Category guides

The main gem choices for each job in a Rails application, compared on maintenance, design and fit.

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  Authentication in Rails: the generator, Devise, Rodauth and the rest

  Comparing Rails authentication options in 2026: the Rails 8 authentication generator, Devise, Rodauth, Authlogic, Clearance and Sorcery, plus OmniAuth for social login.

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  Authorization gems for Rails: Pundit, CanCanCan and Action Policy

  How Pundit, CanCanCan and Action Policy model permissions in a Rails application, how each handles scopes and testing, and when a hand-written approach is enough.

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  Background jobs in Rails: Solid Queue, Sidekiq, GoodJob and older options

  How to choose a background job backend for Rails: Active Job, Solid Queue (the Rails 8 default), Sidekiq, GoodJob, delayed_job and Resque, and what replaced Workling and Spawn.

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  Building a property search in Rails: geocoding gems compared

  Geocoder, geokit-rails and PostGIS with activerecord-postgis-adapter and RGeo compared for location search in Rails: maintenance status in 2026, licences, geocoding provider limits and a working radius-search example.

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  File uploads in Rails: Active Storage, Shrine and CarrierWave

  Choosing a file attachment solution for Rails: Active Storage, Shrine and CarrierWave compared, image variants with image_processing, validation, and migrating away from Paperclip.

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  JSON serializers for Rails APIs: Jbuilder, Alba, Blueprinter and ActiveModelSerializers

  Which gem should render JSON in a Rails API? as_json, Jbuilder, Alba, Blueprinter, ActiveModelSerializers and jsonapi-serializer compared on design, maintenance and fit.

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  Pagination in Rails: Pagy, Kaminari and will_paginate

  Comparing Rails pagination gems — Pagy, Kaminari and will_paginate — and when to use offset or keyset pagination for large tables and infinite scrolling.

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  Rails admin panels: ActiveAdmin, Avo, Administrate and others

  How ActiveAdmin, Avo, Administrate, RailsAdmin and Madmin approach back-office interfaces for Rails, their dependencies and licences, and when to build your own admin.

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  Search in Rails: pg_search, Ransack, Searchkick and Meilisearch

  Filtering versus full-text search in Rails: Ransack for filter forms, pg_search for PostgreSQL full-text search, and Searchkick, Meilisearch or Thinking Sphinx for a dedicated search engine.

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  Testing Rails applications: Minitest, RSpec, FactoryBot and Capybara

  The Rails testing toolbox in 2026: Minitest or RSpec, fixtures or FactoryBot, system tests with Capybara, shoulda-matchers, and what replaced Webrat, Spork and factory_girl.