Building Real-Time Features in Rails 8: Action Cable, Solid Cable & WebSockets (2026)
The complete guide to real-time WebSockets in Rails 8. Action Cable channels, Solid Cable database adapter (no Redis required), Turbo Streams broadcasting, and AnyCable scaling.
Why Rails 8 Solid Cable Eliminates Redis Dependencies
Prior to Rails 8, running Action Cable in production required maintaining and paying for a dedicated Redis instance. Solid Cable uses your primary database, storing broadcast messages in an autovacuumed table. For 95% of web applications (under 10,000 concurrent WebSocket connections), Solid Cable provides rock-solid performance with zero extra operational overhead.
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Get a Real-Time Architecture Estimate →Frequently Asked Questions
What is Solid Cable in Rails 8?
Solid Cable is the default database-backed Action Cable pub/sub adapter introduced in Rails 8. It allows WebSocket broadcasts to run directly through PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQLite without requiring Redis.
When should a Rails app switch from Solid Cable to AnyCable?
Switch to AnyCable when your application reaches 15,000+ concurrent active WebSocket connections (e.g. massive live event streaming or gaming lobbies) to offload connection management to Go/Erlang.
How do you authenticate WebSocket connections in Rails?
Authenticate in ApplicationCable::Connection by reading encrypted session cookies or passing signed JWT authentication tokens in the WebSocket connection URL.
How does Turbo Streams utilize Action Cable?
Turbo Streams uses Action Cable behind the scenes when you declare turbo_stream_from "channel_name" in your views, automatically inserting, updating, or removing DOM elements across active browser sessions.
