular yesterday may not hold the same relevance today, highlighting the dynamic nature of technology.


Ruby on Rails, a framework written in Ruby and introduced in 2004, exemplifies this evolution. Once highly popular, it is now viewed as outdated by some.


Each year and with every release, Ruby on Rails introduces new features and improvements. Let's explore the current state of Ruby on Rails as we enter the new decade.


Source- https://www.learnenough.com/blog/ruby-on-rails-guide 


Not only this, Rails recently announced an 8.0 milestone on Github outlining the objectives for the upcoming Rails release, and it's extensive. This version includes a new background worker, cache backend, asset pipeline, framework for sending notifications to mobile devices, and numerous development tools.


With each release comes challenges to cope with the new features, thus you must refer to Ruby on Rails Development Company to streamline the development process.

Is Ruby Dead in 2024? Let’s Clarify!

Why are some people under the impression that Ruby on Rails is no longer relevant? Ruby appears to be thriving, maintaining its 16th position out of 51 in Stackoverflow's ranking of commonly used programming languages. 


In fact, in 2023, it even climbed higher in the list compared to previous years.


But where do these rumors about Ruby's decline come from? Well, as illustrated by the graph below, the popularity of Ruby on Rails has experienced some decline over the past decade.


Source- https://syndicode.com/blog/why-is-ruby-still-our-choice-in-2020-2/ 


There might have been loose of interest in the Ruby on Rails framework but that does not mean that top giants are not favoring it. Airbnb, Netflix, Github, Shopify, and more, you name it, are using Ruby on Rails. 


If you want to leverage the capabilities of Ruby on Rails in your next project then you must know its pros and cons, and understand how it can help your business scale.

Pros and Cons of Ruby on Rails

Pros of Ruby on Rails

  • Rapid Development: Ruby on Rails works on the principle convention over configuration. It allows developers to adopt standard conventions and leverage built-in tools like scaffolding and generators to build applications quickly with less code. It not only accelerates the development process but reduces time-to-market for products.


It is estimated that developing apps using Ruby will require 3-4 times less coding as compared to other alternative languages, reducing up to 30-40 development time. That’s significant for any business. 


  • Developer productivity- our dedicated Ruby on Rails Developers at OnGraph have experienced a significant difference in their productivity while using Rails. It took fewer lines of code compared to other languages, boosting their productivity and helping them focus on a major part- ideation.


Ruby's Convention over Configuration principle is another boon for developers. It minimizes their efforts and reduces decision fatigue. Rails offers several built-in generators to automate repetitive tasks, saving valuable time. 


Source- https://syndicode.com/blog/why-is-ruby-still-our-choice-in-2020-2/ 


  • Developer-Friendly Syntax: Ruby is known for its clean and simple syntax that makes the base language of Rails. It makes it easy for developers to write readable and easy-to-maintain code. It improves developer’s productivity and collaboration within development teams.


  • Mature Ecosystem: Ruby on Rails offers several gems (libraries) and pre-built solutions to perform common tasks. This ecosystem is expanding with time and allowing developers to integrate the latest technologies like AI, ML, IoT, and more. 


Whether you are looking to implement strong security features, authorization, or database management, you will find a gem for each functionality. It lets developers create a variety of simple to complex apps.


  • Active Community: Ruby on Rails is known for its active and growing community that has been contributing to improving the Rails developer’s experience. Developers have access to extensive resources, including documentation, forums, tutorials, and meetups. This active community encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement within the framework.


  • Continuous Improvement: The Rails framework follows a regular release cycle, with updates introducing new features, optimizations, and security patches. This commitment to continuous improvement ensures that Rails remains relevant and aligned with industry standards and best practices.


Ruby is currently at version 3.3.0 and receives over 10 updates annually. The community works hard to keep the language secure, reliable, and efficient, ensuring compatibility with modern technology. As a result, Ruby remains competitive in the programming language landscape.


  • Security and reliability- these are the foremost crucial reasons why developers choose Rails over other frameworks. Security and reliability are paramount in Ruby on Rails (RoR) development. This web framework offers quality standards and best practices, ensuring robustness in web development. 


Rails emphasizes DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) and CoC (Convention over Configuration) principles, resulting in a clean and manageable approach to application development. 


Apart from this, Ruby has an advanced garbage collector that automatically identifies technical issues, reducing the need for additional efforts at a later stage of development.

Cons of Ruby on Rails

  • Performance: Ruby on Rails is behind when it comes to performance. Rails show high CPU usage without any context. In some cases, it is frustrating to wait for a longer process time and the developer has to kill the process that eventually ruins the app’s performance. 

Sometimes disabling the background process or editing the config file does the work. Thus making it a rare choice in the case of high-traffic applications. But if you follow the best practices, your websites will work seamlessly. 


  • Learning Curve: as you know Rails is known for its continuous improvement with new releases coming forward. It makes it difficult for the developers to cope with the new features and learning makes it difficult for them. 


  • Scalability Challenges: rails show significant scalability issues, due to the limited support for concurrency and asynchronous processing. 


Ruby on Rails can handle more requests by using a load balancer and still perform well. It also makes it easy to create code that works well with different database systems. With some tuning, Ruby on Rails can handle scaling up well.


  • Dependency Management: Managing dependencies and gem versions can be challenging, in case of complex projects. Dependency conflicts and compatibility issues can be eliminated with proper management and version control.


Any expert Ruby on Rails Development company can eliminate these challenges with their expertise to develop the next-gen Rails app. To know more, about how we do it, connect with us.

Choose OnGraph for Ruby on Rails Development Services

Ruby on Rails offers numerous advantages for web application development, including rapid development, developer-friendly syntax, a mature ecosystem, an active community, scalability, continuous improvement, and an integrated testing framework. 


However, developers should also be aware of its potential drawbacks, including performance concerns, a learning curve, scalability challenges, dependency management issues, security concerns, documentation quality, and community fragmentation. 


By carefully weighing the pros and cons, developers can make informed decisions about whether Ruby on Rails is the right choice for their projects.


If you're planning to develop a marketplace, SaaS, or any web platform with a mobile version, Ruby is a suitable choice. To confirm this, consider consulting with developers. Reach out to a Ruby on Rails Outsourcing Company for further discussion and assistance.


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