Sometimes it catches me off guard to remember that not everyone I might encounter works with or even knows anything about Ruby on Rails. I’ve had years of front-row experience with Rails that allow me insight into the fulfilling and productive work it enables. When encountering someone without my familiarity with the framework, there’s a question that they’ll no doubt find their way to asking:
Why should someone starting a new application in 2025 reach for Ruby on Rails?
There are honestly so many answers to this question that get me excited about the prospect of starting a new application with my framework of choice.
I could point to the longevity and resilience, exemplified by 20 years experience serving up some of the biggest names in web applications like Instacart, Kickstarter, GitHub, and Shopify.
I could list the thousands of gems in a vibrant open-source ecosystem, ready to meet almost any need, supported by a dedicated community of experienced engineers.
I could share my experiences of the community that is inclusive, welcoming, and springs into action to lift each of us up.
I could navigate to the massive amounts of material on the internet that empower teams to solve difficult problems. Material found in any format desired: video tutorials, newsletters, conference talks, and the 20 years of wisdom and hard-won knowledge offered by this very blog.
I could enumerate the first-party framework support for features like real-time communication, emails, multiple databases, reactive UIs, and even native mobile apps.
But in “unprecedented” times, are those answers satisfactory?
It’s 2025. Budgets are shrinking, hiring is stalled, customers are reluctant to spend money on new products, and there’s more uncertainty in the air than during the final season of LOST.
So why, in this turbulent climate with everything that’s already stretching us to the limits, why truly would someone choose Ruby on Rails?
Because that’s precisely where Rails shines.
Rails’ motto of “convention over configuration” means that smaller teams are more productive, delivering crucial features to users in less time than other frameworks.
Ever since the famous, now retired, “Blog in 15 minutes” introductory pitch for Rails, that ethos of focusing productivity on what makes your business remarkable has been a driving tenet of the framework’s design.
So many of the decisions that most (or all!) web applications solve are taken care of. Hundreds of decisions and implementation details which each take time and effort never make it to your team’s to-do list. That time (and money!) spent deliberating over primary key formats and directory structure is better spent on making your product shine brighter than the competition.
Now Rails 8 introduces new defaults that lower the number of external dependencies, taking away still more expensive decisions, configuration, and infrastructure.
When there aren’t a myriad of custom solutions throughout the codebase, new developers can onboard quickly and will have a shorter on-ramp to productivity (there’s that word again!). This lowers cost of maintenance, makes hiring easier, and reduces the immense costs of staff turnover.
That cloud of uncertainty hanging over our collective heads is tamed by a team wielding Ruby on Rails. An opinionated approach and baked-in first party tooling allows for nimble adaptation to changing plans, pivots, shifting user feedback, and market winds. When a codebase stays close to the opinions of the framework, development is more predictable. The world is too “exciting” right now as it is.
Other frameworks offer freedom of choice for custom, specialized and bespoke decisions… but when those choices don’t drive value for users and potential customers, are they really where we should spend our resources?
Right now, we don’t have time in the schedule, runway in the budget, and limitless supply of development talent. Why would someone choose Rails in 2025? That’s why.