Ruby on Rails provides developers with an excellent ecosystem for developing high-performing web applications. It’s reliable, fast, and supported by a huge community of talented Ruby on Rails developers.
Many brands have leveraged this technology in most of their web development projects providing clients with the best solutions on the market.
Companies like SlideShare, Airbnb, CrunchBase, Bloomberg, Dribble, Shopify, and GitHub (to name a few) have trusted Ruby on Rails and used the framework in their applications.
Here’s a roundup of the top 28 Ruby on Rails companies in 2023.
What is Ruby on Rails Used For?
Ruby on Rails is a multi-purpose technology utilized in projects from different industries to create various types of applications.
Developers use the web framework to create a web application very quickly. And it isn’t just fast; Ruby on Rails simplifies the development process and enables companies using it to scale their project and integrate new features effortlessly.
Programming languages like JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and SQL do not contain both front-end and back-end. Conversely, the Ruby on Rails framework comprises both, allowing developers to build web applications more efficiently.
Projects that use Ruby on Rails typically include the following:
- E-commerce websites
- Single-page applications
- Dynamic websites
- Web applications
Employing a Ruby on Rails expert gives you flexibility, speed and power to develop any web page or application you envision.
28 Ruby on Rails Companies in 2023
Let’s have a look at real examples of real brands that use Ruby on Rails:
1. CrunchBase
Crunchbase is sometimes called the “Wikipedia for startups” as it is the ultimate go-to site if you are searching for who is behind fresh, innovative brands. Or it’s a great place to find out more about who you intend to invest in projects that you admire.
The back-end of Crunchbase was written on Ruby on Rails, using varnish for page caching.
2. Twitter
Twitter needs no introduction. The social media platform is the most popular example of a Ruby on Rails website. It was initially built with jQuery and Ruby on Rails, enabling the platform’s creators to build a completely working product in a very brief period.
After a couple of years, Twitter was rewritten using Scala, but Ruby is still a part of its back end.
3. Etsy
Etsy is an e-commerce platform developed to link retailers of handmade and vintage items to potential clients and suppliers. You can think of Etsy as a mega flea market or bazaar with nearly 2 million vendors and more than 50 million registered users.
The eCommerce platform is among the pioneers of contemporary startups. Using Ruby on Rails enabled Etsy to maintain a strong database, carry out a series of system integrations, and seamlessly implement additional features.
4. Shopify
Shopify is a very successful eCommerce platform. The software has more than 600,000 online vendors and offers easily customizable e-com sites working within the same ecosystem. Merchants simply pay a monthly subscription and get instant access to a customizable online store where they can start selling their products.
Shopify is one of the most successful companies using Ruby on Rails globally. The company has been scaling massively within the framework and boasts about being able to address 80,000 requests per second. Shopify also utilizes Liquid templating language for their front end, and Turbograft.
5. GitHub
If you have anything to do with web and application development, you certainly know GitHub. The platform is the most popular software hosting service that contains a massive open-source library. Github is now used by over 1.8 million companies, software development businesses, and startups.
The service also receives support from their amazing community of almost 40 million software developers, which have contributed to more than 100 million repositories over the years.
From a technological viewpoint, Ruby on Rails accounts for nearly all of GitHub’s code. As of August 2019, the Rails 6.0 version of GitHub was launched.
6. Airbnb
Airbnb simply stands out because of its UX/UI design. The company links travelers who need a place to stay with hosts willing to rent their apartments or rooms.
The company was founded in 2007 by 3 postgraduates offering a single apartment. Currently, the platform provides the service for over 150 million users. Their listings are more than the top hotel chains in the world combined.
Airbnb’s system is built on several technologies, including Ruby on Rails. Qualified employees who built the website used a bunch of libraries such as Raven.js, Moments.js, and React.js.
7. Ask.fm
Ask.fm is a social media platform that’s extremely popular among younger demographics, accounting for nearly 220 million registered users.
The idea behind the company is simple. You ask a particular person a question (this can either be a popular Ask.fm celebrity or friend), and they answer.
Ask.fm is one of the largest Ruby-based platforms. At the peak moment of its existence, the brand pulled in 350 million visits every month.
As for its tech stack, besides Ruby on Rails in its back end, the platform utilizes AJAX and jQuery.
8. Fab
Fab is an online marketplace dedicated to assisting customers in discovering unique fitness/wellness products. The platform provides thousands of items from tech gadgets to pieces of art and clothes.
Every one of their products has one thing in common – a gorgeous design. This makes the platform a perfect place for high-quality design lovers and aesthetes.
Fab uses ROR as its primary framework with Ruby being the primary language. It also uses New Relic and Backbone.js.
9. SlideShare
SlideShare is a slide hosting platform with more than 70 million visitors per month. The brand is currently owned by Microsoft. It enables users to store and post their digital presentations such as Keynote, PowerPoint, etc. Slideshare also allows users to store and post videos and text documents.
Users can utilize the website for browsing, reading, and sharing content they need and adore. Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012 and the latter was purchased by Microsoft. The platform uses Ruby on Rails as its main framework.
10. Hulu
This is a video streaming platform currently available just in the United States. It isn’t as big as HBO GO or Netflix, but it is growing quickly and releasing great and new shows every month.
Irrespective of its availability in a single country, the platform has about 28 million active subscribers.
Since the very beginning, Ruby on Rails was used to build Hulu and is loved there.
11. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a German-based startup originally built to enable musicians to share music. Since then, it has grown into a publishing platform allowing emerging artists to display and promote their music. With about 80 million registered users and more than 200 million tracks submitted, SoundCloud is a great place to find new musical inspirations and tracks.
The platform attracts mostly non-commercial, alternative, and niche artists. SoundCloud was built on Ruby on Rails. The framework allows the platform to scale quickly and maintain high-quality code. Due to its rapid, massive growth, SoundCloud was rewritten later using JVM.
12. Basecamp
There is no Basecamp without Ruby on Rails. And no Ruby without Basecamp. The framework and the popular project management web tool were built by the same individual – David Heinemeier Hansson.
Ruby on Rails has shown to be very successful in Basecamp’s growth. Rising from 45 accounts in 2004 to more than 2 million in 2016 required scaling up effectively and quickly. And Ruby on Rails developers from Basecamp did an excellent job using the framework.
13. Zendesk
This platform is a cloud-based customer support solution that allows consumers to get in touch with customer service through a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Zendesk caters to clients such as Uber, Shopify, Airbnb, and Tesco. The customer-oriented software offered by Zendesk enables companies to become reliable and scalable. It cuts down costs and boosts the efficiency of customer service.
14. Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a media brand whose focus is on the financial market and the economy. They also offer software solutions for the financial sector and businesses, such as market reports and big data analysis.
Their website pulls in more than 100 million users every month, making it one of the leading Ruby on Rails based platforms globally. It is also one of the largest, with more than 15,000 employees.
Beyond Ruby on Rails, which is the primary framework used by Bloomberg developers, the platform also uses PHP, Express, and ASP.NET. Bloomberg also features 12 libraries in their tech stack, including Backbone.js, jQuery, RESPOND, and much more.
15. Fiverr
Fiverr is an online platform for freelance services. The online marketplace is very simple and allows you to buy or sell services effortlessly and quickly. Starting at $5, Fiverr provides many services such as graphic design, web development, digital marketing, UX/UI design, and mobile development.
Their technology stack is a mixture of Ruby on Rails and other technologies such as jQuery, Python, and React.
16. GoodReads
GoodReads is the biggest social media platform for book enthusiasts in the world. Users can browse through other people’s digital shelves on the platform as well as write reviews for recent reads.
GoodReads presently has 90 million members that have submitted more than 90 million reviews. Their book base has reached 2.6 billion publications.
In 2013, Amazon acquired the platform and has been growing constantly since then.
GoodRead’s tech stack includes Ruby on Rails with the support of Bugsnag, GoDaddy Domain Registration, Amazon EC2, MarkMonitor, HTML5, Modernize, OpenSearch, New Relic, Symantec SSL, and Dyn DNS.
17. Diaspora
Diaspora is a social media website based on 3 key ideas: decentralization, freedom, and privacy. The platform, unlike Facebook, does not claim rights to the user’s data. It isn’t stored centrally, but the user can choose local servers.
Also, Diaspora provides users with unrestricted communication and declines to use apps on the platform or sell the website to any major corporation.
The platform may not be the largest one when compared to Twitter or Facebook but they have 1 million users, creating a powerful community. Diaspora is also open source and you can find access to the entire code of the network on GitHub, and contribute to it.
The platform is completely written in Ruby on Rails and utilizes Backbone.Js for its front-end.
18. MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal provides an amazing mobile app and web application that enables you to look better and feel better. It tracks exercise and diet to determine optimal nutrients and intake for the users’ goals.
It has proved very effective by its users for reducing weight. The internet is full of great social proofs and reviews of the app, and it has even won several app contests and awards. It has approximately 150 million users.
Both the web app and MyFitnessPal website are fully powered by Ruby on Rails.
19. Scribd
Scribd is the Netflix for books. They feature a tremendous collection of more than 40 million books, magazines, and audiobooks, all available within the subscription model. The platform currently has over 80 million users, with a continuous growth rate.
Scribd also enables its users to host and upload their content. Scribd technology stack consists mostly of Ruby on Rails with the support of Backbone.js and React.
20. 500px
500px is one of the top social networks for photographers to share their best works, receive feedback from the community, and connect with others like them. The social network also enables profiting from shared content with licensing via the network of 500px’s distribution partners.
It is used by more than 13 million photographers globally who have uploaded more than 100 million photos.
The platform was developed on Rails and is supported by Node.js.
21. Square
Square creates payment card readers for retailers. These can easily be set up using a tablet or smartphone and are operated through applications. Square provides every software required in the form of mobile and web applications.
Square has gotten up to 15 million users since its launch in 2009.
Square, just like Twitter, was written originally in Ruby on Rails. The framework provided the product with the first kick it required. In 2015, developers began to rewrite the system architecture changing the backend to JVM.
22. Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages is amongst the most popular local business listings globally. The brand name refers to the actual “yellow books” from the pre-internet times.
The book contained the contact number and address of all the local businesses and enterprises from a particular area. Today, the contemporary version of yellow pages pulls in over 40 million queries within the United States alone. It is the number one source of knowledge about local businesses in the US.
The platform was initially built on Java, but later on, it was rewritten in Ruby on Rails.
23. Groupon
This is a global e-commerce marketplace that connects customers with local businesses. It offers them discounts and special offers on services or products. The platform has 50 million customers globally and more than 1 million groupons sold. They are probably the biggest player in the sector.
Concerning the technology used, the original version of the website was based completely on Ruby on Rails. A couple of years back, as the website grew, they transitioned to Node.js.
24. Couchsurfing
Couchsurfing is a platform built on the wonderful idea of creating a community of travelers who can host one another as they travel the world. Due to its system of transparency and reviews, the platform proved itself to be a safe and intriguing way of finding accommodation.
Currently, Couchsurfing has a worldwide community of about 15 million users participating in regular events in 200,000 cities globally. Beyond the accommodation opportunities, Couchsurfing offers an insane amount of knowledge about traveling.
Ruby on Rails is the framework of Couchsurfing’s backend. Their tech stack includes SCSS, Redis, MySQL, JavaScript, Thumbor, and SOLR.
25. Dribbble
This is an amazing directory containing graphic design projects by a community of more than 500,000 designers from around the globe. The platform enables users to display and discuss their work and search for career opportunities. Dribbble users, in 2017, showed off more than 640,000 shots of their work.
The platform was developed with Ruby on Rails but also uses HTML5 History API elements and jQuery.
26. Kickstarter
This stands out as one of the best Ruby on Rails companies’ websites. The platform enables users to find funding for their projects or support other users’ ideas. Nearly 150,000 products have been successfully funded through Kickstarter, including Wasteland 2 and Oculus Rift.
Kickstarter itself was developed with the Ruby on Rails framework in combination with the Perl language and the main libraries being History.js, jQuery, and React.
27. UrbanDictionary
This is a great place to go when you’re searching for the definition of a slang word. Or want to create one hoping that people will eventually start using it. It is filled with alternative definitions of well-known terms.
UrbanDictionary is built on the Ruby on Rails framework alongside special frameworks such as Foundation and Heroku Vegur Proxy. Concerning JS frameworks, it uses React.
28. Twitch
Every true gamer is already familiar with Twitch. Twitch is a live video streaming platform and active social media network for amateurs and professionals of online gaming.
All of the major gaming megastars like Markiplier and PewDiePie began on Twitch.
More than 2.1 million people stream live videos every month reaching over 54 million users.
The platform was built on the Ruby on Rails framework.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap! We’re through with the list of the best Ruby on Rails companies’ web applications and websites to keep you inspired. And, if you need to hire a Ruby on Rails remote developer to handle projects for your company, DistantJob can help. Or, if you need a place to demonstrate your programming skills, visit our IT remote job page.
