People & Software
DHH · David Heinemeier Hansson
DHH is the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-owner of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp and HEY. His work connects software products with tools other developers can build on.
Selected major projects, not a ranking · Updated October 12, 2026
Ruby is the language. Rails is his framework.
Ruby was created by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. DHH created Rails, a web application framework written in Ruby. Rails provides the structure for database-backed applications: models, web requests, HTML pages, email, background jobs, and more.
Sources: About Ruby · Ruby on Rails.
Major projects he created or helped build
- Ruby on Rails · Creator
Grew out of his work on Basecamp. Rails made the conventions and building blocks of that application reusable by other teams.
- Basecamp · 37signals product
Project management and team collaboration. Launched in 2004, it is the original Rails application.
- HEY · 37signals product
An email service launched in 2020. It also helped drive the development of Hotwire.
- Hotwire · DHH and the 37signals team
Tools for responsive web interfaces that send HTML from the server. Turbo handles navigation and page updates; Stimulus adds targeted JavaScript behavior.
- Kamal · Creator, developed with contributors
A deployment tool for running containerized web applications on your own servers or cloud machines. It began with Rails applications but supports other containerized apps.
- Omarchy · Creator
An opinionated Linux system, extending his approach to software tools into the desktop itself.
Sources: DHH's project overview · Hotwire · DHH on Hotwire · DHH on Kamal · Kamal.
Big websites built with Rails
These companies show the reach of the framework. Their own engineering teams built the products; using Rails does not mean DHH personally wrote their application code. Large services also combine multiple languages and systems.
- GitHub · Code hosting and collaboration
GitHub has documented the large Rails application behind its website and API. Its engineers have also contributed improvements back to Rails. Engineering background · Rails contributions.
- Shopify · Commerce platform
Shopify grew around a major Rails codebase and contributes to the Ruby and Rails ecosystem. Shopify's engineering account.
- Airbnb · Travel and accommodation
A prominent company that got its start with Rails. This describes its origins, rather than every part of its current stack. DHH's overview.
- Twitter / X · Social network
Another early Rails success story. Its Rails origins are a historical example, not a description of today's entire architecture. DHH's overview.