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I'm programming Ruby. I'm programming Rails. It's zen, it makes fun and it's cool. But what are the real technical and foremost business advantages of Rails, I can tell a client? I know the implementation details should be aligned on the requirements of a project. But if I'm honest, if someone says: "Hey, why not using a wordpress and a little bit customized template? It's much cheaper!", I don't have enough good arguments for Rails. Especially for smaller and mid-scale projects.

So, what do you tell your clients, when you think they should use Ruby/Rails?

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If you don't have a good argument for the question "why not use wordpress', maybe you should be using wordpress. Your question reads like "I want to use rails but I don't have a good reason to use rails, so what reason can I use?". –  Bryan Oakley Dec 16 '11 at 22:13
Ok, I think I've not explained well, what I mean. There are many good advantages for using Rails from a developers view. But what are the benefits from a business view? If I say, you can develop faster in Rails, then it means for your client, its cheaper then something else. So thats not a good point. An example for a business benefit is that a new developer can get into an existing project very fast, so thats good if you want to move your app development in your company. Or that long-term costs are less because of the less code to maintain. But that's not so important for small projects –  ben Dec 16 '11 at 23:30
Why is "being cheaper" not a good point? –  johannes Dec 19 '11 at 23:23
again an example(!): if you do a blog in rails from the scratch, I don't think, even if you can develop faster with Rails, that customizing a wordpress needs more time. So it would simply be not true, to say you are cheaper. Another problem is, there are so many php-programmers with a super-low hourly rate which will do the job. (this is an argument a client told me for example) –  ben Dec 20 '11 at 14:33

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The answer tom your question will depend on what situation you are in and what other altenate technology might suite your project. But for general Ruby on Rails advantages check

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thanks, this is a super useful start for the discussion! –  ben Dec 20 '11 at 14:39
will accept this since nothing more is added. thanks again –  ben Dec 30 '11 at 21:12

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