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Returning to Rails in 2026

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Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#111

Post by pqdbr »

neomindryan wrote: post #104

We've been running Rails apps in production continuously since 2007. If you treat software as anything other than completely disposable, it's been a no-brainer for the entire 19+ years I've been paying attention (not despite its age, but because of it). The premise that you get meaningful efficiencies from JavaScript on the back-end just because you have to use it on the front-end has been pretty thoroughly debunked…

We've also been running Rails in production for 15+ years (since 2011) in two companies and it has been serving us greatly. Hiring is tough, but I definitely believe the stack makes up for it due to the productivity gains.

In late 2025 we decided to migrate one of them to Inertia. Public facing pages is already done, and we're 80% through migrating the logged in area (it's a huge app). We choose Vue.js.

It's amazing how powerful this stack is and how little you have to change in the backend.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#112

Post by chrisweekly »

mergeshield wrote: post #78

[flagged]

Switching from Next's pages router to app router (RSCs by default) is a major shift in architecture, practically replatforming. Not to be taken lightly (and an opportune time to consider less-opinionated modern alternatives, like TanStack Start).

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#113

Post by chrisweekly »

shanjai_raj7 wrote: post #79

we run next.js on the frontend and the page router to app router migration was really painful. rails having stable conventions sounds very good when you go through something like that. I keep thinking about this trade off - move fast with the latest thing or just pick boring tech that works for 5 years.

nextjs pages -> app router is a massive change: new paradigm, practically replatforming.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#115

Post by kshahkshah »

sensanaty wrote: post #110

I love Rails, but after working for a few places with huge Rails codebases and then several other places with .NET and other frameworks with actual typing, I just can't go back to Rails for anything that isn't a personal project. Working with a large codebase with an untyped codebase is just a nightmare, even with powerful IDEs like RubyMine that are able to cover some of the paint points. I wonder how good Sorbet is…

Are you hand coding?

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#116

Post by draw_down »

sensanaty wrote: post #110

I love Rails, but after working for a few places with huge Rails codebases and then several other places with .NET and other frameworks with actual typing, I just can't go back to Rails for anything that isn't a personal project. Working with a large codebase with an untyped codebase is just a nightmare, even with powerful IDEs like RubyMine that are able to cover some of the paint points. I wonder how good Sorbet is…

I’ve worked in two places now with Ruby Sorbet servers. Ruby always drives me nuts how things are just in-scope and we don’t know why or where they came from.

I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to working in dynamic languages without typing on top. That takes too much brain power, I’m too old for that now.

I would say Sorbet seems more “basic” than something like Typescript. It handles function calls matching signatures, potential nulls, making sure properties actually exist, that kind of thing. Whereas TS can get quite abstract, and at times you’re fighting to convince it that a value actually is the type you say it is.

TS is very powerful and expressive, to the point that it’s possible to do computation within type code. I’m not convinced I always need that power, or that it’s always more help than hindrance.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#117

Post by kshahkshah »

f311a wrote: post #37

I love the batteries that RoR or Django gives you, but then I also remember how much time it takes to maintain old projects. Updating a project that was started 5-6 years ago takes a lot of time. Part of that is managing dependencies. For Django, they can easily go above 100. Some of them have to be compiled with specific versions of system libraries. Even Docker does not save you from a lot of problems. Right now, I…

Complete opposite of my experience

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#118

Post by sodapopcan »

pqdbr wrote: post #111
neomindryan wrote: post #104

We've been running Rails apps in production continuously since 2007. If you treat software as anything other than completely disposable, it's been a no-brainer for the entire 19+ years I've been paying attention (not despite its age, but because of it). The premise that you get meaningful efficiencies from JavaScript on the back-end just because you have to use it on the front-end has been pretty thoroughly debunked…

We've also been running Rails in production for 15+ years (since 2011) in two companies and it has been serving us greatly. Hiring is tough, but I definitely believe the stack makes up for it due to the productivity gains. In late 2025 we decided to migrate one of them to Inertia. Public facing pages is already done, and we're 80% through migrating the logged in area (it's a huge app). We choose Vue.js. It's amazing…

I'm surprised hiring is tough. The job market is such trash rn and I feel there are a lot of Rubyists, or ex-Rubists interested in returning to it, around. Maybe not? (Edit: spelling)

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#119

Post by gedy »

marceldegraaf wrote: post #73
licorices wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the guy, but I used rails at my old job for one and a half year, and used it in some personal projects. I looked into Elixir(and Phoenix) during this time, and Phoenix felt like it was designed for more modern websites, where RoR is built for older and tries to adapt to handle modern ones. It just feels that when you want to do something more responsive in Elixir, it's designed for it, but in Rails, it feels like…

Counterpoint on the "going all-in": we have a 7 year old Elixir/Phoenix project that currently sits at ~100K LOC and I couldn't be happier. It has been absolutely wonderful building this with Elixir/Phoenix. Obviously any codebase in any language can become a tangled mess, but in 7 years we have never felt the language or framework were in our way. On the contrary: I think Elixir (and Phoenix) have enabled us to buil…

I think the OP's point was the job market. I.e. you probably aren't hiring for that role.

Re: Returning to Rails in 2026

#120

Post by trusche »

misiek08 wrote: post #36

Thanks for such public confirming there is a lot of more us. I’m just tired hearing how great ideas will save our overblown pseudo-microservice architecture and I’m also running into some projects during evening that just solve problems without use STOA, unnecessary solutions and architectures. I’m not into RoR, because I was mainly PHP rescuer in the beginning of my career, but they both are just problem solvers. Si…

FTA:

> There’s just this minimal translation required between what I’m thinking and what I type

That's really the essence of Ruby for me.

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