Rails has exploded over the last years, evolved from being the underdog to becoming one of the most widely used web frameworks today. Those working with Rails are hardly surprised, they've been telling the rest of us this will happen eventually, and it seems they were right. This article is for the naysayers and haters, as well as those simply interested in just how diverse Rails websites can be.

The order is pretty random as it's just 20 out of thousands if not millions of websites, to claim they're "the best" would be absurd - but they're diverse enough to support the point that RoR is as diverse a web framework as they get.

Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework. What makes it unique among its peers is the focus on being user-friendly and intuitive, removing the need for many repetitions in the code or by limiting the use of conventional aspects of an application. As a result, the RoR code is usually shorter and has significantly less repetitions than one would expect.

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Scribd

Your "personal digital library" is amazingly designed, with a perfect mix of colours and shapes.

Penny Arcade

One of the best-known webcomics that developed into several franchises, with the site exploding with content.

Shopify

A great website for those that want to sell things online but don't have the know-how to do it.

Github

Most likely the favorite online hub for developers, the website facilitates collaborative coding and team organization. It's definitely more than your regular social network, the site just bursts with innovative and captivating projects!

Ask.fm

Launched in 2010, ask.fm is probably the most famous Latvian website. The service concentrates on providing the right answers to a wide variety of questions, always maintaining the anonymity of its users.

Podomatic

A great hub for podcasts on practically everything, but also your local news.

Doodlekit

If you want to create a good looking website, for free and fast - Doodlekit is for you.

Oh, don't forget!

A somewhat forgotten website (sic!) in the age of instant messaging and facebook. It lets you send and queue multiple text messages when you want it.

Urban Dictionary

The place where your parents go if they want to know what you're talking about, or where you go to find out about weird names for bizarre sexual acts ;)

JustinTv

Sometimes you don't want to use youtube or any other popular channel to stream your video, and here comes

AboutUs

A website about... websites. Very user-friendly, provides a lot of information without any clutter.

Chow

A great source of information about food, from news and recipes to reviews of restaurants.

More

If you're a woman there's a chance you know this fashion magazine already, if not - maybe it's time? Even if only to know it's not only Cosmo and Vogue out there ;)

Viewpoints

Consumer reviews and opinions on anything you can think of. Quite a fun site for an informed consumer.

Tupalo

Another food website, this time focused on reviews of more and less known restaurants. You can find real gems here.

Redbooth

Formerly known as teambox, this website is one of the best resources for task management, file sharing and company communication.

Geni

Many of you probably worked on your family trees for school, I bet you wish you had this website then.

Crazy Egg

An invaluable tool for anyone designing websites, creates a "heatmap" of where your users click. How cool is that?

Hulu

The only downside to this fantastic site is that it can only be used from within the US. If you have access though, it's one of the best TV shows sites out there.

Lighthouse

Anyone that ever had to deal with it, knows how taxing and chaotic project management can get. This nifty tool makes it a lot easier.

So there you go, 20 examples of what you can achieve with Ruby on Rails. One thing I have to add at the end though is that despite all its advantages, Ruby has a minor flaw - you need to choose a company that provides rails hosting - many widely known hosting services simply won't work properly. But that's a topic for a completely different article!