ActiveRecord
Shares rank 8 of 11 ORMs by recommenders
Recommended for ergonomic database queries and low coupling in Rails apps, with batteries-included functionality. Critics call ORMs an anti-pattern and cite excess joins and many database calls.
Recommended for ergonomic database queries and low coupling in Rails apps, with batteries-included functionality. Critics call ORMs an anti-pattern and cite excess joins and many database calls.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Ergonomic querying, easy to use
“Rspec and ActiveRecord and to a lesser extent Bundler and Rake are still the most ergonomic versions of tools in their class”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Response to "Ruby Is Not a Serious Programming Language"” “ActiveRecord is the yardstick by which I measure the ergonomics of all other ORMs in other languages”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Response to "Ruby Is Not a Serious Programming Language"” “fantastic solutions to 99% of cases of querying for things efficiently”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be” - Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Returning to Rails in 2026”
Batteries-included admin pages and features
“the extra capabilities you get from an ActiveRecord framework such as full-stack admin pages”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)” “it gave us so much batteries included functionality”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Removed rust to gain speed” Established conventions and low coupling
“They don't have the established conventions around _id fields, polymorphism, the nice bits around joins”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)” “What seals it for me is the low coupling it imposes on entities.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Explore union types in C# 15” Covers most querying without raw SQL
“fantastic solutions to 99% of cases of querying for things efficiently”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be” “I haven't written any raw SQL (only Active Record) in about two years”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Excess database calls and joins
“making 1,400 database calls via ActiveRecord to render a ten item to-do list”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Thoughts on Slowing the Fuck Down” “ActiveRecord does have the problem of excess joins though.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)” “the performance hit you get with ORMs”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Reddit Migrates Comment Back End from Python to Go” ORM design seen as anti-pattern
“ORMs and ActiveRecord are an obvious and well documented anti-pattern at this point in time”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Rails Is Built for AI” “Being able to write `user.save()` is such a lunacy”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “Erlang/OTP 29.0” “I always disliked ActiveRecord”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “What ORMs have taught me: just learn SQL (2014)”
Other ORMs people recommend
The four most recommended other ORMs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entity Framework Core | 35 | 19 | 65% | 12 | — | — |
| SQLAlchemy | 33 | 28 | 54% | 11 | — | — |
| Drizzle ORM | 25 | 6 | 81% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Dapper | 19 | 3 | 86% | 7 | — | Approved |
| ActiveRecordThis page | 11 | 7 | 61% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“ORMs and ActiveRecord are an obvious and well documented anti-pattern at this point in time”
“the extra capabilities you get from an ActiveRecord framework such as full-stack admin pages”
“They don't have the established conventions around _id fields, polymorphism, the nice bits around joins”
“ActiveRecord does have the problem of excess joins though.”
“I haven't written any raw SQL (only Active Record) in about two years”
“I always disliked ActiveRecord”
“Ruby On Rails devs are known to love their Active Record”
“issues with migrations and active record”
“Being able to write `user.save()` is such a lunacy”
“It also can not compete anywhere with e. g. rails/activerecord and so forth.”
“What seals it for me is the low coupling it imposes on entities.”
“making 1,400 database calls via ActiveRecord to render a ten item to-do list”
“fantastic solutions to 99% of cases of querying for things efficiently”
“at least Active Record is much easier to use than Django's ORM”
“it gave us so much batteries included functionality”
“I much prefer Django's code first database models than Rail's ActiveRecord.”
“Rspec and ActiveRecord and to a lesser extent Bundler and Rake are still the most ergonomic versions of tools in their class”
“ActiveRecord is the yardstick by which I measure the ergonomics of all other ORMs in other languages”
“the performance hit you get with ORMs”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.