DHH: Make software simple again

“A lot of what has been described as innovation as technical advancement in the last few years was actually more about maximizing profit or conquering intellectual frontiers,” says David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of the Ruby on Rails framework and co-founder of 37 Signals. DHH, a bold contrarian and a commentator on the tech industry, spoke at the We Are Developers World Congress in Berlin.

Of course, he was talking about the uncritical use of cloud technology, omnipresent subscription models, and the rising complexity of developer tools.

Leaving the cloud

DHH became notorious when, in the spring of 2023, he announced his companies were “leaving the cloud” to save millions of dollars. They will own their data centers instead of renting them from cloud providers:

By moving away from the cloud, we predict our savings to 1,5 million dollars a year. Consider whether you have a service that really benefits from constantly scaling the capacity up and down.

Don’t just stay in the cloud because of the hype!

Software is rented, not owned

He feels the same about the prevailing model of renting software or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). That’s why 37signals has decided to launch their two products, Campfire and Writebook, with the business model opposite of the software subscription model – ONCE. As he explained in the announcement:

Something happened to business software.You used to pay for it once, install it, and run it. Whether on someone’s computer, or a server for everyone, it felt like you owned it. And you did.

Today, most software is a service. Not owned, but rented. Buying it enters you into a perpetual landlord–tenant agreement. Every month you pay for essentially the same thing you had last month. And if you stop paying, the software stops working. Boom, you’re evicted.

“The ‘Once’ model offers a clear, upfront cost without the ongoing financial burden. This transparency and simplicity can be very appealing,” DHH noted.

How do you scale your company if your customers only pay once for your product, and most of them don’t ever buy the new version? Hear more from DHH in our sister podcast, ScaleUp&Up.

Ruby on Rails is interesting again

DHH also reflected on the early days of Rails and its impact on tech startups. He recounted how, in 2007, Rails surged in popularity, with startups like Shopify, GitHub, and SoundCloud adopting the framework:

 “The reason they were picking Rails at the time is quite similar to why we’re seeing a resurgence in interest now. Many startups then emerged from a period of economic downturn and limited capital, much like today’s scenario with venture capital fluctuations and layoffs.”

He remarked that tech has moved from caring deeply about productivity and building things efficiently with small teams to a phase where money was abundant, and companies could hire more people to throw at problems:

We need to lower barriers for solo developers and small teams. If we make the barrier to entry so high that the only way to start building something is to raise a lot of money and hire a bunch of specialists, fewer ideas will get the opportunity to prosper.

He also addressed the challenges of complexity in modern web development and how it contrasts with earlier, more accessible frameworks like Rails:

We’ve tried to keep the vision of one developer being able to understand the whole system.

Make things simple again

DHH acknowledged the significant advancements and enthusiasm around JavaScript single-page applications:

“The problem with new ideas is that in an expansionist mode, especially with ideas from places like Facebook with React, the focus isn’t on making things simple — it’s about conquering new intellectual frontiers.” 

There is also an emphasized need, fueled partly by the shift to remote work, for simplicity and efficiency in development tools. He said that he was excited by the combination of technological and economic forces that enable small teams to build MVPs without needing extensive resources.