Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby- Which Scales Best in 2025?

Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby is a debate that comes up often when developers are looking for the best programming language for web development. These three languages share historical ties but take very different approaches to building scalable, reliable, and modern applications.

If you’ve ever searched for Erlang vs Elixir or Ruby vs Elixir, you already know the conversation can get heated. Some developers swear by Ruby’s productivity and Rails ecosystem. Others prefer Erlang’s legendary fault tolerance for real-time systems. And then there’s Elixir, which brings functional programming and concurrency into the spotlight while still running on the Erlang VM.

So, which one should you choose? In this guide, we’ll break down Erlang, Elixir, and Ruby, compare their strengths and weaknesses, and show you real-world use cases to help you decide which language makes the most sense for your next web project.

In 2025, Erlang, Elixir and Ruby will shine in various fields. Erlang has no competition in terms of concurrency, fault tolerance and mission-critical telecom system. Elixir, which runs on the Erlang VM, is based on reliability and features modern syntax and real-time and scalable applications such as chat platforms, fintech, and IoT. Ruby (with Ruby on Rails) is the language of choice in fast web development, MVPs, and SaaS applications because of a tremendous ecosystem and syntax friendly to developers. The correct option lies in the fact that you need fault tolerance (Erlang), no, scalability and concurrency (Elixir), or speed to market (Ruby).

"Erlang is great for high-availability systems," says one.

"Elixir is the right solution for real-time scalable apps," says another

"Ruby will get us to market more quickly," says the third.

This chorus of tech jargon is all too familiar for business owners when trying to build an app. You have a brilliant idea, a clear vision, and the best resources for its execution. However, it feels like you are stepping into a debate between competing web development languages.

Each of them claims to take away your business challenges; which one will you trust to build your app and your future? In 2025, technology is advanced to a certain level where you might rely on the language you choose for your app to have a seamless scalability rate, rapid speed, or robust stability.

In this blog post, we will break down the strengths of Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby and guide you toward choosing the right option to build an application that delivers hard-core business value.

5 Latest Trends in Erlang, Elixir and Ruby

Erlang

1. This is expanding into new domains with Operational Technology (OT), manufacturing, and smart grids because of its robust fault tolerance and concurrency capabilities.
2. Elixir has increased the popularity of Erlang, creating a more balanced ecosystem where both languages benefit each other.
3. The addition of the JIT compiler has significantly improved performance in executing concurrent processes.
4. The Erlang community is focusing on sustainable software development practices, which is in line with the industry trend toward green programming.
5. Erlang developers are still in demand, and their median salary in 2025 is around $100,636 yearly.

Elixir

1. Ranked as the second-most desired programming language in 2024, showcasing its growing popularity for building scalable applications.
2. Concurrency model makes Elixir perfect for real-time apps like chats, live updates, and dashboards.
3. Becoming a viable choice for AI and machine learning, with native GPU support for processing heavy data.
4. The Remote company uses Elixir to scale and enhance its performance. It also helps them increase growth while maintaining the code quality.
5. There are few skilled Elixir developers and hence the demand for them has increased and they earn a median salary of about $116,759 a year.

Ruby

Ruby 3.4 that was released on December 25, 2024, incorporated several key enhancements, including a new `it` block parameter reference to enhance code readability.

• • Prism as the default parser, hence improving parsing efficiency and performance.
  • Happy Eyeballs Version 2, which is available in the socket library, enhances network performance of applications.
  • YJIT got the updates for the better execution speed.
  • Modular Garbage Collection was introduced to improve memory management.

1. Ruby on Rails is the top choice in web development with its convention-over-configuration approach, helpful in rapid application development. 
2. The microservices architecture is influencing Rails usage, leading to debates over whether it's suitable or not compared to others like Go or Node.js.
3. Exploratory areas in which it has become very popular with data analysis expressive syntax for which complex processing can be made quite simple. 
4. API development is an emerging area too, as strengths of Rails support the creation of robust RESTful services. 
5. Salaries are always competitive as ruby developers have expert skills to make high-quality web applications in very efficient ways.

Ruby on Rails applications are known to reduce development time by nearly 30 to 40 percent compared to many other programming languages, making it a popular choice for businesses that need fast, efficient, and scalable web solutions.

Key Milestones in the Development of Erlang, Elixir, and Ruby

This timeline presents the development of Erlang, Elixir, and Ruby, which greatly influence modern programming and web development.

The Emergence of Erlang in 1986

• Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, and Mike Williams among the engineers at Ericsson create Erlang to meet the needs of telecommunication systems.
• Designed to handle concurrency, fault tolerance, and distributed computing.

The Emergence of Ruby in 1993

• Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto initiates the development of Ruby.
• It was designed to be a combination of the best features of other languages, yet with simplicity and productivity in mind.

Ruby First Release in 1995

• Ruby is officially released to the public.
• It is introduced as an intuitive language that focuses on developer happiness.

Erlang Goes Open Source in 1998

• Ericsson releases Erlang as an open-source language.
• The programming community at large can now use and contribute to its development.

Elixir's First Commit in 2011

• José Valim makes the first commit to the Elixir programming language.
• The program runs on Erlang VM for increased productivity and extensibility.

Elixir 1.0 Release in 2012

• Elixir achieves its 1.0 version.
• Offers a stable and strong platform for developers who want a functional, concurrent language with an easy syntax.

Phoenix Framework in 2014

• Uses Elixir to build a high-performance web development framework with real-time capabilities.

Main Features of Erlang, Elixir and Ruby

Some unmatchable and strengthening features make every programming language unique. Here are some which will help you decide the Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby dilemma. 

Erlang

• Concurrency: Erlang is designed for handling many simultaneous connections, so it is excellent for real-time applications.
• Fault Tolerance: Emphasizes a "let it crash" philosophy, letting systems recover from errors gracefully.
• Hot Code Swapping: Updating code without halting the system ensures high availability.
• Functional Programming: Erlang is a functional language with very strong pattern matching capabilities.
• Lightweight Processes: It uses lightweight processes that require minimal memory and CPU usage, supporting massive concurrency. 

Elixir:

• Modern Syntax: It has a more expressive and readable syntax than Erlang, which increases developer productivity.
• Scalability: Built on the Erlang VM, Elixir supports massive concurrency with lightweight processes, making it suitable for applications that are expected to grow significantly.
• Fault Tolerance: Inherit Erlang's fault tolerance, and thus allow programmers to build reliable programs.
• Functional Model: Elixir is a functional language; im-mutability and first-class function capabilities support the model.
• Metaprogramming: Allow metaprogramming using macros so that the programmer can write programs that can produce other programs.
• Phoenix Framework: Using Phoenix for web development, high-performance and real-time web development technology.

Ruby:

• Elegant Syntax: Designed for developer happiness, Ruby's syntax is clean and closely resembles plain English, making it accessible for beginners.
• Rich Ecosystem: The RoR framework contains vast libraries that accelerate the development process, allow code reusability, and perform other various functions. 
• Object-Oriented Design: Object-oriented principles enhance flexibility and make maintenance feasible.
• Productivity: Ruby projects tend to complete early thanks to its powerful framework and cleaner code.
• Community Support: Possesses a big and mature community, which brings about rich resources, tutorials, and forums to seek help from.

Detailed Comparison between Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby

1. Overview

Erlang: Created by Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, and Mike Williams in Ericsson during 1986. Basically used for communications and for applications that run in real time.

Elixir: Jose Valim invented this 2011 for simplifying the Erlang syntax to make the overall language with retaining performance and concurrency capabilities of the Erlang

Ruby: The main objective by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto for creating Ruby in 1993 was developer happiness and simplicity.

2. Programming Paradigm

Erlang: Functional Programming.

Elixir : Functional programming over Erlang Virtual Machine.

Ruby : Object-Oriented programming.

3. Syntax & Readability

Erlang: Complex, less intuitive, and has a steeper learning curve.

Elixir: Modern, user-friendly, inspired by Ruby, making it more readable and maintainable.

Ruby: Clean, simple, and planned for easy use, resemblance to plain English.

4. Concurrency & Scalability

Erlang: 

• Concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance are baked in.
• Has support for hot-swapping via zero-downtime deploy.
• Designed for HA environments.

Elixir:

• Benefits from Erlang's concurrency model.
• Lightweight processes are perfect for real-time applications.
• Built on the Erlang VM, meaning that it's scalable.

Ruby:

• The Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) limits its concurrency.
• It is not designed for high concurrency applications.
• Suitable for small projects or web development.

5. Performance

Erlang: Very fast, especially with massive simultaneous connections.

Elixir: As good as Erlang in performance but with modern syntax and tooling.

Ruby: Generally slower; not good for performance-critical applications.

6. Fault Tolerance

Erlang: "Let it crash" philosophy; failure can be recovered graciously.

Elixir: Inherits Erlang's fault tolerance mechanism.

Ruby: No built-in fault tolerance; errors need to be dealt with manually.

7. Ecosystem & Libraries

Erlang: Mature, with particular strong features, is broadly used in telecommunication and in real-time systems.

Elixir: Ecosystem is growing and has modern tools like Mix (for project management) and Hex (for package management).

Ruby: Quite huge in its ecosystem, the web development is quite strong with Ruby on Rails.

8. Community Support

Erlang: Active community, developers engaged in high-reliability applications.

Elixir: Fast-growing community with adoption across industries.

Ruby: Huge mature community with all available resources, tutorials, and discussion forums.

9. Best Use Cases

Erlang: Telecommunication companies, message transfer systems, etc., need higher availability and can tolerate errors easily.

Elixir: All sorts of real-time services that may require significant concurrency and scalable programs.

Ruby: Web applications where Ruby on Rails is often found to be at its best on small-sized, medium projects and startups.

8 Necessary Steps for Switching between Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby

Step#1 Identify Your Needs

Identify why you need the transition (e.g., scalability, performance, or modern features). Consider the strengths of the new language, whether it's Elixir's concurrency or Ruby's rapid development capabilities.

Step #2 Leverage Shared Foundations

Moving from Erlang to Elixir? Take advantage of their shared BEAM architecture to reuse existing libraries and knowledge.

Step #3 Adapt to New Paradigms

Transitioning from Ruby to Elixir or Erlang? Prepare to embrace functional programming principles, which may differ from Ruby's object-oriented approach.

Step #4 Start with Incremental Changes

Implement small modules or services in the new language before fully transitioning your application.

Step #5 Invest in Learning

Equip your team with training and resources to get familiar with the new language’s syntax, tools, and ecosystem.

Step #6 Utilize Community Support

Engage with the language’s community for insights, libraries, and best practices to ease the learning curve.

Step #7 Refactor Thoughtfully

Avoid rushing into rewrites; instead, refactor your existing codebase strategically while migrating.

Step #8 Test and Optimize

Test well to determine if it gives performance gains and the new language does actually deliver the promises you envisioned. A good migration plan will see your team easily leveraging the entire power of the new language with minimal disruption.

Use Cases and Industry Applications

Erlang, Elixir, and Ruby each have features that fit some specific needs within the industry. Below is a more detailed view of their use cases and industry applications.

Erlang

Use Cases

• High concurrency applications
• Fault tolerance applications
• Real-time messaging servers
• Distributed databases

Industry Applications

1. WhatsApp: Initially developed using Erlang, WhatsApp used the ejabberd XMPP server to support messaging services. They have retained Erlang in their stack to manage massive concurrent connections efficiently.
2. RabbitMQ: Being an open-source message broker developed in Erlang, RabbitMQ contains its concurrency and fault-tolerance features.
3. Ejabberd: Ejabberd is a server, XMPP, that is designed using Erlang and still continues to be one. It helps in developing scalable and highly robust real-time communication applications.
4. Grindr: In the architectural setup of this company, they utilized Erlang as their infrastructure since the concurrent use by a number of people is high.
5. Motorola: Motorola has adopted Erlang for use in projects related to its telecommunication system. Information concerning its current application is not specified.
6. Ericsson: Being the inventor of Erlang, Ericsson has been highly utilizing the language in their telecommunication systems. Nowadays, Ericsson is still using Erlang in many of its products and enjoys the high aspect of its design as concurrent and distributed.

Elixir

Use Cases

• Real-time web apps
• Scalable APIs
• Data processing pipelines
• IoT apps

Industry Applications

1. Discord : Adopted Elixir for handling millions of concurrent users to augment real-time communication.
2. Spotify : Implemented Elixir to effectively process thousands of requests per second to optimize high-traffic operations.
3. PepsiCo: Engaged Elixir to automate workflow for the optimization of data processing and marketing intelligence through search marketing.
4. Toyota Connected: Used Elixir for their Mobility Services Platform to manage millions of vehicles connected in real-time.
5. Pinterest: Scaled down from 200 Python servers into 4 server usage with a reduction of over $2 million annually after switching to Elixir.
6. Square Enix: Isolated high concurrency gaming services with the use of Elixir for all authentication across the platforms.
7. Sketch: In their design platform, integrated Elixir with the Phoenix framework for real-time collaboration features.
8. Bleacher Report: For their backend services in real-time updates and notifications, Elixir is used.
9. Solarisbank: Elixir was used to design scalable banking platforms with fault tolerance.

Ruby

Use Cases

• Web application development
• E-commerce platforms
• Content management systems
• Prototyping and MVPs

Industry Applications

1. Airbnb: Ruby on Rails is used here to manage complicated booking systems which have a very high traffic count so that seamless user experience may be achieved.
2. Basecamp: It is built using Ruby on Rails and offers the most efficient tools for project management and fosters team collaboration.
3. GitHub: It is built using Ruby on Rails and provides a robust platform for version control and collaborative software development.
4. Shopify: Uses Ruby on Rails to run their e-commerce system, which enables the businesses to manage and create stores online.

The Bottom Line

The Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby debate does not concern itself with the relative quality of the language which is the most universal and the best but whether the language fits your business purpose. Erlang forms the basis of systems where reliability is the most required. Elixir is based on that and is scaled and performance-guaranteed to real-time, which is suitable to present-day high-concurrency apps. Ruby, in its turn, focuses on developer productivity and speed and drives some of the most successful startups and SaaS platforms in the world.

Scale Beyond Limits with The Future of Web Development

We use the best tools and technology to develop scalable, high-performance web applications matching your specific requirements at BrainX Technologies. If you are now at the decision stage between Erlang or Elixir or even Ruby, our highly seasoned team will ensure that your application is built on the most suitable foundation for growth and resilience. From real-time systems to dynamic web solutions, we focus on smooth scalability, top performance, and user-centric design.

Need the right tech stack for your app?

Reach out to BrainX and let's build something scalable, together.

FAQs

What are the strengths of Erlang for app development?

Erlang has a high concurrency, fault tolerance, and real-time systems. It's "let it crash," ensuring high reliability.

Why is Elixir so popular for real-time apps?

Elixir, in its model for concurrency, combined with a modern syntax, allows for an excellent fit into developing scalable, real-time applications like chat systems and live dashboards.

Does Ruby still make sense in 2025?

Ruby, or specifically Ruby on Rails, still represents one of the top preferences in web development for startups or small businesses.

What companies work with Elixir?

Companies, like Discord or Pinterest, work with Elixir, as the application is pretty easy to write scalable, real-time applications in.

How do I choose between Erlang vs Elixir vs Ruby?

Your choice will be based on what your project will need. Use Erlang to support fault tolerance, Elixir for scalability, or Ruby for rapid development and easy-to-read syntax.