More than a million websites worldwide are built on Ruby on Rails - and there are a lot of reasons why it’s such a popular language and coding ecosystem.

We choose Rails as one of our key frameworks because it allows us to focus on building business value for companies we partner with on software development projects. Having a team of Ruby on Rails developers allows us to:

• Develop prototypes quickly and effectively test our clients’ business ideas
• Provide reliable web solutions for companies of any size
• Leverage a vast community, as 100s of developers across the globe (including our team) help maintain the Rails framework
• Easily adapt and create a more flexible project environment

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby is a programming language that is pretty beloved by developers. Rails is a framework of conventions to build applications using Ruby.

Ruby on Rails is used by large companies like Shopify, Twitch, and Square - but it’s also used by thousands of small to medium sized companies around the world.

It makes life easier

Well maybe not life, but Ruby on Rails makes development projects easier. This is because of:

• Manageable framework with built-in documentation and the ability to prototype quickly
• Concise language combined with consistent, standardized conventions
• Data security
• Rich ecosystem of third party tools and libraries that can be easily integrated 

It helps developers focus on the right things (that deliver business value)

Ruby on Rails allows development teams to iterate quickly, and is a great tool for prototyping. It’s used by many large companies, for multiple reasons including the fact that Ruby on Rails can be used to scale.  

Testing is a key part of the platform - resulting in more reliability when it comes to the end result. The awesome user community plus surrounding tools and applications help foster productivity. And all of these features (and more) enable rapid app development.

It’s open source (which also means free)

Ruby on Rails is free, open source software which means there are no licensing fees to use it. It also means over 4,500 people have contributed to Rails (and continue to do so). The open source platform keeps Ruby on Rails modern and stable. The community around Rails also helps developers catch mistakes and work smarter.

It’s a gem (see what we did there)

Ruby on Rails is pretty popular, especially among top developers. Some of today’s most successful companies - like Basecamp, Airbnb, Shopify, and Hulu - use Ruby on Rails.

Saying Ruby on Rails is a gem is a triple pun. It’s a gem, as in it’s great. It’s also a nod to RubyGems, which we mention a little about below. Finally, and nothing to do with programming, in the jewelry world - a ruby is a gemstone :)

It’s mature

Ruby on Rails first launched in 2004. Since then, the ruby developer community has continued to grow as well as the ecosystem around Ruby on Rails.

Some key technical benefits to Ruby on Rails

Expressive language

• Rails takes advantages of the expressiveness of Ruby to provide code that is easy to read and understand.

RubyGems

• RubyGems are kind of like a plugin for adding features and functionalities (without writing code) in Rails, via Gem libraries. RubyGems enable adding features without creating the code again and again.

Bundler

• As described on their website: 
• “Bundler provides a consistent environment for Ruby projects by tracking and installing the exact gems and versions that are needed. Bundler is an exit from dependency hell, and ensures that the gems you need are present in development, staging, and production. Starting work on a project is as simple as a bundle install.”

Enumerable

• Enumerable is a Ruby module, and is a collection of iteration methods. It’s a standout benefit to Ruby.

Sidekiq

• Sidekiq is an open source job scheduler written in Ruby

Rails is baked with well established patterns and conventions focused on solving problems the majority of web developers encounter. Other technical benefits are:

• Convention over configuration
• Background processing
• Testing
• Database mapping
• Database migrations
• Performance over other frameworks (Django for example)

Ruby on Rails Jobs

There are a ton of job opportunities for Ruby on Rails developers (including at Known Decimal). A recent report shows that in one month (only) last year, there were over 60,000 Ruby on Rails job openings posted in the United States. 

Future of Ruby on Rails

The job market and the future of Ruby on Rails as a development platform kind of go hand-in-hand. The outlook is bright for both careers as well as continued growth and use of Ruby on Rails by companies around the globe.

• Over 1,000,000 companies use Ruby on Rails today (and counting)
• 10s of thousands of Ruby on Rails job listings (on the day this was written, 12,000+ in the United States)
• Leading companies like Basecamp, Shopify, Twitch, AirBnB, and Hulu use Ruby on Rails 
• The framework continues to expand and improve - this year alone there have been eight Rails releases