Release. I perfectly understand your qualms, as I've been there, both with PHP and Java (worse). But it seems you've got a product that's pretty much ready, so

Release. I perfectly understand your qualms, as I've been there, both with PHP and Java (worse). But it seems you've got a product that's pretty much ready, so push it out. This might sound harsh, but what if it fails? Then there's no need to rewrite it. If it miraculously succeeds, you can live off the money while you're rewriting it for version 2, if you still feel the need for it. If you fall in the middle, then you might have a tough choice to make, but let that time come. Also, there are still other projects, either after this one is done or as a complimentary service/product to support it. You can use Rails for that. If you're that close to release, this is a bad stage to rewrite anyway, regardless of language. Second system effect might overpower you, and you waste lots of time to implement features that you don't need (yet).