Rails has come a long way in the last few years, from the preserve of a vocal minority of maverick developers, to one of the most popular web frameworks around.
Its popularity is due to many things, but chief amongst them is the speed at which you can put together a site in Rails, as well as the intelligent and vibrant community that are involved in it.
Whilst there are some well known success stories using Ruby on Rails out there, the sheer number and diversity of Rails apps is astounding. In celebration of that, and partly to satisfy our own curiosity, we thought offer our round up of some of the best rails sites out there.
1. Basecamp
An extremely popular, browser-based project collaboration tool.
2. Twitter
The ubiquitous social networking site.
3. Scribd
The world’s largest social publishing company.
4. Fanpop
A huge network of music, TV and movie fan clubs.
5. Geni
A great family tree building tool.
6. Penny Arcade
A webcomic, largely focused on video gaming.
7. Pitchfork
An online indie music mag.
8. Crazy Egg
A heatmap tool that lets you visualize how users interact with your website.
9. Shopify
A popular e-commerce platform.
10. Github
A code hosting app with a strong social networking element.
11. Hulu
A TV channel streaming shows and movies from NBC, Fox, ABC and more.
12. Assembla
A collaboration tool ideal for small teams.
13. Lighthouse
A superb project management app.
14. Wayfaring
A tool for creating and sharing maps.
15. CommunityWalk
Another map creating tool, which lets users incorporate photos and comments into maps they create.
16. Insiderpages
A place to find reviews of local businesses, from dentists to restaurants
17. Rentometer
Enter your address into this site to compare your rent with other local properties.
18. Menuism
A place to rate restaurants and read food reviews.
19. Campfire
An instant messaging tool designed for project specific groups.
20. Podomatic
http://www.podomatic.com/featured
A place to access a wealth of podcasts as well as event listings for many cities worldwide.
21. 43 Things
A straightforward site for setting personal goals and viewing the goals of others.
22. Big Cartel
A simple, but trendy e-commerce platform.
23. DoodleKit
An uncomplicated and accessible website builder.
24. feed.informer
An app for adding news and feed content to your website.
25. Inkling Markets
http://home.inklingmarkets.com/
A highly original site with a unique take on question asking and answering.
26. Swivel
A site for sharing data in charts, graphs and tables.
27. Highrise
High-tech customer relationship management software.
28. Mypunchbowl
A suite of party planning tools for creating invites, buying supplies and much more.
29. oh, don’t forget…
A great way to send bulk and scheduled SMS messages.
30. Spiceworks
A free, but professional quality solution for all things IT, from network management to software reporting.
31. Urban Dictionary
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
An online dictionary for pretty much every slang term used in the English-speaking world.
32. White Pages
An online directory for business and personal contact details.
33. XING
A place to network and make business contacts.
34. Justin.TV
http://www.justin.tv/#r=ytWUZNE
A site where users can produce and share videos through their own “channels”.
35. Slideshare
A place to share PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF portfolios.
36. Jango
A free internet radio station.
37. AboutUs
A comprehensive wiki for the world’s best websites.
38. Luminosity
A suite of online games for brain development.
39. Guitar Hero
Website of the hugely successful computer game.
40. Chow
A recipe repository complete with restaurant listings and videos.
41. Bleacher Report
A magazine covering all aspects of American sport.
42. Sortfolio
A place to find the perfect web designer for your needs.
43. More
A style magazine for women, with fashion and make-up tips.
44. Howcast
A place to find instructional, how-to videos.
45. Miley World
http://www.mileyworld.com/community/home
The home of Miley Cyrus’s official fan club.
46. iLike
A site that provides concert alerts, recommendations and playlists, based on your favorite music.
47. Yardbarker
One of the best places to find sports news, rumors and videos.
48. Viewpoints
Find reviews on absolutely everything.
49. Tupalo
A place to find contact details and reviews of local restaurants, cafes, salons and shops.
And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. With the latest version(Rails 3) imminent it’s clear that it shows now sign of slowing down just yet; no doubt we can expect to see even more exciting and sophisticated websites and applications added to this list in the future.
Read more: Andy Boyd — Setfire Media
