Ruby On Rails vs .Net: What to Choose? – Inoxoft

Overviewing Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is an application web framework written in Ruby – a programming language that works on the backend, is dynamic and object-oriented. The main focus of the framework is to be simple by code and easy to use. 

RoR encompasses an MVC framework giving databases, web services, and web pages a default structure. Also, Rails uses JSON and XML data transfer web standards as well as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for interface-building.

The philosophy of Ruby on Rails suggests that web programming can be done in the best way possible and there are no alternatives that can level up to Rails here. What’s more, Rails is designed to make the boring process of software development more fun and engaging. Experienced engineers say that Ruby on Rails has an easy start and brings more fun into the process.

Ruby on Rails has two core guidelines it follows. These are:

• Unrepeated code: every data piece has to be singled out because it has its potential meaning and authority within the system. By optimizing code not to rewrite identical pieces of information the code becomes maintained, extended, and with fewer bugs than usual.
• Convention matters more than configuration: Rails is a pretty opinionated framework as to how things should be done. RoR opinions are core to its conventions, thus, allowing fewer specifications of details and nuances via a large scope of configuration files.

Rail’s most common features that make it flawless and valued among software engineers are:

• being open-source and cross-platform
• HTML-embedded and using VHLL
• object data methods and encapsulation
• OOP-based with advanced string/text manipulation
• supports connection to DB2, MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase
• advanced security features and debugger
• flexible syntax, a better array class, multi-threaded apps
• tremendous community support
• possibility of database migration
• fun and easy way of web app building

Due to these features, about 49.3% of developers all around the globe go for Ruby on Rails and won’t trade it for any other web framework. Among the most known apps that are built with RoR are GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb, Hulu, Zendesk.

Overviewing .Net

.Net is a free open-source and cross-platform Microsoft web development platform to build web, desktop, and mobile apps. It was released as the first beta version in late 2000 by the Microsoft team of developers.

Using .Net to build all your apps you can also use several languages, editors, and libraries to make the process easier and more unique. .Net apps can be written in Visual Basic, C#, and F# programming languages. Here, Visual Basic stands for a language with simple syntax and an easy approach that builds object-oriented and type-safe applications. C# is also an object-oriented language that promotes simplicity and modern type-safe app building. F# is an object-oriented, open-source, and cross-platform language for .Net. It’s functional and imperative in programming. DotNet is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS. So, using any of the languages mentioned above will make the .Net code run natively on each of the three operating systems.

There is also the other heavy workload .Net carries out with the help of its editors. For instance, the .Net Core framework editor is used for servers, websites, and console apps because it is cross-platform. .Net Framework is a supportive framework for services, websites, and desktop apps on Windows OS. 

However, the updates, general support, and bug fixes will be serviced by Microsoft as long as they will be necessary. Mobile OS runs apps with the help of Xamarin/Mono .Net editor. App programming Interfaces or APIs also have .Net editors they work with. For example, .Net Standard is the APIs basic set for .Net Framework.

Libraries in .Net are built on .Net Standard. Usually, they are used to extend functionality and to maintain a solid ecosystem package. E.g. NuGet is a .Net package manager that contains 90,000 packages.

Besides the web, desktop, and mobile app building, .Net is also applicable to:

• creating microservices that run on Docker
• developing 2D/3D games for desktop, mobile, and consoles
• adding vision algorithms, speech processing, predictive models to enhance ML possibilities
• adding vision algorithms, speech processing, predictive models to enhance ML possibilities
• using cloud services that exist or developing new ones
• making IoT apps and single-board computers native supporting

.Net has large community support called the .Net Foundation. Here, 60,000+ developers and 3,700+ companies contribute to the .Net framework and development of apps via .Net.

Features that make .Net valuable for app building are being:

• open-source and cross-platform
• productive and developing high-quality apps
• able to build any app type on any platform
• able to perform fast leading to less compute power and better response time
• a trusted and secure managed runtime environment that receives constant updates
• a large ecosystem of libraries like NuGet and Visual Studio

Such giants as Microsoft and Stack Overflow use .Net. In the survey, .Net received 47.5%, .Net Core received 71.5%, ASP.Net Core received 70.7% of developer love in 2020.

What’s ASP.Net and .Net Core and ASP.Net Core?

So not to mix these frameworks let’s talk about them separately. We have covered some basic info about the .Net platform and .Net Framework already. Next comes the ASP.Net.

ASP.Net is a framework that builds web apps and services via .Net and C#. It is an extension for .Net that has tools and libraries at its sleeve to build web apps. ASP.Net is fast and scalable, builds secure apps by supporting the standard authentication protocols of an industry. Its tools help against cross-site scripting (XSS) and request forgery (CSRF). ASP.Net also possesses a built-in database with two or more factor authentication and external authentication via Google or Twitter. ASP.Net has active community support that grows daily.

.Net Core is a managed app framework based on .Net Framework. It’s open-source and cross-platform as well. Besides, C#, F#, and Visual Basic.Net it is also written in C++ and CLI- a runtime environment and executable code description allowing high-level languages used on various platforms without re-writing them for that purpose. .Net Core framework is used for servers, websites, and console apps building on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

ASP.Net Core is the version of ASP.Net, which is open-source and runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. It was released in 2016 as a Windows ASP.Net redesign. ASP.Net Core performance is fast, it allows flexible deployment through the ability to be installed directly to the webserver or be within the app as a runtime.

ASP.Net Core is designed to make the components of a runtime, compilers, languages, and APIs evolve faster while being stable for the apps running on the platform. ASP.net Core allows its multiple versions to co-exist on one server. This way one of the apps can support the latest version while others stay on the previous versions and run on them simultaneously. What’s more, ASP.Net Core allows using several lifecycle support options to meet app needs to the full extent.

Ruby on Rails vs .Net: What’s best?

Framework type

Ruby on Rails vs dot Net are the different types of frameworks. RoR is rather open-source and .Net is enterprise. Here, RoR remains free for its users as the majority of the Rails frameworks are free of charge. It is slower in performance and is quite unstable due to constant changes in versions. .Net is an enterprise solution: large, mature, with languages, frameworks, and tools that suit corresponding types of apps. .Net is reliable, stable, with sophisticated documentation, and super fast in performance. ASP.Net is also open source.

Usage

Rails is elegant, concise, and lightweight, and concentrates on a command line. RoR is quite flexible and it is easier for any developer to make the app with the help of Rails that will be running. However, while the code is meant to be simpler, finding and fixing bugs in the code is more challenging.

.Net, in its turn, its Visual Studio centers on GUI development and becomes easy for those who work with visual interfaces. Helpful modules in the framework speak of a large existing codebase, which sounds existing and speeds up the process of app development.

Strength

Ruby on Rails isn’t robust enough, has few supportive features, and loses the battle every time there’s a need for scalability. I.e. Twitter was a RoR built platform but had to shift to another framework due to immense scalability issues. To add, Rails wasn’t fast enough to produce timely solutions. But Ruby on Rails’ strength is that it is optimized perfectly.

.Net is very robust and has a lot of strength. Here, Visual Studio offers a lot of helpful features to use: JIT compiled performance, support of multiple languages, and lots of useful documentation.

Community

An active and dynamic Rails community support Ruby on Rails. This community allows you to dig deeper into the open-source coding process and become one of the happy rails coders that describe RoR coding as fun and engaging.

.Net community is tremendously large due to Microsoft updates. But, not all of the features are open-source and everything depends on Microsoft updates. Using Microsoft resources is free of charge for startups, offering free support and software.

Having acknowledged the major differences still makes you doubt which framework is the one. To build an app from scratch using one of the frameworks it is vital to understand what features should be taken into account. So, there are characteristic features you’d probably want to consider.

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Features to Consider

The framework of your choice should by all means:

Both Ruby on Rails and ASP.Net meet these requirements. Thus, the choice of the framework depends on project’s simplicity or complexity and the time of its implementation. You can make a quick single UI app with the help of RoR, but more complex ideas will require time. On the contrary, .Net can achieve fast results in app building and is meant for big projects with lots of tool usage and features present. Our choice would fall on .Net. If you have some questions about this choice, let’s talk!

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