Ruby on Rails is a framework best known for making web development easy, fast and most importantly, fun. Over the last eight years, Ruby on Rails accounted for over 85% of my billables, and it is fair to say that I am a big fan. Recently I came across a Medium article that claimed: "Rails is dead". It wasn't the first time I came across such a claim, and it won't be the last.

The Arguments

The "Rails is dead" genre of blog posts carry similar points. Instead of wasting my time responding to individual blog posts, I will summarise the issues and explain why it's not the case.

• Difficult to find Rails projects
• One company switching away from Rails

Difficult to find Rails projects

Authors of similar posts complain that it is getting increasingly difficult to find new Ruby on Rails projects. I believe this problem is subjective as I have experienced the opposite. That said, there is some reality to the claim.

Advancing technology continues to simplify life. My mother, now 77, barely could compose a photo from her point and shoot. She now crops and recomposes photos and applies filters. Photo editing was a job for studio professionals back in the day, and today, an old lady with no technical literacy does it just fine. The same is true in web development.

Building websites are getting increasingly simple thanks to services like Squarespace and Wix. I recommend clients who ask me to build a simple webpage try them out first. It will be a little costly, but you get to explore the ideas yourself. While not as complex as these services, I have created Church Foyer, a free church website builder.

Rails never competed for simple websites. It is the Juggernaut that makes the website that makes simple websites.

One company switching away from Rails

Choosing Ruby on Rails for a web development project is a technical decision made after analyzing project requirements. Rails just™️ work 80% of the time. With microservices powered by languages and frameworks for specialized tasks (like Python for machine learning and Node JS for real-time communication), 98% of the projects could benefit from Rails. But there is this 2% that doesn't.

Some projects out of the box fall into this 2%. Some projects evolve to make economic sense to move away from Ruby on Rails to a more efficient platform.

I see such migrations as a positive sign. Rails helped the business grow to the extent it needed a more efficient platform.

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails is a mature framework dating back to 2004. Its latest version, Rails 7, is just around the corner. It comes packed with a lot of developer candy, and the future of Rails couldn't have been better. Rails made web application development easy, and Rails 7 will make it easier.

The Rails community is going strong. Some were concerned when a third of Basecamp (the first Ruby on Rails application) quit, including many prominent engineers involved with Rails development. But companies are like a tree. Trimming makes a tree grow better.

There is also no danger of Rails going dry of projects. I follow UpWork job streams weekly, and I think there is an uptick in Rails projects. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't learn other languages. This year I learnt Swift (and Swift UI), and the year before, I learnt Dart (Flutter). I plan to learn Rust in 2022.

If you are a Ruby developer, don't worry about these blog posts. If it's the first time you read about the death of Rails, mark my word, it won't be last. I see these posts as a desperate means to earn a buck or two through advertisements and pay-wall, attracting viewers.

If you are planning to build a website or API using Ruby on Rails, fear not. RoR is the best option you have today and in the foreseeable future. While other languages and frameworks have advanced quite a bit, they are still catching up. But your choice of a framework should be based on technical requirements. If you are not sure, you can contact me for advice.