JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, Java, C#: these are just some of the languages that saw a wider use than Ruby in 2022. With the ever growing popularity of single page apps, the once prominent language Ruby, and the Rails framework synonymous with it, are dwindling in popularity. As many other languages and frameworks rise in popularity, is it still worth someone’s time to learn Ruby on Rails?

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby is an object-oriented development language. Rails is the framework on which the vast majority of Ruby apps are built. Together, Ruby and Rails (usually referred to as Ruby on Rails or RoR) form a powerful full-stack development framework.

While Ruby on Rails was quite popular in the 2000s and 2010s, its use has been shrinking. StackOverflow’s 2022 developers’ survey reports that only 6.72% of professional developers were working with Ruby last year, compared to 67.9% for JavaScript. Perhaps more notably, only 2.52% of people currently learning to code are Ruby, compared to 59.79% using Javascript and 58.38% using Python.

Going off of those numbers, it’s no stretch to say that Ruby has become a relatively unpopular language, especially amongst those just beginning their coding journeys.

Reasons to learn Ruby on Rails

Only looking at the number of people using Ruby doesn’t paint a complete picture though. Many top tech companies, from AirBnB, Github, and Hulu, all the way to Canada’s largest tech giant Shopify, are built using Ruby on Rails. If so many massive companies are built on Rails, it would stand to reason that knowing the framework is a useful skill. Unless these companies decide to overhaul their entire codebase, employees at these, some of the most powerful tech companies in the world, need to be able to work with Ruby on Rails.

Salary

While the number people using a framework is important, there’s a different number that some developers will find is more important than anything else: their salary. According to ZipRecruiter, the average Javascript developer in the US makes just under $105,000 per year:

Comparatively, the average Ruby on Rails developer is getting paid just under $120,000 per year:

That’s an extra $15,000 paid to the average Rails developer per year, which equals out to 8,928 Twix bars, or about 2 months of Vancouver rent.

But salary shouldn’t be the only, or even main motivating factor behind learning a language. What’s more important is how useful a language is to the person who knows it. So what other advantages does Ruby on Rails provide for its users?

Development Efficiency

Many Ruby on Rails users report that they can turn out apps much quicker using that framework than any other alternative. With the modularity and reusability of code written in Rails, developers don’t have to waste time re-building components from the ground up, and can go from “Hello world” to a full fledged app in a relatively short period of time.

Huge Collection of Gems

Over its almost 20 year period, a massive amount of Ruby Gems have been created to help developers realize their goals with as much ease as possible. Kaminari is a gem that can handle pagination. PaperTrail can help manage version control, letting developers easily view old versions of their app and compare changes. Globalize can add translation to an app, while Pry is a powerful debugging tool with years’ of development from hundreds of contributor s behind it. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s available to Rails developers. RubyGems hosts over 170,000 different gems, which have received over 120 billion downloads.

With a gem collection that size, there’s an almost endless number of plugins that can help get your project off the ground.

Continued Support

The most recent Rails update came on January 25th, 2023 (just 2 days ago at the time of writing). Ruby’s most recent update came on December 25th. Both Ruby and Rails have averaged more than 10 updates a year over the past number of years, and they show no signs of slowing. Although some would claim that Ruby on Rails is fading away, the data shows that it continues to evolve in order to address modern developers’ needs.

Arguments Against Learning Ruby on Rails

Although Ruby is still used and appreciated by many, there are several reasons why some would urge against learning the language and framework.

Dwindling Popularity

This was addressed already, but it deserves its own section. Plainly put, Ruby on Rails is far from being one of the most popular frameworks in web development, and that number isn’t growing. As reported in StackOverflow’s 2022 developers’ survey, Ruby’s popularity is eclipsed by 15 other languages amongst current working developers:

So while Ruby is still utilised by some big names, it’s far from being one of the most in-demand languages out there.

Speed

Ruby consistently lags behind JavaScript in benchmark tests, meaning that it’s not one of the fastest languages out there. In practice, this can mean that a program written in Ruby will likely have slower performance compared a similar program written in JavaScript.

Whether this leads to a noticeable delay in rendering largely depends on the size and complexity of your app, but it’s something worth noting for large-scale apps that are expected to perform at lightning speeds.

Highly Opinionated

Ruby on Rails is an opinionated framework, meaning that it will impose a “right way” of doing things. In many cases this can be useful, as it encourages the developers to follow best practices and write clean code. But this can be limiting if you want to implement a particularly unique or unusual solution within your code.

Should you learn Ruby on Rails in 2023?

Each person will have to decide this for themselves, as there’s no right or wrong answer. Ruby’s can be great for those who want to build an app quickly and utilise Ruby’s massive gems library. However, it’s far being one of today’s most popular frameworks and many people beginning their coding journey might want to use a framework that’s more in-demand.

Either way, one thing’s for sure: learning a new language, no matter what the language, is a useful thing to do. Being exposed to new ideas and processes can help developers shed their implicit biases and assumptions, and make them more flexible and creative, no matter what language they use. While there are pros and cons to using Ruby on a particular project, there are never any cons to learning a language, no matter what it may be.

References:
Why are Top Companies Still Sticking with Ruby on Rails?
Ask HN: Is Ruby on rails worth it to learn in 2022?
Ruby on Rails: Pros & Cons. Things to Consider When Choosing the Technology
Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022
RubyGems Stats
All Versions of Rails
Ruby Releases
Ruby vs JavaScript Benchmarks

Your pros and cons could be broken out into their own paragraph sections, to make each individual point easier to digest. They don't all need headers, just a bit of space in between each point

I like the flow of it. All of your sections lead into each other really well and the tone is nice. Things like "So we should all just work together and never code independently, right? Right?" leading into the pros and cons section make the article flow well but also make it approachable and light