Rails Application Template Projects

by Daniel Kehoe

Last updated 28 May 2014

Rails application templates are Ruby scripts used with the "rails new myapp -m" command to generate a Rails web application. They are often used to generate starter apps that can be the basis of any new Rails project.

Also see an annotated list of Rails Examples, Tutorials, and Starter Apps.

If You Are New to Rails

If you’re new to Rails, see What is Ruby on Rails?, the book Learn Ruby on Rails, and recommendations for a Rails tutorial.

Join RailsApps

What is the RailsApps Project?

This is an article from the RailsApps project. The RailsApps project provides example applications that developers use as starter apps. Hundreds of developers use the apps, report problems as they arise, and propose solutions. Rails changes frequently; each application is known to work and serves as your personal “reference implementation.” Each application is accompanied by a tutorial so there is no mystery code. Support for the project comes from subscribers. Please accept our invitation to join the RailsApps project.

Template-generating Websites

These websites allow you to select “recipes” and generate an application template and a starter app.

Author Site Comments
Erik Nomitch prelang.com choose features and save to GitHub
Daniel Davey drone.bz emphasis on Sass, Compass, Coffeescript and Slim
Michael Bleigh RailsWizard recipes are outdated, not maintained

Template-generating Gems

Install these gems to generate an application template and a starter app.

Some have a collection of “recipes”. Fork the gem and edit the recipes for a custom app template.

Author Gem Comments
Daniel Davey app_drone Built for the drone.bz website; many recipes
Daniel Kehoe Rails Apps Composer A fork of the RailsWizard gem; actively maintained
Dr. Nic Williams App Scrolls A fork of the RailsWizard gem
Michael Bleigh RailsWizard Built for the RailsWizard website; no longer maintained
Kevin Faustino Rails Templater Mongoid or ActiveRecord
Kristian Mandrup Cream Devise, CanCan, roles, many ORMs
Quick Left Prologue Devise, CanCan, ActiveRecord only, many recipes
Thomas Symborski Gypsum Fork of Prologue
Andrew Culver Shinkansen Fork of Gypsum
Thoughtbot Suspenders ActiveRecord only, no recipes
Yi-Ting Cheng bootstrappers MySQL only, no recipes
Cristiano Betta primo Haml PostgreSQL RSpec, no recipes
Carbon Five Raygun Slim PostgreSQL RSpec, no recipes
Nico Schuele RailsBricks Bootstrap, Devise, RSpec, no recipes

Application Templates

Use these scripts with the "rails new myapp -m" command to generate an application.

Rails 4.2

Author Project Comments
Daniel Kehoe Rails Composer Rails 4.1, Devise or OmniAuth, ActiveRecord or Mongoid. Options for RSpec, Cucumber, Factory Girl, Haml, etc.

Rails 4.1

Author Project Comments
Denny Britz Rails Startup Template Rails 4, Haml, RSpec, optional Twitter Bootstrap., etc.
Nick Janetakis Opinionated Rails Application Templates Rails 4, Postgres, Redis, Bootstrap, etc.

Rails 3.2

Author Project Comments
Brian Cardarella DockYard’s Sail Plan Rails 3.2, Haml, Compass, EasyAuth, RSpec, Capybara, FactoryGirl
lab2023 lab2023 Rails Template Rails 3.2, Devise, CanCan, RSpec, Capybara, FactoryGirl, etc.

Older Projects

For a ranking of some older application templates by popularity, see:
The Ruby Toolbox: Rails App Templates

These projects were updated in 2011 and use Devise for authentication:

Devise, RSpec, Factory Girl, jQuery, Haml, Sass, Compass, Git, rvm, HTML5 Boilerplate, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise (with Cucumber steps), Cucumber, RSpec, Factory Girl, Haml, Compass, jQuery, Git, Formtastic, a layout, and much more. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise or Authlogic or OmniAuth, Cucumber, Capybara, RSpec, Factory Girl, Shoulda, jQuery, Haml, Compass, 960 grid or Blueprint, Capistrano or Heroku or Inploy, Git, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

PostgreSQL, Devise, Cucumber with Selenium and Capybara, RSpec with Machinist and Faker, JQuery, Simple Form, Haml, SASS, Git, rvm, Google analytics (optional), Hoptoad for issue tracking (optional), TellThemWhen for downtime notifications (optional). With a description of the recipe in the README.

These projects were updated in 2010 and use Devise:

Devise, RSpec, Cucumber with Capybara, Factory Girl, jQuery, Simple Form, Git, rvm. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Devise, Cucumber, Shoulda with Factory Girl and Mocha, Haml, Sass, Formtastic, jQuery, Git, rvm.

This project was updated in 2010 and uses Mongoid:

Mongoid or ActiveRecord, RSpec, FactoryGirl, Cucumber (with Mongoid steps), jQuery, Haml, Sass, Compass. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

These projects were updated in 2011 and do not use Devise or Mongoid:

Cucumber, RSpec, jQuery, Haml or Jammit, Capistrano, Git, rvm, plus a layout. Uses subtemplates for easy customizing.

Cucumber, RSpec, Factory Girl or Fabrication, Haml, jQuery, Git, rvm.

Haml, Sass, Git, plus a layout.

These Rails 2.3 projects were once popular but haven’t been updated since 2009 or 2010:

Comments

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