01 Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails development company for new builds and maintenance

Tailwebs is a Ruby on Rails development company in Bengaluru that builds and maintains Rails applications. Founded in 2015, we have delivered 200+ projects for 100+ clients. Rails suits data-rich platforms with structured records, admin review before anything is published, and years of steady change, so each build starts from those traits in your project.

Rails upgrades, takeovers and new builds

Talk to us about your Rails app When Rails fits a new build

Illustration: a railway line with the Mr Delivery site and an Aadhar India app screen as stations

02 Takeover

Taking over your Rails app: audit first, then a written roadmap

Taking over a Rails app that nobody left on the team knows well, including one whose original developers have moved on, starts with a code audit and a written roadmap, before any code changes.

Not sure what state the app is in? Tell us what it runs on.

What the audit covers: Rails and Ruby versions against their supported releases; gems that are abandoned, pinned or have security advisories; test coverage; deployment and hosting; background jobs; data and backups; and the pain points your team already knows.
What you get: A written roadmap: what is out of date, what is risky, the order of the fixes, and an estimate for each step.
Yours to take anywhere: The roadmap is written to be used by any team, including your own.
Code nobody documented: Legacy code with no documentation and nobody left to explain it can still be audited: the audit reads the code itself, rather than relying on what was written down about it.

03 Upgrade ladder

Rails upgrade services: one supported version at a time

A Rails upgrade climbs one supported version at a time, while feature work carries on. The number of rungs sets the timeline, which is why an audit comes first.

Why a ladder, not a leap

Each Rails release removes what the release before it deprecated. Jumping several versions at once stacks every one of those breaking changes into a single release; taking them one at a time keeps each change small enough to test and to ship.

04 Upgrade or rewrite

Upgrade or rewrite? Why upgrading usually comes first

A working Rails app is usually worth upgrading rather than rewriting, for three reasons, with one exception.

The code holds the rules. A working Rails app holds years of business rules that nobody has written down: the edge cases in billing, the exceptions in approvals, the fixes for problems that happened once and must not happen again.
A rewrite stops the product. It pauses feature work for months, and the new system has to rediscover those rules one bug at a time, while the features your users were promised wait.
Steps keep it shipping. Upgrading in steps keeps the product shipping, release after release, and keeps each change small enough to check.
The exception. A partial rebuild makes sense only for a part that blocks your roadmap. If the audit finds one, it names the part and the reason.

Our shipped platforms, by service, are on our work page.

05 Maintenance

Keeping it healthy: the maintenance plan

After the upgrade, a monthly plan keeps the app patched and current, so it does not fall behind again and the next upgrade stays a small one.

Each month

Security patches for Rails, Ruby and the gems
Dependency and gem updates
Monitoring of the app in production
Small changes your team asks for

Each quarter

A version check, so the app doesn't fall behind again

Response and plan

Standard requests answered within one business day
Critical issues within four business hours
Delivered through the Care and Growth plan, from ₹50,000 a month

Long-running Rails work we have built: the GFC platform, the WAC API, and Aadhar India's loan management tool, which we took from idea to scale. See what clients say in our Clutch reviews. What each plan includes, and its price, is on our pricing page. Need a whole web product scoped and built? See web app development.

06 New builds

New Ruby on Rails software builds

Rails fits a data-rich platform with admin review workflows, built to change for years. We have built the MOSIP Marketplace, the GFC platform, Aadhar India's loan management tool, the WAC API, Mr Delivery's ordering and delivery platform and our own Tipsy Tale in it. Its conventions keep records, admin screens and changes to the data model quick to build and easy for the next developer to read. These four traits are how to tell; each comes with an example.

Project traits

The product is mostly structured data, content and workflows. For example, a legal, policy or research database with filters and exports: see research content systems.
Admin users review, edit and publish records. For example, a data platform with a manual review step before records go live, where an editor sees what changed, approves it, and the change is logged.
You want a usable first version quickly. For example, a first release that puts the core records, search and the admin screens in front of users early, then grows with what they ask for.
You expect years of steady change. For example, a platform whose fields, rules and reports keep changing, with AI-assisted extraction or tagging added later: see AI and LLM development.

Hire a dedicated Ruby on Rails developer

Hiring instead?

Need a Rails developer in your own team? Hire a dedicated developer

07 FAQ

Questions about Ruby on Rails.

Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

Yes: Rails is actively maintained and still suits data-rich web platforms, with structured records, admin review before anything is published, and years of steady change. Whether it suits yours depends on those traits, which the new-builds section above sets out with an example each.

Can you take over a Rails app from another developer or agency?

Yes: we start with a code audit and give you a written roadmap before any code changes.

How long does a Rails upgrade take?

It depends on how many versions behind the app is and how much test coverage it has. An app one version behind with good tests is a short job; one several versions behind with thin coverage takes longer.

Can you upgrade a Rails app that has no tests?

Yes: we add tests around the most-used flows first, then upgrade one version at a time.

What does Rails maintenance include?

Security patches, dependency updates, monitoring and small changes under our Care and Growth plan, from ₹50,000 a month. The maintenance plan above sets out what each month covers. Standard requests are answered within one business day, and critical issues within four business hours.

How much does a new Ruby on Rails application cost?

It depends on the type: in our draft bands, a research or policy website costs ₹6–20 lakh, an MVP ₹8–15 lakh and a data portal ₹12–35 lakh. Every package is on our pricing page.

Is building a website with Ruby on Rails a good choice?

Yes, when the website is really a data platform, with structured records, search, filters, exports and admin review before anything is published. A brochure site of a few pages that rarely change has no need for it.