It’s no surprise to us Ruby developers that we owe this rich community to open-source and its countless contributors. From Ruby itself to Rails and the thousands of open-source projects, these contributions have built the foundation of our thriving ecosystem. This foundation has enabled everything from multi-billion-dollar companies to flourish, to the smallest side projects to take off. In this post, I want to highlight the companies behind some of these impactful open-source projects, showing how their support continues to drive innovation in the Ruby community. 

 Rails is the web framework that changed the game for developers, making it super easy to build powerful, scalable web apps fast. Rails popularized “convention over configuration” and is the foundation for countless businesses and projects.
Sponsors: Shopify, GitHub, Cookpad
Contributions: These companies constantly contribute code, fix bugs, and add new features, helping Rails stay up-to-date, secure, and capable of handling the needs of everything from side projects to massive apps.

JRuby brings Ruby into the Java world, letting developers run Ruby on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It’s a great way to combine the best of both worlds: Ruby’s elegance and Java’s speed and library ecosystem.
Sponsors: Red Hat, GitHub
Contributions: Red Hat and GitHub keep JRuby compatible with the latest Java versions and performance standards, so Ruby devs can tap into Java’s huge ecosystem without giving up the language they love.

If you need to process background jobs in your app (think sending emails or crunching data), Sidekiq is the go-to tool in the Ruby world. It’s fast, reliable, and can handle thousands of tasks simultaneously.
Sponsors: Community support
Contributions: Sidekiq’s development is largely supported by the community through pro license purchases and contributions. This funding helps keep it lightning fast and able to process background jobs without breaking a sweat.

Devise makes handling user authentication in Rails apps a breeze, giving you all the tools you need for sign-ups, log-ins, and password management without needing to build it from scratch.
Sponsors: Nubank (formerly Plataformatec)
Contributions: Originally developed by Plataformatec (now part of Nubank), they continue to ensure Devise remains secure and reliable, so developers can quickly implement authentication in their apps.

What It Is: RSpec is the testing tool that makes writing tests in Ruby easy and intuitive. It lets developers write human-readable tests to ensure everything works as expected.
Sponsors: BlockFi, Cookpad
Contributions: BlockFi and Cookpad actively support RSpec’s development, ensuring it stays the go-to testing framework for Ruby developers who want clean, readable, and reliable tests.

Sorbet brings type-checking to Ruby, helping developers catch errors early and write more reliable, maintainable code. It’s a game-changer for making Ruby projects more robust.
Sponsors: Stripe
Contributions: Stripe didn’t just create Sorbet; they continuously invest in its evolution, ensuring it integrates smoothly into Ruby projects and helps developers write safer code with fewer bugs.

Bundler makes managing your project’s dependencies (gems) a breeze. It ensures you’re always using the correct versions of everything and simplifies the setup for developers coming into new projects.
Sponsors: Ruby Together
Contributions: Ruby Together funds Bundler’s ongoing development, ensuring it keeps pace with the evolving Ruby ecosystem and continues to make managing dependencies hassle-free.

RailsAdmin is the tool that gives you an easy-to-use admin dashboard for managing your app’s data. Perfect for quickly setting up a backend interface without writing custom code.
Sponsors: Sferik
Contributions: Sferik, the original creator, still maintains and improves RailsAdmin, making it a go-to solution for developers who need a reliable admin interface fast.

Rubocop is the tool that helps you write cleaner, more consistent Ruby code. It catches potential style issues and bugs early, keeping your codebase tidy and maintainable.
Sponsors: Bozhidar Batsov, Shopify
Contributions: Bozhidar Batsov and Shopify lead the charge on maintaining Rubocop, ensuring it evolves with Ruby and helps developers keep their code in top shape.

Discourse is an open-source forum platform that’s simple to use and incredibly powerful. It’s widely used for community discussions, from small niche forums to large, vibrant online communities.
Sponsors: Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
Contributions: The team behind Discourse actively maintains the platform, providing infrastructure, updates, and ongoing development to ensure it remains the leading discussion platform for communities.