whichdevtool?
Menu
StacksDirectory Pricing changes Glossary
VPS and cloud servers App hosting and PaaS Managed databases Transactional email APIs Email marketing and newsletters Domain registrars CDN, DNS and edge security Monitoring, uptime and error tracking Auth and identity Frontend and full-stack frameworks Backend frameworks UI component libraries AI model APIs File and object storage Payments and billing Background jobs, queues and workflows ORMs and database toolkits

Full-stack Ruby web framework · by Rails core team and the Rails Foundation

Ruby on Rails

The convention-over-configuration full-stack Ruby framework with Active Record, mail, WebSockets, jobs and file uploads built in, created by David Heinemeier Hansson.

Visit rubyonrails.org ↗ Alternatives Open source Open source Self-hostable
Ruby on Rails homepage
§1

Overview

Ruby on Rails is a full-stack web framework built around convention over configuration. It includes Active Record for modelling databases with associations, callbacks and encryption; Action Controller for requests and caching headers; Action View templates; routing that exposes resources; mail sending and receiving; WebSockets for live pages; background jobs; and cloud file storage, plus protections against common attacks.

Rails was created by David Heinemeier Hansson and has been in use for about two decades. Its site says more than six thousand people have contributed code and that hundreds of thousands of apps have been built with it. The project now also pitches its conventions as a good fit for AI coding agents, because predictable structure keeps generated code maintainable.

The Rails Foundation, a US non-profit founded in 2022 and funded by core member companies such as Shopify, GitHub and 37signals, works on documentation, education, marketing and events and administers the Rails trademarks. DHH chairs its board.

There is no commercial edition. Deployment is up to you: any host that runs Ruby works.

§2

Pricing and plans

Free and open source under the MIT licence. No paid edition. The Rails Foundation, funded by member companies, supports documentation, education and events.

Source: rubyonrails.org/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Active Record
ORM with associations, callbacks, encryption, scopes and migrations.
Action Cable
WebSockets for live-updating pages.
Active Job
Enqueue background jobs for asynchronous work.
Active Storage
Attach uploads stored in cloud services to models.
Action Mailer and Mailbox
Send and receive email.
Resourceful routing
A routing DSL that maps resources to standard controller actions.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Very fast path from idea to working product
  • Strong conventions make codebases predictable
  • Mature ecosystem of gems and long production history
  • Foundation-backed documentation and events

Limitations

  • Ruby only; teams must hire or train Ruby developers
  • Conventions are strong; going against them adds friction
  • Views mix Ruby and HTML by design, which teams wanting a separate SPA must work around (for example by building a JSON API)
  • No official hosting or paid support; you choose your own deployment and vendors
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Startups building a product quickly with a small team
  • Database-backed web apps and SaaS
  • Teams that value conventions over configuration

Look elsewhere if

  • Teams without Ruby experience or plans to hire it
  • Tiny single-purpose APIs
§6

Pricing history

  • Rails 8.1 released

    Released 22 October 2025 with job continuations, structured event reporting and local CI, from over 500 contributors across 2,500 commits. Source ↗

§7

Alternatives to Ruby on Rails

Tool From Free option Stages
Laravel Batteries-included PHP framework
$5/mo Open source
FastAPI Python API framework
$20/mo Free tier
ASP.NET Core .NET web framework
— Open source
Encore Backend framework with infrastructure from code
$49/mo Free tier
Gin Go HTTP web framework
— Open source
Fastify High-performance Node.js web framework
— Open source

All backend frameworks →

§8

Questions

Is Ruby on Rails still used?

Yes. Rails releases continue (8.1.x in September 2026) and the Rails Foundation is backed by companies such as Shopify and GitHub.

Is Rails free?

Yes, it is MIT licensed.

Who maintains Rails?

The Rails core team and thousands of contributors; the Rails Foundation supports docs, education and events.

Does Rails include background jobs?

Yes, through Active Job.

Sources read for this page