Top 10 Ruby on Rails Alternatives

This article will explore ten of the best Ruby on Rails alternatives. The list includes Django, Sinatra, Hanami, Laravel, Koa, Flask, etc.

When it was launched in 2004, Rails was a one-of-a-kind web app framework and marked the beginning of the massive popularity of Ruby for web development projects.

Rails helped developers recognize the potential of Ruby and made programming complex web apps much easier than before. Thanks to its prototyping simplicity, RoR is used by startups and conglomerates alike.

However, as the needs of users and developers changed, Ruby on Rails slipped down the popularity ranks. Over the years, several competing frameworks were launched that solved the main issues with Rails, which are discussed later.

While the insane popularity of Ruby has since declined, the demand still remains stable now. If you are wondering about using Ruby for your next project, here is a brief insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the project, which should help you make an informed decision.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails is a server-side, model-view-controller, web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. It provides the default structures required for a database, web service, and web pages using the general-purpose programming language, Ruby.

Essentially, Rails amalgamates Ruby with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to develop modern web applications running on a web server. There are other frameworks for Ruby that solve very specific use-cases, but Rails is often a good fit for all kinds of projects.

One of the main reasons why Rails got so popular among developers is the fact that it allowed developers to work on multiple levels through a convention over configuration paradigm.

Together with Django, the default framework for Python, Rails helped increase the productivity of the developers and allowed them to deliver applications much faster than before. Please read the article Ruby Frameworks for a complete list of frameworks.

Advantages of Ruby on Rails

Here are some benefits of the Ruby on Rails framework.

• Cost-Effective

The longer it takes to develop an application, the more expensive it is for the development team. Rails is a free-to-use framework that allows developers to build and modify web deployments at an incredible speed, which means organizations will be spending less money on creating and maintaining apps.

• Secure

Ruby on Rails enables a more secure development lifecycle. When using Rails, XSS attacks and SQL injections are all excluded, and output variables in templates along with input parameters are escaped by default, meaning there is no way for a developer to make a security error unless done on purpose. 

• Productivity

Ruby is a simple, logical, clear language with a lean codebase, making it one of the most productive languages available for developers. Add Rails and other third-party libraries and developers can save a lot of time on coding and use it to improve the functionality of their deployments. Moreover, individual parts of the app can be modified and expanded later, making it a much more flexible option.

Disadvantages of Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails developers consider these some of the downside of this framework.

• Runtime Speed

One of the main criticisms against Rails is that it is slower than other frameworks. It is a common problem with interpreted technologies as opposed to compiled technologies; Ruby and Rails require a little extra time to execute the code, which makes it appear slower in performance compared to its competitors.

• Boot Speed

The boot speed of Rails depends on the number of dependencies and files. In larger deployments, Rails can take up an intolerable amount of time to start, which hampers the performance of the developers. While the latest updates, i.e., Spring, tries to combat this issue, Rails still falls short against its competitors.

• Documentation

Despite being over 15 years old and supported by an enthusiastic community, the documentation for Rails can be tricky to find, especially for the less popular gems and libraries. More often than not, developers find themselves using the test suite as the documentation for the libraries, which can be slightly annoying for newer developers.

Top 10 Ruby on Rails Alternatives 

Here are ten of the best alternatives to Rails.

Django

One of the most popular Ruby on Rails alternatives is its Python contemporary, Django. It is also an open-source framework, but it follows a model-template-view architecture as compared to the model-view-controller architecture of Rails.

It comes with a ton of extras – Django handles content administration, user authentication, site maps, etc., right out of the box. It is incredibly versatile and scalable, making it an ideal choice for a variety of deployments.

Sinatra

Launched in 2007, Sinatra is a small and flexible open-source web app library and domain-specific language.

It is written in Ruby and dependent on the Rack webserver and allows developers to create web apps in Ruby with minimal effort. It is often referred to as a microframework, making it an excellent option for novice developers to get started in Ruby development.

Some notable companies using Sinatra include Apple, GitHub, BBC, LinkedIn, Heroku, etc.

Hanami

Hanami is a modern, full-stack web framework for Ruby, allowing developers to code both the frontend and backend of an application.

It is made up of a series of smaller entities that can be used as required and shared amongst multiple apps in your Hanami project. This modularity allows developers to build anything from simple CMSs to some of the most complex deployments in existence.

It uses up to 60% less memory compared to other Ruby frameworks, making it one of the best performing Ruby on Rails alternatives in the market.

Laravel

Launched in 2011, Laravel is a popular PHP framework based on Symfony that uses the model-view-controller architecture pattern like Ruby on Rails.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of Laravel is its orientation towards “syntactic sugar”; it has a clean and elegant syntax that provides an unparalleled developer experience.

Laravel has a modular packaging system with a dedicated dependency manager and provides several utilities to aid app deployment and maintenance. 

Asp.Net

Based on the .NET technology, Asp.Net (Active Server Pages Network Enabled Technologies) is a server-side web app framework designed by Microsoft that enables developers to create dynamic web pages, apps, and services.

Asp.Net extends the .NET framework with libraries and tools required to develop modern web apps based on any language support by .NET for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker. 

Flask

Similar to Sinatra, Flask is a microframework but written in Python. It is used for developing web apps using Python and is deployed by some of the largest companies including Lyft, Trivago, Reddit, etc.

While it lacks a database abstraction layer and form validation, Flask features a built-n development server and a fast debugger that enables developers to create and deploy apps efficiently. It also brings integrated support for unit testing, RESTful request dispatching, and Jinja2 templating.

Koa

Developed by the same team behind Express.js, Koa is a relatively new, open-source, Node.js web framework that aims to be a smaller yet more expressive tool for developing web apps and APIs.

It is based on ES6 and uses ES6 generators to provide developers with a set of classes and modules that simplify web development and facilitate control flow. It also features a built-in catchall for errors to prevent crashes and uses async functions to manipulate callbacks and handle errors easily.

Phoenix Framework

Built on the Elixir programming language and the Cowboy Erlang framework, Phoenix is a server-side web development framework that builds on familiar concepts of the Rails world and makes it easier to build robust concurrent apps.

It uses a model-view-controller pattern and is used to develop fault-tolerant, low-latency, distributed systems. If you are a Rails developer, you will notice that the naming conventions are much simpler, and routing is easier to manage.

CakePHP

CakePHP is a popular Rails alternative that follows the model-view-controller pattern and is distributed under the MIT license.

This free and open-source web framework is written in PHP and is designed to make web development quicker and easier. CakePHP builds on the concepts of Rails, such as convention over configuration paradigm, model-view-controller architecture, association data mapping, etc.

It brings a ton of features for developers, including app scaffolding, built-in validation, flexible caching, PHP templating, data sanitization, etc.

ExpressJS

Initially released in 2010, Express.js has grown to become one of the most popular web application frameworks for Node.js.

It is released as an open-source tool under the MIT license and can be used to create JSON APIs, microservices, and server-side rendered micro-applications. Express provides a myriad of features like common handlers, settings, utilities, etc., which substantially improves the speed and ease of developing a web server.

One of the key reasons behind the popularity of Express is that it is unopinionated, meaning that it can be used for a variety of projects with minimal friction.

Conclusion

Being a general-purpose programming language, Ruby is popular for a wide range of programming tasks.

No organization should treat code as something that exists outside the business goals of a project; so, you need to understand the requirements of your project better to decide if Ruby on Rails is the ideal choice for it.

If you cannot decide between Ruby on Rails alternatives on your own, consider getting in touch with one of the experts at a leading app hosting company and talk to them about your requirements. 

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