Ruby on Rails or just Rails is a web application framework. It is open source full-stack framework written in Ruby. Rails relies on well-known software engineering patterns and paradigms, such as CoC, DRY, MVC, etc. Despite that the largest CMSs run on PHP, there are also solutions based on Rails. It is also possible to use a lot of other languages for creating a content management system, but Ruby on Rails has its unique advantages.

First of all it’s a significant cost saving. By choosing Ruby on Rails, you get a free development toolkit. This toolkit works on an operating system which is free and operates with databases and servers most of which are also free. Using a cost-free platform, you are able to reduce costs dramatically. At the same time, you don’t have to sacrifice any performance, speed or security.

The second reason why Ruby on Rails is good for building a CMS is a rapid development.  You can create applications and add new features to your websites with Rails within short periods of time. The feature is extremely important for big projects.

Another advantage of Rails is a concept called “The Ruby Way“. Because of consistency in a code writing,  the structure and methodology of all Rails projects are similar. The MVC architecture makes it much easier to manage the project between several developers.

The responsive community is also a plus. If you have any questions, you can always find some help among other developers.

Last but not least is a future demand. Ruby on Rails supports major modern trends: sites based on RoR are moving from being static and becoming interactive and dynamic. The best-known examples are Hulu, LivingSocial, Groupon, Twitter, ZenDesk, SoundCloud, Scribd, Basecamp, YellowPages, Urban Dictionary, Shopify, SlideShare and GitHub.

Radiant

This open source CMS was designed for small teams. Textpattern and MovableType are among similar solutions, but Radiant is not only a blogging engine – it is a sterling content management system. To provide the additional customised functionality Radiant relies on a lightweight core library with extensions. These extensions do not provide any changes to the core, so the upgrading process is relatively simple. The library includes 200+ extensions which  can be adapted for different purposes. Radiant uses a database as a content storage and depends on installed adapters. The system supports MySQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL. If you don’t like Rails, but Radiant is necessary for your project, then you can use PHP ports – Wolf CMS and Frog CMS.

Radiant

Radiant is based on 3 major elements: Pages, Snippets and Layouts. Pages are used for holding the body content. They can consists of multiple parts. Any page hierarchy is possible in Radiant. You can use this CMS as a blog, where blog entries are Pages arranged to reflect the actual content structure. There is also a WYSIWYG editor, but it is available only as an extension. All the content that you can reused everywhere in the project is called Snippets. Snippets make page creation much easier. Layouts play a role of templates. They are responsible for the Page look.

Radiant cms admin

Introduction and Demo of Radiant CMS

adva cms

adva cms is another open source solution. The platform is based on Ruby on Rails and related engines. Cms is a core engine used to build multiple websites with hierarchical organization. Blog provides similar to Mephisto solutions. With Wiki engine, you can produce something like Signal Wiki. There is also a Forum engine responsible for forum systems inspired by Beast. adva cms also supports additional engines to provide such features as Theme support, Spam control, Dynamic role based access control, and Anonymous and registered user accounts. The system provides the ability to completely change the look of each page. In addition, themes can be easily shared or imported. With adva cms you can also use the spam control system of your choice and define the roles required to perform certain actions. adva cms relies on such design criteria as extensibility, flexibility, speed, scalability, and internationalization.

adva-cms

adva-cms admin

Casein

Being a Rails 4.x gem, Casein relies on helper functions and scaffolding generators. As a result, the system provides the ability to create clean and minimal CRUD interfaces with ease. Moreover, Casein comes with such useful features as pre-rolled user-authentication, user-based timezones support, and mobile support. In addition, the system is decoupled from the frontend. Thereby, it can be added to both new and existing Rails projects. You also get the ability to use Casein as a standalone CMS and drive other platforms.

Casein admin

BrowserCMS

With BrowserCMS, you get a bunch of editors and a huge set of robust core features. In addition, the system allows varied permission models, and supports different modules. As a result, BrowserCMS is highly customizable. It is direct in context editing, runs on RoR 3.2, provides extensible content API and flexible permissions. There is also the ability to organize content by both Sitemap or Type.

BrowserCMS

BrowserCMS admin

Refinery CMS

Refinery CMS is also designed for creating websites which are content manageable. It is open source and free for 100%. Everyone can use and modify Refinery. Thus, there are a lot of contributions from developers around the world. Refinery always relies on the latest versions of Rails and supports the newest features.

Refinery CMS

The system is developer friendly and easy to use. To run Refinery, you just need to know how to point and click. Thanks to slick and clean user interface, Refinery delivers the most intuitive experience for the visitors of the site. There is also a support for extensions. You can create your own modules and provide Refinery website with extra features. In addition, the CMS has very flexible design, is available in 30+ languages, and has a vibrant and active community.

Refinery CMS admin

Refinery CMS Ruby on Rails

LocomotiveCMS

With LocomotiveCMS, you will be able to pay more attention to front-end technology and standard development process. The system provides you with the ability to work locally, deploy the site whenever you want, and keep track of the code in SCM. A friendly content editing interface is another strong feature of Locomotive CMS. Switch to editing mode and you will get a bunch of simple and meaningful options. It is possible to edit most of the content directly inline. And don’t be afraid to change the layout, because it won’t modify the content. Last but not least is the community with professional support. You can always rely on forum to get some help.

LocomotiveCMS

LocomotiveCMS admin

Locomotive CMS

ComfortableMexicanSofa

ComfortableMexicanSofa supports Rails 3 apps. The integration is relatively simple, and the engine supports Rails 3.1 and 3.2 running Ruby 1.9.2, 1.9.3 and 2.0.0. With ComfortableMexicanSofa, you build your application just in Rails – not in CMS. The engine provides powerful page templating capabilities and supports single installation for multiple sites. ComfortableMexicanSofa is multilingual and has a revision history. The admin interface of the platform is built with CodeMirror, Bootstrap, and WYSIHTML5.

ComfortableMexicanSofa

ComfortableMexicanSofa admin

Slate

Slate is also a Ruby on Rails CMS. It is focused on rapid production of websites with traditional style. Slate provides MasterID integration and supports accounts for users who are out of MasterID. There is also a support for multiple sites, themes and theme permissions. In addition, Slate provides four levels of user access.

Slate

There is also a central list of approved users, designed to add users to a site as easy as possible. All recent changes and popular editing tools are situated within the dashboard. With this CMS, you also get a log of admin activity, pretty URLs, drag-and-drop pages organization, and the ability to browse site in edit view. Slate provides a support for private content and  five older versions of every editable region.

Slate admin

Webiva

With Webiva, you can build custom websites that look and operate the way you want them to. Webiva is a website building system or WBS. In contrast with traditional CMSs,  Webiva focuses on both the look and the structure of entire website. In their turn, traditional systems pay more attention to content.

Webiva

This WBS is based on the idea of simplicity. At the same time, it has all the necessary features. Of course, Webiva is built on the Ruby on Rails. From a software perspective, it supports all best features of the framework. Thanks to the extensible module system, Webiva supports a lot of additional functions, which can be easily dropped into the system.

Webiva admin

Webiva CMS