We still build with Ruby in 2025
6 days ago
- #Ruby on Rails
- #Tech Stack
- #Scalability
- Ruby on Rails was chosen for Lago's API due to the team's extensive experience with it, ensuring quick product development.
- Despite newer languages like Python, Go, and JS being trendy, Rails remains a viable choice for mature enterprises like Shopify, GitHub, and GitLab.
- Rails' API-only mode was used to streamline development by focusing on essential features like migrations and Active Record.
- Scaling with Rails is feasible with proper architecture, as demonstrated by large companies processing millions of requests.
- Rails 8 simplifies operations, Redis + Sidekiq provides scalability, and Ruby Fibers introduce asynchronous concurrency.
- Rails has tradeoffs, including performance issues, concurrency limitations due to CRuby's Global VM Lock, and 'magic' that requires disciplined coding.
- Lago diversifies its tech stack by using Go for high I/O concurrency and Rust for CPU-bound tasks, while Rails handles core API and billing.
- Hiring Ruby engineers hasn't been a problem for Lago, as there's still a pool of experienced developers.
- The team would choose Rails again in 2025, viewing it as a practical tool rather than a dogma.
- Lago offers both premium and open-source solutions to handle billing seamlessly.