After a little over a year since the release of Rails 5.2, the new Rails 6.0 was released on Aug 16, 2019. It comes with plenty of additional features as well. This is the reason why this dynamic, general-purpose programming framework is still standing a cut above in 2020.

Uku Taht (founder – Plausible) says Ruby on Rails is not a young platform more. It is a stable, reliable, and a great tool that has proven its potential in web development projects.

Unlike many other frameworks, Ruby on Rails is amazingly keeping its pace from the past 15 years and showing no signs to come to a close any soon. Over each release, they are pumping with new codes and fixes. Reportedly, in 2019, Ruby on Rails got 341 contributions from the coders which constitute to improvise this framework to work better.

Likewise, Ruby on Rails got a lot for the web development world, and still, it is growing with active contributions. So, let's check more about Ruby on Rails and what its state is in 2020.

What is Ruby on Rails all about?

Ruby on Rails is a best-known programming framework built on Ruby language. The perfect combination of Ruby (language) and the software library (RubyGem) Rails combine with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to give one of the best and versatile web development frameworks in hand.

This combined framework can be used with a range of operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and databases such as SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.

This server-side open-source application development framework has quite a deep history that starts from Dec 13, 2005. Since then, the impact of Ruby o Rails was incredible all across the web development industry. Ruby on Rails principally works on two design paradigm "Don't Repeat Yourself" and "Convention over Configuration" that made it flexible and faster in the web development world.

However, it had to jump numerous deadly hurdles over its journey, and there was a time where people say Ruby on Rails is dead.
Surprisingly, leaving all the rummers behind Ruby on Rails in still being one of the versatile web development frameworks.

Sean Clancy (SEO Director at Edge) commented that even though few companies like Twitter depart from RoR (Ruby on Rails), it still has such a high profile user base such as Shopify, Github, etc. This implies, it has incredible scope and never going to leave the platform any sooner.

Ruby on Rails in 2020

Ruby on Rails is turning 15 years old this year (2020). Looking back, we can observe a lot of facelifts in Ruby on Rails all across these years. The collective contributions of the RoR community have ultimately helped it to make its way here. Today, we have the latest version of Ruby on Rails 6.0.2.1 in our hands.

As we know, Ruby on Rails is not a standalone programming framework. It is the perfect combination of Ruby and Rails. And Ruby has released its latest version with amazing improvements on Dec 25, 2019.

Both the new release carries a list of new capabilities for its well-wishers such as

Advanced Action Mailbox to route inbound emails to mailboxes for processing in Rails.

• Enhanced Action text to enable using generous text content
to Rails
• New multiple database support API to simplify various
database connections for applications
• Parallel testing support for taking advantage of all cores
of your system for testing.
• New code loader called Zeitwrk Mode to autoloading, eager
loading and reloading easier

In addition to the updates in Rails, Ruby also equipped with new features and performance improvements such as

• An experimental feature called "Pattern Matching" that
assigns the value of an object as it matches a pattern.)
• New interactive environment that supports Multi-line
editing powered by 'reline' compatible library called REPL
(Read- Eval- Print-Loop)
• Compaction GC to defragment and fragmented memory space.

This will mitigate the problem caused by some multi-threaded Ruby programs that cause fragmentation.
The Relevance of Ruby on Rails in 2020

Thomas Stachewicz, CEO of Rebased seconds, the relevance of Ruby on Rails. He states that Ruby on Rails is still the best tool for quick, secure, and high-quality development of web applications for most use cases.

It provides the developers with an additional option to build websites with an in-built security measure that resists attacks such as CSRF, XSS, SQL injections, etc. Plus, security patches will be updated continuously and makes it the safest development framework. Hence, it becomes one of the favorite server-side development platforms for all eCommerce business owners.

Also, though Ruby on Rails diminished its initial popularity and established its position among the matures programming languages, it is still one of the most popular scripts, and Stackoverflow 2019 survey attests it. One of the prominent reasons that keep it on the top is consistent community support.

Almost 3955 GitHub contributors are there to Ruby on Rails source code, and it has been downloaded more than 130 million times, and still, the figures are growing. Also, RoR has climbed up to the 11th position among the top 20 most popular technologies used by the TIOBE index.

All these facts indicate that the relevance of this general-purpose framework s growing ceaselessly over time. Further, the industries that make use of Ruby on Rails is also far and wide. When NASA using it for conduct simulation, Google uses it in their 3D modeling app SketchUp. Likewise, Ruby on Rails is still a favorite web application development framework for diverse sectors.

Why should you use Ruby on Rails in 2020?

As we have discussed the relevance of Ruby on Rails in this time and understood its potential, the reasons for using Ruby on Rails is far and wide. Hundreds and thousands of developers and tech-experts are still attesting Ruby on Rails as one of the most efficient and comprehensive web application development frameworks ever made.

Companies such as Shopify, Airbnb, GitHub are still fascinated by the RoR framework and runs their businesses seamlessly across the world. It is known as an excellent choice for startups to start rolling as soon as possible in the market. Plus, at a fast pace, Ruby on Rails is the better solution to build prototypes.

Especially for applications that are mostly based on server/database, Ruby on Rails is the best option available. Successively, the benefits Ruby on Rails holds for its users are plenty such as

• No hassles of licenses and flash spent since it is an
open-source framework
• No hurdles of longer learning curves. Ruby on Rails is
easy to learn
• Faster development cycle, ruby ob Rails reduces
development time 25-50%
• Friendly with may web application and have additional
benefits for eCommerce applications
• Extensive library with rich tools, functions, elements,
and community support
• Ruby on Rails has a default security feature that
eliminates cyber-security threats
• Ruby on Rails involves test and behavior0driven
development methods that deliver the best quality

Conclusion:

In short, Ruby on Rails is an all-inclusive web development frame with incredible advantages. It is simple, fast, versatile, compatible, and powerful. Moreover, it is expanding its capabilities day by day. However, today, Ruby on Rails has its promising footprints and extended user base built upon its core capabilities.