Which Ruby IDE Should You Use?

You’re going to spend a lot of your time as a developer inside the editor, so it important to use an editor that you’re comfortable & productive with.

In this article:

I want to help you choose which Ruby IDE / Editor is right for you!

You don’t need to stress over this decision, just pick one, give it a try for a few weeks & see how it feels. You can always change your editor later.

Here are a few things to look for:

• What Ruby-related plugins are available to make things easier for you
• Whether the editor is open-source or not
• Built-in features that improve your productivity (like code snippets, auto-complete, clean design that doesn’t get in your way)

All of these editors support Windows, Linux & Mac.

Let’s get started!

Atom Editor

Atom is an open-source code editor from Github. It supports many programming languages including Ruby.

Pros:

• Git integration
• Good support for code snippets (time saver)
• Allows you to run code directly in the editor (with plugins)

Cons:

• Can be slow when opening really big files

VSCode Editor

VSCode is an open-source code editor from Microsoft & it’s based on the same GUI technology as Atom.

Pros:

• Terminal integration
• Debugger integration & other IDE-like features (needs language support via plugins)
• Under active development

Cons:

• Ruby language plugin doesn’t get many updates, but it works 🙂

RubyMine IDE

RubyMine is a closed-source code editor from JetBrains. It’s the most complete IDE in terms of features, but it’s also not free.

Pros:

• Refactoring support
• Integration with testing frameworks, bundler, rake, terminal, etc.
• Intelligent auto-completion

Cons:

• Closed source
• Can feel “heavy” in terms of performance & UI design

VIM Editor

VIM (VI iMproved) is an open-source editor that has been around for ages, the most striking characteristic is that it’s terminal based, unlike the other editors which are GUI-based. It has countless plugins that you can install to add new features.

Pros:

• Many keyboard shortcuts & plugins
• You can do everything you need without leaving the terminal & without your mouse
• Powerful editing features (delete inside quotes, regex replace, block selection, etc.)

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Initial setup takes some time (.vimrc file & installing plugins)

Other Editors

While these four editors are what I think the most popular in the Ruby community, there are still others that are worth a mention.

Here’s the list:

• Sublime Text
• Emacs
• Cloud9 (online editor)

Feel free to give these a try.

Personally, I use Atom for most of my Ruby development & writing, for quick edits (like configuration files) I use VIM.

Summary

You have learned about a few Ruby editors that can make your work easier, which one are you going to pick?

Let me know in the comments 🙂

Thanks for reading!