Ruby on Rails VS Roda

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is one of the most renowned web frameworks. When combined with SQL databases, RoR transforms into a powerhouse for developing back-end (or even full-stack) applications. It resolves numerous issues out of the box, sometimes without developers even realizing it. For example, with the right callbacks, complex business logic for a single API action is automatically wrapped within a transaction, ensuring ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance. This removes many potential concerns from the developer’s plate. Typically, developers only need to define a functional data model and adhere to the framework’s conventions — sounds easy, right?

As it's just you I'd stick with Ruby on Rails 8[1] as you already know it and I think it could realistically easily achieve what you're proposing.

There's lots of libraries to for calling out external AI services. e.g. something like FastMCP[2] From the sound of it that's all you need.

I'd use Hotwire[3] for the frontend and Hotwire Native if you want to rollout an app version quickly. I'd back it with SolidCache, SolidQueue, etc

I'd use Kamal[4] to run it on cheap hosting using on something cheap from Hetzner.

1. https://rubyonrails.org/

2. https://github.com/yjacquin/fast-mcp

3. https://hotwired.dev/

4. https://kamal-deploy.org/

Once again, Rails is ahead of the curve on this:

https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/54693

One of the standout benefits of open source software is its cost-effectiveness. Indie hackers can leverage robust tools such as MySQL and Python, which eliminate the financial barrier to high-quality software solutions. Frameworks like Django and Ruby on Rails enable swift development cycles, reducing the time-to-market for innovative ideas. This low-cost, high-efficiency approach allows entrepreneurs to focus on their core missions without worrying about expensive licensing fees.

Frameworks such as Django and Ruby on Rails simplify web development, while tools like Docker ensure consistency across environments.

Rails 8 New Features

The discussion in the referenced Rails issue "Set a new default for the Puma thread count"[0] is much more telling of IO vs CPU than this simplified post.

There are many assumptions here especially not considering anything about the database itself. The Rails issue also considers benchmarks which when benchmarking Rails would configure the database to not be the bottleneck. That's not true of real systems. The advice to use async queries for an IO-bound app could backfire if the reason the queries are slow is because the database is overloaded--adding concurrent queries only increases its thrashing and latency.

The best thing to do is consider the whole system. Don't throw the everything that's not the Rails app as IO. Is it actually doing network IO, or is it CPU, memory, or IO bound in the database? Maybe its not even a lack of CPU proper on the database but that it's being wasted on write contention/locks. Only then will you be able to choose the right course. Another way to go is blindly try different configurations and use what works well without full understanding, which is fine until you have an outage you can't explain then scale everything just-in-case.

[0] https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/50450

Please review this pull request for more details.

Roda (roda.jeremyevans.net)

Jeremy also maintains an awesome web framework called Roda. It's lightweight, fast, and easy to use when you don't need the heft of Rails.

I've been on the Roda [0] and Sequel [1] framework for over 10 years now across various projects. Even after all these years, starting a project in this stack feels like a breath of fresh air even compared to the newer language/frameworks that jabe come out since.

Jeremy Evans is the creator and maintainer of both of these Ruby gems and is super helpful in resolving ask kinda of issues.

[0]: https://roda.jeremyevans.net/

[1]: https://sequel.jeremyevans.net/

My memory is failing me on the specifics, but I posted this issue on roda, which then led to this other issue in omniauth, plus 2 MRs on omniauth and rack-protection for doc updates.

You could pick up a framework like Phoenix, or Remix (the newest kid on the block) and I'm sure you'd get plenty far with either - and if you want ruby, try Roda. You might not have ready made tools with the newer frameworks, so watch out for that. But they have the advantage of doing thing slightly differently.

Even though Rodauth is built on top of Roda and Sequel, it can work as a Rack middleware in any Ruby web framework. In the beginning, there was a demo app showing how Rodauth can be used in Rails, which leveraged the (now discontinued) roda-rails gem. However, the integration felt fairly raw, and definitely lacked the ergonomics Rails developers are used to.

I'm a big fan of Sinatra, but recently I came across Roda which is by Jeremy Evan's whose wonderful ORM gem Sequel I've used in several projects. Looking at the documentation, Roda seems quite nice and performance gain is always appreciated.