ActiveAdmin
Better knownThe long-standing Rails admin framework, mounted at /admin
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "activeadmin"ActiveAdmin vs Administrate
Both replace Retool and Forest Admin. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Administrate covers a narrower slice of the same job.
Thin comparison — too few differences to compare. Kept readable, left out of search.
A Rails admin dashboard framework you own and override
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "administrate"What ActiveAdmin does
ActiveAdmin has been the default answer to "we need an admin" in Rails for over a decade, and it is still maintained. A DSL for registering resources Filters, scopes, batch actions and CSV export Custom pages and dashboard sections Authorization adapters for CanCan and Pundit The DSL is powerful and opinionated. Deviating from it costs more than it does in Administrate, where you are editing ordinary generated views.
What Administrate does
Administrate generates admin controllers and views that you then edit like any other Rails code. The generated code is yours. A dashboard class per model describing fields and their types Index, show, new and edit screens Search and filtering Every view overridable, because they are generated into your app Administrate generates code into your repository; Madmin keeps more of itself inside the gem. Pick generated-and-editable, or configured-and-compact.
Side by side
Rows where the two differ are marked.
| ActiveAdmin | Administrate | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Admin and internal tools | Admin and internal tools |
| Replaces | Forest Admin, Retool | Forest Admin, Retool |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars (differs) | 9600 | 5800 |
| Gem (differs) | activeadmin | administrate |
| Mounts at | /admin | /admin |
| Member rating | — | — |
What each one gets off your invoice
Both replace
Only ActiveAdmin
Nothing unique here.
Only Administrate
Nothing unique here.
Questions
- What is the difference between ActiveAdmin and Administrate?
- Both replace Retool and Forest Admin. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Administrate covers a narrower slice of the same job.
- Can I mount both ActiveAdmin and Administrate in the same Rails app?
- Technically yes — engines mount at different paths — but they overlap, so running both usually means two sets of tables doing one job. Pick one.
- Do ActiveAdmin and Administrate replace the same SaaS product?
- Both are listed as replacements for Retool and Forest Admin.