# 2026 Ruby on Rails Community Survey Results

Source: https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026
Published by Planet Argon (https://www.planetargon.com/).

## The Results Are In!

Nearly 1,800 developers from the Ruby on Rails community across 80 countries shared their thoughts on the tools, frameworks, and workflows that shape their daily development lives.

This year, we also asked about something that's on everyone's mind: AI. How teams are using it, how they feel about it, and whether it's actually changing the way they work.

This is the ninth edition of our survey since 2009. For nearly two decades, it has been one of the key ways our team at Planet Argon keeps a pulse on how this community has evolved.

Some of these questions date back to our very first survey, allowing us to track trends over time. Others are new additions, designed to reflect what's changed in our ecosystem since we last asked.

Now it’s time to dig in. We hope you find something useful, surprising, or at least validating here.

**How to read the charts:** Responses were collected from April to early July 2026. Percentages are based on the people who answered each question. Many questions let people pick more than one answer, so those totals add up to more than 100%. Write-in answers were grouped by hand.

## How to read this document

Each question lists its answers as `Answer: count (percent)`. Percentages use the same base as the charts on the web page: the number of people who answered the question. For questions where people could pick more than one answer, that base is listed and the percentages add up to more than 100%. Trend questions are tables with one row per survey year. The link after each question opens it on the web page.

## Demographics

Who took the 2026 survey.

### Which one of the following applies to you?

Percent of respondents.

- Work for a product company: 1,229 (69%)
- Independent Contractor / Freelancer: 282 (16%)
- Work for an agency/consultancy (client work): 213 (12%)
- Currently looking for work: 59 (3%)

Base: 1,783 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=demographics-which-one-of-the-following-applies-to-you)

### How did you learn to code?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | CS degree | Bootcamp | Self-taught | On the job | Other |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2018 | 33% | 5% | 50% | 9% | 3% |
| 2020 | 36% | 6% | 45% | 9% | 4% |
| 2022 | 36% | 7% | 44% | 10% | 3% |
| 2024 | 36% | 7% | 44% | 10% | 3% |
| 2026 | 44.4% | 7.5% | 41.1% | 7% | – |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=demographics-how-did-you-learn-to-code)

### How many years of experience do you have developing with Ruby on Rails?

Percent of respondents.

- Less than 1 year: 31 (2%)
- 1-3 years: 102 (6%)
- 4-6 years: 188 (11%)
- 7-9 years: 232 (13%)
- 10-13 years: 375 (21%)
- 13-16 years: 323 (18%)
- 16-19 years: 314 (18%)
- 20+ years: 216 (12%)

Base: 1,781 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=demographics-how-many-years-of-experience-do-you-have-developing-with-ruby-on-rails)

**Community insight from Amanda Perino**

> What stands out to me most is that only 7% of respondents are new to Rails. I don't necessarily read that as a lack of growth, but as a reminder that people who are newest to Rails may also be the least likely to know about a Rails community survey in the first place. Do they even realize they're part of the community yet?
>
> If an agent increasingly influences which framework someone first encounters, the challenge is no longer just helping people discover Rails, it's helping them discover the Rails community, too. How do we make sure those newcomers find the wealth of resources, support, history, and opportunities available to them?
>
> The doors to Rails are open wider than ever before, but we still need folks at the door welcoming people in. That's one of the biggest new opportunities agentic programming creates for the community.
>
> — Amanda Perino, **Executive Director**, [Rails Foundation](https://rubyonrails.org/foundation)

## Teams & Responsibilities

How Rails development teams are shaped and how they collaborate.

### How big is the software development team for your primary Rails app(s)?

Percent of respondents.

- A team of one!: 339 (19%)
- 2-4: 529 (30%)
- 5-8: 304 (17%)
- 8-15: 230 (13%)
- 16-25: 96 (5%)
- 25-50: 108 (6%)
- 50-100: 74 (4%)
- 100-250: 41 (2%)
- 250-500: 25 (1%)
- 500+: 35 (2%)

Base: 1,781 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=teams-and-responsibilities-how-big-is-the-software-development-team-for-your-primary-rails-app-s)

### Has your development team grown or shrunk in the last two years?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | Shrunk | About the same size | Grown |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2022 | 9% | 37% | 54% |
| 2024 | 18% | 46% | 36% |
| 2026 | 18.9% | 50.9% | 30.1% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=teams-and-responsibilities-has-your-development-team-grown-or-shrunk-in-the-last-two-years)

### Who uses your application/s?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | Mostly consumer-only (public) | A balanced mix of consumers and internal users | Mostly internal users only |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2009 | 30% | 58.7% | 11.3% |
| 2012 | 25.7% | 64.7% | 9.6% |
| 2014 | 24.1% | 66.9% | 9% |
| 2016 | 46.3% | 41.3% | 12.4% |
| 2018 | 42.3% | 46.1% | 11.6% |
| 2020 | 42.1% | 45% | 12.9% |
| 2022 | 43% | 47% | 10% |
| 2024 | 48% | 41% | 12% |
| 2026 | 47.2% | 42% | 10.8% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=teams-and-responsibilities-who-uses-your-application-s)

### How do you give your developers access to realistic data for local development and bug reproduction?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Well-maintained seeds file with realistic synthetic data: 686 (42%)
- Shared staging or QA environment: 651 (40%)
- factory_bot / Faker generated on demand: 618 (38%)
- Direct access to staging or production read replicas: 534 (32%)
- Anonymized production snapshots imported locally: 474 (29%)
- Seed data is sparse; reproducing production bugs locally is a pain point: 255 (16%)
- Third-party tool or script for data scrubbing and sync: 37 (2%)

Base: 1,645 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=teams-and-responsibilities-how-do-you-give-your-developers-access-to-realistic-data-for-local-development-and-bug-reproduction)

### When new developers join your project, where do they tend to struggle most?

Respondents could pick up to three. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Understanding the domain model and business logic: 951 (66%)
- Understanding old or inherited code: 668 (46%)
- Lack of documentation: 354 (25%)
- They tend to get up to speed quickly: 314 (22%)
- The JavaScript and frontend layer: 237 (16%)
- Deployment and infrastructure: 202 (14%)
- Code style conventions and the review process: 194 (14%)
- ActiveRecord patterns and database complexity: 163 (11%)
- Testing conventions and the test suite: 101 (7%)
- Background job patterns: 64 (4%)

Base: 1,437 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Authentication and authorization setup

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=teams-and-responsibilities-when-new-developers-join-your-project-where-do-they-tend-to-struggle-most)

## Ruby & Rails Version Updates

What versions the community is running and what holds upgrades back.

### What versions of Ruby are you using in your applications?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- 4.x: 887 (49%)
- 3.4: 973 (54%)
- 3.3: 509 (28%)
- 3.2: 274 (15%)
- 3.1: 167 (9%)
- 3.0: 86 (5%)
- 2.7: 170 (9%)
- 2.6: 58 (3%)
- 2.5: 38 (2%)
- 2.4: 30 (2%)
- 2.3 or older: 48 (3%)

Base: 1,796 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ruby-and-rails-version-updates-what-versions-of-ruby-are-you-using-in-your-applications)

### Which Ruby version manager are you using?

Percent of respondents by survey year. Select all that apply, so totals add up to more than 100%. mise appeared twice on the form; respondents who picked both are counted once.

| Survey year | RVM | rbenv | None... manual installs | chruby | asdf | mise | Docker (base images) | nix |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | 40% | 34% | 22% | 4% | – | – | – | – |
| 2018 | 39% | 35% | 17% | 5% | – | – | – | – |
| 2020 | 35% | 43% | 3% | 7% | 9% | – | – | – |
| 2022 | 29% | 44% | 2% | 6% | 17% | – | – | – |
| 2024 | 17% | 33% | 1% | 6% | 21% | 2% | 18.9% | 0.8% |
| 2026 | 17.4% | 39.4% | 1.7% | 4.8% | 20.1% | 37.6% | 25.4% | 2.7% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ruby-and-rails-version-updates-which-ruby-version-manager-are-you-using)

**Community insight from Jeff Dickey**

> My career started with Ruby around 2010 and I remember using rvm and found the mechanics of how it worked fascinating. Ever since, I wanted to build a polyglot version manager that solved all of the problems I saw with dev environment setup. It's incredible to see my ideas having such an impact in the Ruby/Rails community. I also recently GA'ed precompiled Ruby binaries for mise and am happy to see that folks really seem to love them.
>
> — Jeff Dickey, **Creator** of [mise](https://mise.jdx.dev/)

### What versions of Rails are you using in your applications?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Rails 8.1.z: 1,139 (64%)
- Rails 8.0.z: 685 (38%)
- Rails 7.2.z: 636 (36%)
- Rails 7.1.z: 257 (14%)
- Rails 7.0.z: 156 (9%)
- Rails 6.x: 197 (11%)
- Rails 5.x: 114 (6%)
- Rails 4.x: 53 (3%)
- Rails 3.x and older: 44 (2%)
- Rails - main (git branch): 31 (2%)

Base: 1,790 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ruby-and-rails-version-updates-what-versions-of-rails-are-you-using-in-your-applications)

### How long has your Ruby on Rails application been in development?

Percent of respondents.

- Under 1 year: 105 (6%)
- 1-3 years: 208 (12%)
- 3-6 years: 314 (18%)
- 7-10 years: 364 (20%)
- 10-13 years: 387 (22%)
- 13-16 years: 234 (13%)
- 16+ years: 167 (9%)

Base: 1,779 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ruby-and-rails-version-updates-how-long-has-your-ruby-on-rails-application-been-in-development)

### What keeps you from keeping your Ruby and Rails versions up-to-date?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Not enough time: 683 (55%)
- Not considered a priority: 589 (48%)
- Third-party dependencies: 369 (30%)
- Lack reliable automated tests: 158 (13%)
- Don't have the budget: 143 (12%)
- Lack a strategy for this: 143 (12%)
- Planning a rewrite: 71 (6%)

Base: 1,236 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ruby-and-rails-version-updates-what-keeps-you-from-keeping-your-ruby-and-rails-versions-up-to-date)

**Community insight from Ernesto Tagwerker**

> Two years ago, in the Rails 2024 survey, before AI coding tools were part of daily work for most of us, the top reasons teams gave for not upgrading Rails or Ruby were basically the same as this year: "not enough time," "not enough budget," and "not a priority." That tells us something important. If AI tooling had ever been the missing piece, that list would have shifted by now. It hasn't, because this was never a tooling problem, it's an engineering culture problem.
>
> At FastRuby, we've seen firsthand AI noticeably speed up the mechanical parts of an upgrade: untangling old dependencies, addressing deprecation warnings, and triaging a flaky test suite. But the customers who come to us still running Rails 6 or Ruby 2.x weren't stuck because the tools didn't exist. They're carrying years of technical debt in dependencies nobody made time to address, and no amount of AI assistance fixes a roadmap that never made room for the upgrade. "Not enough time" and "no budget" are just more polite ways of saying "not a priority." Until that changes, neither will the survey results.
>
> — Ernesto Tagwerker, **Founder** & **CTO** of [FastRuby](https://www.fastruby.io/)

## Configuration

How Rails applications are configured and what they integrate with.

### What are you primarily working on?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | Monolith | Hybrid | Microservices |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2018 | 62% | 29% | 9% |
| 2020 | 68% | 25% | 8% |
| 2022 | 72% | 21% | 7% |
| 2024 | 77% | 17% | 6% |
| 2026 | 80.7% | 15.6% | 3.7% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=configuration-what-are-you-primarily-working-on)

### What third-party email services do your Rails apps integrate with?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Sendgrid: 486 (36%)
- Amazon SES: 420 (31%)
- Postmark: 311 (23%)
- Mailgun: 297 (22%)
- Mailchimp: 179 (13%)
- Resend: 107 (8%)
- Mailtrap: 80 (6%)
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): 77 (6%)
- Iterable: 21 (2%)
- Sparkpost: 20 (1%)

Base: 1,363 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: MailPace (formerly OhMySMTP), SendPro (formerly Flowmailer)

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=configuration-what-third-party-email-services-do-your-rails-apps-integrate-with)

### Which Active Job adapters do you use to process background jobs?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Sidekiq: 1,022 (61%)
- Solid Queue: 589 (35%)
- Delayed Job: 202 (12%)
- GoodJob: 196 (12%)
- Resque: 103 (6%)
- Shoryuken: 40 (2%)
- Que: 18 (1%)
- Sneakers: 12 (0.7%)
- Sucker Punch: 8 (0.5%)

Base: 1,666 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=configuration-which-active-job-adapters-do-you-use-to-process-background-jobs)

**Community insight from Rosa Gutiérrez**

> It's been 2 years since Solid Queue 1.0 was launched and included by default in Rails. It's what you get when you run \`rails new\`. I'm very pleased to see that not everyone is automatically deleting it afterwards! 😅 Maybe there are even brave folks who are migrating their existing apps to it from another backend.
>
> In the last couple of years, all big features have been contributed to or heavily requested by the community: single process mode, dynamic recurring tasks, fibers, batches... we're close to version 2.0 now, and I hope it continues maturing and improving, and becoming a boring, reliable piece that people don't need to think about because it just works.
>
> — Rosa Gutiérrez, **Principal Programmer** at [37signals](https://37signals.com/)

### Do any of your Rails applications have a companion native mobile app?

Percent of respondents.

- No — web only: 1,090 (63%)
- Yes — both iOS and Android: 558 (32%)
- Yes — iOS (App Store): 70 (4%)
- Yes — Android (Google Play): 24 (1%)

Base: 1,742 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=configuration-do-any-of-your-rails-applications-have-a-companion-native-mobile-app)

### How is your companion mobile app built?

Asked of respondents with a companion native app. Select all that apply. Percent of those respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- A fully custom native app consuming our Rails API: 210 (33%)
- React Native / Expo: 206 (32%)
- Hotwire Native / Turbo Native (iOS and/or Android): 127 (20%)
- Flutter: 70 (11%)
- Capacitor / Ionic: 19 (3%)

Base: 635 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=configuration-how-is-your-companion-mobile-app-built)

## Learning

How Rails developers built their skills and stay connected to the community.

### What was your level of web programming expertise before learning Ruby on Rails?

Percent of respondents.

- None: 305 (17%)
- Less than 2 years: 502 (28%)
- 2 - 5 years: 430 (24%)
- More than 5 years: 550 (31%)

Base: 1,787 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-was-your-level-of-web-programming-expertise-before-learning-ruby-on-rails)

### In the first two years of learning Ruby on Rails, what methods did you use?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Built and deployed my own application: 1,302 (73%)
- Watched videos/tutorials: 1,144 (64%)
- Worked on an existing application: 883 (49%)
- Read some/most of a book: 853 (48%)
- Read all of a book: 653 (37%)
- Completed all of a course: 387 (22%)
- Completed some/most of a course: 369 (21%)
- AI/LLM-assisted learning: 74 (4%)

Base: 1,785 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-in-the-first-two-years-of-learning-ruby-on-rails-what-methods-did-you-use)

### Of these methods of learning, which did you feel worked best for you?

Percent of respondents.

- Built and deployed my own application: 656 (39%)
- Worked on an existing application: 409 (25%)
- Watched videos/tutorials: 186 (11%)
- Read all of a book: 167 (10%)
- Read some/most of a book: 112 (7%)
- Completed all of a course: 85 (5%)
- Completed some/most of a course: 29 (2%)
- AI/LLM-assisted learning: 22 (1%)

Base: 1,666 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-of-these-methods-of-learning-which-did-you-feel-worked-best-for-you)

**Community insight from Amanda Perino**

> What a difference two years makes. The last community survey feels like another lifetime! Almost overnight, agents have become one of the first resources developers reach for when researching, learning, and building, so they've become an important audience for the Rails Foundation, too. We now need to make discovering, learning, and embracing Rails as seamless for agents as it is for humans.
>
> For the Rails Foundation, the mission remains the same- we still want to make sure someone learns about Rails (wherever they ask the question) and gets quickly from idea to building a working MVP. But it requires a shift in strategy and how we think about documentation, education, and marketing for both humans and agents.
>
> We have a lot of work to do in this new agentic world, but the opportunity for Rails is huge, so we're excited about what the future holds.
>
> — Amanda Perino, **Executive Director**, [Rails Foundation](https://rubyonrails.org/foundation)

### If you attended a bootcamp and/or school for learning to code...which one(s)?

Write-in responses, listed by number of mentions. Percentages are of respondents who answered this question.

**Most Mentioned**

1. Le Wagon (16%)
2. Flatiron School (3%)
3. The Odin Project (3%)
4. General Assembly (2%)
5. Dev Bootcamp (2%)
6. Big Nerd Ranch (2%)
7. Epitech (2%)
8. The Iron Yard (2%)
9. Turing School (2%)
10. Makers Academy (2%)

**Other Mentions**

- École 42
- App Academy
- Launch School
- Career Foundry
- Epita
- The Hacking Project
- Udemy
- CodeUp
- Rolemodel Software Craftsmanship Academy
- Treinadev

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-if-you-attended-a-bootcamp-and-or-school-for-learning-to-code-which-one-s)

### What type(s) of educational content helps you learn the most effectively?

Respondents could pick up to three. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Documentation: 951 (54%)
- Rails Guides: 929 (52%)
- Blog Posts: 907 (51%)
- Books: 582 (33%)
- AI/LLM tools: 561 (32%)
- Videocasts: 506 (29%)
- Q&A Sites (forums / stackoverflow): 251 (14%)
- Workshops: 78 (4%)
- Podcasts: 72 (4%)
- Live Streamers: 29 (2%)

Base: 1,770 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-type-s-of-educational-content-helps-you-learn-the-most-effectively)

**Community insight from John Athayde**

> The Rails Guides were essential in my growth in the framework over the past two decades and I loved being able to work with the docs team and foundation to reimagine and update them for a new generation of Rails programmers. The knowledge isn't just about how to do something but why we do things in Rails and the convention that it provides giving us (and agents!) the power to write and ship effective software that's still easy to read and understand.
>
> — John Athayde, **Owner**, [Meticulous](https://www.meticulous.com)

### Have you been to a conference (regional or bigger) for Ruby and/or Rails in the last year?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | Yes | No |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | 30% | 70% |
| 2018 | 24% | 76% |
| 2020 | 23% | 77% |
| 2022 | 23% | 77% |
| 2024 | 26% | 74% |
| 2026 | 28% | 72% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-have-you-been-to-a-conference-regional-or-bigger-for-ruby-and-or-rails-in-the-last-year)

### What conference(s) are you hoping to attend in the coming year?

Write-in responses, ranked by number of mentions. Rails World led by a wide margin: 30% of respondents plan to attend.

**Top 10**

1. 1. Rails World
2. 2. EuRuKo
3. 3. Brighton Ruby
4. 4. RubyConf
5. 5. RubyKaigi
6. 6. Tropical.rb
7. 7. Blue Ridge Ruby
8. 8. Rocky Mountain Ruby
9. 9. Helvetic Ruby
10. 10. SF Ruby

**Other Mentions**

- TinyRuby
- Balkan Ruby
- Kaigi on Rails
- Rails Girls
- Baltic Ruby
- Blastoff Rails
- RubyConf Austria
- Deccan Queen on Rails
- WrocLove.rb
- XO Ruby

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-conference-s-are-you-hoping-to-attend-in-the-coming-year)

### Do you participate in Ruby/Rails user groups?

Percent of respondents who said yes, by survey year. Local in-person and online groups were asked as separate questions. Online groups were first asked in 2020.

| Survey year | Online | Local in person |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | – | 45.6% |
| 2018 | – | 37.9% |
| 2020 | 47% | 34.8% |
| 2022 | 44.3% | 22.7% |
| 2024 | 40.5% | 27.4% |
| 2026 | 34.8% | 26.3% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-do-you-participate-in-ruby-rails-user-groups)

**Community insight from Débora Fernandes**

> It's amazing to see the Ruby/Rails community more connected and active than ever in recent years! Unlike the last decade, when events were mostly local, it feels like borders have simply disappeared. We've truly become a global community of Ruby Friends!
>
> As an attendee, it's exciting to arrive at an event knowing that, beyond the talks, the conversations I'll have in the hallways will be just as enriching, thanks to the diversity of people and perspectives we have today.
>
> And especially as an organizer of larger events like Tropical on Rails 24, and local and consistent ones like Rails Girls São Paulo a project that brings and encourages women to code, seeing Brazil grow in the community's top of mind is incredibly exciting. The numbers around people's intention to visit Brazil make this even more special. I also think this representation comes from all the people who have been organizing and nurturing local events here since Rails was launched. That work over the years has helped build a very strong and welcoming community in Brazil.
>
> The Brazilian vibe, at home or abroad, has been winning people over in recent years, and I believe we'll see more and more people visiting Brazil, joining our events, and speaking at them!
>
> I hope to see our welcome DNA become an increasingly strong part of our wonderfully diverse community!
>
> — Débora Fernandes, Débora is a software engineer and has been working with Rails since 2012. She is one of the Rails Girls São Paulo organizers, and has spent years helping grow the local Ruby community through events, mentoring, and teaching programming.

### What are your favorite Rails-related technical podcasts?

**Top 10**

1. [1. Remote Ruby](https://www.remoteruby.com/)
2. [2. On Rails](https://podcast.rubyonrails.org/)
3. [3. The Bike Shed](https://bikeshed.thoughtbot.com/)
4. [4. Maintainable Software Podcast](https://maintainable.fm/)
5. [5. IndieRails](https://www.indierails.com/)
6. [6. The Rework Podcast](https://37signals.com/podcast/)
7. [7. The Ruby on Rails Podcast](https://www.therubyonrailspodcast.com/)
8. [8. Ruby Rogues](https://topenddevs.com/podcasts/ruby-rogues)
9. [9. Code with Jason](https://www.codewithjason.com/podcast/)
10. [10. Code and the Coding Coders who Code It](https://podcast.drbragg.dev/)

**Honorable Mentions**

- [The Ruby AI Podcast](https://www.therubyaipodcast.com/)
- [Dead Code](https://shows.acast.com/dead-code)

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-are-your-favorite-rails-related-technical-podcasts)

**Community insight from Robby Russell**

> Honestly, I asked our team on multiple occasions to double- and triple-check this data. I knew this was a write-in question, so seeing both *[Maintainable](https://maintainable.fm/)* and *[On Rails](https://podcast.rubyonrails.org/)* show up so prominently seemed a little suspicious.
>
> Turns out… the data is accurate.
>
> It’s an honor to host two podcasts with their own particular flavors. *Maintainable* lets me talk with people about the messy, long-term realities of building and maintaining software. *On Rails* is where guests share how Ruby on Rails is part of the secret sauce behind real-world applications. At the time of this survey, *On Rails* had only been on the air for a little over a year.
>
> It’s a delight to know these conversations are connecting with people, and a privilege to see both shows mentioned alongside so many other talented podcasts in the Ruby and Rails community.
>
> Thanks to everyone who listens, to our real and occasionally not-so-real sponsors, and most importantly, to the guests who keep showing up to talk shop with us.
>
> — Robby Russell, Robby is the co-founder and CEO of [Planet Argon](https://www.planetargon.com/), a software consultancy specializing in Ruby on Rails. He is the creator of [Oh My Zsh](https://ohmyz.sh/) and hosts the *[Maintainable](https://maintainable.fm/)* and *[On Rails](https://podcast.rubyonrails.org/)* podcasts, where he talks with people about building, maintaining, and evolving software for the long haul.

### What are your favorite Rails-related newsletters and blogs?

**Top Ten**

1. [1. Ruby Weekly](https://rubyweekly.com/)
2. [2. This Week in Rails](https://world.hey.com/this.week.in.rails)
3. [3. Short Ruby Newsletter](https://newsletter.shortruby.com/)
4. [4. Four Line Fridays](https://speedshop.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1aa0f43522f6d9ef96d1c5d6f&id=840412962b)
5. [5. Evil Martians](https://evilmartians.com/chronicles)
6. [6. 37Signals Dev Blog](https://dev.37signals.com/)
7. [7. Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots](https://thoughtbot.com/blog)
8. [8. Byroot's Blog](https://byroot.github.io/)
9. [9. Hotwire Weekly](https://hotwire.io/newsletter)
10. [10. Robo Ruby- Ruby AI Newsletter](https://rubyai.beehiiv.com/)

**Honorable Mentions**

- [One Ruby Thing](https://andycroll.com/ruby/)
- [Joe Masilotti](https://masilotti.com/)

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-are-your-favorite-rails-related-newsletters-and-blogs)

**Community insight from Peter Cooper**

> It's said that eighty percent of success is showing up and apparently showing up (almost) every week for 16 years has sweet rewards, like being at the top of this chart! I want to dedicate this achievement to the Rubyists who are no longer with us but were friends or influences along the way, including Jason Seifer, Jim Weirich, and Noah Gibbs.
>
> — Peter Cooper, Peter Cooper is the founder of [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/), the team behind [Ruby Weekly](https://rubyweekly.com/) and [JavaScript Weekly](https://javascriptweekly.com/).

**Community insight from Irina Nazarova**

> Evil Martians blog is the heart of our team. We write not only to share learnings with the big tech community, but to share them with each other too! This process is contagious, and it works thanks to all the support we are getting from our Editor-in-Chief, Travis Turner.
>
> — Irina Nazarova, **CEO**, [Evil Martians](https://evilmartians.com/)

### Who are your favorite live coding streamers or screencasts?

**Top 10**

1. [1. GoRails](https://gorails.com/)
2. [2. ThePrimeagen](https://www.youtube.com/ThePrimeagen)
3. [3. DHH](https://www.youtube.com/@dhh37)
4. [4. Typecraft](https://typecraft.dev/)
5. [5. Tenderlove Making](https://tenderlovemaking.com/)
6. [6. Drifting Ruby](https://www.driftingruby.com/)
7. [7. Deanin](https://deanin.com/)
8. [8. ChaelCodes](https://www.chael.codes/)
9. [9. SupeRails](https://superails.com/)
10. [10. Fabio Akita](https://akitaonrails.com/en/)

**Honorable Mentions**

- [Justin Searls](https://justin.searls.co/)
- [Mix & Go](https://mixandgo.com/)

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-who-are-your-favorite-live-coding-streamers-or-screencasts)

### What Rails-related books do you recommend others read?

**Top 12**

1. [POODR](https://www.poodr.com/)
2. [Agile Web Development with Rails](https://pragprog.com/titles/rails8/agile-web-development-with-rails-8/)
3. [Layered Design for Ruby on Rails Applications](https://evilmartians.com/products/layered-design-book)
4. [The Rails Way](https://leanpub.com/therails8way)
5. [Programming Ruby 3.3](https://pragprog.com/titles/ruby5/programming-ruby-3-3-5th-edition/)
6. [Rails Tutorial (Michael Hartl)](https://www.railstutorial.org/)
7. [Eloquent Ruby](https://pragprog.com/titles/eruby2/eloquent-ruby-second-edition/)
8. [99 Bottles of OOP](https://sandimetz.com/99bottles)
9. [Sustainable Web Development with Ruby on Rails](https://sustainable-rails.com/)
10. [Metaprogramming Ruby](https://pragprog.com/titles/ppmetr2/metaprogramming-ruby-2/)
11. [The Well-Grounded Rubyist](https://www.manning.com/books/the-well-grounded-rubyist-fourth-edition)
12. [High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails](https://pragprog.com/titles/aapsql/high-performance-postgresql-for-rails/)

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=learning-what-rails-related-books-do-you-recommend-others-read)

## Gems & Open Source

Community contribution and the gem ecosystem.

### How often do you contribute to open source projects?

Percent of respondents.

- Daily: 63 (4%)
- A few times a week: 96 (5%)
- A few times a month: 176 (10%)
- A few times a year: 473 (27%)
- Annually: 82 (5%)
- Rarely: 619 (35%)
- Never: 267 (15%)

Base: 1,776 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=gems-and-open-source-how-often-do-you-contribute-to-open-source-projects)

### Which Ruby gems frustrate you the most?

Write-in responses, ranked by number of mentions. Percent of respondents who answered this question. Tied answers share a rank.

**Top 10**

1. 1. devise (12%)
2. 2. nokogiri (3%)
3. 3. rspec (2%)
4. 4. activeadmin (2%)
5. 5. rubocop (2%)
6. 6. webpacker (1%)
7. 7. pundit (1%)
8. 7. factory_bot (1%)
9. 9. sidekiq (1%)
10. 10. pagy (0.8%)

**Other Responses**

- haml
- jbuilder
- ransack
- cancancan
- omniauth
- active_model_serializers
- carrierwave
- grpc
- turbo
- graphql

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=gems-and-open-source-which-ruby-gems-frustrate-you-the-most)

### Which Ruby gems do you love?

Write-in responses, ranked by number of mentions. Percent of respondents who answered this question. Tied answers share a rank.

**Top 10**

1. 1. devise (8%)
2. 2. sidekiq (7%)
3. 3. rubocop (6%)
4. 4. ruby_llm (4%)
5. 5. rspec (3%)
6. 6. pagy (3%)
7. 7. pry (2%)
8. 7. pundit (2%)
9. 9. puma (2%)
10. 10. ransack (1%)

**Other Responses**

- view_component
- standard
- turbo-rails
- herb
- minitest
- strong_migrations
- bullet
- phlex
- good_job
- kamal

[View list](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=gems-and-open-source-which-ruby-gems-do-you-love)

**Community insight from Carmine Paolino**

> Ruby was the first programming language I fell in love with. Its relentless focus on beauty, aesthetics, taste, and the joy of programming made me feel seen. People cared about how code felt to read and write. I missed that.
>
> When I returned at the end of 2024 to build Chat with Work, I couldn't believe how familiar Rails still felt. Fifteen years later, Active Record still looked like Active Record. I could come back and build things. I wanted that same feeling from my AI code, and RubyLLM grew out of that desire.
>
> Finding RubyLLM among the five most-loved gems is an incredible welcome home. What started as something I needed for my own application has grown through people building things I hadn't imagined, sharing ideas, and contributing. To everyone who wrote it in: thank you. I hope RubyLLM gives you some of the same enjoyment that brought me back to Ruby.
>
> — Carmine Paolino, **Creator** of [RubyLLM](https://rubyllm.com), **founder** of [Chat with Work](https://chatwithwork.com), and [Berlin.rb](https://berlinrb.org) organizer

## JavaScript + Rails

How JavaScript sits alongside Rails in modern applications.

### What tool(s) do you use to manage your JavaScript libraries?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Yarn: 899 (53%)
- NPM: 672 (40%)
- Importmaps: 599 (35%)
- Vite: 442 (26%)
- Webpack: 314 (19%)
- pnpm: 227 (13%)
- Bun: 192 (11%)

Base: 1,692 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=javascript-and-rails-what-tool-s-do-you-use-to-manage-your-javascript-libraries)

### Which JavaScript libraries or frameworks do you use with Rails? Check all that apply.

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Turbo (Hotwire): 1,109 (65%)
- Stimulus: 1,009 (59%)
- React: 686 (40%)
- jQuery: 470 (28%)
- Vue: 230 (13%)
- Next.js: 96 (6%)
- Alpine.js: 69 (4%)
- Angular: 65 (4%)
- htmx: 54 (3%)
- Svelte: 53 (3%)
- Ember: 49 (3%)
- Backbone: 36 (2%)
- Handlebars: 24 (1%)

Base: 1,705 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Preact 1%, Elm 1%, Unpoly 0.4%

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=javascript-and-rails-which-javascript-libraries-or-frameworks-do-you-use-with-rails-check-all-that-apply)

### What JavaScript testing frameworks are you using to write tests?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Jest: 457 (36%)
- Playwright: 436 (34%)
- None: 406 (32%)
- Cypress: 177 (14%)
- React Testing Library: 105 (8%)
- Jasmine: 74 (6%)
- Mocha: 69 (5%)
- Puppeteer: 56 (4%)
- Karma: 20 (2%)
- QUnit: 17 (1%)

Base: 1,284 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: WebdriverIO, Ava

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=javascript-and-rails-what-javascript-testing-frameworks-are-you-using-to-write-tests)

## Code Integrity & Security

Testing, monitoring, and staying on top of vulnerabilities.

### What testing frameworks are you using to test your Rails app(s)?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Rspec: 1,330 (75%)
- Minitest: 726 (41%)
- Capybara: 683 (38%)
- Cucumber: 117 (7%)
- Test::Unit: 105 (6%)
- None: 46 (3%)

Base: 1,777 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-what-testing-frameworks-are-you-using-to-test-your-rails-app-s)

### What is your current code to test/spec ratio?

Percent of respondents.

- 1-20%: 85 (5%)
- 21-40%: 85 (5%)
- 41-60%: 155 (9%)
- 61-80%: 270 (15%)
- 81-100%: 391 (22%)
- 100-150%: 171 (10%)
- 150%+: 132 (8%)
- Do not know: 456 (26%)

Base: 1,745 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-what-is-your-current-code-to-test-spec-ratio)

### What is your go-to Ruby debugger tool?

Percent of respondents.

- Pry: 464 (27%)
- Ruby Debug: 353 (21%)
- puts "": 321 (19%)
- Byebug: 268 (16%)
- Binding.irb: 184 (11%)
- RubyMine Debugger: 128 (7%)

Base: 1,718 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-what-is-your-go-to-ruby-debugger-tool)

### Which application monitoring services do you use?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Sentry: 755 (48%)
- Datadog: 403 (26%)
- AppSignal: 294 (19%)
- New Relic: 275 (18%)
- Grafana: 269 (17%)
- Honeybadger: 198 (13%)
- CloudWatch: 197 (13%)
- Rollbar: 178 (11%)
- Bugsnag: 134 (9%)
- Airbrake: 81 (5%)
- Scout: 56 (4%)
- Elastic APM: 36 (2%)
- Honeycomb: 31 (2%)

Base: 1,568 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Sumo

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-which-application-monitoring-services-do-you-use)

**Community insight from Nate Berkopec**

> It's not hard to see why Sentry has become so popular. It's a great performance monitor, and you also get great error monitoring, frontend RUM, monitors, metrics and more all in the same place. In the past 2 years it's become a full o11y platform, and it's easy to use for small teams. For larger enterprise orgs, Datadog is still great. Also, it's not a coincidence: the top two options also have the best MCPs of all their competition.
>
> — Nate Berkopec, Nate Berkopec is the owner of [Speedshop](https://www.speedshop.co/), a Ruby on Rails performance consultancy. He is the author of several books on Ruby and Rails performance.

### What code quality tools do you use?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Rubocop: 1,490 (87%)
- Brakeman: 1,104 (64%)
- Simplecov: 725 (42%)
- Standard (gem): 314 (18%)
- Codecov: 211 (12%)
- Reek: 116 (7%)
- Code Climate: 96 (6%)
- Rubycritic: 89 (5%)
- None: 62 (4%)
- Flog: 59 (3%)

Base: 1,720 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Coveralls, Skunk

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-what-code-quality-tools-do-you-use)

### What tools are you using to track security vulnerabilities?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Dependabot: 1,058 (63%)
- Brakeman: 1,049 (62%)
- bundler-audit: 512 (30%)
- GitHub Advanced Security / CodeQL: 221 (13%)
- None: 149 (9%)
- Snyk: 125 (7%)
- Renovate: 73 (4%)
- Trivy: 50 (3%)
- Aikido Security: 39 (2%)
- Depfu: 36 (2%)

Base: 1,680 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-what-tools-are-you-using-to-track-security-vulnerabilities)

### Where does your primary Rails application feel most fragile right now?

Respondents could pick up to three. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- It doesn't feel particularly fragile: 496 (30%)
- JavaScript and frontend behavior: 413 (25%)
- Test suite coverage is thin or unreliable: 301 (18%)
- Third-party API integrations and webhooks: 299 (18%)
- Inherited code I don't fully understand: 293 (18%)
- Background jobs and async processing: 263 (16%)
- Deployment and infrastructure: 223 (13%)
- Database schema complexity: 197 (12%)
- Multi-tenancy: 158 (9%)
- Authentication and authorization: 154 (9%)
- Payment processing or billing: 152 (9%)
- Search functionality: 149 (9%)
- File uploads and storage: 95 (6%)

Base: 1,671 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=code-integrity-and-security-where-does-your-primary-rails-application-feel-most-fragile-right-now)

## Deployment & DevOps

Where Rails apps run and how they get there.

### How often do you deploy your Rails applications to production?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | Multiple times a day | Multiple times a week | Multiple times a month | Multiple times a quarter |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2009 | 13% | 29% | 38% | – |
| 2012 | 26% | 33% | 29% | – |
| 2014 | 27% | 35% | 26% | – |
| 2016 | 26% | 34% | 32% | – |
| 2018 | 34% | 35% | 26% | – |
| 2020 | 36.9% | 33.2% | 24.2% | – |
| 2022 | 39% | 31% | 24% | – |
| 2024 | 37% | 36% | 20% | 5% |
| 2026 | 41.2% | 36.2% | 17.9% | 4.7% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-how-often-do-you-deploy-your-rails-applications-to-production)

### Where is your source code hosted?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Github: 1,520 (86%)
- Gitlab: 254 (14%)
- Self-hosted repository: 183 (10%)
- BitBucket: 76 (4%)
- Azure Repos: 15 (0.8%)
- AWS CodeCommit: 12 (0.7%)
- Google Cloud Source: 7 (0.4%)

Base: 1,773 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-where-is-your-source-code-hosted)

### Which automated deployment tools do you use? (select all that apply)

Percent of respondents by survey year. Select all that apply, so totals add up to more than 100%. Kamal grew from 2.4% in 2024 to 23.8% in 2026, after Rails 8 made it the default deployment tool for new apps.

| Survey year | Continuous Deployment via CI | Git | Kamal | Capistrano | None |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | 28.4% | 52.4% | – | 64.6% | 6.8% |
| 2018 | 35.1% | 59.4% | – | 49.1% | 7.5% |
| 2020 | 51.9% | 37.1% | – | 34.4% | 8.4% |
| 2022 | 57.2% | 37.5% | – | 25.3% | 7.6% |
| 2024 | 57.4% | 33.3% | 2.4% | 17.5% | 8.6% |
| 2026 | 59.9% | 39.9% | 23.8% | 15.5% | 7.5% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-which-automated-deployment-tools-do-you-use-select-all-that-apply)

### Where do you host your production Rails app(s)?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- AWS (EC2 / ECS / Elastic Beanstalk): 811 (49%)
- Heroku: 392 (23%)
- Hetzner: 306 (18%)
- Bare metal (self-managed hardware): 254 (15%)
- DigitalOcean: 193 (12%)
- Google Cloud (GCP): 122 (7%)
- Render: 79 (5%)
- Fly.io: 76 (5%)
- Linode: 67 (4%)
- Microsoft Azure: 50 (3%)

Base: 1,669 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Hatchbox, Railway, Coolify, Vultr

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-where-do-you-host-your-production-rails-app-s)

### Which Rails Servers are you using in production?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Puma: 1,577 (92%)
- Passenger: 211 (12%)
- Unicorn: 99 (6%)
- Falcon: 49 (3%)

Base: 1,718 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-which-rails-servers-are-you-using-in-production)

### Which Continuous Integration (CI) servers do you use? (select all that apply)

Percent of respondents by survey year. Select all that apply, so totals add up to more than 100%. 4% use no CI.

| Survey year | Github Actions | Circle CI | Gitlab | Jenkins | Buildkite | Semaphore | Heroku CI |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | – | 26% | – | 24% | – | 8% | – |
| 2018 | – | 30.7% | 14.9% | 23.9% | – | 7.6% | – |
| 2020 | – | 30.6% | 18.7% | 16.9% | – | 6.9% | – |
| 2022 | 43.2% | 28.6% | 16.7% | 13% | – | 5% | – |
| 2024 | 54.8% | 19.6% | 14.4% | 7.1% | 4.7% | 3.1% | 4.8% |
| 2026 | 69.3% | 16.2% | 14.5% | 6.8% | 5% | 3.5% | 3% |

Values: percent of respondents.

Runner-ups in 2026: CodePipeline (AWS) 2%, Bitbucket Pipelines 2%, Travis CI 0.4%, Codeship 0.1%

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-which-continuous-integration-ci-servers-do-you-use-select-all-that-apply)

### What CDN(s) do you use? (select all that apply)

Percent of respondents by survey year. Select all that apply, so totals add up to more than 100%. 22% don't use a CDN.

| Survey year | CloudFlare | CloudFront | Cloudinary | Google Cloud CDN | Fastly | BunnyCDN | Akamai |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2018 | 30% | 57% | – | – | – | – | 5% |
| 2020 | 35% | 51% | – | – | 7% | – | 2% |
| 2022 | 41% | 46% | – | – | 7% | – | 2% |
| 2024 | 35% | 28% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 1% | 1% |
| 2026 | 45.4% | 32.2% | 3.6% | 3.3% | 2.5% | 2% | 1.1% |

Values: percent of respondents.

Runner-ups in 2026: Azure CDN 1%

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=deployment-and-devops-what-cdn-s-do-you-use-select-all-that-apply)

## Databases

Which data stores back Rails applications.

### Which nosql databases do you use in production? (select all that apply)

Percent of respondents by survey year. Select all that apply, so totals add up to more than 100%.

| Survey year | Redis | PostgreSQL (via JSONB / HStore) | ElasticSearch | MongoDB | DynamoDB | Neo4j | Cassandra |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | 69.8% | – | 30.8% | 30.1% | – | 2.4% | 3.5% |
| 2018 | 71.6% | – | 33.3% | 25.4% | – | 2.6% | 4.1% |
| 2020 | 64.7% | – | 29.3% | 15.1% | – | 1.7% | 2.3% |
| 2022 | 64.4% | – | 26.9% | 15% | – | 1.2% | 1.4% |
| 2024 | 63.6% | 27.1% | 20.8% | 7.5% | 5.3% | 1% | 0.9% |
| 2026 | 76.3% | 45.9% | 25.4% | 8.8% | 7.6% | 1.1% | 0.5% |

Values: percent of respondents.

Runner-ups in 2026: CouchDB 0.4%

No longer asked: Riak

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=databases-which-nosql-databases-do-you-use-in-production-select-all-that-apply)

### Which relational databases do you use in production?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- PostgreSQL: 1,486 (84%)
- MySQL: 411 (23%)
- SQLite: 349 (20%)
- Aurora: 154 (9%)
- MariaDB: 119 (7%)
- MSSQL: 54 (3%)
- Oracle: 20 (1%)

Base: 1,774 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=databases-which-relational-databases-do-you-use-in-production)

### Which database would you prefer to use in production?

Percent of respondents by survey year.

| Survey year | PostgreSQL | SQLite | MySQL | MariaDB |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | 83.9% | – | 14.1% | – |
| 2018 | 86.9% | – | 11.8% | – |
| 2020 | 84.6% | – | 8.9% | – |
| 2022 | 85% | – | 8.7% | – |
| 2024 | 81.9% | 3.9% | 7.3% | 1.3% |
| 2026 | 84.5% | 7.3% | 5.8% | 1.9% |

Values: percent of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=databases-which-database-would-you-prefer-to-use-in-production)

## OS, Editors & Servers

The tools developers reach for on their local machines.

### Which operating system do you primarily use for local development?

Percent of respondents.

- Apple macOS: 1,322 (75%)
- Linux (or unix-variant): 379 (22%)
- Microsoft Windows / WSL2: 55 (3%)

Base: 1,756 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=os-editors-and-servers-which-operating-system-do-you-primarily-use-for-local-development)

### Are you using Docker for local development?

Percent of respondents.

- Yes: 907 (52%)
- No: 837 (48%)

Base: 1,744 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=os-editors-and-servers-are-you-using-docker-for-local-development)

### What is your preferred code editor?

Percent of respondents by survey year. Zed (10.2%) and Cursor (5.4%) were write-in responses in 2026 — they weren't offered as formal options in prior surveys.

| Survey year | Visual Studio Code | Vim-based | RubyMine | Zed | Sublime Text | Cursor | Emacs |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2016 | – | 28.1% | – | – | 37.7% | – | 3.2% |
| 2018 | – | 30.4% | – | – | 35.4% | – | 5.3% |
| 2020 | 31.2% | 20.2% | 15% | – | 16.1% | – | 3.4% |
| 2022 | 42% | 17% | 18.2% | – | 11.1% | – | 2.7% |
| 2024 | 43.4% | 19.2% | 18.4% | – | 7% | – | 3.3% |
| 2026 | 44.7% | 23% | 18.9% | 10.2% | 6.8% | 5.4% | 3.4% |

Values: percent of respondents.

Runner-ups in 2026: TextMate 1%, IntelliJ 1%

No longer asked: Atom

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=os-editors-and-servers-what-is-your-preferred-code-editor)

**Community insight from Robby Russell**

> I have a feeling this answer will look very different the next time we run this survey. The line between code editor, IDE, and AI coding environment is getting increasingly blurry. Maybe by then we’ll all be vibe coding our own editors. 🤷
>
> — Robby Russell, **Co-founder & CEO**, [Planet Argon](https://www.planetargon.com/)

## AI Adoption

How AI tools are (and aren't) landing in Rails workflows.

### How is your team currently using AI tools in your development workflow?

Percent of respondents.

- Regularly integrated into how we work: 1,011 (57%)
- Actively experimenting; adoption varies by team member: 523 (30%)
- Tried a few things, no settled routine yet: 138 (8%)
- Aware of them but haven't started yet: 38 (2%)
- Evaluated and decided not to use them: 54 (3%)

Base: 1,764 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-how-is-your-team-currently-using-ai-tools-in-your-development-workflow)

### Which AI coding tools or assistants do you use?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Claude Code CLI: 1,196 (70%)
- Claude (web or API): 784 (46%)
- ChatGPT: 551 (32%)
- GitHub Copilot (editor): 408 (24%)
- Codex: 404 (24%)
- Cursor: 348 (20%)
- Gemini: 334 (19%)
- OpenCode: 282 (16%)
- GitHub Copilot CLI: 208 (12%)
- JetBrains AI Assistant: 99 (6%)
- Zed AI: 84 (5%)
- None, I don't use AI coding tools: 58 (3%)
- Amp: 29 (2%)

Base: 1,716 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other responses: Windsurf, Amazon Q Developer, Cline, Aider, Tabnine, Continue.dev

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-which-ai-coding-tools-or-assistants-do-you-use)

### Beyond coding assistance, how is your team exploring AI in relation to your Rails applications?

Select all that apply. Percent of respondents; totals add up to more than 100%.

- Using AI for code review or test generation: 1,208 (71%)
- Building AI-powered features into our product: 1,003 (59%)
- Automating internal workflows: 837 (49%)
- Building internal tools for non-technical staff to query app data: 638 (38%)
- Evaluating AI for customer-facing support: 396 (23%)
- Building CLI tools to access data without an admin dashboard: 296 (17%)
- Coding assistance only, not exploring broader integration: 274 (16%)
- Not exploring AI at all: 72 (4%)

Base: 1,692 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-beyond-coding-assistance-how-is-your-team-exploring-ai-in-relation-to-your-rails-applications)

### AI coding tools are overhyped and won't fundamentally change how I build software.

Percent of respondents.

- Disagree: 627 (36%)
- Strongly disagree: 589 (34%)
- Neutral: 233 (13%)
- Agree: 212 (12%)
- Strongly agree: 95 (5%)

Base: 1,756 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-ai-coding-tools-are-overhyped-and-won-t-fundamentally-change-how-i-build-software)

### I feel frustrated by the growing expectation to use AI in my workflow.

Percent of respondents.

- Disagree: 409 (23%)
- Strongly disagree: 390 (22%)
- Agree: 370 (21%)
- Neutral: 367 (21%)
- Strongly agree: 217 (12%)

Base: 1,753 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-i-feel-frustrated-by-the-growing-expectation-to-use-ai-in-my-workflow)

### I intentionally limit AI to boilerplate tasks so I stay in control of the real problem-solving.

Percent of respondents.

- Disagree: 538 (31%)
- Neutral: 385 (22%)
- Strongly disagree: 356 (20%)
- Agree: 327 (19%)
- Strongly agree: 140 (8%)

Base: 1,746 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-i-intentionally-limit-ai-to-boilerplate-tasks-so-i-stay-in-control-of-the-real-problem-solving)

### The pace of AI advancement makes me anxious about the long-term value of my skills.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 585 (33%)
- Disagree: 353 (20%)
- Neutral: 306 (17%)
- Strongly agree: 302 (17%)
- Strongly disagree: 208 (12%)

Base: 1,754 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-the-pace-of-ai-advancement-makes-me-anxious-about-the-long-term-value-of-my-skills)

### AI tools are here to stay and I've made peace with that, limitations and all.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 785 (45%)
- Strongly agree: 557 (32%)
- Neutral: 242 (14%)
- Disagree: 105 (6%)
- Strongly disagree: 66 (4%)

Base: 1,755 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-ai-tools-are-here-to-stay-and-i-ve-made-peace-with-that-limitations-and-all)

### I've adapted how I work and AI genuinely makes me more capable.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 668 (38%)
- Strongly agree: 635 (36%)
- Neutral: 240 (14%)
- Disagree: 109 (6%)
- Strongly disagree: 100 (6%)

Base: 1,752 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-i-ve-adapted-how-i-work-and-ai-genuinely-makes-me-more-capable)

### Leadership largely ignores AI's impact on how we build software.

Percent of respondents.

- Strongly disagree: 716 (42%)
- Disagree: 534 (31%)
- Neutral: 264 (15%)
- Agree: 158 (9%)
- Strongly agree: 50 (3%)

Base: 1,722 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-leadership-largely-ignores-ai-s-impact-on-how-we-build-software)

### Our team restricts or prohibits AI tools due to risk concerns.

Percent of respondents.

- Strongly disagree: 790 (46%)
- Disagree: 502 (29%)
- Neutral: 192 (11%)
- Agree: 180 (10%)
- Strongly agree: 56 (3%)

Base: 1,720 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-our-team-restricts-or-prohibits-ai-tools-due-to-risk-concerns)

### AI use is limited to experiments; it hasn't made it into our real workflows.

Percent of respondents.

- Strongly disagree: 909 (53%)
- Disagree: 506 (30%)
- Neutral: 141 (8%)
- Agree: 112 (7%)
- Strongly agree: 40 (2%)

Base: 1,708 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-ai-use-is-limited-to-experiments-it-hasn-t-made-it-into-our-real-workflows)

### Our approach to AI adoption feels reactive and poorly thought through.

Percent of respondents.

- Disagree: 492 (29%)
- Strongly disagree: 462 (27%)
- Neutral: 400 (23%)
- Agree: 265 (16%)
- Strongly agree: 89 (5%)

Base: 1,708 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-our-approach-to-ai-adoption-feels-reactive-and-poorly-thought-through)

### We're taking AI seriously and working toward a realistic, balanced stance.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 733 (43%)
- Strongly agree: 424 (25%)
- Neutral: 357 (21%)
- Disagree: 133 (8%)
- Strongly disagree: 67 (4%)

Base: 1,714 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-we-re-taking-ai-seriously-and-working-toward-a-realistic-balanced-stance)

### We have clear policies that actually empower engineers to use AI effectively.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 495 (29%)
- Neutral: 485 (28%)
- Strongly agree: 295 (17%)
- Disagree: 279 (16%)
- Strongly disagree: 153 (9%)

Base: 1,707 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-we-have-clear-policies-that-actually-empower-engineers-to-use-ai-effectively)

### Which AI models do you reach for most in your development work?

Write-in responses, grouped by hand. Percent of respondents who answered; people could name more than one.

- Claude Opus: 635 (55%)
- Claude Sonnet: 301 (26%)
- GPT (OpenAI): 208 (18%)
- Codex (OpenAI): 83 (7%)
- Gemini (Google): 58 (5%)
- Cursor Composer: 53 (5%)
- Kimi (Moonshot): 48 (4%)
- Claude Fable 5: 39 (3%)
- Qwen (Alibaba): 27 (2%)
- DeepSeek: 25 (2%)

Base: 1,146 respondents. Counts are mentions; percentages are of respondents.

Other Responses: Claude (unspecified), GLM / Big Pickle (Zhipu AI), Claude Haiku, MiniMax, Gemma (Google), GitHub Copilot, Grok (xAI), Mistral/Devstral, Local LLMs, Amp

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=ai-adoption-which-ai-models-do-you-reach-for-most-in-your-development-work)

## The Future of Rails

Sentiment on where Rails is heading and what teams are planning next.

### I feel confident security vulnerabilities are being addressed in new Rails releases.

Percent of respondents.

- Totally Agree: 885 (51%)
- Mostly Agree: 672 (39%)
- Neutral: 165 (10%)
- Somewhat Disagree: 11 (0.6%)
- Totally Disagree: 3 (0.2%)

Base: 1,736 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=the-future-of-rails-i-feel-confident-security-vulnerabilities-are-being-addressed-in-new-rails-releases)

### What technical changes have teams taken on, or are considering?

Two questions: what significant technical changes has your team completed in the last 24 months, and what is it planning or evaluating in the next ~12 months? These reflect choices individual teams made for their own codebases and constraints, not recommendations. Select all that apply. Percent of respondents who answered each question (1,659 and 1,509). None in the last 24 months: 5%. None planned: 11%.

| Change | Completed, last 24 months | Planning or evaluating, next 12 months |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Upgrades: Rails version upgrade | 75.5% | 62% |
| Upgrades: Ruby version upgrade | 70.8% | 57.6% |
| AI & the app layer: Adopted AI agents or agentic coding workflows | 40.9% | 19% |
| AI & the app layer: Overhauled the JavaScript / frontend layer | 20.4% | 18.2% |
| AI & the app layer: Replaced or overhauled background job processing | 15.3% | 9.6% |
| AI & the app layer: Replaced or rewrote the authentication system | 10% | 8.2% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Adopted Kamal | 13.5% | 7.3% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Adopted self-hosted CI runners | 7.6% | 4.4% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Consolidated CI pipelines around GitHub Actions | 14.5% | 4.2% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Migrated away from Heroku | 10.8% | 12.5% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Moved to self-hosted infrastructure | 7.3% | 4.4% |
| Infrastructure & deploys: Switched to a different hosting provider | 13.7% | 8.5% |
| Architecture: Consolidated services back into a monolith | 5.7% | 3.6% |
| Architecture: Extracted functionality into Rails Engines | 5.8% | 4.8% |
| Architecture: Introduced Packwerk for modular boundaries | 3.3% | 2.5% |
| Architecture: Merged multiple apps into one | 6.9% | 4.6% |
| Architecture: Migrated to a monorepo | 4.5% | 1.7% |
| Architecture: Moved from monolith toward services | 4.8% | 5.8% |
| Data: Migrated away from SQLite | 1.1% | 0.5% |
| Data: Migrated to a different database engine | 5.1% | 2.5% |
| Data: Migrated to SQLite in production | 2.8% | 1.5% |
| Testing & types: Adopted RBS / Steep for type checking | 1.3% | 1.8% |
| Testing & types: Adopted Sorbet for static type checking | 2.1% | 1.6% |
| Testing & types: Migrated from Minitest to RSpec | 1.9% | 1.1% |
| Testing & types: Migrated from RSpec to Minitest | 5.5% | 4% |
| Testing & types: Shifted to running tests locally before deploying | 4.2% | 3.8% |

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=the-future-of-rails-what-technical-changes-have-teams-taken-on-or-are-considering)

### Ruby on Rails is my server side framework of choice.

Percent of respondents.

- Strongly Agree: 1,232 (72%)
- Agree: 320 (19%)
- Neutral: 95 (6%)
- Disagree: 36 (2%)
- Strongly Disagree: 30 (2%)

Base: 1,713 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=the-future-of-rails-ruby-on-rails-is-my-server-side-framework-of-choice)

### The Rails core team is shepherding the project in the right direction.

Percent of respondents.

- Agree: 730 (43%)
- Strongly Agree: 534 (31%)
- Neutral: 362 (21%)
- Disagree: 44 (3%)
- Strongly Disagree: 33 (2%)

Base: 1,703 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=the-future-of-rails-the-rails-core-team-is-shepherding-the-project-in-the-right-direction)

### I recommend that new developers learn to build Rails apps in 2026.

Percent of respondents.

- Strongly Agree: 793 (46%)
- Agree: 536 (31%)
- Neutral: 254 (15%)
- Disagree: 85 (5%)
- Strongly Disagree: 40 (2%)

Base: 1,708 respondents.

[View chart](https://railsdeveloper.com/survey/2026?q=the-future-of-rails-i-recommend-that-new-developers-learn-to-build-rails-apps-in-2026)

## In Conclusion

AI is no longer a sidebar in Rails development. It showed up throughout this year's responses- in the tools people reach for, the gems they love, and the workflows they're rethinking. The community isn't watching from a distance- we're actively exploring.

Some things remain constant. A few of the same tools, books, and podcasts that have anchored this ecosystem for years are still showing up. And new ones are appearing alongside them.

At Planet Argon, we remain steadfast in our belief that Ruby on Rails is an exceptional platform to invest in, and we're excited to continue supporting its growth.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to the 2026 Rails Community Survey- our ninth edition since 2009. Eighty countries' worth of perspectives on a framework that keeps finding new reasons to stick around. We'll see you in 2028!