Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Active Admin VS PlainAdmin

Compare Active Admin VS PlainAdmin and see what are their differences

Active Admin logo Active Admin

The administration framework for business critical Ruby on Rails applications.

PlainAdmin logo PlainAdmin

PlainAdmin is an Open-source freemium Bootstrap 5 based vanilla JS multipurpose admin template comes with - all essential dashboard components, pages, UI elements, charts, graphs, libraries and everything you may need for a data-rich backends.
  • Active Admin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • PlainAdmin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-03

Active Admin features and specs

  • Rapid Development
    Active Admin allows for rapid development of back-end administration dashboards without having to code everything from scratch. It provides a default set of controllers, routes, and views that can be easily customized.
  • Rails Integration
    Built specifically for Ruby on Rails applications, Active Admin leverages Rails conventions and integrates seamlessly with its ecosystem, enabling a familiar and efficient development experience for Rails developers.
  • Rich Features
    Active Admin comes with a wide range of features like authentication, authorization, filtering, searching, and custom actions which can be customized to fit business requirements.
  • Community and Documentation
    Active Admin has a strong community and well-maintained documentation which provides support and resources for developers. The community contributes by sharing plugins and solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Active Admin

  • Customization Complexity
    Once you move beyond basic customizations, making extensive changes to the default behavior or appearance can be complex and require a deeper understanding of both Active Admin and Rails.
  • Performance
    Due to the abstraction and additional layers provided by Active Admin, it might not be the best choice for high-performance applications, especially when dealing with large datasets.
  • Dependency on Rails
    Active Admin is tightly coupled with Rails, which means it cannot be used for non-Rails applications, limiting its use for projects not based on this framework.
  • Version Compatibility
    As both Rails and Active Admin evolve, there might be compatibility issues between different versions, which could require upgrades or modifications in your existing codebase.

PlainAdmin features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    PlainAdmin offers a clean and intuitive interface that simplifies navigation and administration for users, making it accessible even for those with minimal technical expertise.
  • Customizable Themes
    The platform provides numerous themes that can be easily customized to suit individual preferences or brand guidelines, ensuring a consistent look and feel across the application.
  • Responsive Design
    PlainAdmin is designed to be fully responsive, ensuring a seamless user experience on both desktop and mobile devices, which is crucial for modern web applications.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Extensive and well-organized documentation aids developers and administrators in understanding and utilizing the platform's features effectively, reducing the learning curve.
  • Integration Capabilities
    The platform supports easy integration with various third-party services and APIs, allowing for enhanced functionality and versatility in different applications.

Possible disadvantages of PlainAdmin

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Compared to some other admin panel solutions, PlainAdmin might lack certain advanced features and customization options needed for more complex applications.
  • Potential Performance Issues
    As with any web application, the performance of PlainAdmin could be compromised if not properly optimized, especially when dealing with large datasets.
  • Dependency on External Libraries
    The reliance on external libraries and plugins could lead to potential security vulnerabilities if those libraries are not properly managed and updated.
  • Learning Curve for Customization
    While there is comprehensive documentation, users may still face a learning curve when attempting to implement deeper customizations or integrate complex functionalities.
  • Limited Community Support
    Being relatively new or niche, PlainAdmin may not have a large community for support and community-driven development compared to more established admin panel solutions.

Active Admin videos

Harry Potter and the Active Admin

PlainAdmin videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Active Admin and PlainAdmin)
Developer Tools
45 45%
55% 55
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Design Tools
0 0%
100% 100
No Code
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Active Admin seems to be a lot more popular than PlainAdmin. While we know about 12 links to Active Admin, we've tracked only 1 mention of PlainAdmin. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Active Admin mentions (12)

  • Goravel: A Go framework inspired by Laravel
    Same reason IDEs โ€” when you really know them โ€” allow for quicker development compared to using primitive text editors with a bunch of third-party plugins duck-taped together. When you understand the framework, everything is written to the same standard, behaves in similar ways, and is where you expect it to be. Adding things like background job processing requires changing one line of config. Also, one... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Use Rails
    Rails is absolutely fantastic for projects below 10,000 lines with 1 or 2 contributors, especially if you want a classic forms-based UI. And you can get a huge amount done under those constraints in Rails. But as of couple of years ago, Rails came with a number of drawbacks: 1. There was no really viable system of static typing that a significant number of people were enthusiastic about. See... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Why aren't Django Admin style dashboards popular in other frameworks?
    Can you clarify what's the "tremendous value" you're getting out of the Django admin? At Heii On-Call https://heiioncall.com/ we are using Active Admin https://activeadmin.info/ for Ruby on Rails, which seems quite similar to the Django admin. In my experience, it's mostly useful as a fairly basic read-only view of what's in the database. In Rails, it's so easy to whip together a custom view that we tend to do... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • View code coverage (active_admin and orther .arb file)
    For those who know [https://activeadmin.info/](https://activeadmin.info/) it uses a file format [https://github.com/activeadmin/arbre](https://github.com/activeadmin/arbre). Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Show HN: Build Ruby on Rails apps 10x faster โ€“ Avo
    Very neat! My first thought was that this was a competitor to https://bullettrain.co/. Looking into it a bit more, it seems more aimed at building admin panels than whole apps. I guess it competes against tools like https://activeadmin.info/? - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
View more

PlainAdmin mentions (1)

  • Launched ๐Ÿš€ Open-source Bootstrap Admin Template on ProductHunt and Its Trending on Top โšก
    Today, I launched an open source Bootstrap admin template on Product Hunt and its trending on top #7 ๐Ÿ”ฅ You can check out demo or download from our site or GitHub if you never heard of about this admin template. Source: over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Active Admin and PlainAdmin, you can also consider the following products

RailsAdmin - A Rails engine that provides an easy-to-use interface for managing your data

Soft UI Dashboard - Admin dashboard template for Bootstrap 5

Slick - A jquery plugin for creating slideshows and carousels into your webpage.

Flatlogic - Software House for startups and companies

Sequel Pro - MySQL database management for Mac OS X

ArchitectUI - Modern dashboard template for bootstrap 4