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Ruby on Rails has taken the web development world by storm since its first full release in 2005. Yet with new web platforms arriving each day, usage share of frameworks has become quite fragmented. So in this post, I compiled the latest trends and figures of Ruby on Rails from different sources, as well as some stats of the Ruby language.

In a recent survey of Bestvendor.com, Ruby on Rails remains to be the preferred framework of choice among startups. But, how popular really is Ruby on Rails?

Here's an infographic we've created that visualizes how far Ruby on Rails has gotten since its release in 2005.

(click image to enlarge)

Observations:

Search Volume Index and Web Usage of the Rails Framework:

• In addition to the top countries with the most number of searches using the term "Ruby on Rails", Google Trends shows that there is a slow down in Ruby on Rails search rate in 2011.
• On the other hand, via Builtwith.com, there's a steady increase of Rails web usage from 2011-2012 on a large selection of website homepages. Also, according to Builtwith.com, Ruby on Rails gained 15% increase in usage growth over the last six months.
• As of April 2012, it is estimated that over 235,000 web sites are running Ruby on Rails.

Ruby Programming Language Statistics:

• Ruby slightly gained search share in 2012 but the ranking of Ruby language remained at number 11 according to Tiobe Index (as of April 2012). TIOBE programming community index is a measure of popularity of programming languages, calculated from number of search engine results for queries containing the name of the language.
• The number of commits in Ruby seems to be leveling off compared with other popular languages such as Java, PHP and C via Ohloh.net.

Demand:

• Job trend line is still on the upswing which connotes an increasing demand and marketability. (Exist is hiring Ruby on Rails developers.)

Community: 

• There are already over 23,000 members of the official mailing list for the Ruby on Rails project.

Overall, most of the figures show steady growth. However, these benchmarks are only for reference and may not be truly representative.  

Do the stats reflect the current state of Ruby on Rails development in your region? Is Ruby on Rails a popular framework among developers and companies? Let us know what you think.

Considering to build a web application in Ruby on Rails? Start a conversation with our team today.