Companies using Ruby on Rails

The number of companies using Ruby on Rails grows everyday.

Ruby on Rails was released in 2004. It is a web application framework written completely in Ruby. Ruby on Rails has continued to release new versions approximately every six to nine months. Although there is not an official schedule when a new version will be released, a new version of Ruby on Rails is continuously being worked on. Since it is an open source language, many people work on it in their spare time for free. They just want to create the best web application framework possible that is completely free to all users. In other words, Ruby on Rails is not trying to generate a profit for anyone. The only thing concerning Ruby on Rails is the logo. The creator of it patented it when other people started profiting by using the logo. He now enforces the patent if he is not involved in a project that wants to use the logo.

When a new programming enters the scene, the easiest and quickest way to see if there is any interest in it is by the number of forums, newsgroups, and blogs devoted to it. Initially, there were very few of these devoted exclusively to Ruby on Rails. This changed drastically when Apple decided to bundle and ship it with their Mac OS X operating system, Leopard. Nearly overnight, interest exploded in Ruby on Rails.

The next step to see how popular a new programming language is to see how many companies, especially top companies, are using it. Although as of this writing, Ruby on Rails is only about seven years old since the first release, many top companies are now using it.

In fact, one of the largest online companies in the world is now using Ruby on Rails: Amazon. If you are unaware of Amazon.com, it is a company that sells thousands of products and services throughout the world. They have been growing at an incredible rate year after year. Amazon started using Ruby on Rails on their UnSpun service. It allows users to find and create ranked lists by gathering votes from their Mechanical Turk workers.

There are many other websites who implemented Ruby on Rails into their businesses very early on in their development process: LinkedIn, Twitter, Basecamp, and Zvents are a few most people have heard about. All of these online companies continue to develop their website’s services using Ruby on Rails.

One of the most surprising and most recognizable companies that used Ruby on Rails was NASA. As most people are aware, NASA is one of the most sophisticated companies in the world. They literally sent astronauts into space on a regular basis. Although they did not use Ruby on Rails in mission critical systems, they did use extensively to speed up the development process in non-critical systems.

There are many other companies who continue to use Ruby on Rails today: Oracle, Electronic Arts, IBM, JP Morgan, Oakley, Oracle, Siemens, ThoughtWorks, and Yahoo. If these companies rely and trust it, so can all businesses.