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Ruby

Joe Bradshaw
Joe Bradshaw
96 Points
Posted by Joe Bradshaw
Joe Bradshaw
96 Points

Rails or Laravel for a beginner

As someone who is starting out in web development with the aim to just freelance. Am I better focusing my efforts on learning php and laravel or using RoR. So far I'm enjoying RoR but finding the my constant indecisiveness is stopping me moving forward.

Thanks, Joe.

Kieran Black
Kieran Black
9,139 Points

Hi Joe,

My two cents worth would be do which feels more natural to you, do you enjoy one over the other?

When we hire, we always have a larger selection pool to choose from when requiring PHP developers, simply there are more of them. Typically RoR will cost us more per hour than PHP so the freelancer is earning more, but there seems to be more PHP work out there (although you are contending with more freelancers for the same work).

In short it seems to be swings and roundabouts, and once you have one language under your belt - there is nothing stopping you from skilling up with another, so do the one that seems most natural to you.

Hope that helped in some way

KB :octopus:

Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points
Simon Coates
Simon Coates
28,694 Points

you may want to consider ease of learning. I had a lot of trouble with laravel. I tried laracasts but i found it to not be as coherent as it could be, and the laravel api seemed to still be changing, even eliminating features in minor updates to my eternal rage. (my 2 cents worth - unless people express a similar opinion, please don't take my dumb opinion seriously)

3 Answers

Kieran Black
Kieran Black
9,139 Points
Kieran Black
Kieran Black
9,139 Points

Joe Bradshaw - No problem. I'm also based in the UK for what its worth and so my experience is purely based on that.

Good luck with the Rails track!

KB :octopus:

Joe Bradshaw
Joe Bradshaw
96 Points
Joe Bradshaw
Joe Bradshaw
96 Points

Thanks for the advice Kieran. So far from what I've done, I'm really enjoying Ruby and the community seems really good. I do find tutorial resources are perhaps slightly lacking vs php and say laravel as Jeffery Way's laracasts seem really good but I think I'll try and stick with that.

I'm in the UK so not sure if that will have an impact on the work that is available to me but I guess I'll just have to see. Think I'll have to start the Rails track up :D

Andrew Stelmach
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 Points
Andrew Stelmach
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 Points

I think given those two options, and you're dead set on freelancing first, learn how to build and customise Wordpress websites; you probably won't get good enough with Rails to be able to freelance with it without getting some fulltime industry experience first (I tried and failed). Otherwise, concentrate on Ruby (but not Rails) and work towards getting that elusive first job.