Would You Still Choose Ruby on Rails for a Startup in 2025?

The conversation started with Person 1 advocating for using "boring technology" like Ruby on Rails. They emphasized the importance of using battle-tested and reliable technology, especially when trying to solve a business problem. Person 1 noted that Rails provides an opinionated way to structure your codebase, as well as many existing modules that just work.

Person 2, the CTO of RideWithGPS, shared their own experience with Rails, highlighting its ease of use and high productivity. They've been running an 18-year-old Rails monolith, and it's still going strong. Despite its age, the application is still easy to maintain and performant.

Person 3 echoed Person 1's sentiment, praising Rails for its velocity and ease of use. As a solo founder, Person 3 found that Rails allowed them to ship features and fixes quickly, without having to write a lot of code.

Person 4 suggested that while Rails is great, it's essential to choose a framework that the team is familiar with. They shared their own experience with Django and HTMX.

Person 5, the CTO of OpsLevel, shared their own experience with Rails monoliths, highlighting its strong, opinionated defaults for building web applications. They noted that Rails handles HTTP request routing, data marshalling, SQL interactions, authentication/authorization, database migrations, job processing, and more.

Person 6 noted that while Rails may be slower than other frameworks like Go, its development speed and ease of use make up for it. They also pointed out that Ruby is finally gaining momentum, with improvements like YJIT.

Person 7 emphasized the importance of choosing a framework that matches what the startup is trying to do. Person 8 recommended giving Rails a try, citing its high productivity.

Person 9 cautioned against choosing a technology that's on its way out of the zeitgeist. However, they noted that Rails is having a bit of a renaissance.

Person 10 concluded the conversation by emphasizing the importance of choosing a technology that you or your team works well with.

Here's a question: If you all are so smart, and have spent years mastering the intricacies of Ruby on Rails, then why are you still debating the merits of a 20-year-old technology on the internet?