Top 5 Ruby Use Cases [UPDATED]

For some Ruby still remains a language shouldered in mystery. What can this powerful language offer? In this article, we will take a closer look at some of the best examples of Ruby usage. So stay with us and find it out yourself!

Static page with Jekyll

Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, static site generator perfect for personal, project-based, or organization sites. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages.

At first glance, most of the code you’re working on there is not Ruby, it is still the language that stands behind Jekyll, and the plugins use Ruby to implement any functionality needed.

E-commerce

Although you can build e-commerce in many programming languages, choosing Ruby may be a good option. There are only a few platforms that provide tools to create it faster. One of the most popular e-commerce platforms – Shopify – is written in Ruby. There are more growing open-source platforms, namely Spree and Solidus. My colleague Kamil discussed this topic in one of his articles. Make sure to check it out to learn more.

In terms of developing e-commerce, you have a variety of options to choose from. As you might have concluded from that example you can find a platform that will surely be tailored to your needs and improve your product development process.

Minimum Viable Product

MVP is a common approach in the product development or creation process. What exactly is it? MVP is a product with enough functionalities to fulfill the basic needs of potential clients and attract them. Next with the gained feedback you gradually start to focus on implementing new features based on the insights received in the early stages of your product existence.

Once you know the definition of the MVP you might start to wonder, what does it have to do with Ruby? Because it might be one of the best programming languages to choose from in that particular case. The framework of Ruby – Ruby on Rails perfectly fits the concept of MVP.

Conversion over Configuration is often mentioned as an advantage of Rails. It means that the necessary configuration process is minimized and you can run your basic application very quickly.

If you have planned your application core properly, using the Rails generators can significantly speed up your development.

Also, thanks to a big community, there are plenty of plugins, also known as gems, that cover the most frequently needed functionalities.

Fintech

The industry of Financial Technology is thriving nowadays! As it turns out, Ruby and its framework, Ruby on Rails, is an excellent choice also if you need to create a Fintech application.

As might know, Fintech applications need to be well-secured. Ruby on Rails provides mechanisms that fully focus on security. One of the most frequent attacks on web applications are CSRF, XSS, and SQL Injections. RoR has its own built-in protection methods against them.

Naturally, the other positive side of Ruby on Rails besides saving costs and time is the fact that it is also applicable in the financial sector, especially if you’re running a start-up.

Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP software is designed with the aim to be a system for operating and managing a business. This application can be complex and needs a strong relational database.

And again… here comes Ruby on Rails which, in addition to its other quality mentioned before, has built-in tools to work with various databases. So, no matter if you prefer MySQL or PostgreSQL, you can pair this up with an RoR application.