Ruby on Rails Agency:
Development, Modernization, Operations
Since 2009, we have been developing complex, business-critical Rails applications for enterprises, medium-sized companies, and scale-ups. We are the creators of Rails LTS and a member of the Rails Foundation.
- Experienced team of Rails developers
- Custom software, tailored to your needs
- Long-term solutions, no constant rewrites
95 %
25+
200+
Your Ruby on Rails service provider for business-critical applications
The applications that customers bring to us are almost always already in production. The original development team is no longer available, the team is growing more slowly than the application, or the code is still based on decisions made at a time when no one anticipated the current scale of the project.
We take on such applications, even without a handover or documentation. We only recommend a rewrite when an upgrade is necessary but too risky. With Rails LTS, applications remain securely in operation even if their Rails version has officially been end-of-life for years. More than 180 companies worldwide rely on it, including 37signals – the company Ruby on Rails came out of.
If you need help with Ruby on Rails, you're in the right hands.
Our Services
Ruby on Rails development
We develop your Ruby on Rails application and create a stable, maintainable application designed for future growth. An extensible architecture and a well-designed testing setup ensure that your application will run smoothly over the long term. If desired, we offer a one-stop solution: we also support our clients with hosting, DevOps, and UI/UX design.
Rails modernization and further development
We assess the status and scalability of your current architecture and processes and help you improve them. Upon request, we train your team in efficient Rails development and test automation and implement better development processes. If your Rails project is facing serious difficulties, we’ll get it back on track.
Long-term safety and maintenance
We have been hosting and developing some of our applications for over 15 years. If needed, we use Rails LTS to ensure that your application remains secure and up to date even after official support for Rails versions has ended. With Rails LTS Active Maintenance, we also provide ongoing support for your application at a fixed monthly price.
AI in Your Rails application
We integrate language models into your existing Rails application – using locally hosted models if desired – so your data never leaves your organization. Typical use cases include searching your own document repositories, text generation within your existing workflow, and classification. We build AI features the same way we build any other feature: tested, maintainable, and without vendor lock-in.
makandra is the smartest team of Rails developers I've ever worked with in my career. I was very impressed by how they dove right into an old, messy codebase and were able to immediately start improving our tests and reliability without much oversight from us. The business value we were able to derive from this was overwhelming.
Our Rails projects
Software quality you can see
makandra thinks proactively, takes the initiative, and understands the field. Our clients notice this when we work together, and our team sees it in our day-to-day work.
How we work with Ruby on Rails
- Architecture
As a Rails service provider, we have extensive experience with both monolithic applications and microservice architectures, and we understand the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. For small teams and medium-sized projects, we believe a well-structured monolith is easier to maintain and operate than a collection of microservices. Large teams and projects involve different trade-offs. - Databases
For data storage, we always use relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, which we run in fault-tolerant clusters. We know exactly how these systems behave under load. If additional requirements arise for which relational databases are not the right tools, we employ other technologies such as Redis or Elasticsearch. - Collaboration
Our developers can always integrate into your company’s existing processes. However, if you have no preference, we use our own Kanban-style process. We develop new features in feature branches. Implementations undergo a code review before they are merged into the codebase. - Testing
We believe 100% in the business necessity of automated software testing. For full-stack integration tests, we control a real browser using Capybara and Selenium. For unit tests, we use RSpec (Ruby) and Jasmine (JavaScript).
Additional Rails services from makandra
makandra got our product up and running in eight weeks and helped train our developers. This allowed us to launch months earlier.
Frequently asked questions about Ruby on Rails
Yes, that’s a very common way to get started. We begin by taking stock of the code, test coverage, dependencies, and deployment, and then let you know what’s viable and what should be replaced. A handoff from the previous team helps, but it’s not a requirement. We’ve also taken over applications where the original developers were no longer available.
Tests are extremely important to us. They ensure that the application remains stable even when new features are added or existing ones are modified. That’s why we’re very reluctant to work with applications that have poor test coverage. In many cases, it makes sense to build up test coverage gradually, starting with the areas that would have the most severe business impact.
We view AI as a tool that we strategically integrate into existing Rails architectures to create added value. In many of our active projects, such components are already an integral part of the system. We seamlessly integrate modern language models into your processes. Upon request, we can also provide locally operated models (on-premise) to meet the highest data protection standards and ensure that your data never leaves your organization.
A well-maintained application with high test coverage can almost always be upgraded. Without tests, the effort required for maintenance increases significantly: in such cases, it’s sometimes worth developing a new solution. If the application is difficult to update and does not require active further development, it can alternatively be maintained using Rails LTS. We’d be happy to advise you specifically on your situation.
The cost depends largely on the size, complexity, and the version of Rails currently in use. Often, the key factor determining the effort required is not the number of version jumps, but rather the existing test coverage. We begin every upgrade with a thorough analysis of your codebase, which provides you with a reliable estimate of the effort involved. If the application is very old and complex, we’ll also honestly assess whether an upgrade is still cost-effective or if a new development would be the better investment.
We can always schedule an initial consultation on very short notice. Since our development team is generally quite busy, we usually plan for a lead time of about 6 to 8 weeks before the regular project start date. In some cases, however, things can move faster.
If your application is experiencing urgent issues (e.g., critical errors or performance problems), please let us know right away when you first contact us. For such emergencies, we can usually find a solution and free up capacity on short notice.
We have more than 25 developers who work with Ruby on Rails every day. All of them complete our trainee program before being assigned to client projects. We use pair programming and code reviews, so that several people are always aware of the status of your project.
Yes. We’ve been running Rails applications for over 15 years. On our own hardware in a German data center, in your existing cloud, or on AWS. One-stop development and operations means that when a problem arises, we’re familiar with the entire environment and know exactly where to look.
About 95 percent of our client applications run on Rails. This focus is a quality-driven decision: Our developers never end up on a project using a technology they don’t master; knowledge can be transferred across projects; and coverage works without the need for onboarding.
Having already built over 200 Rails applications, there are no surprises on our projects, and we always manage to stay on time and within budget. Since 2024, we have been the first German member of the Rails Foundation.
We help you solve your Rails challenges
Thomas Eisenbarth
Managing Director
Whether you're scaling, modernizing, or developing a new Rails application, we're here to help. Feel free to contact me for a free initial consultation. We look forward to getting to know you and your project.