Unlock the Power of Backend Development: Exploring Ruby on Rails Alternatives

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails, commonly referred to as “Rails,” is a model-view-controller (MVC) framework of the Ruby programming language. Its widespread adoption in developing backend applications has made it one of the most popular frameworks for server-side development. The recent 6.0.3.3 update has further enhanced its security features.

Major Companies That Use Ruby on Rails

• GitHub, which runs part of its backend infrastructure on Rails
• Shopify, which relies on Ruby on Rails to power its backend infrastructure, supporting over 500,000 ecommerce stores worldwide

Pros and Cons of Ruby on Rails

While Ruby on Rails offers numerous benefits, such as incredible tooling, a strong community, high security, and code quality, it also has some drawbacks. These include:

• Relatively slow boot speed
• Hard dependency between modules and components
• Reduced popularity over the past decade

11 Ruby on Rails Alternatives to Explore

Sinatra: A Lightweight Alternative

Sinatra is a popular choice for those who want a similar feel to Rails. Leveraging the Rack web server interface, Sinatra provides a domain-specific language (DSL) that matches route requests to corresponding blocks of Ruby code.

require 'sinatra'

get '/hello' do
  'Hello, World!'
end

Laravel: A Well-Documented Framework

Laravel, with over 64,000 stars on GitHub, is one of the most popular frameworks for backend development. Its thorough documentation, Eloquent ORM, and simplicity make it an excellent choice for beginners and experts alike.

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

Route::get('/hello', function (Request $request) {
    return 'Hello, World!';
});

Django: An MVC Framework with Ease of Use

Django is a Python-based MVC framework known for its ease of use and speed. Its large community, thorough documentation, and “batteries-included philosophy” make it a popular choice among developers.

from django.http import HttpResponse

def hello(request):
    return HttpResponse('Hello, World!')

Symfony: A Set of Reusable Components

Symfony is a set of reusable components and utilities that has become the open-source framework of choice for thousands of developers. It uses the Doctrine toolkit as its ORM and is the base framework for other projects like Drupal and Laravel.

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

$response = new Response('Hello, World!');
$response->send();

Express.js: A Flexible Node.js Framework

Express.js is a web framework that helps build apps with Node.js faster and more conveniently. Its un-opinionated approach gives developers the freedom to choose their preferred libraries and project structure.

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/hello', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, World!');
});

Restify: A REST API-First Framework

Restify is an awesome REST API-first framework for Node.js that borrows from Express.js. Its focus on designing and building strict API services makes it a popular choice among top companies like Netflix and Pinterest.

const restify = require('restify');
const server = restify.createServer();

server.get('/hello', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send('Hello, World!');
  next();
});

Flask: A Lightweight WSGI Framework

Flask is a WSGI framework that helps users build web applications using Python. Its lightweight and un-opinionated approach, with over 52,000 stars on GitHub, makes it a popular alternative to Django.

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/hello')
def hello():
    return 'Hello, World!'

Yii: An Object-Oriented PHP Framework

Yii is an object-oriented PHP framework that proves to be fast, elegant, and secure in developing web applications using the MVC pattern. Its component-based architecture and web-based code scaffolding mechanism make it a popular choice among developers.

use yii\web\Application;

class HelloController extends Controller
{
    public function actionHello()
    {
        return 'Hello, World!';
    }
}

Koa: A Smaller and More Expressive Framework

Koa is designed by the team behind Express.js and aims to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Its use of async functions and suite of methods make writing servers simple and enjoyable.

const Koa = require('koa');
const app = new Koa();

app.use(async (ctx) => {
  ctx.body = 'Hello, World!';
});

ASP.NET MVC: An Open-Source Framework from Microsoft

ASP.NET MVC is an open-source framework that combines the best features from ASP.NET with the benefits of the MVC architecture. Its support for many database engines and non-relational stores makes it a wonderful alternative to Ruby on Rails.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;

public class HelloController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult Hello()
    {
        return View();
    }
}

AdonisJs: A Node.js Framework for Simple Backend Development

AdonisJs is a Node.js framework that aims to make backend development simple. Its ORM called Lucid ORM and dependency injection principles make it an excellent choice for developers familiar with Laravel.

const { Router } = require('@adonisjs/router');

Router.get('/hello', () => {
  return 'Hello, World!';
});