There is a misconception that a handful of programming memes make a developer happy, which is not true by any means, it’s rather their choice of technology compared head to head against others and watching their win.
This might surprise you but think of it as your favorite football team going head-to-head against the defending champions. Not the best way to compare but still it’s appealing enough.
Since we are talking about comparing we do have two elephants in the room; Ruby on Rails which is considered the most ideal framework for web development and the other one is; Angular JS which is currently considered almost dead for web development, or is it? Let’s find out.
We will be comparing both in terms of their performance, usability, and other factors that make developers take a break. So let’s dive in and just get involved in this debate.
Ruby on Rails vs Angular JS: A Quick Overview
| Parameter | Ruby on Rails | Angular JS |
| Launch Date | August 2004 | October 2010 |
| Architecture | Request Response based-MVC | Single Page based-MVC |
| Purpose | Backend operations | Front end operations |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Major Player who Use this framework | Scribd, Airbnb, Bloomberg, Dribble, GitHub, | Gmail app, Upwork, The Guardian, PayPal |
| Key Highlights | Gems, Active Controller, Automated testing, etc. | Data Binding, Directives, not browser specific, etc. |
Ruby on Rails Vs Angular JS: The Purpose
Ruby on Rails was built on top of the Ruby programming language. It was made for building database-backed CRUD applications and metaprogramming. It’s mostly used for building elegant and interactive web applications and has been in the industry for more than 2 decades now.
Ruby on Rails is ideal for the management of internal logic, data computation, routines, and other tasks. It adheres to the core principle of DRY (don’t repeat yourself) and convention over configuration, which keeps the codes concise, structured, extensible, and less buggy while reducing the hassles of manually modifying codes for different systems.Â
Angular JS on the other hand was built on top of JavaScript. It was made for building single-page web solutions and dynamic web applications.
HTML lacks the ability when used for declaring dynamic views in web applications, this is where AngularJS comes in handy. It lets you extend HTML vocabulary for your application which results in making the environment extremely expressive, readable, and quick to develop.
Ruby on Rails Vs AngularJS: Ideal Use Cases
You can use Ruby on Rails for almost all types of web application development because that’s what it’s famous for. However, there are some ideal use cases where Ruby on Rails stands out the most, for instance,
- SaaS Solutions
- Online stores
- Stock market platforms
- Social networking sites,
On the other hand, AngularJS can be used for more enterprise-oriented solutions. And it also has some unique use cases where it shines the most, for example,
- Single page applications (SPAs)
- Dynamic web solutions
- Progressive web applications(PWAs)
- Real-time web applications
Ruby on Rails Vs AngularJS: Architecture
Ruby on rails was built on top of request-response based-MVC architecture which follows convention over configuration and DRY principles for efficient backend operations without compromising the performance.
Whereas Angular JS was built on top of the single page-based MVC architecture for elegant front-end operations by extending the capabilities of HTML from a simpler static language to more of a dynamic client-side language.
Ruby on Rails Vs AngularJS: Features
Ruby on Rails has all the necessary features required to develop a robust web application from scratch which is why it’s been prominent in the web development domain. Following are some of the notable features of Ruby on Rails,
- Automated testing
- Convention over configuration
- Gems
- Scaffolding
- Localization
- Active record
- Automated deployment
AngularJS focuses more on a single page and dynamic web applications and it shoulders both types of development with heavy feature-sets and code libraries. Following are some of the key features of AngularJS,
- Templating
- Data binding
- Controller
- Dependency injection
- Deep linkingÂ
- Directives
- Unit testing
Ruby on Rails Vs AngularJS: Benefits
Ruby on Rails offers a multitude of benefits which you can leverage to develop a performative Rails application. Some of the popular benefits of Ruby on Rails are as follows,
- Huge talent pool if you want to hire Ruby on Rails developers
- Shorter development time.
- highly customizable
- It’s very cost-effective.
- Easy modifications.
- It is consistent, secure, and flexible.
- It has tons of free plugins.
Angular JS, on the other hand, offers benefits in the dynamic web development and SPAs domain which are hard to neglect since they enhance the way HTML documents operate. Some of the popular benefits of Angular JS are as follows
- High performance.
- Offers two-way data binding.
- It is capable of developing hybrid apps for multiple platforms
- It has SPA features.
- It consists of a declarative user interface.
- It offers real-time testing.
Ruby on Rails Vs AngularJS: Support
The Ruby on Rails community is huge and considering the number of active websites built on Ruby on Rails it’s safe to say that Ruby on Rails will serve the tech industry for decades. This again means that the community will keep on posting the latest release with features to improve web applications.
Though Google announced AngularJS as a long-term project in 2010, its latest releases and support have been discontinued in 2021. This also means you won’t be receiving any security patches for this framework, however, it’s still in use and loved by developers because of what it puts onto the table.Â
Conclusion
Regardless of what you think about these frameworks we still think you are better off with both because they have all the required features that you will need for your web development projects.That being said, if you want long-term support and an active community AngularJS might not be the ideal choice for you since its support and latest releases have been discontinued.If this is what you require then you should use Ruby on Rails for safer web development practices. So there you have it the end of the debate.
