Django vs Ruby on Rails – What Should be your Ultimate Choice?

Django vs Ruby on Rails–the discussion has been going on to crown the best web development frameworks. We are officially in the era where organizations are ditching the physical nature of businesses for a digital one, albeit gradually.

Since the competition is thick-iced, meaning challenging to cut through, the drill is to develop the web application with the best tech stack. That’s where the confusion to choose between Django vs Ruby on Rails surfaces among businesses to ensure a powerful backend development.

In this chapter, we will explore key points pertaining to Django vs Ruby on Rails alongside the best practices to choose an ideal web framework.

What is Django?

Even with its popularity, #Django is still one of the most underrated backend frameworks in my opinion.

Express JS is getting all the attention here meanwhile here are the rankings by GitHub stars as of oct 2021: 

Laravel - 66.9K ⭐
Django - 60.2K ⭐
Express - 54.7K ⭐
 

— Dennis Ivy (@dennisivy11) October 14, 2021

What are the Top Benefits of Using Django for Web Framework?

Underpins MVC Programming:

Similar to modern web frameworks, Django offers extensive support of model-view-controller design. The MVC design rule enables Django coders to separate user interface and logic layers. As a result, Django offers simplification and speed to the development of large web applications.

Compatible with Key Operating Systems:

Since users are accessing web applications on multiple platforms and devices, Django features compatibility with top operating systems–MacOS, Linux, and Windows. Simultaneously, the ORM model offered by Django enables the ease to use multiple databases. Django coders can even use the ORM system for performing common database operations as well as migrating from one database to another one without having to write additional code.

Offers Robust Security Features:

Django provides robust security, which enables developers to save the web application from multiple security vulnerabilities. Some of the frequently encountered security threats to backend development include cross-site request forgery, SQL injection attacks, and cross-site scripting. In such situations, Django augments the security of web applications through the prevention of coding errors related to Python coding.

What are the Top Use Cases of Django?

No matter how much we go on comparing Django vs Ruby on Rails, in actuality, the practical applications have more to say about the web development frameworks. Below are some of the popular software developed using Django:

Instagram:

Since Instagram deals with a humongous among of data along with user interactions, Django facilitates functionalities for seamless social media operations with multiple new features and issues fixing in stipulated time.

Dropbox:

Dropbox uses Django, owing to its high-performance functionality. Django offers necessary tools for facilitating synchronization, sharing, and scalability.

Spotify:

Spotify features a large media of audio for users to access music based on their subscription plan. Additionally, Spotify uses Django for machine learning, wherein Python is deemed the best choice.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Prediction: 2023 is the year of Ruby on Rails on the Desktop.

— Robby Russell (@robbyrussell) October 7, 2021

Ruby on Rails is server-side scripting and web application framework written in Ruby. It is easy to learn and offers rich libraries for backend development. Ruby on Rails enables less coding as well as fewer bugs. The web application framework offers ERB (Embedded Ruby) and enables developers to use Ruby code in an HTML file.

What are the Top Benefits of Using Ruby on Rails for Web Framework?

Provides Cost-effective Development:

Ruby on Rails is considered an open-source framework under MIT license, which implies that product development companies do not have to spare any capital on the framework. Furthermore, the backend framework enables developers to add features without having to develop from scratch. As a result, Ruby on Rails saves plenty of time for developers as well as their efforts.

Offers Bug-free Development:

One of the best testing tools available with Ruby on Rails is the Minitest tool. It serves as a comprehensive test suite, offering multiple useful testing features. In addition to this, it also includes mocking, test benchmarking, and expectation syntax. Besides this, Ruby on Rails also promotes test-driven development as well as behaviour-driven development approaches.

Facilitates Speedy Development:

Ruby on Rails has multiple ready-made modules and plugins, enabling developers to save time that is otherwise wasted on writing boilerplate code. The RoR teams develop applications 30 to 40% speedier than teams using other frameworks and programming languages.

What are the Top Use Cases of Ruby on Rails?

When it comes to Django vs Ruby on Rails, the comparison can be better understood by knowing the use cases of Ruby on Rails.

Bloomberg:

Bloomberg offers financial software tools such as equity trading platform, analytics, data services, and financial news regarding organizations and companies. The monthly traffic on Bloomberg exceeds over 100 Mn users every month. Hence, Ruby on Rails accommodates better functionality to the platform.

SlideShare:

SlideShare is a popular slide sharing social media application. With 80 million users as well as 159 Mb page views, Ruby on Rails facilitates files to be uploaded on PowerPoint, OpenOffice presentations, and PDF.

AirBnB:

AirBnB homes millions of listings of properties from 191+ countries and over 260 Mn+ users. AirBnB scales frequently with new categories for travellers as well as functionalities. As a result, Ruby on Rails offers better functionalities to support the host of features that the bed and breakfast platform offers.

A Detailed Comparison – Django vs Ruby on Rails

Let’s check out the Django vs Ruby on Rails based on various aspects:

Language:

Python is used as the programming language for the Django framework. Python is a top-rated programming language, which highlights the readability and clarity of the code. Since Python is found to be a simple programming language, Django emerges as a clear choice for backend development among the other top Python libraries.
In contrast, Ruby on Rails is written with Ruby, which is often known for its flexibility, comprehensibility, and freedom.

Architecture:

Both the web-based frameworks adopt MVC architecture. However, there is a basic difference when it comes to the use of the controller. Django uses MVT architecture, which stands for Model-View-Template. Here, the model signifies database and data structure, the view represents regular expression-oriented URL dispatcher, and the template is indicative of a web templating system that blends with Django Template Language.

In Ruby on Rails, the Model represents data in the form of posts, comments, pictures, etc. In addition to this, View shows data in the HTML template, and it sends Controller.

User Interface:

When looking at Django vs Ruby on Rails in 2021, one of the common grounds we need to discuss include the user interface. Based on the user interface, Django and Ruby on Rails are winners. Both of them provide a high-class user experience. These are web-oriented frameworks, enabling developers to create highly functional websites with rich plugins and add-ons.

Speed and Performance:

Django REST framework offers exceptional convenience through JSON serializers/deserializers, authentication modules, etc. In addition to this, Django promotes speedy development processes and is considered to be an ideal choice for a web framework.

On the other hand of the scales of Django vs Ruby on Rails, the latter possesses a rich repository with an exciting set of libraries. It further enhances the speed and performance of the web framework. Out of these two web frameworks, RoR is seen to be faster than Django by 0.7%.

Stability:

Since stability and creativity are parallel elements crucial for web development, we weigh the framework that offers better support to an application. Ruby on Rails is capable of juggling creativity and stability. In addition to this, developers can reuse the code for minimizing the dependencies. Ruby on Rails leverages convention over configuration approach, thereby savings developers from additional efforts.

Python uses a conventional approach for solving problems as compared to Ruby On Rails. As a result, it offers stability to the web framework. However, it is less stable than RoR.

Installation:

If we talk about the installation process, Django offers a fairly easy installation. Usually, it only takes about a few minutes for Django to get installed. On the other hand, developers require to understand Gems and Bundle before the installation of Ruby on Rails. Developers need to install these packages and then run the Gem Install Rails for installing the latest version of the Ruby on Rails framework.

Security:

For Django vs Ruby on Rails, we need to know which web framework offers better security. Django has inherited the security feature from Python. Django is backed using middlewares, while Ruby on Rails enjoys support from active records. Among these two web frameworks, Django holds an edge over Ruby on Rails. Django offers better security from cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and more.

Scalability:

Both Ruby on Rails and Django are considered heavyweight web frameworks. As a result, they offer competent scalability. Django receives its scalability from Python. However, it lags behind as compared to Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails offers better scalability, owing to its attribute of flexibility and freedom of code.

Syntax:

Ruby on Rails is deemed highly flexible. The web development framework causes problems and makes it difficult for developers to pass on the project to their teammates. However, Django makes the code easier to write, debug, compile, and read.

Principles of Development:

Principles reinforce the entire development process. Django is based on two crucial principles–Explicit is better than Implicit and DRY. The Django principle enables developers to develop easy to understand and maintainable applications.

The other web framework, Ruby on Rails, operates on Convention over Configuration and DRY. The principles encourage efficiency and speed.

Platform Maturity:

Django was officially introduced in the year 2005, and it went on to become one of the best web development frameworks. The latest Django version, 3.2.8, was released on 5th October 2021. The newest version fixes two bugs from the previous version and offers better functionalities and features. The counterpart of Django, Ruby on Rails, was released in 2003. However, it was officially introduced in 2004. Its 6.1.4 version was released on 24th June 2021. Django is more popular than Ruby on Rails despite its late release.

Django vs Ruby on Rails–What Should be your Choice?

There are numerous similarities as well as differences between Django and Ruby on Rails. While both are efficient on their designated tasks, they do proffer high competition to each other based on their support, performance, community support, security, and speed, among others. However, there are places where the characteristics of one web development framework overshadow the other.

If your focus is better market times, you should bet on Ruby on Rails. It homes various shortcuts and automation features, which enables developers to add simplicity to the complex features. However, between Django vs Ruby on Rails, when you have to choose one for the development of a highly comprehensive application, which is to be enriched with multiple features, you can go with Django.