Nowadays, having a professional-looking website is a huge asset to any business. Online shopping, commonly called e-commerce, requires more than just an appealing website. It must be able to function smoothly.
When it comes to creating those websites, frontend development tools—or the elements that are visible to users—and backend tools, the things they can’t see, are equally important to achieving a smooth user experience. There are many tools for both ends of development, but the backend tools serve as the foundation for the site.
One such important backend development tool is Ruby on Rails.
Why Choose Ruby on Rails?
Apart from Ruby on Rails (RoR), other popular backend frameworks include PHP, Python, and Java. RoR has over 15 years of experience in the development community. This is because of the numerous advantages that make it great for development projects like e-commerce websites. These include:
- Popularity
Believe it or not, having popularity in the development community is a testament to its effectiveness. RoR’s community is large and active, meaning there are always developers helping to improve the software’s functionality.
- Flexibility
RoR is very flexible in its integration capabilities and scalability. It also has a modular architecture, meaning it can be modified for various different projects. With e-commerce, RoR supports platforms such as B2B, B2B2C, and B2C.
- Reliability
This framework has a ‘Convention over configuration’ principle. It aids Ruby on Rail’s ability to work with other frameworks. Ruby on Rails was released in 2004 and its predecessor, Ruby, was released in 1995. It makes both established development tools that continue to be used and popular.
- Performance Speed/Cost Efficiency
Alongside containing a fast performance speed, RoR is more cost-efficient as a result. This framework is designed to reduce development time. Thus, it’s simpler and easier to use. Companies like Doordash, Netflix, and Airbnb also incorporate Ruby on Rails into their systems.
A unique characteristic of RoR is its use of gems, which are pre-designed elements to help set up payment systems, virtual carts, and authentication options. These are extremely beneficial for e-commerce sites. Being open-sourced and free are other benefits too.
Why do e-commerce sites and Ruby on Rails go hand-in-hand?
The ability to use gems in RoR is one of the biggest reasons, in tandem with a fast performance speed, that developers like to use this framework when creating e-commerce sites. These websites must be able to not only hold a lot of data but run many tasks simultaneously, contain safe and secure ways to process data and run smoothly and quickly for users. All of these characteristics combined contribute to a positive user experience. Ruby on Rails was created to be startup-friendly, but support large businesses’ needs too. It’s also flexible enough to evolve with surrounding technologies. The community of developers backing it up to serve as a lifeline for RoR to remain a popular development tool as technological advancements and demand increase.