Rails is a mature, convention-heavy framework best for rapid prototyping and startups, while Laravel is a more flexible PHP framework with better modern tooling and larger ecosystem adoption. Rails has been around since 2004 with 15+ years of battle-tested patterns, whereas Laravel (2011) emphasizes developer experience with cleaner syntax and built-in features like Eloquent ORM and Blade templating.
Ruby on Rails vs Laravel — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Opinionated Ruby web framework emphasizing convention over configuration and rapid development
Open-source PHP web application framework for building custom, scalable web applications.
Language & Ecosystem Size. Time to Market (MVP). Job Market (2024 USA). Community Size. Learning Curve. Built-in ORM Quality. Hosting Costs (Annual)
Choose Rails if you prioritize rapid development speed, have experienced Ruby developers, and need convention-driven architecture for startups or MVPs—its ecosystem of gems and battle-tested patterns accelerate time-to-market. Choose Laravel if you need lower hosting costs, broader hiring pool, modern developer experience, and are building medium-to-large applications where flexibility matters—it offers better tooling (Laravel Forge, Vapor) and significantly larger job market.
Ruby on Rails: ~650 req/s | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 18 years (2005) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~200,000 questions | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 1.5 hours (with scaffolding) | Laravel: 18 minutes
Ruby on Rails: Yes (ActiveRecord) | Laravel: Yes (Eloquent)
Ruby on Rails: No (gem required: swagger_rails) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Limited (Ruby 3.0+ Fibers) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~185,000 gems (RubyGems) | Laravel: N/A
Time to First Deployable Feature (CRUD app)
Ruby on Rails: 150-300 MB | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 2-4 seconds | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~8,000 openings | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Airbnb, GitHub, Shopify, Hulu | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 2800ms average | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 60,000 developers | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Yes (ActiveRecord) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 3000-5000ms (not optimized) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 12-25 gems | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Server-side only | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 3-4 months | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 18,400 jobs | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 5,000-10,000 | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 120-200 ms | Laravel: 95ms
Ruby on Rails: 150,000+ gems | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Beginner-Friendly (OOP paradigm) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 7-10 days | Laravel: 12-16 days
Ruby on Rails: $20/month | Laravel: $3/month
Ruby on Rails: 200,000+ gems | Laravel: 45,000+ packages
Ruby on Rails: ~8,200 | Laravel: ~12,400
Ruby on Rails: ~320 guides | Laravel: ~450 guides
Ruby on Rails: 55,600 stars | Laravel: 77,500 stars
Development Speed (lines of code for basic CRUD)
Ruby on Rails: 200,000 | Laravel: 500,000+
Ruby on Rails: Moderate (requires external gems and patterns) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 8-12 minutes (with scaffolding) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ActiveRecord included | Laravel: Yes (Eloquent)
Ruby on Rails: Devise gem (built-in pattern) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Native (views rendered server-side) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: Limited; requires CDN workarounds | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~1,000 req/s | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~15 minutes | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 9 (ORM, routing, auth, migrations, templates, admin, sessions, caching, asset pipeline) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 35,000+ gems | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~3-5 seconds | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: ~18,000 positions | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: 19 years (released 2005) | Laravel: N/A
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: No, third-party required
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Full native (built-in queues)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Limited (minimal options)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: ~50MB with dependencies
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 2,500+ verified packages
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Yes (with 2FA, API tokens)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: ~15 minutes
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Yes (built-in with Artisan)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: ~200,000 packages
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 64% of PHP frameworks
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 45-60 ms per request
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Yes, with MFA scaffolding
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Native (Redis, database, sync)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 4-12 weeks
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Senior/Intermediate (5+ years PHP/OOP)
Reported Security Vulnerabilities (2024)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 23 core CVEs
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Composer packages (1M+)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Limited—requires PHP expertise
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 8-12 minutes (Laravel installer + composer)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 800-1200ms (PHP cold starts)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 0.8-1.5s per page (Blade templating)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 2.5M (Packagist)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: PHPStan/Psalm (third-party tools)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: $24-60/year (shared PHP hosting)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 280K (Packagist registry)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 6.2 million
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 1 day (php artisan new)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Framework-integrated
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 3 years (standard support)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 8,000 req/s
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Laravel 11.x
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Pest & PHPUnit
Learning Curve (Time to Basic Proficiency)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 20-30% slower under load
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Emerging in enterprise
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: ORM, Auth, Caching, Queue, Mail, Broadcasting
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 2,800+ pages
Average Page Load Time (no optimization)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 850-1200 ms
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 2025 (v11)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Basic (no SSG/SSR built-in)
Learning Curve (for beginner developers)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 40-60 hours
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Manual (Blade templating)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 8/10 (Advanced PHP)
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: 120-160 hours
Ruby on Rails: N/A | Laravel: Very Complex (SaaS, APIs, Enterprise)
How to choose between Ruby on Rails and Laravel
Ruby on Rails vs Laravel — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Ruby on Rails vs Laravel. Contains 129 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Ruby on Rails vs Laravel — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Ruby on Rails vs Laravel.
Which framework is faster for building a startup MVP?
Rails edges out Laravel for MVP speed, typically delivering a functional product 1-2 weeks faster (2-4 weeks vs 3-6 weeks). Rails' convention-over-configuration approach and powerful scaffolding tools reduce boilerplate code significantly. However, Laravel's modern tooling and Breeze auth scaffolding have narrowed this gap considerably since 2022.
Which has better long-term job prospects?
Laravel dominates the job market with 22,400 active US positions compared to Rails' 8,200—a 2.7x difference. This reflects PHP's 2.1 billion websites and PHP being more commonly taught in web development bootcamps. If employment prospects are critical, Laravel offers substantially better opportunities.
What about total cost of ownership for a 5-year project?
Laravel is significantly cheaper. Over 5 years with 2 servers: Rails costs ~$36,000-72,000 in hosting vs Laravel's ~$12,000-36,000. Additionally, Rails requires more specialized developers (average $95K salary vs $85K for PHP developers), adding $100K+ in salary costs for a team. Total 5-year cost favors Laravel by approximately $40,000-60,000 for equivalent setups.
Which framework has better documentation and learning resources?
Both have excellent documentation, but Laravel has a slight edge with more modern, developer-friendly docs and a larger pool of free tutorials (3.2x more Laravel YouTube tutorials: 14,200 vs 4,400). Rails documentation is more mature but sometimes assumes Rails expertise. For beginners, Laravel is more accessible.
Can I scale both frameworks to production?
Yes, both scale to millions of users (Rails powers Airbnb, Shopify with thousands of servers; Laravel powers services like Taylor Otwell's premium products). However, Laravel scales more cost-efficiently due to PHP's lower resource footprint. Rails requires more careful optimization and caching strategies at scale, while Laravel handles concurrency better with modern async libraries.
How to Choose Between Ruby on Rails and Laravel
Language & Ecosystem Size: Ruby on Rails has Ruby (41,000+ gems on RubyGems), while Laravel has PHP (43,000+ packages on Packagist).
Time to Market (MVP): Ruby on Rails has 2-4 weeks, while Laravel has 3-6 weeks.
Job Market (2024 USA): Ruby on Rails has 8,200 active Rails jobs, while Laravel has 22,400 active Laravel/PHP jobs.
Community Size: Ruby on Rails has ~850K Ruby developers globally, while Laravel has ~2.1M PHP developers globally.
Learning Curve: Ruby on Rails has Steep (opinionated, requires Ruby knowledge), while Laravel has Moderate (PHP is easier to learn).
Built-in ORM Quality: Ruby on Rails has ActiveRecord (90% of use cases), while Laravel has Eloquent (95% of use cases, more intuitive).
Hosting Costs (Annual): Ruby on Rails has $3,600-7,200 (memory-intensive), while Laravel has $1,200-3,600 (lightweight).