ShakaCode is a consultancy focused on Ruby on Rails web and Rust data engineering applications. They maintain several Rails ecosystem gems like Shakapacker and React on Rails. Across their own product HiChee and multiple client applications, the team relies on Scout Monitoring as a pragmatic way to spot the Rails performance issues that matter most—without spending days configuring observability.
“From my perspective, it’s mainly just zero work to set it up and get useful information.”
— Justin Gordon, Founder + CEO, ShakaCode
“So you immediately see the Rails problems, because Rails problems are mostly, like, n+1 queries or some database issues. That’s maybe 90% of all the Rails problems.”
— Sergey Tarasov, Backend Lead Architect, ShakaCode
For ShakaCode, the appeal is simple: fast time-to-value and a UI that maps cleanly to how Rails apps actually fail in production. Most Rails teams don’t need an observability platform that can do everything. They need one that helps them quickly answer:
- Which endpoint is slow (and how often)?
- Is the bottleneck in code, database queries, or external calls?
- Is this the classic Rails stuff? That is, are N+1 queries, missing indexes, “one controller action”, dragging everything down?
Rails performance work is often an 80/20 problem. ShakaCode sees the biggest wins coming from fixing the handful of repeat offenders that account for most real-world slowness.
The team has experience with broader platforms (including Datadog and New Relic), but emphasizes that setup effort and signal-to-noise matter more than an endless buffet of metrics, especially for Rails-centric work.
“Nobody else has it like this.” — Sergey Tarasov
1) Fast setup, especially compared with agent-based systems
Scout’s “install the gem” workflow matters in the real world—especially for teams who don’t want observability to become a project.
“Basically, you just add a gem, and it’s mostly working for the Rails application.”
— Sergey Tarasov
2) Easily surface the most useful metrics for Rails teams
ShakaCode described Scout as intentionally focused: fewer knobs and the right default data to help Rails teams diagnose what’s slow.
3) A UI that matches how Rails developers debug
For ShakaCode, the workflow is the product: start with endpoints, open a trace, and see the breakdown that points you toward action.
“You immediately see the controllers and actions with a problem.”
— Sergey Tarasov
Scout is the monitoring friend you can depend on
ShakaCode also described an infrastructure evolution around HiChee: moving from Heroku to a Kubernetes-based setup (via a layer above Kubernetes), then onward to running Kubernetes on Hetzner—with the goal of more control and lower costs. You can see the system developed, Control Plane Flow, which allowed HiChee to save 90% of the costs compared to Heroku.
In migrations like this, the “app feels slower” question can get complicated fast. One concrete example they raised was database latency, especially when compute and database placement changes.
Scout is ShakaCode’s “default choice” for Rails clients
Because ShakaCode often provides performance consulting, they care about tooling that doesn’t slow down engagements. Their positioning is straightforward: for Rails teams, Scout is an easy recommendation because it’s easy to install and immediately useful.
“We always recommend it.” — Sergey Tarasov
“We love it, and we always recommend it to all of our clients.” — Justin Gordon
Looking for a reliable Rails monitoring solution that’s simple to set up and use? Try Scout for free! Already using Scout? Read about our new integrated error monitoring! Or contact Justin at ShakaCode by email to arrange a complimentary performance consultation.
More about HiChee
HiChee, ShakaCode’s flagship product, is a vacation rental comparison site that helps travelers find the lowest price by comparing across Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and direct booking options.
