In-House or Outsourcing for Rails Upgrade—Which Fits Your Needs?

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is one of the most robust web application frameworks available in the market, providing the ability to build and scale applications faster without compromising quality or performance. As is well-known, regularly upgrading your Rails application is crucial to maintaining its performance and security.

However, when deciding to upgrade your Rails application, the first big question will be whether to do it in-house or outsource it to an external vendor. The inappropriate decision to upgrade Rails in-house or outsource can introduce new challenges, escalate costs, derail project timelines, and impact business goals.

In this article, we break down various critical factors and scenarios for successfully navigating the often-confusing decision between in-house and outsourcing.

Let’s get started.

Key Factors to Determine Your Rails Upgrade Approach

Deciding between in-house and outsourcing for Rails upgrades isn’t a one-size-fits-all scenario for every organization. It depends on your organization’s unique goals, resources, and various specific constraints. However, three crucial factors stand tall in common that you shouldn’t resist considering when evaluating in-house or outsourcing Rails upgrades.

Cost: The Full Picture of Expenses

In-House:

On the surface, proceeding with an upgrade using the existing team seems like a wallet-friendly option—you might think, “Why spend extra when I have a tech team already?” But the real catch comes when your untrained team faces a steep learning curve. Extra costs, time delays, reworks, and productivity dips become the by-products, derailing your project both operationally and financially.

Outsourcing:

On the flip side, there’s a clear upfront cost involved in outsourcing, but it often pays off in the long run. Assume you are hiring an expert to get the work done. Fixed prices. No missteps. No hidden surprises. Predictability and peace of mind are guaranteed.

Expertise: Depth vs. Familiarity

In-House:

Your team might know your app in and out like a familiar road. But does that guarantee they can deal with a complex Ruby on Rails upgrade smoothly? As the Rails upgrades involve outdated libraries and large-scale changes, the chances are higher that your team will find themselves swimming in unfamiliar waters. As a result of gaps in expertise, costly errors, and missed deadlines are more prone to happen.

Outsourcing:

When you entrust an expert team with your upgrade, the likelihood of completing the process within the expected timeline and budget is higher. The reason? They work on upgrade projects back-to-back, having proven workflows and knowledge of the latest best practices, and can identify and address potential problems before they arise. As a result, they can ensure that the Rails upgrade happens smoothly without any hitch.

Timeline: Balancing Speed and Priorities

In-House:

Handling upgrades in-house may result in your internal team juggling a ton of other priorities (feature development, bug fixing, security maintenance, etc.). When spinning multiple plates at once, some are indeed bound to go out of hand. To cover it up, your team will be overstretched. As an impact, deadlines might slip, and the upgrade quality could take a hit.

Outsourcing:

When you have a dedicated external team to work on the upgrade, your in-house team resources will be available to focus on other critical tasks. Particularly, when facing tight deadlines to deliver mission-critical projects, outsourcing can make all the difference in keeping your momentum going without any pitfalls.

In-House or outsource? How to Decide?

According to Grandview Research, the global IT services outsourcing market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% from 2025 to 2030. With the rapid evolution of new technologies, many businesses are looking beyond their walls and increasingly seeking external expertise in IT services. That said, the decision to outsource or handle in-house is not an easy one with both of them having advantages and disadvantages.

With 18 years of experience providing various software outsourcing services, including Rails upgrades, in this section, we explore different circumstances to help businesses at crossroads choose the right approach (In-house or outsourcing) for Rails upgrades.

Choose in-house when:

1. Your Team Has Prior Experience with Upgrades

If your internal team has already managed rails upgrades in the past, they know the ropes in version jumps. Why worry when the chef is perfecting a signature dish in the kitchen? They know how to get the best taste out and can adjust for any curveballs.

When your team is equipped to deal with rails upgrades, they can avoid beginner missteps, anticipate roadblocks, and avoid reinventing the wheel. Without this familiarity, you might end up with a half-baked solution that could derail the upgrade and cost more in the long run.

2. You Prioritize Long-Term Control Over Immediate Results

Choosing in-house is the right path if you want to stay deeply embedded in the decision-making process. For businesses with intricate workflows or sensitive data, maintaining the integrity of the codebase is non-negotiable. When handling rails upgrades in-house, these businesses could ensure no critical functionality gets lost in transition and every refactor, and configuration change happens under their roof.

3. You Want to Build Internal Expertise

Upgrading Rails is not just about shiny new features. Every new upgrade of rails comes with new tools, patterns, and intricacies. Handling the upgrade internally allows your team to get hands-on exposure to tackle future upgrades and related challenges independently.

For instance, learning the implementation of Turbo Frames during an upgrade will prepare your team for future innovations in reactive UX design in addition to enhancing the current project. Thus, if you focus on building a self-reliant team, opting for in-house can be the right move.

4. Your Upgrade Is Incremental or Low-Risk

If you are planning for only smaller version jumps, like migrating from Rails 7.0 to 7.1, it would involve only a handful of Gem updates, small syntax adjustments, and configuration tweaks. That is, major refactoring or compatibility issues are less likely to be involved. In such cases, your in-house team can handle them efficiently without breaking a sweat and depending on external specialists.

5. You Have Dedicated Resources for the Project

You have already set the stage for success if you can assign a dedicated team of resources for the Rails upgrade. Because it could ensure, by all means, that the upgrade gets all the necessary attention needed for the smooth migration without causing a bottleneck elsewhere. That said, it could only be feasible for larger companies to maintain separate teams for ongoing development and upgrades respectively.

Choose Outsourcing When:

1. Deadlines Are Tight, or the Upgrade Is Complex

RoR outsourcing is your fast lane and logical choice when you upgrade a legacy rails app to recent versions, especially when time isn’t on your side. The reason? The transitioning is not a quick jump but involves the complete rethinking of the application’s architecture. By outsourcing upgrade to an expert team with extensive experience with intricate migrations, you can handle such transitions without cutting corners while ensuring you hit your deadlines without compromising quality.

2. You Need Access to the Latest Rails Expertise

New major versions of Ruby on Rails are released every 1-2 years and every version comes with various transformative features. Keeping pace with Rails advancements is no small feat as it involves complex technicalities, such as third-party service integrations, migration to modern authentication systems, background job systems incorporation, etc.

By outsourcing your RoR upgrade to an experienced team, you can ensure that the new features are integrated with precision, narrowing the scope of missteps. As a result, your application will meet the intended goals with the upgrade and remain robust and competitive.

3. Your Internal Team Is Already Overloaded 

When your in-house developers are deep in the trenches with bug fixes, customer support, and deploying critical features, adding a Rails upgrade to their plate is more likely to result in burnout and delays. While outsourcing you can bring in a specialist team to focus solely on upgrades. It lets your internal team focus on critical priorities without distraction while the dedicated team handles the upgrade and its challenges behind the scenes.

4. The Upgrade Involves Significant Legacy Code

Handling older Rails versions is notoriously tricky— one wrong move and the whole thing will become a disaster. By outsourcing upgrades to skillful teams, you can ensure the process is in safer hands to carefully unravel complex schemas, deprecated gems, and outdated logic. Their experience becomes your safety net to keep on track, reduce the mess, and complete the upgrade with precision.

5. Cost Predictability Is a Priority

Predictability in costs is crucial for businesses to plan their finances upfront and avoid unexpected cash flow issues. When Upgrades are done in-house the chances of extra hours in troubleshooting, missing the need for third-party tool licenses, and deadlines are higher. Turns out, what was considered affordable will get out of hand, clouding the financial clarity for decision-makers. When outsourcing to partners with fixed-pricing models, you know exactly what to expect and avoid surprise expenses, allowing better financial planning and saving broader business operations.

6. You Want to Avoid Recruitment Overheads

According to statista, the most important challenge for recruiters when hiring for technical roles in 2024 is finding qualified candidates. Hiring developers today is an exhaustive, tedious, and time-intensive process. By joining hands with the right outsourcing partner, you can avoid the recruitment grind and bring in a complete set of specialists who are ready to hit the ground running and make your upgrade seamless.

Final Thoughts

Deciding between in-house and outsourcing a Rails upgrade is a tough call and there is no universal answer to it. Opting for in-house may seem cost-effective and convenient, but it can turn into a slow climb uphill without the right experts. Outsourcing, on the flip side, can get your upgrade done efficiently, precisely, and with minimal disruptions. However, the decision is more about weighing every factor carefully from your organization’s unique goals, resources, and constraints to get the perfect fit. With proven expertise, we’ve unpacked various critical factors in this article to help you with clear and straightforward decision making for your next Rails upgrade.

But, once you decide to look for a reliable outsourcing partner to handle your Rails upgrade, don't miss getting in touch with our team. We are here to help!