Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Alpine.js VS Ruby on Rails

Compare Alpine.js VS Ruby on Rails and see what are their differences

Alpine.js logo Alpine.js

A rugged, minimal framework for composing JavaScript behavior in your markup.

Ruby on Rails logo Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...
  • Alpine.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-25
  • Ruby on Rails Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

We recommend LibHunt Ruby for discovery and comparisons of trending Ruby projects. Also, to find more open-source ruby alternatives, you can check out libhunt.com/r/rails

Alpine.js features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Alpine.js is very lightweight, typically around 10KB minified and gzipped, which makes it ideal for small projects or performance-conscious applications.
  • Easy to Integrate
    Alpine.js can be easily integrated into existing projects as it only requires including a single script file, making it a low-effort solution for adding interactivity.
  • Declarative
    It provides a declarative syntax similar to Vue.js, which can be more intuitive and readable, allowing developers to easily describe what they want rather than how to achieve it.
  • Reactivity
    Alpine.js offers reactive data binding, enabling automatic updates to the DOM when data changes, reducing boilerplate code needed for dynamic UIs.
  • Minimalist
    With its minimal API surface, Alpine.js aims to provide just enough JavaScript functionality for simple interactivity without the overhead of a full framework.

Possible disadvantages of Alpine.js

  • Limited Features
    Alpine.js lacks many features provided by larger frameworks, like routing and state management, which can limit its use in complex applications.
  • Performance at Scale
    While Alpine.js is performant for small projects, handling performance might become challenging as the application scales, particularly with large datasets or complex interactions.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Alpine.js has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to more established frameworks, which may result in fewer third-party plugins and resources.
  • Learning Curve
    Although simpler than some frameworks, it still requires learning a new syntax and understanding its reactivity model, which can be a hurdle for new developers.
  • Debugging and Tooling
    Alpine.js does not have as mature tooling and debugging capabilities compared to larger frameworks, which can make troubleshooting more difficult.

Ruby on Rails features and specs

  • Rapid Development
    Ruby on Rails uses conventions over configurations which allows developers to build applications quickly. It comes with a wealth of built-in tools and libraries that streamline the development process.
  • Community Support
    Rails has a vibrant and active community. This means a lot of third-party libraries (gems) are available, and you can easily find help and resources.
  • Convention over Configuration
    Rails emphasizes convention over configuration, which reduces the number of decisions developers need to make. This can increase productivity and consistency across projects.
  • Built-in Testing
    Rails comes with a strong built-in testing framework, making it easier to test your application and ensure that it works as expected.
  • Scalability Options
    Although it has a reputation for not being the most scalable framework, Rails can be made scalable with good architecture and the right tools.
  • RESTful Design
    Rails promotes RESTful application design, which means that it aligns well with best practices in web development and makes it easier to build APIs.

Possible disadvantages of Ruby on Rails

  • Performance
    Ruby on Rails can be slower than some other frameworks, particularly for applications that require a lot of computation or have high traffic.
  • Learning Curve
    While Rails makes many things easier with its conventions, this can create a steep learning curve for newcomers who need to understand the 'Rails way' of doing things.
  • Scalability Concerns
    Due to its monolithic nature, scaling Rails can be challenging, requiring significant architectural changes and optimizations.
  • Lesser Flexibility
    The conventions that make Rails easy to use can also be limiting. When you need to do something outside the typical Rails flow, it may be harder to implement.
  • Runtime Speed
    Ruby, the language that Rails is built on, is generally slower in terms of execution speed compared to other languages like Java or C++.
  • Memory Consumption
    Rails applications can consume a lot of memory, which can be a concern for large-scale applications or those with limited resources.

Alpine.js videos

Alpinejs vs Vue, React and Svelte. When to use Alpine.js?

More videos:

  • Review - Intro to Alpine.js in Just 7 Minutes
  • Review - Alpine.js vs jQuery vs Vanilla JS: Example + NEW Course!
  • Review - What's the Future of Livewire and Alpine.js?

Ruby on Rails videos

Ruby On Rails Biggest Waste Of Time In 2020 | Ruby on Rails Dead

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Ruby on Rails Tutorial | Build a Book Review App - Part 1

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Alpine.js and Ruby on Rails)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
6 6%
94% 94
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100
JavaScript Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Alpine.js and Ruby on Rails

Alpine.js Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Even while Alpine.js is not intended to be a native full-stack interaction tool, asynchronous activities involving data fetching from a server are quite common and crucial from a templating standpoint. You may download data directly from the Alpine.js template by explicitly designating a function handler as an async or doing the inverse.

Ruby on Rails Reviews

  1. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    The most productive web framework

    Yes, there are other more trending frameworks; however, nothing reaches the productivity of Rails. It's simply unbeatable if you have a small team.

    For example both SaaSHub and LibHunt were built on Rails.

    🏁 Competitors: Django, Laravel

Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
Top 5 Laravel Alternatives
In terms of documentation, guidelines, and libraries, Ruby on Rails is the superior framework for smaller applications. Since it entered the online scene before Laravel, its community is larger and more well-liked among programmers. When compared to other Laravel alternatives, Ruby’s code is much simpler to understand and write.
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
While modern frameworks try to minimize the tradeoffs to a limited extent, none of them has come closer to the implementation of the Phoenix Framework, which offers Ruby on Rails levels of productivity while being one of the fastest frameworks available in the market.
10 Ruby on Rails Alternatives For Web Development in 2022
Once a prolific web development technology, in 2021, both Ruby and Ruby on Rails are considered dying technologies. The data speaks for itself. In October 2021, Ruby lost 3 ranks in the Tiobe Index compared to October 2020 and became the 16th most searched programming language. The same decline in Ruby on Rails popularity is demonstrated by Google Trends. The language...
Get Over Ruby on Rails — 3 Alternative Web Frameworks Worth Checking Out
Disclaimer: I started working on this article before the big controversy about Basecamp happened. I don’t want to make any point about this in the article. Regardless of what DHH and others are saying on different topics, Ruby on Rails is still a great piece of software and will continue to be. But there are some great alternatives as well that I would like to highlight.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ruby on Rails should be more popular than Alpine.js. It has been mentiond 142 times since March 2021. 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.

Alpine.js mentions (31)

  • 60 Best JavaScript Libraries for Building Interactive UI Components
    Alpine.js Alpinejs.dev Minimal framework for declarative DOM interactions. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Creating a To-do app with HTMX and Django, part 8: inline edit, and using Iconify
    As usual, there are a few possibilities here; one is to render both the with the title, and a form with for each row, and use plain Javascript (or AlpineJS) to toggle edit mode. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Supercharge your HTML with mizu.js!
    That's why I grew fond of libraries such as Alpine.js and htmx, which require no setup and are easy to use. However, I felt these had some limitations. Since they were mostly designed for client-side usage, it wasn't really possible to use them in server-side rendering contexts (including static generation). - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 🍣 Sushi — Your Eloquent model driver for other data sources
    It is created by Caleb Porzio (the guy behind Livewire and AlpineJS), Sushi simplifies your data when a full database table is unnecessary. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Build a Simple Auto-Play Carousel with Clickable Controls Using Alpine.js
    Here's a step-by-step example of creating a simple carousel using Alpine.js. Alpine.js is a lightweight JavaScript framework that provides reactivity and can be used to build interactive components without a lot of JavaScript. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Ruby on Rails mentions (142)

  • Unlocking Opportunities: How to Thrive as a Ruby Engineer in Today's Tech Landscape
    Ruby on Rails open source projects. Contribute and learn at the same time. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • Open Source: A Goldmine for Indie Hackers
    Speed of Development: Frameworks such as Django or Rails accelerate the development process. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • Indie Hacking with Open Source Tools: Innovating on a Budget
    This ecosystem is fueled by repositories hosting powerful languages, functions, and versatile tools—from backend frameworks like Django and Ruby on Rails to containerization with Docker and distributed version control via Git. Moreover, indie hackers can also utilize open source design tools (e.g. GIMP, Inkscape) and analytics platforms such as Matomo. - Source: dev.to / 9 days ago
  • Charybdis ORM: Building High-Performance Distributed Rust Backends with ScyllaDB
    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,... - Source: dev.to / 19 days ago
  • Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
    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... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Alpine.js and Ruby on Rails, you can also consider the following products

htmx - high power tools for HTML

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Svelte - Cybernetically enhanced web apps

ASP.NET - ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.