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

[zizee]

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]

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]

Why do you hate ruby and python?

[nonconstant]

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]

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

[sahillavingia]

Yes!

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

[abc03]

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]

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]

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

[AznHisoka]

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

[nonconstant]

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]

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]

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]

Use rails. it’s still great.

[aristofun]

> 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]

React

[zizee]

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