Let’s start this post with a bold statement. Ready?
Ruby on Rails is one of the best way for beginners to get their hands dirty with code and build their own beautiful, fully-functioning, full-stack websites as quickly as possible.
Why so bold?
Well, finding ways to fast-track web development students into productive work is rather a hot topic. There are so many different ways to learn to code, and so many different web development languages to choose from, with seemingly everyone having their own opinions as to which is the best, easiest, or fastest to learn.
In this article I’m going to make a comprehensive case to start with the language Ruby on Rails, by answering any and all questions you might have about it. Even in 2025 as its popularity starts to wane, Ruby is still a great way to begin.
If you want to skip ahead to a section, just use the clickable menu:
- Introduction to Ruby on Rails
- What is Ruby on Rails?
- The Ruby on Rails design philosophy
- History of Ruby on Rails
- What is the future of Ruby on Rails?
- Why should I learn Ruby on Rails?
- How to learn Ruby on Rails
- A day in the life of a Ruby on Rails developer
- Routine tasks of a Ruby on Rails developer
- Skills and personality traits of a Ruby on Rails developer
1. Introduction to Ruby on Rails
We’ve found that Ruby on Rails is not only hugely sought-after in the tech industry, it’s a language and framework that’s also very accessible to people of varying skillsets and experience.
Crucially, it can be less off-putting than some other coding languages that demand a great deal of theoretical knowledge before you even write your first line of code.
Mark Lassoff, founder of LearnToProgram Media, puts it this way:
“Ruby on Rails—or more accurately the Ruby language and the Rails framework—provides a complete set of application development tools. The benefit is that much of the heavy lifting of web application development is done for you. Ruby programmers tend to be very satisfied with the language, syntax and related suite of tools.”
That’s the great thing about Ruby on Rails: it’s designed to get you building faster, so you can see the results of your hard work much more quickly. Before long you’ll be doing the thing you always wanted to be doing: building great websites. It’s also hugely in demand, and looks to be staying that way for the foreseeable future.
So why are we writing this post? As experts in this area, we get asked the same question from people the world over: “Should I learn Ruby on Rails?”
In this post we aim to answer that question, so that by the end you’ll not only know if this is the right course of learning for you, but also if it is, exactly how and where to learn it to launch a successful web development career.
So let’s get started with: What exactly is it?
2. What is Ruby on Rails?
Put simply, Ruby is a programming language, while Ruby on Rails is a framework that is built in Ruby. In developer circles “Ruby on Rails” is usually just referred to as “Rails”.
Essentially, it aims to simplify the creation of web applications. It does so by creating default structures for your code, your application’s database and the web pages your application will serve up to the client. Seeing as Ruby on Rails runs on a web server and serves up information to client programs (web browsers), it’s said to be a server-side or backend application.
David Heinemeier Hanson, the creator of the Ruby on Rails framework, said in an interview on the “This Developer’s Life” podcast that he chose Ruby as the programming language because it was concise, easy to use and supported high-level software engineering patterns he needed, unlike PHP, which he had experimented with.
Ikea shelf analogy
An easy way to think of the difference between Ruby and Ruby on Rails is to imagine building a bookshelf.
Ruby can be represented by somebody chopping down the trees, sawing the wood, carving the shelves and hammering in the nails or screwing in the screws.
Rails can be represented by an Ikea flat-pack bookshelf—all of the parts have been made, it is simply your job to assemble them correctly.
Ruby On Rails is an MVC framework
The MVC, or model-view-controller, framework is an architectural pattern used to create web and desktop applications.
Many other web frameworks use this pattern, such as AngularJS (JavaScript), Django (Python) and CakePHP (PHP). It structures code by separating the logic of the application into three interconnected parts.
The Model represents the logic of the application, the data objects, and high-level classes associated with them. The View is essentially the visual representation of the data (the template files, in other words).
Lastly, the Controller is the piece which connects the other two, responding to user input and gathering data from the Model to render in the View.
This pattern cleans up the application logic and makes Ruby on Rails applications very flexible.
3. The Ruby on Rails design philosophy
The design philosophy of this language is centered on certain key principles, as outlined in its Rails Doctrine, most notably:
- The Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle
- Convention over configuration
The DRY principle is a concept used everywhere in software development. It encourages programmers to reduce repetition in their code base and isolate functionality in small, easier to maintain functions or files.
This makes code modular, easier to understand, maintain, and debug. Ruby on Rails has taken advantage of one of Ruby’s features, called metaprogramming, in an effort to keep its code DRY.
The “convention over configuration” principle is at the center of how Ruby on Rails evolves over time. The term was introduced by David Heinemeier Hanson in an effort to explain the design philosophy he had chosen when developing Ruby on Rails while working at Basecamp.
“Convention over configuration” is a practice utilized by frameworks where they set “sensible defaults” rather than allowing developers complete control, thus freeing programmers from having to make certain decisions, allowing them to concentrate on building the application.
The most common example of “sensible defaults” is the naming conventions established in Ruby on Rails. Models are always named the singular proper noun of the object they represent, and corresponding database tables take the plural form. For example, if you have an object in your model named Product, the table in the database will automatically be named “products”.
This means programmers don’t have to think about such matters and they don’t have to spend a lot of time setting up configuration files just to get off the ground.
However, Ruby on Rails allows programmers to override these conventions where necessary to remain flexible. Programmers are then only responsible for the configurations that differ from Ruby on Rails’s conventions.
4. History of Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails was created by David Heinemeier Hanson, who extracted it from his work at Basecamp.
It was open sourced in 2004 and has kept growing and evolving ever since. Its core developer team now counts 11 members along with of hundreds of open source contributors. As it celebrates its latest version release 6.1.3.2, Ruby on Rails stands out as a long-standing web framework used by thousands of developers the world over.
5. What is the future of Ruby on Rails?
There have been murmurings for a while now claiming that the Ruby on Rails framework is losing its popularity and relevance. It’s slipping down the PYPL language popularity index, and only used by around 6% of coders surveyed in the 2023 Stack OverFlow Survey.
There are multiple reasons for this, but the loudest complaints are that it’s not modern enough and that it doesn’t offer the features developers really need in the current climate.
Whichever way you look at it, things at Ruby on Rails are moving fast with many changes and developments ahead. Due to the very heavy involvement of the Ruby on Rails community and its open source nature, there’s no way that anyone using this programming framework will be left in the dark.
As the generative AI hype wave swept through web development in 2023, leaving many developers and software engineers what the future of their jobs will be like, Ruby’s adaptability is helping it stay relevant. There are various ways Ruby on Rails works with AI and machine learning, from API integration to task automation. If you’re learning Ruby in 2025, you should definitely make sure that you involve AI in your learning.
6. Why should I learn Ruby on Rails?
So now that you know what Ruby on Rails is, you probably have a whole host of other questions.
The big one is of course why.
Why should you learn Ruby on Rails? What are the advantages of learning Ruby on Rails over all the other programming languages out there? Will Ruby on Rails on its own be enough to build a career? Is it future-proof? How much previous experience do you need to learn it? What kind of company can you work in once you have these skills? And is it applicable to all web development jobs, or just a select few?
When you’re just beginning your research into a potential web development career, it can be hard to differentiate between the good advice and the bad, the expert and the amateur. In this section we want to clear things up a bit.
Over the course of the next few paragraphs we’ll be outlining why Ruby on Rails is a great first programming language to learn.
We’ll also look at the kinds of companies you can expect to land a job in with these skills, the stability of the industry and this career choice, and finally highlighting some of the most successful companies out there using Ruby on Rails to create engaging, high-functioning and creative websites.
Firstly, why is it so good for beginners?
A buzzing community
Ruby on Rails has developed a thriving online community of developers, both advanced and not-so-advanced, which is very welcoming to beginners.
This means that there is always a group of people to ask for help if you get stuck, or to help you find shortcuts to solutions.
For a beginner, this community provides general technical support, as well as reassurance that you’re not alone when you get stuck. This active community of developers are more than willing to help you with any issues that you may encounter.
If you’re looking for offline contact, you’ll find a large number of Ruby on Rails meetups and hackathons in cities worldwide. If you want to learn more about this, we have a full guide to what a hackathon is.
Mattan Griffel discusses the value of the Ruby on Rails community in his post “10 Reasons Beginners Should Learn Ruby on Rails”. He writes:
“On top of being a thriving community, for some reason Ruby on Rails and Ruby developers are among the friendliest out there (this is purely anecdotal, I have no evidence for this). I suspect this has to do with how new the framework is, and so almost everyone remembers what it was like to be a beginner.”
Apply what you’ve learned really quickly
Unlike Ruby, Rails is basically a collection of shortcuts written in Ruby which allows you to build web applications—basically websites—really quickly.
Because of this you’ll have a site you can use and share within a much shorter timeframe than if you built it all from scratch. The feeling of achievement is therefore a lot greater, you’ll encounter less frustration and you’ll quickly be able to see the results of all your hard work.
Web developer Michael Healy puts it this way:
“Ruby on Rails allows you to build powerful applications, which used to take weeks or months (to build), in just a couple days. It has made it significantly easier to get started in coding, and made it fun and enjoyable.”
Ruby on rails covers front- and backend
This language is pretty unique in that it covers both the front- and backend, meaning that as a Ruby on Rails developer you can describe yourself as truly full stack.
As a full-stack developer you can literally build an entire website without having to outsource to other developers or rely on other members of your team, which is a huge asset at a startup or as an entrepreneur.
This also means that you’ll get a chance to learn some other languages, for example HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and Ruby along the way. With other programming languages you would not usually get this opportunity.
The many Ruby on Rails job opportunities
Finding proficient Ruby on Rails developers is still not an easy task, with many unfilled developer jobs out there for the taking.
Don’t believe us? Why don’t you learn from our own graduates!
Former dancer-turned-Rails dev Kazia has an inspiring story about how she was able to study our Web Development Program with no prior experience, while raising her young daughter at the same time. After graduating, she got a job in a startup in Warsaw, Poland. Now she gets to enjoy the benefits of remote work, as well as the job progression and opportunities that Ruby on Rails offers.
With many buzzing startups using Ruby on Rails to build their sites, Rails developers are in massively high demand from both more established startups, as well as newer ones on the scene hoping to recreate the success of their peers.
Below is a list of just a few well-known startups built in Ruby on Rails:
Basecamp, Bleacher Report, Scribd, Groupon, Gumroad, Hulu, Kickstarter, Pitchfork, Sendgrid, Soundcloud, Square, Yammer, Crunchbase, Slideshare, Zendesk, GitHub, Shopify
Why do startups want their sites built in Ruby? Because, as we mentioned before, it’s full stack, so one developer can do both the front- and backend programming.
At a startup, the more skillsets you have, the more valuable you are to the company. An additional advantage for startups is that by building their site using Ruby on Rails they can get an MVP up and running very quickly.
Michale at Rails Tutorial discusses the value of having Ruby on Rails developers at both startups and larger companies alike:
“Ruby on Rails is one of the most powerful and popular web development frameworks available, used by sites like Twitter, GitHub, Airbnb, and Hulu.
Learning Ruby on Rails will give you the tools you need to make your own web applications, while also putting you in a good position to work for a web development consultancy, startup, or other tech company.”
Ruby on Rails is beginner-friendly
Ruby on Rails applications are largely written in Ruby, but despite that, there are numerous features that make it particularly straightforward for beginners to learn.
Rob Dey of Coder Manual tells us:
“Learning to code can be hard, but Ruby developers benefit from a clean, beautiful syntax, a strong ecosystem of plugins (gems), and quickness to launch their products.”
Here are just a few examples of why Ruby on Rails is a good programming language for you to start with :
- Unlike Javascript and many other languages, you don’t need to remember to end your lines with a semicolon (;)
- Unlike Python and some other languages, whitespaces and indenting don’t matter. A lot of the time, you can leave out things like parenthesis () and curly brackets {} and your code will still work.
- Perhaps most significantly, Ruby is very readable as it uses plain English. This makes it a lot less intimidating when you’re approaching code for the first time.
Adam Fortuna, developer at Code School summed up the benefits of Ruby on Rails nicely for us:
“There is no other toolkit that offers the productivity, developer community and flexibility of Ruby on Rails. That was one of the biggest draws to it for me — being able to very quickly turn my ideas into reality, to see if they would work and figure out where to go next.”
In case you haven’t worked it out by now, Ruby is a great technology for junior developers to create impressive things quickly.
All you need to do is check out software engineer portfolios such as CareerFoundry graduate Matthew Primpas’s e-commerce project MARS. Combined with other beginner-friendly languages HTML/CSS and JavaScript, the result is a slick representation of an upscale menswear retailer website.
7. How to learn Ruby on Rails
Okay, so we’ve established that Ruby on Rails is a great first language to learn as a beginner in code. The next question we tend to get asked is, how do you learn it?
In this section we’ll be looking at all the different ways you can get to grips with Ruby on Rails and the pros and cons of all the different ways of learning, from online to offline, free to paid.
Free Resources
If you’re a complete beginner to coding and web development in general, then it’s only natural that you’ll want to try out some coding online before diving into a full time course.
Fortunately for you there’s been an explosion of websites offering completely free “in-browser” opportunities for you to try out Ruby on Rails without you even having to download any software.
Here is list of some free online courses we would highly recommend you try out before taking the plunge with a more formalized method of learning:
Pros:
- It’s a great way to see if coding in Rails is something you might enjoy, as either a hobby or a career. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s probably a big sign that you won’t want to take it any further. Much better to find that out now, before you spend any money on it!
- You can do it at your own pace, in your own time. No turning up to a school or university class. You can study when it’s convenient for you and set your own personal goals.
- It won’t cost you a penny, and you’re not committed to a program of learning.
Cons:
- Although free online exercises are a great introduction to the skills you might need to launch a career in web development, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to acquire all the necessary skills you’ll need to feel confident in applying for jobs as a junior web developer.
- You’re on your own. Unlike more formalized kinds of learning, with a free online class or video tutorial you won’t be supported through your learning by a teacher or mentor. You’ll need to make yourself accountable to yourself, and be responsible for your own success.
Imran Ghani of Web Development Help offers his tops tip to beginners starting out in code:
” Wanna learn Ruby? Start implementing a very basic example using an online tutorial. Enjoyed? Take a good online course in Ruby on Rails to get in-depth knowledge. Remember, practice makes perfect!”
Online Coding Schools
Once you’ve had the chance to try out some coding using one of the free options above, you’ll have a good idea of whether you’re ready to make the leap into a more structured learning environment.
There are a number of online schools who offer this. The price of these courses ranges significantly so take a look at our list of online coding schools for an idea of what’s available to you if you’re ready to fully commit to an online program of learning and begin your career in Ruby on Rails.
Pros:
- You can work anywhere, anytime. The huge advantage to online learning is that you don’t need to visit a classroom every day in order to take your classes! You can work on a beach, in a restaurant, in bed or on the train as long as you have a decent laptop and internet connection. This means that if you live in a small town which does not have a great university or evening classes available, your learning is not limited; you can get world class teaching at the click of a button.
- You’re not alone. Many paid, online courses offer expert mentors or teachers to guide you through your coursework. With these professionals on hand to answer your questions, you’ll feel more motivated, supported and ultimately you’re much more likely to succeed.
- Community. Structured online courses often include student communities that can further support and encourage you in your learning. You may also find peers with whom you can work on projects or collaborate with.
- Higher chance of success. Unlike learning online through multiple channels, with a structured course it is in the interest of the provider of that course for you to succeed. With that in mind, they will work hard to make sure you complete your exercises, finish your coursework and start getting work experience upon course completion—they are vying for your success.
- Cost. Although still a financial commitment, an online course can be a much more cost-effective way of learning about web development than an offline or university course.You will also save money on transport costs, as you can work entirely from home and not have to travel into a physical location every day.
Cons:
- It’s a commitment. Not only is a paid online course a financial commitment, it’s a commitment of time and energy. Many online courses demand a certain number of hours from you per day in order for you to succeed within your desired timeframe. This can mean less time for other commitments like friends or family, or even working reduced hours in order to meet that commitment. Those who are unprepared for this can end up falling behind pretty quickly.
- You’re still physically alone. Despite the efforts of online courses to create great online communities, and include as much mentor interaction with students as possible, if you’re the sort of person who likes interacting with people in person and face-to-face, you might struggle with the physical isolation of an online course.
Offline Coding Courses
You may be learning how to build websites, but there are many offline opportunities to learn Ruby on Rails, depending on your location and what’s available in your local area.
Take a look at the list of offline schools currently teaching web development, including courses in Ruby on Rails.
Pros:
- You’ll have human interaction! You’ll be surrounded not only be other learners like yourself to encourage and support you, but you’ll also have a teacher with whom you can directly question about any element of the course you might be stuck on.
Cons:
- Cost. It can be significantly more expensive taking on an offline web development course than a similar version that is online.
- No one-on-one attention. Unlike an online course where you often get your mentor’s undivided attention and feedback as you progress through your course materials, with an offline course your teacher will be dealing with 30 other students, their questions, queries and personal obstacles. This can often mean you have to wait your turn before getting an answer to your question, which can in turn hold up your overall learning.
- Location-specific. The obvious downside to offline learning is that it very much depends on what is available in your local area. If you are in the middle of nowhere, you may have to travel a long way to your nearest class, or simply not have one available at all. Inhabitants of major cities will obviously have the most choice, while those in small towns will simply have to make the best of what they’ve got.
- Time-specific. Unlike online learning, which you can fit around your own schedule and commitments, offline learning will usually be at a fixed time which accommodates an entire class. If you work long hours, or nights, it can be very difficult finding a web development course that is available when you are available to take it.
8. A day in the life of a Ruby on Rails developer
Ever wondered what your life would look like if you were working as a Rails developer?
In this section we’d like to give you a glimpse into what it’s really like working in code, from fixing bugs to working within the wider team.
Working in your dev team
As a web developer you have to get used to working with other developers on a daily basis.
Depending on the size of the company, the amount of responsibility you’ll be given could vary dramatically. At an early-stage startup you might be in charge of everything, in which case you’ll be working by yourself, but in a larger company you will likely be given a section of the site that you are responsible for maintaining and/or improving, while other developers are given their own areas of responsibility.
Every developer has their own coding style, however most companies have a coding style guide which all developers use in order to keep the overall code maintainable and readable.
Having everybody on the same page in terms of coding style ensures the transition of projects from one team member to another is smooth.
Working within the wider team
At a medium to large company you’ll likely have the chance to work with other team members, from designers through to copywriters and content managers.
Here is a handful of roles you can expect to work with as a Ruby on Rails web developer.
UI and UX designers
The UX designer will walk you through the design of the site and provide you with page mockups, prototypes or wireframes to work from which determine the site navigation and user flow so that the user has the best experience possible on the site and is easily able to reach their goal.
The UI designer will work on the page icons and colors to ensure the user has a positive experience on each individual page and can always find what they are looking for exactly where they are expecting to find it. As the developer, you will then be able to work directly from these designs to build the final product.
Project managers
Your project manager will work with the team to prioritize tasks and determine project timelines. With their input and guidance you’ll be better able to manage your workload and capacity, focusing on the most important jobs at hand.
Many developers, including those at CareerFoundry, embrace Agile, a project management system which takes into account each individual task, each team member’s capacity and the value of each task.
It’s very popular in development circles as it helps teams break down each large project into smaller tasks to realistically calculate how much can be accomplished within a given “sprint” (a sprint is a time-period of usually 2 weeks).
You can learn more about what their job entails in our full guide to what a product manager does.
Copywriters
As a web developer you’ll require content from in-house or external copywriters to populate your web pages.
Although the messaging itself will be directed by the UX team, you will also be communicating with the content team to give details on word count, headers and subheaders so that the text provided fits into the allocated space you have built into the web page.
9. Routine tasks of a Ruby on Rails developer
Once you’ve learned Rails and launched a career in web development, irrespective of where you might be working you’ll probably find you’ll be asked to complete a number of similar tasks on a regular basis.
To give you an idea of what these more ‘routine tasks’ might be, here’s a list of a few of them:
- Fixing bugs that occur on the web application (these could be frontend or backend bugs)
- Implementing new features / writing tests
- Testing what you’ve implemented
- Researching new technologies which could benefit the company’s stack / workflow
- Drinking coffee (or tea if you prefer)
10. Skills and personality traits of a Ruby on Rails developer
By now you should have a fairly good idea of what it means to be a Rails developer, and how best to learn the language itself. But is this job the right one for you?
We asked our developers here at CareerFoundry to put together a list of their top three personality traits they believe best suits a career in web development, and these are the ones they came up with.
Patience
Web development can certainly have its frustrations. If you have a short attention span, or get frustrated very easily, this might not be the career for you.
Patience as a developer is key to success as well as a deep-rooted desire to solve problems, however long it may take.
Eagerness to learn
With such a huge community around Ruby on Rails things are evolving at pretty speedy rate. There are always new aspects to learn, and you’ll find opportunities popping up all the time for you to build on your current skillset.
A strong passion for what you’re doing, and an inherent desire to keep on learning are what will make the difference between you being an average developer and a great one.
Great team player
Web development is a team sport, despite its somewhat solitary reputation.
You’ll need to be a great communicator and a generous worker to succeed in this environment as your team will be relying on you to keep up your end of the work to get the job done. And it’s not just other developers you’ll be working with.
As we saw earlier you’ll be working directly with designers, project managers and copywriters as well as many other members of your company to ensure the finished product comes up to standard, so if you don’t enjoy conversing with people or communicating in general, think carefully before diving into a web development career.
Next steps
OK, so now that you have a good idea of what life as a web developer would be like, and you’re still interested in pursuing it as a career, what are your next steps?
Sushant Das of Eduonix gives this advice to beginners:
“The best way to learn Ruby on Rails is to start building an app with it. True learning happens only when you step into the unknown and find your way back home. Real life skills are built when you are able to see the bigger picture where diverse parts of technology converge to make something grand and beautiful.”
Codecademy / TryRuby
If you’ve never touched the Ruby programming language before, Codecadamy’s Ruby Course as well as Codeschool’s TryRuby are perfect destinations to start your journey.
TryRuby’s beautifully designed, interactive course gives you a very quick introduction (15-30 minutes) into basic Ruby. The course begins by telling you more about numbers, strings, properties and methods before playfully guiding you to build your own methods and libraries. This course will show you how to use Ruby within your HTML code in six levels.
Codecadamy’s Ruby course digs a bit deeper and lets you use your newly learned skills to solve little projects, such as creating your own histogram or a little program for rating a movie. In the end you’ll dive a bit more into Object Oriented Programming and even build your own virtual computer.
Building your network
One important aspect of being a developer is to join and contribute to your developer community.
Participating in open source projects or helping out non-profit organizations with your newly developed skills won’t only make great projects for your web development portfolio website, but also help you to meet many other like-minded developers.
Additionally you should keep an eye out for local meetups. In many major cities worldwide you can find regular meetups for those in your field where you can talk about your projects and get help if you need it.
You’ll also be able to find out about the newest trends in programming and, most importantly, have the chance to speak to and get to know other developers. Meetups, especially when hosted by a bigger tech company, can also be a great opportunity to find out about hiring opportunities.
Landon Schropp, author of Unraveling Flexbox, offers this advice when you’re starting out:
“The best thing you can do to learn Ruby on Rails is get to know other, more experienced developers. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend visiting a local Ruby on Rails meetup group and saying hello!”
So, hopefully this guide was complete enough in terms of introducing you to all things Ruby on Rails, from what it actually is, all the way to what to expect in your day-to-day job as a developer.
If you’re interested in more articles related to coding in general, then have a look of these: