Speed Up Ruby on Rails Apps | Performance Tuning Guide

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Rails is one of the easiest frameworks for developers to work with, but even the greatest applications will eventually falter if they are not properly maintained. As your user base grows, your database grows larger, and your codebase grows larger, the number of places where you can encounter a performance “bottleneck” increases exponentially; therefore, the need for performance tuning on a Ruby on Rails application becomes paramount. Tuning the performance of your application provides strategies for speeding up how quickly pages load and how snappy the back end is, and provides approaches to ensuring that your app remains fast, reliable, and scalable. You’ll find in this guide a collection of useful techniques for solving common performance problems and making your Rails applications work faster. By following these conventions, it will help you get the most out of user experience and future-proof your app.

Why Does Ruby on Rails Performance Slow Down Over Time?

Performance drop-off occurs slowly; as your user base continues to grow, your performance will also decline. This is due to:

Traffic Throughput – More users will result in more requests and that take the server longer to return the response.
Old code and dependencies – Old Gem versions, old Rails versions, non-optimized coding will cause the application to be slow.
Slow database queries – N+1 Query problem, Missing Indexes or too much heavy SQL operations.
Unoptimized assets – If the Image Files are heavy, JS is bloated or Files are uncompressed than it will reduce Page Load Speed.
Limited server resources – Low CPU, RAM or Shared Hosting can cause the system to lag and Server Fault.
Unused code: unused code like variables, methods that is processing but not in use
Old School memory caching mechanism: Using older memory-eating caching technics while there is a technique available for faster advanced caching or querying michanism

These are the reasons why maintaining a Ruby on Rails application is a priority to maintain its long-term scalability and performance.

Server-Level Optimization for Faster Rails App

The server is the backbone of your ability to tune performance within Ruby On Rails, regardless of how well you’ve optimized your code. If you don’t have adequate underlying infrastructure, then even if your code is completely optimized, it will still take longer for users to access the app.

Optimize server configuration

Use Puma or Unicorn with appropriately configured worker threads
Use Nginx as a reverse proxy for a quicker request response time
Enable HTTP/2 for better multiplexing
Enable caching from nginx blocks for static contents like assets and static page.
Enable compression algorithm (enable Gzip compression)
Update the web server, like nginx time to time to get optimal performance

Upgrade RAM & CPU

As soon as the application is being operated with more people, it is necessary to ensure that your servers, RAM, & CPU gets upgraded time-to-time to accommodate higher load.

Use load balancing

A load balancer evenly distributes all user requests to all servers as traffic volumes spike and prevents overload on one server, resulting in the following:

Reduced downtime
Improved response times
Better scalability

Optimising the server is critical to building high-performance, reliable Ruby on Rails applications.

Use Distributed architecture for the database, app, and background worker

This will give benefits from not letting background jobs interfere with the web app’s performance; if not configured properly, background services may become resource-intensive, slowing down the app.

Backend Optimization: Improve Speed at the Core

The performance of back-end systems will also affect how users perceive your application’s front-end, and therefore the overall user experience. Tuning back-end performance will provide a noticeable increase in performance.

1. Write clean, efficient Ruby code

Writing optimised, modular, and readable Ruby code, you will find that the execution of the code will take far less time to complete and require far fewer resources.

2. Avoid N+1 queries

Use:

includes
preload
eager_load

Each of the above will help you eliminate multiple database queries and slow down performance.

3. Use background jobs

Move long-running jobs, such as sending emails, creating reports, or performing complex calculations, to background processes:

Sidekiq
Resque
Delayed Job

With the assistance of these jobs running in the background, the application will aid in handling more requests within a limited time period.

4. Optimize controllers and models

It is important that Controllers be kept thin and that the logic from them be passed into Service Objects. This creates a structure that is more elegant, as well as easier to update. Optimizing the back end can have one of the largest effects on how much better Rails performs.

5. Use error monitoring tools

Using error monitoring tools can give you a better idea of which part of the application is buggy and how frequently the bug gets raised. Fixing errors causes help in improving app’s stability

Use read-only databases for a read-intensive app

If the app is read-intensive, then use read only database replica, giving higher performance than traditional read and write databases.

Cache-busting mechanism

Should use a proper cache busting mechanism; if the cache gets busted too frequently, then it might kill the app performance, so based on the technical need of the cache, it should be busted.

Log rotation

If you have an in-server log mechanism, then make sure that you can keep only required logs on the server, and if you require more logs, then use any third-party logging mechanism as Papertrail or other to save server disk storage.

Database Optimization Techniques

The database is usually one of the largest causes of latency. Properly tuning your database can greatly improve its performance! Datebase should be hosted near the server’s physical location, otherwise it will dealy in query result, ultimately causing the app’s performance

1. Add proper indexing

Missing indexes = slow data retrieval Adding the right indexes improves query performance by 10x or more.

2. Optimize heavy SQL queries

Avoid writing:

Nested queries
Select *
Large joins

With leaner, optimized queries.

3. Implement caching for DB results

Caching expensive queries so that you do not call the database each time a user requests that query will help provide a much quicker response to the user.

4. Archiving old data

As your databases continue to grow, they cause issues with performance. Creating an archive of older records will help improve the overall performance of the DB by reducing the size of the tables, allowing quicker searches.

5. Database View’s

Use Database View’s for query results that are not changing too frequently and update them from time to time for better results. Tuning your DB is a major focus for regular maintenance of your Rails application.

Caching Strategies to Speed Up Your Rails App

Caching is one of the fastest ways to reduce load time and server processing.

Page caching: Caches the entire view and makes it quick to render.
Fragment caching: Caches components of views that you will be able to reuse. This is great for dynamic views.
Action caching: Caches the output of a controller action for a user when they have repeatedly visited that site.
Russian doll caching: Caches the nested content structure.
Use Redis or Memcached: Use Redis or Memcached for high-performance, in-memory caching of DB results to allow for faster lookup.

Implementing effective caching can yield instant responses from your applications, even with high levels of traffic.

Asset Optimization for Faster Frontend Performance

Users perceive performance through the frontend speed, which affects their interaction with the application.

1. Compress images & media

Use the following image types:

WebP
Optimized JPEG/PNG
Lazy loading

2. Minify CSS & JavaScript

Remove any unnecessary spaces, comments & code to speed delivery of assets.

3. Use CDN for static files

CDN helps to improve speed to users globally, delivering your content while decreasing the latency for users.

4. Avoid heavy HTML loads

Minimize the load of HTML by creating a lightweight UI and keeping user interaction metrics below 2 seconds for the best performance on your application. When optimized properly, asset optimization combined with backend tuning will significantly improve performance.

Monitoring & Logging Tools for Continuous Performance Insights

Monitoring in real time allows you to identify potential problems before they impact your users. Top tools include:

New Relic
Datadog
Scout APM
Skylight
LogRocket
Sentry
Hotjar
Rollbar
Honey badger
Google Analytics

These tools help track:

Slow endpoints
Memory leaks
SQL performance
Response times
Error management
User journey tracking
Page load analytics

Continually monitoring your application is critical to successfully fulfilling a Ruby on Rails maintenance agreement.

How Scaling Impacts Rails App Performance?

To accommodate the ongoing use of your application, you will need to improve your application’s code base and to improve supporting infrastructure.

Horizontal Scaling – Adding more servers (or “nodes”) will help to handle increased workloads due to increased user traffic.
Vertical Scaling – Increasing the resources (CPU/RAM/Storage) available on your current server(s) will also help you to scale effectively.
Database scaling
Read replicas
Sharding
Partitioning

Scaling a Rails Application encompasses advanced support and future performance planning.

How Regular Maintenance Extends the Life of Your Rails App?

Regular maintenance work & support are the most effective tools available to protect against future problems. Key maintenance benefits:

Consistent, reliable, and high-speed performance
Greater levels of security
Fewer bugs and crashes
More reliable servers
Smooth user experience
Compatibility with the latest Tools and Libraries used by Developers

Maintenance tasks include:

Upgrading framework and gems
Correcting any deprecated code usage
Monitoring (your application) activity logs
Applying Security Patches for any security breaches or hacks that occur
Database Cleanup
Reviewing Performance Metrics to assess the performance of applications

If an application is maintained properly consistently, it will always perform better than applications that aren’t maintained, plus they typically will last longer.

Conclusion

“Performance tuning” of your Ruby on Rails Application(s) is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing project and a continuous process to keep your Ruby on Rails Application(s) running optimally. Application “Performance” can be impacted by every layer of an application, from the server to the client, and everything in between – this includes Backend Performance Tuning, Database Tuning, and every layer of the Application Stack.

Ready to Supercharge Your Rails App Performance?

Contact Essence Solusoft today to take your Ruby on Rails Application’s performance & scalability to the next level through performance audits, enhancements, and continual performance and maintenance of your applications.

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