Let's look at the stack bottom-up.<p>You'll need probably some kind of Database, right? For most of the usecases in different web-apps a document-based approach is just a perfect fit, i recommend MongoDB, since its fast and very easy to use, and the query language is just javascript. If you need something <i>really</i> fast, choose an in-memory-DB like Redis (again, mostly you don't need this, 99% of all webapps won't have serious traffic).<p>For the serverside-stuff itself, i highly recommend Node.js. Pair it with one of its great frameworks like express, and you'll be up and running in a couple of days. Don't even bother with RoR, as of today it is quite a steep learning curve to master, especially with all the different components of the rails-stack. Also see <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6171440" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6171440</a> about Ruby/Rails in startups. Since you wrote what kind of webapps you're writing, node.js should be a good fit for you. It's lightweight, fast and you don't need another language to learn, since its just JS.<p>For the Frontend-development it depends on what type of websites you'll be developing. If its a "classic" webapp, you'll be fine without additions. If you want to build a single-page-application, have a look at backbone.js, it's a client-MV* framework. I prefer it over the alternatives because of it's minimalistic and intuitive approach, the spirit of node.js.<p>When it comes to styling and the view-code, you'll have jade as html-templating-language and stylus as css-preprocessor-language if you want, thei're some kind of default with node.js / express and pretty good. For layouting, bootstrap is the best ui-framework out there, hands down. Take a look at the (mature) version 2.X or the (upcoming) version 3.<p>If you take my suggested road down, you'll have a complete javascript-stack, one language to rule them all. Using the same skillset, you can even build desktopapps with node-webkit or mobile apps with phonegap for example. Just don't bother with additional languages, ecosystems and all the hassle, JS will do the job for you today.<p>If you want some kind of standardlibrary for javascript, or better known as the "swiss army knife", have a look at <a href="http://underscorejs.org/" rel="nofollow">http://underscorejs.org/</a> .