So, you have decided to build your web application using Ruby on Rails. But, now are confused about how to go about it? Startups and large companies can benefit from the robust framework. Currently, 399302 websites run on Rails. After the project brief has been written, you should hire Ruby on Rails developers. You can hire a freelance developer or hire a Ruby on Rails development company.Rating websites like Clutch.
When you are choosing candidates for your application, it is vital that you choose the right ones. Our Rails programmers are selected through a detailed process at Zestminds. We screen our candidates, then interview HR and discuss skills with our CEO. Introducing only the best RoR developers to our projects is crucial today due to their critical importance.
Companies interested in developing Ruby on Rails applications face the challenge of identifying the right partner. The right partners can be identified and evaluated in many obvious ways.
An easy-to-evaluate list of factors to consider when choosing a partner is provided in this article. Depending on the type of programmer, development time can be reduced by 25 to 40%.
Why Use Ruby on Rails?
Ruby on Rails is used to build countless applications. The Ruby on Rails apps of Shopify, Twitch, Airbnb, and SoundCloud are familiar to most users.
It’s completely free and open source. In addition to its enduring open-source status, RoR has had over 5,000 contributors who keep it up to date and help keep the framework up
This allows rapid development by simplifying repetitive tasks. A proof of concept (POC) and minimum viable product (MVP) can then be developed quickly.
Explore the reasons why Ruby on Rails is a great choice for web development.
Benefits of Ruby on Rails
With 7.1% of respondents being Ruby on Rails developers, Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey 2020 ranks Ruby as the world’s 14th most popular programming language.
Globally, almost 900,000 websites use Ruby on Rails, and that number grows daily.
This popular programming language is popular because of its many advantages for business owners.
Ruby on Rails:
• It allows developers to skip writing repetitive code with its many plug-ins and modules
• Due to its status as a free open-source framework, it comes with low costs
• A number of security features are built into the framework by default, making it exceptionally secure
• Provides excellent testing tools, including Minitest, as part of the framework to ensure bug-free development
• Thanks to its widespread adoption by major tech companies, Ruby on Rails code examples abound due to its strong community and continued support
• As developers have to follow standards to create well-structured code, this promotes consistency
As soon as we’ve seen some of the benefits that you can enjoy by adopting Ruby on Rails, let’s explore how to hire the best Ruby on Rails development team.
How to Determine the Right Ruby on Rails Developer?
Prior to hiring Ruby on Rails developers, determine what your goal is. You have four main goals –
- 1. Web application development
- 2. App maintenance & support
- 3. Rails version upgrade
- 4. Web app data migration
Depending on those factors, you can hire an in-house developer, freelancer, or Ruby on Rails development company. Before selecting an option, make sure you clarify your goal.
Option 1 — Employ a developer in-house
Hiring a developer to work in your office all day or working remotely is one option. Here are a few benefits:
Pros
1. Focus on your startup only
Full-time developers work exclusively for you, completing tasks when you need them and in the order you specify. Full-time developers are dedicated exclusively to your project, being able to tackle multiple side projects for other clients without wasting their time.
2. Simple communication
A developer on the team ensures constant communication without the challenges associated with time zones and silos. Your Ruby on Rails developer will be able to understand your expectations better if you have a personal interaction with them.
3. Easy management
You are able to effectively manage every task in your office with a developer. It is even easier to manage a developer’s workflow if you apply an Agile methodology, which includes daily meetings, demos, and retrospectives.
The hourly rate and budget overruns won’t be a problem. A Ruby on Rails specialist may be able to offer some advantages that might persuade you to look for other options than employing an in-house developer.
Cons
1. Locating a candidate with experience can be challenging
If you’re hiring an RoR developer, you should consider their location. Finding an RoR developer in your area can be especially difficult if there aren’t any universities or development centers near where people can gain knowledge and experience.
2. It can be difficult to attract someone for a small project
It is very rare for developers to change jobs every few months when working in an office. An individual who has just joined a team needs to get to know the team and the company. If your project is small or doesn’t involve complex tasks, you’ll have a difficult time persuading someone to take your offer.
3. It’s difficult and expensive to employ people
As an employer, you are responsible for providing workers with all the guarantees specified by your country’s labor code. A full-time employee may break your startup’s budget if you’re on a tight budget.
Employing staff internally can also be a long, tedious process, especially in countries with a lot of bureaucracy. In addition to all that, you’ll need some legal and accounting specialists to manage the process.
Because of this, you need to budget for the costs of the company’s accountant and lawyer when you work with a developer
When to employ an in-house RoR developer
Companies with an in-house development team can consider hiring a Ruby on rails expert. However, you must guarantee that this developer will have ongoing tasks to perform.
Where to find an in-house RoR developer
A developer who wants to work for a startup or for a company typically posts his or her CV on job sites like Indeed and CareerBuilder. Another option is to go on LinkedIn and look for a professional there.
You can use all of these platforms locally or remotely to find the right person.
Option 2 — Hire a Ruby on Rails freelancer
Working with a freelancer remotely is the next option. You need to take into account both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a freelancer in order to determine if this type of cooperation would be beneficial.
Pros
1. It’s cheaper
As compared to in-house developers or teams, freelancers can be more cost-effective. Developers with the required skill set can be compared by their hourly rate from different countries, allowing you to find candidates within your budget.
When you agree on a fixed price, you may select this option and only pay for the hours a freelancer spends on your tasks.
Developers do not need a workspace or equipment, and no social safeguards are required.
2. Easy to find someone with the necessary skillset
No matter where they live, freelancers can work from anywhere. If you are searching for an experienced Ruby on Rails developer in your local area, you may find it difficult to find one with the necessary knowledge, experience, and budget.
Furthermore, if you don’t require a developer to hold a particular educational background or to be from a specific country, finding a freelancer who satisfies these requirements will be much easier than finding an in-house developer.
Cons
A freelancer can be a great choice if speed, cost, or experience are important. However, this kind of partnership can also have some downsides once the partnership begins.
1. Difficult to manage
There is the likelihood of poor management for freelancers because they have fewer controls than in-house workers, especially if the time zones are different. This can lead to delayed tasks and checks.
Employees who can’t be managed all of the time pose trust issues. There is no way for an employer to check how much time the developer has spent completing the project and the difficulties they encountered.
2. Lower engagement and motivation
Freelancers usually are hired to accomplish specific tasks, not complete projects. Freelancers will often fail to understand how the final product will function or who will use it. It is impossible to be motivated, engaged, and to think of end-users in such circumstances.
The motivation of full-stack developers can be higher if they are dedicated to your project without any pet projects.
It is also common to have problems with motivation in learning new skills and technologies. Furthermore, freelancers usually work alone and lack mentorship for checking the quality of their code. So freelancers tend to stick to one technology stack, not developing their technical and soft skills, or doing it slowly and getting stuck at the same level.
3. Mismatch of expertise
Upwork and other freelance platforms have special testing procedures to determine a developer’s skill level and knowledge. It is really difficult to determine who has passed the tests, despite the fact that they are fairly precise.
The developers can convey any information about themselves or their experience on some platforms without passing tests. But how can a freelancer’s experience be estimated?
When to Hire a Ruby on Rails freelancer
Freelancers are a great option when you have a team of experts and you need Ruby on Rails work done on part of your project. If you hire a Ruby developer, it will be best if you hire someone who has the technical experience to interview candidates and assess their expertise.
Managing the risks and issues related to communication and management and signing a contract to protect both parties is vital in working with a freelancer.
Where to Find a Freelancer
You can find Ruby on Rails developers for hire using platforms such as Upwork, Toptal, and Guru. These platforms provide hourly rates and feedback from previous customers, as well as convenient search features and filters.
Option 3 — Hire a development company
Consider partnering with a development company if you need a team of developers, not just one specialist for your startup.
A decision of this kind has the following advantages:
Pros
1. Flexible and scalable team
Whenever your startup grows, you’ll have to hire another specialist and manage the communication with other freelancers.
Full-stack development agencies are able to assemble teams made up of the best talent. This way, you’ll have a team comprised of all the specialists you need, and which you can readily expand if necessary.
2. Streamlined management processes
By assigning a project manager within the team, a software development company ensures communication is maintained between all stakeholders and a streamlined communication process is implemented.
Project managers are made more effective by the workflow that development companies create. For instance, at Zestminds, we have daily project manager communication with our product owners, and we also send weekly reports showing how projects are progressing. Additionally, the project manager gathers feedback from every member of the team, checks their statuses, plans meetings to enhance efficiency, and defines responsibilities, roles, and the engagement level of each member.
This workflow helps project managers to deliver the right information to the right people, avoid misunderstandings and delays, and manage risks.
3. High engagement and motivation
Companies are more motivated to launch a successful product than freelancers, who usually do not participate in the entire product development process or only partially contribute to it. Why?
It’s important for development companies to build long-term relationships with their clients. The customer experience is considered important by 80 percent of businesses in the B2B sector.
According to B2B executives, 74% of companies expect them to help understand their end consumers’ needs more than just selling them hyper-relevant products.
4. Easy to check expertise and skillset
It is important to check the portfolio and ratings of a potential team and the feedback provided by previous clients in order to determine the real expertise and skills they possess. Several websites collect actual feedback about development companies from around the world, including Clutch and GoodFirms. It is easy to discover all the unhappy customers of a technology partner you’re considering.
Potential vendors should also be aware of their social media activity. Organizations, sponsors, and participants of specialized technology events tend to value their own employees’ growth and development. There are a number of Ruby on Rails events that are well known in the Ruby on Rails community, such as RubyC, RailsConf, EuRuKo, and Ruby Kaigi. If you’ve shortlisted vendors, you might want to see if they have participated in these events.
Reading feedback from employees (especially former employees) will help you learn more about the agency’s culture, values, and working environment. Websites such as Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com provide this information.
When employees give feedback about a business, it reveals its reliability and the values it promotes. Turnover of employees increases your costs, negatively affects your project, and also contributes to high employee turnover. Staff retention at high-performing development companies provides an environment where developers can grow, learn and share knowledge. These teams specialize in creative, innovative thinking.
5. Help with business idea validation
Developing apps for mobile or web is becoming more complex than just hiring a vendor. In general, agencies have a lot of experience launching and maintaining startups, from idea validation through production. A development agency is often responsible for educating and supporting clients at all stages of building a startup.
By the way, that’s how Zestminds evaluates startup ideas to build solutions that are truly desired by potential users.
Cons
1. Can cost more than one developer or freelancer
Teams usually charge more per hour than freelancers. Despite this, the cost of development services varies by location. There can be a difference in costs between American freelancers and Eastern European outsourcing companies. Development companies are most prevalent in the US, Australia, and Western Europe. The costs of software outsourcing are lower than those of working with developers in these countries for startups in these regions.
We see from comparing the rates that Ruby on Rails freelance developers aren’t always more affordable than outsourcing companies. Moreover, hiring a freelance developer is not always cheaper than hiring an in-house developer, since you eliminate many operational costs such as taxes, benefits, and training.
2. Isn’t cost-effective for small tasks
The truth is, when you just want to have one developer handle a small task, you won’t need a whole team. It’s faster and more cost-effective to work with one freelancer if the job is small and based on one technology.
When to Hire a Development Agency
You can partner with a development agency if you don’t have a lot of technical experience but you need different specialists for specific skill sets. Also, it’s a good idea to hire an agency if you don’t have experience managing a team of freelancers and would like to narrow down communication to one responsible person who will take care of all issues.
You need a development company if you want to validate your business idea and construct a roadmap for launching and building your startup from the ground up.
Where to find a development company
A Ruby on Rails development company can be found and validated in several ways.
- Option #1: LinkedIn profiles
LinkedIn is not only used to promote a company’s online visibility, but also to inform potential customers of its history, culture, values, and all the great products it has launched. LinkedIn provides information about a company’s goals and the direction it wants to take.
- Option #2: Rating websites like Clutch
• Companies like Clutch and GoodFirms collect data on different companies in the form of customer reviews.
• Since all feedback is moderated and verified by non-employed specialists, you can trust the feedback.
- Option #3: Events and conferences
IT conferences and other technology events can also be a great place to find development companies. Participating in such events as well as organizing them they share their experiences with other agencies. You can look for vendors with experience successfully applying blockchain or machine learning technologies at conferences if your project involves these technologies.
One of the best ways to gauge a company’s expertise is by looking at the portfolio of projects it has created, designed, and launched. Portfolios contain case studies and customer testimonials about implemented projects. Check out Clutch and GoodFirms to see if a testimonial is honest and relevant, or compare it to a previous customer’s testimonial.
How to Hire the Right Ruby on Rails Developer
In addition to hiring Ruby on Rails developers, you’ll also need to check off a few other boxes.
Technical Capabilities
- 1. In order to be a competent ruby developer, one must be familiar with these technical processes:
- 2. Ruby on Rails is a framework and language for Ruby.
- 3. Object-oriented programming.
- 4. With particular emphasis on learning the syntax of SQL and an ActiveRecord ORM.
- 5. Languages and frameworks for the HTTP protocol, HTML, and CSS.
- • Gems
Gems are shared packages of functionality in Ruby on Rails that other people may find useful. You can check the developer’s contributions to gems or their own projects before hiring Ruby on rails developers.
- • Deployment
One of the most important technical indicators to look for in ruby on rails developers is how they have deployed their previous work and made it available for many users at the same time.
Soft Skills
Often, ruby on rails developers are undervalued for their soft skills, but these can transform an app from failure to success.
- • Client Interaction
One of the most critical tasks that dedicated Ruby on Rails developers have to encounter is interacting with a client and understanding what they want so that they can mold their code accordingly. Interpersonal skills are crucial to successful Ruby on Rails development.
- • Team Player
Successful apps and projects are rarely the results of one person’s efforts – Ruby on Rails developers must know how to work with a team in order to achieve success.
- • Learning Skills
Due to the dynamic nature of Ruby on Rails, the capacity to keep learning is most important.
Key Takeaways
Unless you have an idea of who you are looking for, it is best to wait and look for the perfect candidate before you start working. Decency and reliability are just as important as qualifications when evaluating candidates.
For a startup, the factors to take into consideration are the amount of work you want them to do, what other tasks you have (design, frontend, testing), and whether you can manage a team of freelancers independently.
The aim of this article is to help you decide what is right for you after considering all the factors. We offer scalable, secure, and high-performing Ruby on Rails applications for any business size that are versatile and scalable. You may contact us at contact@zestminds.com
