I've been using RoR exclusively for a few years building fairly complex companies - and still not a big fan - I think the Rails way only works in certain shops.

I've been using RoR exclusively for a few years building fairly complex companies - and still not a big fan - I think the Rails way only works in certain shops. Agreed that Rails is moving more to be the API provider only. What Rails does for me is help with the mindset of a structured framework of good practices that is otherwise easy to let slip. So you can transition those to (say) Express.js , and then you value frameworks like Tower.js more (IMHO). Start with Sinatra (it's more the Express of Node). Rails is great, but it's very convoluted and heavy. Ruby is a great language, so make sure to bifurcate the two.