Web frameworks

Ruby on Rails vs Django

Ruby on Rails has 2 supported release lines and Django has 3. Ruby on Rails 8.0 reaches end of life on Nov 7, 2026, and Django 4.2 reached end of life on Apr 7, 2026. Both are open source: Ruby on Rails under MIT, Django under BSD-3-Clause. OSV.dev lists 12 advisories from the last 12 months for Ruby on Rails and 30 for Django.

Last checked Oct 17, 2026, 06:25 UTC against endoflife.date, deps.dev, OSV.dev, CISA KEV and PyPI.

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Side by side

Every value links to its source. Where a row doesn’t apply to one of them, the cell says why.

Ruby on Rails and Django compared on live data
Compared on	Ruby on Rails	Django
Support and releases
Supported release lines	2 lines: 8.1, 8.0 Next to end: 8.0 on Nov 7, 2026 endoflife.date	3 lines: 6.1, 6.0, 5.2 LTS Next to end: 6.0 on Apr 30, 2027 endoflife.date
Latest release	`8.1.4` Released Sep 24, 2026 endoflife.date	`6.1.2` Released Oct 6, 2026 endoflife.date
Releases in the last 12 months	17 releases `rails` on RubyGems RubyGems	31 releases `django` on PyPI PyPI
Security
Advisories published in the last 12 months	12, worst rated critical For `rails` and 12 related packages OSV.dev	30, worst rated critical For `django` OSV.dev
OpenSSF Scorecard	6.3 / 10 `rails/rails`, Aug 24, 2026 Scorecard	6.7 / 10 `django/django`, Aug 24, 2026 Scorecard
Licence and hosting
Licence	MIT Open source (permissive) deps.dev	BSD-3-Clause Open source (permissive) deps.dev
How you run it	Your own Ruby app server (Puma by default)	Your own Python app server (WSGI or ASGI)
Adoption
GitHub stars	58.8K `rails/rails` GitHub	91.4K `django/django` GitHub

Support and releases
Ruby on Rails	Django
Supported release lines
2 lines: 8.1, 8.0 Next to end: 8.0 on Nov 7, 2026 endoflife.date	3 lines: 6.1, 6.0, 5.2 LTS Next to end: 6.0 on Apr 30, 2027 endoflife.date
Latest release
`8.1.4` Released Sep 24, 2026 endoflife.date	`6.1.2` Released Oct 6, 2026 endoflife.date
Releases in the last 12 months
17 releases `rails` on RubyGems RubyGems	31 releases `django` on PyPI PyPI

Security
Ruby on Rails	Django
Advisories published in the last 12 months
12, worst rated critical For `rails` and 12 related packages OSV.dev	30, worst rated critical For `django` OSV.dev
OpenSSF Scorecard
6.3 / 10 `rails/rails`, Aug 24, 2026 Scorecard	6.7 / 10 `django/django`, Aug 24, 2026 Scorecard

Licence and hosting
Ruby on Rails	Django
Licence
MIT Open source (permissive) deps.dev	BSD-3-Clause Open source (permissive) deps.dev
How you run it
Your own Ruby app server (Puma by default)	Your own Python app server (WSGI or ASGI)

Adoption
Ruby on Rails	Django
GitHub stars
58.8K `rails/rails` GitHub	91.4K `django/django` GitHub

Advisory counts cover every version, old ones included, and a heavily used, well-audited project often has more. Check the versions you run with the dependency check.

Which fits your constraints

Read across for what matters to you. Each answer comes from the data above or the project’s licence and hosting options.

How Ruby on Rails and Django fit common constraints
If you need	Ruby on Rails	Django
An open-source licence	Yes: MIT	Yes: BSD-3-Clause
A long support window	8.1 is supported until Oct 10, 2027	5.2 LTS is supported until Apr 30, 2028
The language your team writes	Ruby	Python

How Ruby on Rails and Django fit common constraints
Ruby on Rails	Django
An open-source licence
Yes: MIT	Yes: BSD-3-Clause
A long support window
8.1 is supported until Oct 10, 2027	5.2 LTS is supported until Apr 30, 2028
The language your team writes
Ruby	Python

What each is good at

Ruby on Rails

Full-stack web framework emphasizing convention over configuration

Strengths

Convention over configuration (rapid development)
Rich ecosystem of gems (libraries)
Excellent for MVPs and startups
Strong community and mature tooling
Built-in testing framework

Trade-offs

Slower runtime performance than competitors
Monolithic architecture can be restrictive
Smaller talent pool than JavaScript/Python
Magic conventions can be confusing

Common uses

Startup MVPs
E-commerce platforms
Content management
SaaS applications

Django

High-level Python web framework with batteries included

Strengths

Comprehensive built-in features (ORM, admin, auth)
Secure by default (CSRF, SQL injection protection)
Excellent documentation and large community
Rapid development with code generation
Scalable for large applications

Trade-offs

Monolithic and opinionated
Slower than lightweight frameworks
Learning curve for beginners
Overkill for small APIs

Common uses

Content management systems
E-commerce platforms
Data-driven web apps
Enterprise applications

From StackPrism’s curated notes. Pricing isn’t covered here: it changes often, so check each vendor’s pricing page.

When teams weigh these two

Two batteries-included web frameworks from the same era (Rails in 2004, Django in 2005) with similar ideas: an ORM, migrations, generators or an admin, and conventions for structure. The language usually decides it: Ruby for Rails, Python for Django.

How this comparison works

Release lines and end-of-life dates come from endoflife.date, release counts from deps.dev’s publish dates, and advisories from OSV.dev, counted once per flaw even when it’s listed under several ids, and checked against CISA’s list of vulnerabilities known to be exploited. Status and incident history come from each vendor’s public status feed; licences from each project’s licence file or the vendor’s licensing page, linked in the table.

The data refreshes every few hours and the time it was checked is shown above. There’s no pricing and no overall winner: which one fits depends on your constraints. To see how the versions you actually run hold up, check your repo.

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