An Undeniable Battle: Ruby on Rails vs JavaScript

Since the last 10 years, businesses have been investing a lot in the technologies and they are getting lots of advantages from those technologies, according to Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2018 Digital Trends, “73% believe that their companies are combining their digital marketing skills with technology”. Such a trend will continue in the future as well or even in the following decade.

Keeping these things in mind, enterprises should focus on web application development more. But how to start the development process? Which technologies to use? To help you we have taken two leading web technologies – Ruby on Rails vs JavaScript– and will compare them.

Lets look at Ruby on Rails and JavaScript comparison, understanding their usage, their features and examples. Should businesses use JavaScript or Ruby on Rails? Let us see which one is most suitable for you.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is a framework written in Ruby language for the server-side development of web and desktop applications. A programmer can use Ruby framework as it is a kind of skeleton for website development which provides some basic structure and optional features that can be inserted in and out. Yukihiro Matsumoto, chief designer of Ruby, is an open-source, object-oriented code base language. 

And instead of writing out SQL code, Rails is simply created using Ruby that will help you save a lot of typing. This can be clearly ascertained from one of our previous articles, ‘Understanding The Top 7 Difference Between Ruby and Ruby on Rails‘.

Is Ruby on Rails Dying?

RoR brought innovative approaches and best practices to the process of developing web pages. It has become one of the few web app frameworks that work based on a developer-first approach. Programmers’ community believe that the design of this framework is unique and promotes convention over configuration.

As a Ruby on Rails development company in USA, we find Rails to be the perfect framework for large-scale web app development. RoR is highly flexible, comes along with a high development speed, provides database migration, and a well-organized content management system that helps them complete the project effortlessly.

 

On top of all the causes, Rails is available for free of cost as it is open source. Below are the points that suffice the most prevalent question, ‘Is Ruby on Rails dying?’:

1. Updated and Prominent Version

   Owing to the increase in convenience, the updated versions of Ruby programming language are propitious. The future of RoR is anticipated to be pioneering with the release of the latest type of Ruby stable version 6.0.3.1.  The set goals for the framework are

   • Static analysis 
   • JIT / Ruby 3×3 / Performance
   • Concurrency

   Eventually, new traits of Ruby on Rails are promised to be at least three times faster than the previous class which would make the administration of duck interference better, as static types would be introduced in the best possible way.  Also, being in the competition with other technologies, Ruby has embarked its position amongst the most prominent programming languages.

2. Forming a Niche

   Even if a group of programmers fall for a new available framework, there is still compelling demand as we look at the Rails community, which answers the question – ‘Is Ruby on Rails dead?’ There is a possibility that due to its continuous evolution, it has intended to be a mature framework that is forming its niche.

   The community of web developers utilize Rails as one of the tools of their stack and play to its strengths, rather than employing it to be the main tool for building applications. Due to Rail’s pace of web application development and simplicity offered in business logic execution, it is still widely used. It has a quality of affixing that binds the backend and the frontend together perfectly, forming a way for its coming time.

Why is Ruby on Rails in Demand?

In recent times, although Ruby on Rails programming is losing its popularity due to the competitive options available, Rails is still in the market for more than 15 years due to the following reasons:

1. Convenient

   RoR is much convenient because it has quick web development, readable syntax, and immeasurable built-in solutions that offer simplicity. So, for many software development organizations, Ruby on Rails still provides convenience and is proved to be useful and functional.

2. Large Community

   Due to the continuous evolution of RoR language, the size of the active RoR developers’ community is increasing day by day. Platforms like Dev and Stack, are frequently used by programmers where they discuss the performance issues, share their solutions, tricks and articles as well.

3. Suitable for Content Management Systems (CMS)

   If you require a content management system that is easy to use, has conducive navigation, and has a convenient way to upload files, images, and content, then Ruby on Rails content management systems are apt. The built systems of this MVC framework are suitable platforms for content creation and regulation, as it aids in reviewing, revising, storing, and publishing.

4. Companies adopting language Ruby on Rails

   To suffice the question, ‘How popular is Ruby on Rails?’, we know that these world-renowned organizations like Github, Imgur, Hulu, Twitch.tv still make use of RoR as a web development framework. This justifies that if the functionality and characteristics of RoR serves the best, these giant businesses will be constantly using it for their website development.

   The alternatives to Rails – Django, Laravel 5, Asp.Net Core, Symfony, though, got remarkable characteristics and modules, but if you want a speedy release, using Ruby is the perfect choice. It is so because it contains shortcuts and features that make it simpler for web applications to integrate the complex attributes.

   Now that you know about Ruby on Rails and its popularity, let us understand what Java Script is and how popular it is. We are also going to describe why businesses choose it for their development. Further, we will learn which one is better in JavaScript and Ruby on Rails.

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript, created by Brendan Eich, is an object-oriented coding language that helps a number of JS developers to design dynamic HTML pages along with interactive effects for the website that engage a user. JavaScript also allows a full stack developer to add complex functionality and enable them to work together with other programming languages.

Not only this, but such scripting languages also enable them to access animated graphics, photo slideshows, interactive forms, and auto-complete text suggestions aspects. Some of the common examples of JavaScript you might be using are Google’s search results, faster loading Facebook pages and many more.

Ruby on Rails vs JavaScript – 5 Key Differences to Know

When it comes to comparing and finding the difference between Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, both of them have a dynamic type system and also have automatic memory management which makes them demanding amongst the engineering team. The similarity is both languages were born around the same time around 1995 and that is where they get started to part their ways. RoR is a one-stop solution for large web applications and Java Script works perfectly for the microservices.

Considering the learning curve in Ruby vs JavaScript, the former has numerous computing resources for learning from online forums, sources, and communities by which you can learn by yourself. JavaScript has wide-ranging documentation, online forums, communities, modules, and sources, that makes it easy to learn. Here is the detailed comparison between Ruby on Rails and JavaScript.

JavaScript vs Ruby on Rails – Which is better?

Both of them have their own unique personality when you compare each programming language. Each of them offers a variety of attributes, and benefits and drawbacks. The web servers that are supported by CGI, Rails are designed to run on them. For frameworks like MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and DB2, RoR programming is adopted. 

While JavaScript is a multi-paradigm, single-threaded, prototype-based, vigorous language that supports imperative, declarative styles.

Eventually, both have their own audience, and depending upon the requirements and business model, companies and startups can choose the languages, tools, and technologies that are best suitable for their needs. But, based on the characteristics that Rails and JavaScript offer, we can say that both are equally qualified to win the battle.

 

Conclusion

From the above section JavaScript vs Ruby on Rails, we can gauge RoR uses a full stack web framework that is basically used for back-end development. On the other hand, JavaScript is a client-side scripting language that is used for front end development. When you keep the above given details in mind, you will find that these two demanding languages are not competing with each other at all.

In fact, the developers believe that both the language has its own distinct pros and cons that businesses can choose to adopt or reject for their application development. No doubt, you will need a command of the front-end and back end to build rapid application development. We at Monocubed have versatile web developers for both RoR and JavaScript, who will help you convert your idea into a dynamic reality.