ActiveAdmin
Better knownThe long-standing Rails admin framework, mounted at /admin
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "activeadmin"ActiveAdmin vs Madmin
Both replace Retool and Forest Admin. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Madmin covers a narrower slice of the same job.
Thin comparison — too few differences to compare. Kept readable, left out of search.
An admin interface generated from your models, mounted at /admin
No ratings yet# Gemfile
gem "madmin"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.
Read the full ActiveAdmin listing →
Why you might pick it
- It has substantially more adoption — 9,600 stars against 1,300.
What Madmin does
Madmin generates an admin interface from your Active Record models, then gets out of the way when you want to change it. Generated index, show, new and edit screens per model Association handling, including nested resources Search and filtering Plain Rails views you can override file by file The installer adds mount Madmin::Engine, at: "/admin" to your routes. Hosted admin panels are faster to a first screen and arrive with row-level permissions and audit logs. Madmin gives you an admin that ships with your app, is reviewed in your pull…
Side by side
Rows where the two differ are marked.
| ActiveAdmin | Madmin | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Admin and internal tools | Admin and internal tools |
| Replaces | Forest Admin, Retool | Forest Admin, Retool |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars (differs) | 9600 | 1300 |
| Gem (differs) | activeadmin | madmin |
| Mounts at | /admin | /admin |
| Member rating | — | — |
What each one gets off your invoice
Both replace
Only ActiveAdmin
Nothing unique here.
Only Madmin
Nothing unique here.
Questions
- What is the difference between ActiveAdmin and Madmin?
- Both replace Retool and Forest Admin. ActiveAdmin is the better-known of the two (9,600 stars), while Madmin covers a narrower slice of the same job.
- Can I mount both ActiveAdmin and Madmin 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 Madmin replace the same SaaS product?
- Both are listed as replacements for Retool and Forest Admin.