Examples of Websites using Ruby on Rails

Sep 9, 2021 - 5 min read

If you’ve never heard of it before, or you’re considering learning Ruby on Rails, you might be wondering who’s currently using it, and what could you build if you do decide to learn it.

Remember, Rails has been around for a while. It’s what some people might call a mature framework. So you will see some big players in this list.

Even though you could build apps like the following by yourself, that might not be realistic. All of the examples that follow were build using development teams, not solo developers.

Basecamp

Basecamp

Basecamp is a popular project management SaaS application.

DHH (author of Rails) has extracted the Ruby on Rails framework from Basecamp, and made it publicly available, as an open-source project.

Github

GitHub

The most popular web-based version control hosting services founded in 2008.

It has over 28 million registered users, and over 85 million repositories.

Shopify

Shopify

It’s an all-inclusive, cheap, and easy to use cloud-based commerce platform used by over 600,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries.

Shopify started with just 5 people working from coffee shops. It found a market, and it grew to more than 3000 employees.

Airbnb

Airbnb

Airbnb is a marketplace where people can lease or rent short-term lodging.

Its journey to product/market fit is famous among startup founders.

Twitch

Twitch

Twitch is a live streaming video platform. It focuses mostly on video game streaming but you can find a lot of cool streams on it.

From coding streams to electronics, hacking, you name it.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud

It’s a cloud-based publishing too for music distribution with 175 million users.

You can share your music (or sounds, podcasts, etc.) on SoundCloud, and embed them into your site.

Hulu

Hulu

Hulu is a video streaming service, similar to Netflix, which offers premium video content from television shows to movies.

It has over 20 million subscribers in the U.S.

Zendesk

Zendesk

A customer service and engagement platform, Zendesk servers over 125.000 paid accounts in 160 countries, and 40+ languages.

Square

Square

Square helps companies accept payments through mobile devices.

Highrise

Highrise

If you’re looking for a simple CRM, Highrise looks pretty cool. I like how the design is distinct from all the other apps out there.

Intercom

Intercom

A chat system and more.

New Relic

New Relic

New Relic gives you insights into the performance of your Rails application.

Discourse

Discourse

The most popular forum platform these days.

500px

500px

A community site for photographers.

A List Apart

A List Apart

A List Apart is a collection of articles for people who make websites.

Dribbble

Dribbble

Dribbble is a community of designers who learn from each other by sharing their work.

Fiverr

Fiverr

It’s a very popular freelancing platform.

You can find a lot of freelancers here that can help you with your project.

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads is a community of book readers to discover and review books.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter

The most popular crowd-funding application.

If you have an idea for a product, you can try to get it funded through Kickstarter.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal

The leading application for tracking your calories.

Scribd

Scribd

If you like to read, Scribd offers books, magazines, and audiobooks by subscription.

SlideShare

SlideShare

An easy way to upload, share and discover slides, presentations, infographics, etc.

If you found this article useful, please help others discover it by sharing it on your favorite social media platform.

Cezar Halmagean
Software development consultant with over a decade of experience in helping growing companies scale large Ruby on Rails applications. Has written about the process of building Ruby on Rails applications in RubyWeekly, SemaphoreCI, and Foundr.