Ask HN: Are startups still using Ruby on Rails to start new products/projects?

19 points by zizee 226 days ago | 18 comments

I'm interested in building some open source projects/libraries, with long term monetization being the addition of paid/premium additional features.

I have a soft spot for (and expertise in) Ruby and Ruby on Rails, but I know it has seen a decline in popularity ove the years.

Are start-ups still using Ruby/Rails to get new apps stood up?

If not, which web frameworks are seeing growth, or big mind share for new builds of SaaS?

Edit: my primary interest is in building libraries for backend processes, than heavy frontend offerings.

mmcromp 226 days ago |

For saas as a solo dev, Rails would be faster for you to get up and running, rails also specifically caters to solo SaaS devs. but python is much more popular (you can look up the yearly stack overflow survey for more info) and you'll find developers much more easily. Consider Django, a similar MVC batteries included framework. I say this unbiased as a ruby and python hater lol

chistev 226 days ago | |

Why do you hate ruby and python?

mmcromp 225 days ago | | |

I'm being overly dramatic and petty with "hate". it's all totally personal preference... but not a fan of classic oop, I think "lets make programming syntax like conversation speaking" is dumbest idea i've heard in my life, I like some kind of static typing, and separating blocks by indention is truly awful

nonconstant 225 days ago |

If you are building a painkiller not a vitamin, then Ruby and Rails ecosystems are great to build for. Existing businesses earning billions and news startups that choose pragmatism. Join the community to learn what the pains are. I’ve been surveying news Ruby startups and sharing results at conferences to learn what’s is the missing open source and tooling that we should build, see for ex https://www.rubyevents.org/talks/startups-on-rails-in-past-p...

nonconstant 225 days ago |

Join the SF Ruby conference to meet dozens of new startups building with Ruby and Rails: https://sfruby.com/#startup-demos

sahillavingia 226 days ago |

Yes!

Bt, Gumroad is written in Rails and open source: github.com/antiwork/gumroad

abc03 226 days ago |

My two cents, although there are probably some more people qualified to answer this: Avo, Sidekiq, Gorails etc. can make a living. Why couldn’t you?

AznHisoka 225 days ago | |

Very true, although that might be a sign the market is too saturated, and there's no room for more libraries written in Ruby.

GoldenMonkey 225 days ago |

Never seen ruby/rails at any company or startup. react seems to be the standard.

AznHisoka 225 days ago | |

React is a frontend tech. Ruby/Rails is more backend oriented. You're comparing apples to mangos

nonconstant 225 days ago | |

Have you used Stripe, Figma, Gusto, Chime, Shopify, Github, Intercom or bolt.new? They all are built with Ruby as a major part of the stack.

justinram11 224 days ago |

As a mostly java dev, I choose Rails 8 w/ Jumpstart Pro [1] for my latest startup and it's been a joy to work with.

There is something about Rails' convention over configuration that plays really well with LLMs, and I love not having to fiddle with _too_ much javascript (it's still tbd whether hotwire and stimulus is actually better than react from my POV).

I've recently started also exploring Hotwire Native to get mobile apps launched and so far have been really impressed that it "mostly just works".

If I'm successful, I'm sure I will get to a scale where I'm wishing for static typing, but so far I've been able to accomplish way more with Rails in the same amount of time than I have in any other stack.

To answer your question, I'm very open to paying for features that I think will save me time (such as JumpStart). From what I've read, however, I think that's a hard road to go down to be frank.

[1] https://jumpstartrails.com/

csomar 225 days ago |

Don’t. Especially if your product requires a complex front-end. It’ll be an unwinnable uphill battle. There is a lot of stuff that is ready made for you in React and you can run a lean GraphQL server to your back-end of choosing.

malyk 225 days ago |

Use rails. it’s still great.

aristofun 225 days ago |

> has seen a decline in popularity ove the years

1. Nonsense 2. Even if true what it has to do with your goals and circumstances? If you’re good at it - you use it, unless shipping actual product asap is not your main priority

PaulHoule 226 days ago |

React

zizee 226 days ago | |

Does React have story for backend? I should have mentioned that my interests lie in building backend/back of house functionality.

PaulHoule 226 days ago | | |

I think more people than you know are using Sinatra-like frameworks on Java or C# because you can get the job done with heavy loads. If you were thinking about building your application around a schema you'd look at GraphQL. If you were going to make the "new Ruby on Rails" it would have to build out the front end and back end based on the schema.