Compare Admin Panels!
An analysis of six popular admin panel gems for use with Ruby on Rails:
Active Admin
- The "original" admin panel -- still widely used for new projects today
- Ruby-centric markup design using Arbre
- Has CSV, XML, and JSON export
https://activeadmin.info/
Avo
- Attractive interface using the newest front-end technology
- Paid option adds dashboards / menu editing / inline editing
- Built by Adrian Marin
https://avohq.io/
Forest
- Semi-Saas where you keep the database, and the Forest servers only know the tables, columns, and associations. Data is delivered by an agent to the forest servers which render pages.
- Paid option adds visualisation / charting / workflow enhancements
- Lots of traction, having secured significant funding
https://www.forestadmin.com/
Motor Admin
- Very lean
- Has GUI Form Builder / CSV export
- Configuration all done in database tables instead of an initializer file
- Paid option available
- Built by Pete Matsyburka
https://www.getmotoradmin.com/ruby-on-rails
Rails Admin
- The "original" sexier alternative admin panel
- Has CSV export
- Built by a very dedicated soul -- Mitsuhiro Shibuya
https://github.com/railsadminteam/rails_admin
Trestle
- Automatically adds routes without having to modify routes.rb
- Offers a Ruby-centric DSL via a well thought out set of helpers
- Pretty lean
- Built by Sam Pohlenz
https://trestle.io/
Also considering adding ThoughtBot's Administrate and
Chris Oliver's madmin.
Troubleshooting
If you get:
The asset "active_admin.css" is not present in the asset pipeline.
then do this:
bin/rails g active_admin:assets
(But it really should already be there.)