Services / Ruby on Rails & Custom Development
Ruby on Rails development for apps your business runs on
Upgrades of apps stuck on old Rails and Ruby versions, rescues of codebases nobody wants to touch, new builds done properly, and steady maintenance after launch.
Sound familiar?
The problems we build for
Your app is several Rails versions behind, the Ruby version is out of security support, and every gem update breaks something else.
The developer who built it has moved on, there are almost no tests, and every change feels like defusing a bomb.
Pages that used to be fast now time out, background jobs pile up, and the database is doing far more work than it should.
Your hosting stack or a key gem is reaching end of life, and the upgrade keeps getting pushed to next quarter.
The roadmap is full, your team is small, and you need senior Rails hands without a six-month hiring process.
Start small — fixed price
Rails App Audit
The low-risk way to start: a written audit of your Rails app's versions, dependencies, tests, performance, and security, with an upgrade or repair plan you keep either way.
- Rails, Ruby, and gem versions with their support status, each named
- Test coverage, slowest endpoints, and riskiest code identified, not guessed
- Your Upgrade Plan: staged, prioritized, priced, and yours to keep
Curious what the report looks like? See a sample audit (store example) →
Not ready for an audit? Ask for three free quick wins →
$450
fixed · delivered in 5 business days
credited in full against follow-on work
Our guarantee — If the report doesn't give you a clear, prioritized plan you could hand to any developer, you don't pay.
Request an auditWhat we deliver
The work, concretely
Rails upgrades & rescues
Apps brought forward from old Rails and Ruby versions in planned, reversible steps, and fragile codebases stabilized before anything new is built on them.
- Version-by-version upgrade path with dual-boot where it helps
- Deprecations, gem conflicts, and security advisories cleared
- A test safety net added around the code the upgrade touches
New Rails applications
Web apps, internal tools, and API backends built on conventional Rails, with Hotwire for interactive pages and a codebase the next developer can read.
- Conventional Rails structure, no clever private framework
- Background jobs, email, payments, and admin tooling
- Tests, CI, and a documented deploy from day one
Maintenance & performance
A steady routine for apps already in production: dependency and security updates, error monitoring, slow-query and N+1 fixes, and small features without a new quote each time.
- Monthly gem and security updates through staging
- Error and performance monitoring someone actually reads
- Slow endpoints and jobs measured, then fixed
Senior help for your team
An experienced Rails engineer working inside your repo, your tickets, and your review process, for a defined stretch or an ongoing number of hours each month.
- Works in your workflow: your Git, tickets, and standups
- Code review and pairing for less experienced developers
- Written handover so knowledge stays with your team
Not on this list?
If it's adjacent to this work, ask — we'll tell you honestly whether it's inside our depth, including when the answer is no.
Ask us →In practice
Where Rails work usually starts
The situations that tend to bring a Rails app to an outside engineer. If one of these sounds like your app, the audit is the place to start.
Stuck on Rails 5 or 6
The app works, but the framework and Ruby version are past security support and new gems no longer install. A staged upgrade path gets it current without a rewrite.
Inherited codebase, no tests
The original developer is gone and nobody is sure what a change will break. An audit, a test safety net around the critical flows, then fixes in priority order.
Slow pages and backed-up jobs
Requests time out at busy hours and background queues fall behind. Profiling finds the real causes, such as N+1 queries, missing indexes, or oversized jobs, and those get fixed first.
New product or internal tool
A customer portal, an operations dashboard, or a SaaS backend built in conventional Rails, so it stays cheap to change and easy to hire for later.
Extra senior capacity
Your team has more Rails work than people. A senior engineer joins your workflow for a set number of hours, ships tickets, and reviews code.
How we approach it
Ruby on Rails & Custom Development the way we practice it
Audit before estimates
Existing apps get a written audit first: versions, dependencies, test coverage, the slowest paths, and the riskiest code. Estimates are based on what the audit finds, not on a guess about what a typical Rails app looks like.
Tests before changes
Before we change risky code we pin its current behaviour with tests. That is what makes an upgrade or refactor safe to ship, and it stays with you afterwards as a safety net.
Small, reversible steps
Upgrades move one version at a time and ship to production between steps, so a problem is caught while the change is small. Deploys are planned to avoid downtime, with a rollback written down before each one.
Does your app need to talk to other systems?
Payment providers, CRMs, accounting software, AI services, and webhooks from every direction: most business apps live or die by their integrations. It's one of our three core services, not an afterthought.
Platforms and technologies we build with
- Ruby on Rails
- Ruby
- Hotwire
- Sidekiq
- RSpec
- TypeScript
- REST
- Webhooks
- Stripe
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Cloudflare
- AWS
Related work
Ruby on Rails & Custom Development in practice
FAQ
Ruby on Rails & Custom Development: frequently asked
Can you take over a Rails app another developer built?
Yes. We start with an audit so you get an honest written picture of the codebase, its dependencies, and its risks, and then a plan. No blame toward the previous developer; some of their constraints were probably real.
How long does a Rails upgrade take, and what does it cost?
It depends on how far behind the app is, how many gems need replacing, and how much test coverage exists. The audit answers those questions, and the upgrade is then quoted as fixed-price stages, one per version step, so you can stop after any stage with a working app.
Should we rewrite the app instead of upgrading it?
Usually not. A rewrite throws away years of handled edge cases and stops feature work for months. We recommend one only when the audit shows that upgrading would honestly cost more, and we put the reasons in writing.
What does Rails maintenance include, and what does it cost?
A flat monthly arrangement from $150/month: gem and security updates through staging, error and uptime monitoring, and small fixes handled without a new quote each time. You can cancel anytime.
Do you work in stacks other than Rails?
Rails is our lead stack for custom applications. We also take Python and JavaScript/TypeScript work where it fits the project, so ask, and we will say plainly if a job is outside what we do well.
Also from us
The other two things we do well
Have a Rails problem to solve?
Describe the problem in plain language — broken, slow, manual, or missing. We'll tell you honestly whether and how we can help.
- 01We reply within one business day
- 02A short call to understand the problem
- 03A written scope and fixed quote — no obligation