When building a budget management app (or any app that deals with user data), securing user authentication is essential. In this post, I’ll walk through setting up user authentication using either Devise or JWT. Both approaches have their strengths depending on your project requirements. Let’s dive into how to set them up and what makes each method unique.

Why Authentication is Important?
Authentication is the foundation of security in any application. It allows users to securely access their data while keeping unauthorized users out. In my budget management app, authentication will enable features like creating budgets, tracking transactions, and setting financial goals, all tied to a specific user.

Choosing Between Devise and JWT

• Devise: Devise is a Rails gem that handles authentication with ease. It provides a full suite of features out of the box, including user registration, login, logout, and password recovery.
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens): For APIs, JWT offers a lightweight, token-based solution that is more flexible and suitable for stateless applications. JWT is especially useful when building mobile apps or single-page applications (SPAs) with React.

I have decided to use JWT for user authentication and here's the link to the specific branch implementing this feature- Set Up Rails API with Authentication

If you like to know how to implement Devise for user authentication, here's the link- Devise

What’s Next?
With user authentication in place, the next steps include setting up validations and integrating other key features for the app. I’ll cover those in upcoming posts as I continue to build out the budget management system. Stay tuned!