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Active Admin scaffolds a Rails back office. Extending it is a DSL you have to learn.

Active Admin generates a working admin over your Rails models quickly, and for straightforward CRUD it earns its place. The moment a screen needs something the DSL does not cover, you are overriding Arbre components and controller actions. Jet Admin generates the interface from your database and lets you write plain code where it matters.

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Why Jet

Why teams choose Jet Admin

Build with your existing tools and data

Your client portal software runs on the Postgres, MySQL or Mongo you already use — no migration, no second copy of the data.

A database your whole team can use

Browse, filter and edit the data behind your apps in a spreadsheet-style workspace — with two-way sync back to the source. Lovable keeps your data behind an API only a developer can touch.

Visual workflows you can follow

See your app logic as visual workflows anyone on your team can read — branches, AI steps, Slack and email actions included. Lovable generates code — if something breaks, you’re reading code.

Safely share with your whole team

Set clear roles and access rules across apps, forms and data. No per-seat pricing means your whole team gets access. Lovable offers only basic, coarse permissions.

Feature by feature

CAPABILITY

Jet

Active Admin

Build on your existing database

Two-way sync & write-back

Edit & own the generated code

Self-hosting & on-premise

White-label & custom domains

Built for internal tools & ops

Granular role-based access

Audit logs

Full support

Partial / limited

Not available

The verdict

So, which should you choose?

Both can generate an app from a prompt. The difference is what happens next — who can use it, how you govern it, and whether it runs on your real data. Lovable is great for spinning up a brand-new web app with an AI prompt and a fresh Supabase backend. Jet Admin is built for the opposite job: putting governed apps and internal tools on top of the data your business already runs on.

Active Admin

may be better when…

Active Admin scaffolds a Rails back office. Extending it is a DSL you have to learn.

Jet Admin is best when…

Your team needs to understand and maintain the app without engineers

You want to see your app logic visually — not hidden in code

You need a database your whole team can browse and work with directly

You want built-in permissions and no per-seat pricing

Import Your App

Already built it in

Active Admin

?

Bring it into Jet.

Full control over your code, none of the deployment headaches. Jet gives you a safe place to deploy, govern, and run your apps. Just export your React app's code and import it in.

Follow the import instructions Start building

Frequently asked questions

Is Active Admin still maintained?

Yes, it is still actively released, and it remains a common choice in Rails apps. Maintenance is not usually the reason teams look elsewhere; customization effort is.

What is the best Active Admin alternative?

For a Rails-only, developer-maintained back office, Administrate or Rails Admin are the usual comparisons. If the tool has to serve operations or customers, an app platform on the same database is the bigger step.

Can Jet Admin connect to a Rails database?

Yes. Jet reads the Postgres or MySQL your Rails app uses in place, with no migration and no second copy.

Does Jet Admin handle authorization like CanCanCan?

Jet has its own permission model with row- and column-level rules, available on the Business plan, so authorization is configured rather than coded.

Can I keep Active Admin and add Jet Admin?

Yes. Teams often keep Active Admin for developer CRUD and build the ops and customer-facing screens in Jet against the same database.

Active Admin scaffolds a Rails back office. Extending it is a DSL you have to learn.