Discover the Best Ruby Frameworks for 2021 (4 Great Options!)

Main features

Ruby on Rails has everything included to build a fully working web application without installing external libraries:

• Database support - it’s very easy to use any database engine, manage the database structure, and manipulate the data inside the database’s tables by using special classes called models
• WebSockets - thanks to the ActionCable, you can easily use WebSockets in your application to create real-time features that users will love
• Frontend friendly architecture - with Rails, you can use any frontend framework to build a modern web application that provides an interactive and friendly interface for users
• API version - you can create a lightweight API application without modules and code used for web applications, and it does not require much configuration

Example applications

Rails is used everywhere, and it means that applications built with this framework are used in e-commerce, banking, social networking, and many more sectors. Choose Rails if you would like to create the following applications:

• E-commerce platform - serve many users and accept thousands of orders without issues on the performance and practical side. The Shopify platform is the best example of the framework’s usage in that area.
• Fintech applications - built-in support for features protecting against common security threats and detailed logging solutions makes the framework the perfect choice for building applications for the banking industry.
• Social networks - the ecosystem of libraries that can be used with Rails is vibrant and valuable, which makes the creation of services focused on social life quite simple and effective.
• CRM systems - Rails makes it easy to deal with an extensive set of data thanks to the ActiveRecord library that provides a simple and intuitive interface to manage databases.

Main features

The set of features that the framework provides make it an excellent alternative to Rails:

• Good optimization - the source code and architecture was designed to assure fast response times measured in milliseconds.
• Lightweight components - the framework provides over 100 useful features for the more immediate building of applications but does not consume more memory simultaneously. You don’t have to choose between good performance and rapid development time.
• Built-in security mechanisms - applications created with Hanami rely on the latest browser technologies and have built-in features for protecting an application’s users against the most common security threats.
• Generators - with the command line features, you can quickly generate standard code for requests, database migrations, and mailers.

Example applications

With Hanami, you can build any web application that can be made using Ruby. The following types of architectures can be easily created:

• Fast API applications - Hanami provides a separate library for building API applications, and its solution is the quickest solution among available Ruby frameworks.
• Rich web applications - assets, mailers, validators, and models built-in support makes it easy to develop rich web applications that provide a set of useful features for end-users.

Main features

The source code of Sinatra consists of 2008 lines, a tiny number of code lines for a useful library. However, it’s not an obstacle for this framework to provide a set of features:

• Rich templating system - it is possible to use a variety of template languages including HAML, erb, Nokogiri, SASS, LESS, and many more.
• Helper methods - the code can be refactored and organized into helpers available in both routes definitions and templates code.
• Support for static files - stylesheets, images, and javascript files can be included in the application without exposing them to public access.
• Request manipulation toolkit - the framework provides a code for easy caching, redirections, and session management

Example applications

You can use Sinatra as an alternative for Hanami and Rails frameworks. The framework allows for the rapid development of the following types of applications:

• Simple websites - thanks to the flexible templating settings and rich routing DSL, you can quickly build a simple website that serves content with HTML code and CSS styles.
• Web applications - you can create more complex applications that connect to databases and interact with users without losing performance.
• API application - easy DSL and transparent routing make the API applications creation process more comfortable than ever. Thanks to the lightweight codebase of the framework, systems built with Sinatra are high-speed and reliable.

Main features

Grape is a little tool, but it’s an excellent solution for building APIs and using the existing application built with a different framework. The most interesting and useful features include:

• Easy integration - you can easily mount a Grape application into the application built with Rails or any other built on top of the Rack.
• Simple versioning - by passing a version number as a parameter, header, or part of the path, you can easily choose which version of the API you would like to use.
• Extendability - the framework has built-in support for authentication, different API formats, and allows the mounting of middleware.
• Validation support - the framework provides validation of parameters in over ten supported types.

Example applications

These days, API applications are an essential part of almost every web application. They provide a programmatic way of exchanging and reading data through a client’s web application written in a different technology.

With Grape, you can build the following applications:

• Standalone API application - expose API endpoints and connect to the database without any other web framework.
• API application as a part of the existing application - you can mount a Grape application into an existing and already working web application to extend its functionality.