Why I Still Choose Ruby on Rails in 2026
My eleventh year with Rails. When I started my journey with this framework in 2015, Rails was already considered by some to be "old-school" technology. Today, in 2026, I still hear similar opinions. And yet, sitting in front of my screen and coding another project in Rails 8, I can say with full responsibility: it's still one of the best choices you can make as a developer.
Maturity Is Not a Weakness, It's an Advantage
The transition from Rails 3 to Rails 8 is like comparing a car from the '90s to a modern model of the same brand. The fundamentals remained the same, but under the hood, magic happens. Rails is a framework with almost 20 years of history and paradoxically – that's exactly what makes it so powerful.
Technology maturity means that the really difficult problems have already been solved. You don't have to wonder how to build an authentication system, how to handle file uploads, how to organize emails, or how to manage background jobs. All of this has been worked out, tested by hundreds of thousands of applications, and is available out-of-the-box or as proven gems.
Rails 8 is no longer the Rails I remember from the early years. We have Hotwire, which allows building reactive interfaces without tons of JavaScript. We have Solid Queue and Solid Cache – solutions that eliminate the need for external dependencies like Redis or Sidekiq in many projects. Propshaft replaced Sprockets, Action Cable evolved into something genuinely useful, and ActiveStorage solves the upload problem in an elegant way.
What Rails Does Better Than the Competition
Development Speed
It's still the king of rapid prototyping and MVPs. When someone comes to me with a startup idea, Rails allows me to deliver a working product in weeks, not months. Convention over configuration isn't just a slogan – it's real time savings. I don't spend days configuring builds, setting up projects, or pondering folder structures. I open the terminal, type rails new, and I'm ready to work.
Gem Ecosystem
Through these 11 years, I've learned that almost every problem I encounter has already been solved by someone. Devise for authentication, Pundit for authorization, Ransack for searching, Kaminari for pagination, Sidekiq for background jobs. Gems are mature, well-documented, and actively supported.
ActiveRecord
People either love or hate ActiveRecord, but the truth is that for 90% of business applications, it's an absolutely sufficient and convenient solution. Relations, validations, callbacks – everything in one place, readable and predictable.
Monolithic Architecture (Which Made a Comeback)
For years, we were told that the future is microservices. Meanwhile, in 2026, the industry is returning to monoliths. Rails has always believed in the power of a well-organized monolith, and today we can see that this was the right vision. Basecamp, GitHub, Shopify – giants that proved Rails scales better than its critics would like to admit.
Where Rails Still Dominates
SaaS and B2B Applications
If you're building a project management tool, CRM, e-learning platform, HR system – Rails is a bullseye. You build features quickly, extend them easily, and maintenance costs remain reasonable.
MVPs and Startups
There's no better tool for quick business idea validation. I've seen dozens of startups that started with Rails and never had to migrate because the framework grew with them.
Content-Heavy Applications
Blogs, news portals, educational platforms – everything that needs a solid backend and doesn't require ultra-low-latency. Action Text and ActiveStorage make content management ridiculously simple.
CRUD Applications
Sounds boring? Maybe. But 80% of business applications are exactly CRUD with additional features. And Rails does this better than anyone else.
Where Rails Might Not Be the Best Choice
It would be dishonest not to mention the limitations. After 11 years, I know when to reach for other tools.
Real-Time Applications Requiring Ultra-Low Latency
Stock exchanges, multiplayer games, trading systems – where every millisecond counts, Node.js, Go, or Rust will be a better choice. Rails can handle real-time (Action Cable is quite capable), but not in scenarios requiring microsecond precision.
Applications Forcing Microservice Architecture
If you know upfront that you're building a system consisting of dozens of independent services, each in a different language, with different teams – Rails might be too opinionated. Though ironically, many companies started with microservices only to later return to a monolith in... Rails.
Projects with Extremely Low Resource Consumption
If you need to handle millions of requests per second on a single server, compiled languages like Go, Rust, or even Java will be more efficient. Ruby isn't the fastest language – though JRuby and TruffleRuby are making huge strides.
Heavy Computational Tasks
Machine learning, real-time image processing, complex scientific simulations – for this, choose Python, C++, or Julia. Rails can orchestrate such processes, but shouldn't execute them.
So Why Still Rails?
Because experience has shown me that developer productivity is more important than theoretical framework performance. Because through 11 years, I've seen how Rails evolves in response to market needs, not blindly chasing trends. Because the Rails community is some of the smartest and most helpful people in the industry.
Rails isn't trendy. You won't find it at the top of every "hottest technologies 2026" list. And that's good. Because Rails is a tool for people who want to build real products, not polish their CV with the latest buzzwords.
When I started with Rails 3 in 2015, I didn't know it would be the beginning of such a long journey. Today, coding in Rails 8, I know this journey is far from over. The framework has matured, but hasn't aged. It's still fresh, still productive, still allows me to do what I love most – create solutions that work.
And that's exactly why I still choose Ruby on Rails in 2026.