Is Ruby on Rails Still a Good Choice in 2019?

ruby on rails coding language

The myth that Ruby on Rails is “dead” or “not relevant” is one of the most persistent fallacies in the software engineering world. Some coders even make Ruby on Rails vs JavaScript comparisons, despite these two scripting languages being used for wholly different stages of application development (backend and frontend software development, respectively). 

How this became a trend is anyone’s guess, but the reality is that Ruby on Rails is an excellent coding language that’s still going strong despite being nearly 15 years old. In the following article, we’ll explain why that’s the case and why learning Ruby and Rails is still an excellent career choice in 2019. 

Read on to learn more. 
Table of Contents:

What are the advantages of Ruby on Rails?

Too many software engineers think that Ruby on Rails is a synonym for Ruby. In truth, Ruby is a general-purpose scripting language that the Rails web application framework is based on. When it appeared in 2005, Rails streamlined web development by facilitating work on many levels and promoting tried-and-true programming and app development practices.

Before we take an in-depth look at the advantages Rails offers, we must first address some of the more prevalent anti-Rails myths out there. 

No matter what the Internet says, the reality is that:

  • Ruby on Rails isn’t slow. Although Rails isn’t as fast as Golang or Node.js, this is only truly noticeable when working with giant products that have large-scale traffic. In fact, with proper infrastructure and architecture, Rails is one of the fastest frameworks out there. This is proven by huge-traffic websites such as Basecamp, GitHub, Hulu, Couchsurfing, and Airbnb. 
  • Ruby on Rails doesn’t have scalability issues. People love to blame Rails for other deficiencies in the server system architecture. This started when Twitter transitioned from Ruby to Scalia supposedly due to scalability problems with Rails. In truth, very few websites have Twitter-sized traffic and there are numerous scalability options for Rails, including code optimization, horizontal scalability, and service-oriented architecture.

Why Ruby on Rails is still the best choice?

It’s no coincidence that the creation of Ruby programming language is one of the most important moments in coding history. In addition to greatly simplifying web development and teaching good coding practices to a generation of web developers, the Ruby language has also matured extremely well. This makes it consistent, dependable, and quick to use for developers. 

Ruby on Rails boasts many advantages, including:

  • Building web applications 30-40% faster. There’s no need to waste time and energy writing boilerplate code in your app development when you can build large chunks of the website using ready-made modules and plugins. 
  • Cost-efficiency. Ruby on Rails is open source and therefore free to use. This means there’s a wealth of information for a ruby developer to use out there, as well as a plethora of gems (premade code) that can be downloaded for free from GitHub. 
  • Scalability. Ironically, despite its reputation for weak scalability, Rails can acutally make a web application highly scalable. Again, this is proven by the fact Rails is used in high-traffic sites such as Couchsurfing and Hulu.
  • Security. Rails has in-built security features for your web application and also uses the Secure Development Lifecycle, which is an in-depth security assurance process with a great track record. 

Where can I quickly learn coding in San Diego?

“Where can I learn JavaScript and Ruby on Rails,” we hear you ask. The answer is: right here at LEARN academy! Located in the Union Cowork building in East Village, we are San Diego’s top choice for all things coding-related. 

Our intense JavaScript and Ruby bootcamps consist of three months of theoretical lessons and exercises, followed by a month-long internship at a first-rate company. There’s no need to make crucial Ruby on Rails vs JavaScript choices because we’ll teach you both of these languages and give you all the knowledge you need to get a position as a full-time web developer.

Call us today! We’ll make a full stack developer out of you in no time!

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