Moving from React Next.js to Ruby on Rails

The original codebase we open-sourced in January 2024 was a React/Next.js/Express app. There were a substantial number of issues with that codebase, rooted in large part to the requirements for SOC2 and SEC compliance and our dependency on a number of third-party data providers. Not to mention that a lot of the tech has changed in the React world since 2021.

As we started digging into the changes that would be required to get the app fully up and running again, we realized we'd actually end up rewriting the vast majority of the app. So instead of doing that in an incredibly slow and painful way, we decided to start from scratch with a new codebase. Yes, that's risky. But so is trying to rebuild a complex app on a codebase that's 3 years old and wasn't originally built for the requirements we now have.

We're now building the app in Ruby on Rails. We realize that's a controversial choice, but we believe it's the right one for the project. Rails is a mature, stable, and well-documented framework that's been around for over 20 years built on a language that's been around for over 30 years.

From the start our focus with this is to make it as easy as possible for you to both contribute to and deploy the app, and this move to Rails is a big part of that.