Ruby on Rails (RoR), the robust server-side web application framework, is often considered a better choice by developers. One key reason behind its popularity is its ability to reduce the time and effort needed for building web applications efficiently without compromising any functionality.
To utilize your applications’ potential to its best, it is essential to upgrade rails to its recent versions. Delaying an upgrade not only puts the app’s security and performance at stake but could cost you more in the long run.
However, when deciding to upgrade your application by outsourcing, it is crucial to join hands with the right professionals. So that one can ensure that their application becomes secure, efficient, and future-ready at the end of the process.
Railsfactory has been providing various Ruby on Rails web development services, including upgrades, since 2006 and is ranked as the top company for Ruby on Rails developers by Clutch.co in 2024.
With 18 years of experience in ROR, in this article, we shed light on why ruby on rails update is a necessity, what to expect from Ruby on Rails services, how to choose the right upgrade partner, and more.
Ready to dive headfirst into the ocean of Ruby on Rails to handpick the right gems?
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Why Rails Upgrade Is Not a Choice but a Necessity?
Timely Rails upgrades are not just about maintaining your tech but more about remaining competitive in the industry, ensuring your commitment to operational excellence, and delivering the best user experience. While there is ample to list out when it comes to why an upgrade is not a choice, here are the 3 key reasons why it should be considered a necessity.
Enhanced Security to Protect Against Vulnerabilities
1. Protection Against Known Exploits:
Staying with unsupported Rails versions means leaving the door wide open for security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF—attackers can do their job comfortably. By updating rails to recent versions, you can ensure that your app leaves no gaps for any exploits and runs smoothly.
2. Stronger Application Architecture:
Newer versions equate to enhanced security mechanisms built in with the framework itself. With every new release of Rails focusing on stronger encryption algorithms, more robust session handling, and improved input validation, you can easily replace your old locks with high-tech security by regularly upgrading your Rails applications.
3. Reliable, Secure Dependencies:
Rails apps cannot be at their best without relying on third-party gems. However, if you choose to stay with older versions, you will be forced to use outdated gems that are no longer patched. Result? Security and performance risks, leaving no scope for bringing in fresh security fixes and performance boosts.
Leveraging New Features for Better Performance and Cost Optimization
1. Improved Query Optimization:
If your application is multiple Rails versions behind, it means you lack advanced query optimizations. Newer versions come with smarter query caching that significantly reduces database overhead.
For instance, the new improvements in Active Record in Rails 8 optimize complex database interactions and minimize repeated database queries, thereby reducing server load and enhancing response times. Meaning, better performance guaranteed.
2. Unlocking Power with Multithreading and Scalability:
Being an effective juggler is critical not only for business leaders but also for web applications. Upgrading to recent versions means opting for multithreading capabilities that allow your application to handle concurrent requests effortlessly. That is, no matter the load, your application can scale with ease, stay agile and efficient.
3. Optimizing Resources, Maximizing Savings:
As every dollar counts in today’s high-pressure business climate, doing more with less is the mantra one must stick with. It is necessary for businesses to eliminate more servers and more overhead but guarantee stellar performance.
Recent versions of Rails make it possible, driving down infrastructure costs and ensuring the app runs leaner and faster without the need for costly server overhauls. Postponing an upgrade is more likely to cost you more in the long run.
Maintaining Compatibility with Modern Tools and Infrastructure
1. Support for Modern Gems and Libraries:
With gems being the building blocks of the Rails applications, taking advantage of the most up-to-date gems is important to stay secure and efficient. Running an application on unsupported versions means relying on outdated and potentially insecure alternatives. Whereas, by upgrading to the latest version, you can access the most powerful gems or libraries, get better integration capabilities, and get performance improvements.
If you want to assess your gem compatibility with the desired version of Rails right away for free, you must check our Rails compatibility checker tool, Railsup. With few inputs, it can provide a comprehensive report mentioning incompatible gems, complexity score, estimated timelines and so much more to plan your next upgrade seamlessly.
2. Cloud Platform Compatibility:
It is well known that cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Heroku, etc.) often drop support for older versions of Rails. For example, as of December 2024, Heroku no longer supports Ruby versions earlier than 3.0.7.
Despite that, if you stay with these versions, it will increase the risks of security, performance slowdowns, or even service outages. By upgrading to supported/stable versions, one could keep the application fast, reliable, and future-ready.
3. Seamless Third-Party Integrations:
No matter how hard you try, a vintage stereo system and the latest Bluetooth headphones won't pair together. If you decide to stay with a vintage stereo system, you fail to meet the new age customers' expectations and lose them to your competitors.
Similarly, by clinging to unsupported Rails versions, you risk incompatible integrations with tools from modern payment gateways to APIs to monitoring tools. Through regular upgrades, your app can remain compatible with the latest APIs and services so that integrations become smooth and effective.
What to Expect from Rails Upgrade Services?
Upgrading your Rails application is a big step, but it doesn’t have to be daunting. Choosing the professional Rails upgrade services can ensure a smooth upgrade no matter what specific version you use and intend to upgrade to. If you are wondering how to choose the right tech partner who understands your needs or what to expect from them to ensure minimal disruption during upgrades and maximum value for your business, you are in the right place. Keep Reading.
With profound experience in providing RoR upgrade services across various industries, here we break down the essential aspects that you must look for in your upgrade partner, assuring your application is in the right hands.
Initial Assessment
- A thorough audit of your current Rails application’s code to assess the structure of controllers, models, views, inefficient codes, database interactions, naming conventions, etc. within the existing system.
- Checking for third-party libraries to identify unmaintained dependencies, planning for alternatives, and reviewing core application features.
- Highlighting potential risks in custom integrations, assessing the outdated routing methods that could disrupt the upgrade.
- Identifying processes causing high memory consumption/CPU usage, latency, or poor performance that could be improved during the upgrade.
- Assessing the compatibility of integrations with existing systems or APIs, review data exchange formats to ensure smooth integration post-upgrade.
Strategic Planning
- Creating a phase-by-phase plan with milestones (addressing compatibility issues, completing schema migrations, updating major modules, etc.), timelines, and clear objectives.
- Planning for technical resources and team roles (QA testers, DevOps engineers, senior developers, etc.) to ensure the availability of the right ones at the right time for executing the upgrade efficiently.
- Setting up application backups to capture pre-upgrade states and planning for rollbacks in case of unexpected issues during the upgrade.
- Tailoring the workflows of the upgrade process as per your specific business needs. It can be anything from feature enhancements to compliance requirements.
- Ensuring the upgrade team is in regular contact with the development team via weekly or daily calls when parallel development occurs along with migration to minimize potential roadblocks.
Execution
- Auditing all gems to replace deprecated ones with modern, supported alternatives while prioritizing the ones that directly affect critical features.
- The process must be done without disturbing existing functionality. Refactoring the code as needed to streamline the codebase and standardize the coding style for improving readability and maintainability.
- Making necessary changes in the database schema to address unsupported indexes and test critical queries to ensure optimized performance in the updated versions.
- Strictly adhering to the Zeitwerk autoloader when upgrading to Rails 7 or later versions to prevent unnecessary runtime errors.
- Using a separate development environment to ensure the app remains functional on older versions while the upgrade progresses to avoid any disruptions.
Thorough Testing
- Validating individual components from models to utility classes to ensure their accurate functionality after the upgrade and providing comprehensive test coverage. (unit testing)
- From user registration to payment processing, ensuring different parts of the application interact with each other and external systems in a smooth way. (Integration Testing)
- Checking and resolving if there are inconsistencies in the user interface or user experience through upgrades, ensuring the new version meets business needs. (UAT)
- Measuring the app’s performance metrics before and after the upgrade to analyze bottlenecks and ensure optimization shows consistent improvements.
- Conducting comprehensive security audits and penetration tests to identify vulnerabilities, such as weak authentication flows or exposed sensitive data, etc., and assess the application’s resilience against threats, respectively, during the time of the upgrade process.
Deployment and Post-upgrade Support
- Ensuring seamless deployment of the upgraded application using a phased deployment strategy and CI/CD pipelines to make sure of zero disruption to the user experience.
- Ongoing monitoring and support, leveraging real-time monitoring tools and alert mechanisms, to ensure the application performs optimally while swiftly addressing any post-deployment issues.
- From optimizing caching strategies to analyzing post-deployment performance metrics for identifying the areas that need refinement, we need to tweak the application to ensure maximum efficiency.
- Documenting all changes to deployment processes, including configuration details, dependency lists, resolved issues, etc., for teams’ reference on the upgraded system.
How to Choose the Right Upgrade Partner and Why It Matters?
Choosing the perfect upgrade partner as per your business needs is critical to reach the destination in the best way possible. Here are some of the factors you must look for to join hands with the right partner and why it matters:
Technical Expertise
Without any doubt, proven prior experience in Rails or Ruby upgrades tops the list when it comes to choosing your upgrade partner. With experience, the exposure of handling complex app infrastructure and upgrades is guaranteed.
Hence, the team can anticipate challenges, understand the nuances, and craft robust solutions in a limited time, which is unlikely for new hands. By choosing an experienced team, you can minimize risks, reduce downtime, and optimize the performance and scalability of the application with confidence.
Transparent Processes
Transparency is the secret formula that helps to align visions, build trust, and ensure a smooth journey for both of the parties. Open communication about every progress, roadblock, twist and turn ensures no one is left guessing and keeps everyone on the same page.
Thus, always look for a partner who embraces openness and fosters a sense of teamwork over mere transactions from the initial stage of discussions. Choosing them will help you eliminate uncertainty and costly misunderstandings.
Proven Track Record
A strong track record of success with upgrades is like a badge of honor that speaks volumes of the upgrade partner’s capabilities. Look for the testimonials, case studies and dig deep into the diverse challenges handled during upgrade projects across industries and their results.
This will give you a fair idea whether the partner is the right fit to deal with your application’s unique intricacies and ensure a smooth upgrade with precision.
Customizable Solutions
Every business is unique and has its own needs and challenges. It makes it important to choose the perfect upgrade partner that can craft a customized solution for your business. Upgrading your application is not just one of the processes but the foundation you build to deliver long-term value.
Given that, only the right team can make the upgrade work for your business by taking time to dig deeper into your operational dynamics, growth trajectory, and vision. So, never settle for cookie-cutter upgrades.
Ongoing Support
To maintain the integrity of your investment in the Ruby upgrades, it is necessary to ensure sustained performance of your application in the real world. You will be in a tight spot if the upgrade partner just walks away after the deployment.
Thus, look for a team that can stick around and fix the hiccups as and when needed by proactively monitoring the application performance. It helps you to focus on growing your business without worrying about technical roadblocks.
Final Words
Rails upgrade is not just another process in software development. It is an investment and commitment to your app’s longevity and business growth in 2025. While you don’t need to overcomplicate the process, dedicating sufficient time and effort to choose the right upgrade partner can make all the difference. We hope this article has given you a comprehensive knowledge of how to choose the right fit for your next upgrade.
If you are looking for an upgrade partner, don't hesitate to contact us. Our experienced team can make the process smooth and efficient, regardless of your app’s size or complexity.
