A JetRockets Response to WIRED’s “Ruby Is Not a Serious Programming Language”
CEO / Co-Founder at JetRockets
At JetRockets, we’ve spent over a decade building and scaling software products on Ruby on Rails. So when WIRED argues that Ruby is “not serious,” we felt it was worth responding with what we see every day in the field.
The article raises two common criticisms — dynamic typing and raw runtime performance. Both are technically true. Neither is practically relevant for the vast majority of real-world applications.
Dynamic Typing
Ruby is dynamically typed, meaning some errors appear at runtime.
This sounds scary in theory. In practice, it’s meaningless when you have proper engineering discipline.
Modern teams rely on automated tests, CI pipelines, linters, static analysis tools, and code reviews. These practices catch issues long before they ever touch production.
This sounds scary in theory. In practice, it’s meaningless when you have proper engineering discipline.
Modern teams rely on automated tests, CI pipelines, linters, static analysis tools, and code reviews. These practices catch issues long before they ever touch production.
For 95% of SaaS, marketplace, workflow, and internal tools, dynamic typing simply does not translate into real-world instability.
Performance
Ruby won’t win micro-benchmarks against Rust, Go, or Java.
But here’s the reality: the vast majority of business applications operate nowhere close to those performance limits.
But here’s the reality: the vast majority of business applications operate nowhere close to those performance limits.
Most products are I/O-bound, not CPU-bound. Performance comes from architecture, caching, and database design, not from squeezing the last 5% out of a language runtime.
Rails powers applications serving millions of requests per day. When built correctly, it scales far beyond what most products will ever need.
The Practical View
Rails still wins where it matters:
- Speed of development
- Readable, maintainable code
- Fast iteration cycles
- Huge ecosystem
- Mature patterns and tooling
- Predictable long-term costs
These factors matter significantly more to founders than theoretical benchmark charts.
Why We Still Choose Ruby on Rails
At JetRockets, our clients aren’t building high-frequency trading engines or real-time distributed schedulers.
They’re building SaaS products, marketplaces, mobile backends, and internal platforms, the types of systems where speed of iteration, reliability, and maintainability matter most.
They’re building SaaS products, marketplaces, mobile backends, and internal platforms, the types of systems where speed of iteration, reliability, and maintainability matter most.
For those use cases, Ruby on Rails remains one of the most productive frameworks ever created.
So is Ruby “serious”?
Absolutely, if your goal is to build real products, ship fast, evolve quickly, and maintain clean, well-architected codebases over time. And just as importantly, Ruby brings joy in the only way that matters to a business owner: it drives cost-effective development and accelerates the achievement of business goals. When a framework makes teams more productive, reduces rework, and shortens the path from idea to release, that’s not “joy” — that’s ROI.
Absolutely, if your goal is to build real products, ship fast, evolve quickly, and maintain clean, well-architected codebases over time. And just as importantly, Ruby brings joy in the only way that matters to a business owner: it drives cost-effective development and accelerates the achievement of business goals. When a framework makes teams more productive, reduces rework, and shortens the path from idea to release, that’s not “joy” — that’s ROI.
