EncodedId compared to other gems

The Ruby ecosystem offers 20+ great alternative gems for ID obfuscation, encoding, encryption, and slug generation.

This page compares EncodedId with these alternatives, organized by approach, so you can decide which one might work for your use-case.

This is not a value judgement on these other gems, they are all great!

Note that internally encoded_id has more optimised versions of hashids.rb and sqids-ruby, so performance might generally be better in EncodedID than gems that depend on the original encoding gems. I do intend to upstream these performance improvements to the original gems as soon as possible so all gems benefit.

Gems for obfuscating IDs

hashids.rb

The original Ruby implementation of the Hashids algorithm, generating YouTube-like short IDs from integers using a salt-based alphabet shuffling.

Key differences to EncodedId:

No Rails integration built-in, but used in various other Rails integrations
No character grouping or slug support
No blocklist
Has been officially rebranded to Sqids

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId can fully replace hashids.rb since it supports the Hashids algorithm and adds comprehensive Rails integration, character grouping, slugs, blocklist, and maximum length protection.

sqids-ruby

The modern successor to Hashids with a simplified algorithm and better encoding efficiency using base 62 encoding versus Hashids’ base 49.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Produces shorter IDs than Hashids with the same input
Enhanced blocklist
No Rails integration built-in, get it from sqids-rails gem
No character grouping, slugs, or prefixes
Eliminated confusing “salt” parameter in favor of shuffled alphabets

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId fully supports Sqids and can replace sqids-ruby, offering additional Rails integration, character grouping, slugs, and maximum length protection that sqids-ruby lacks.

hashid-rails

Seamless ActiveRecord integration for Hashids with automatic to_param override and enhanced find methods.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Hashid signing (signature token) to prevent conflicts between database IDs and hashids
Dual-mode AR find accepts both hashids and regular IDs (in EncodedID this is optional)
No character grouping, slugs, or maximum length protection
Only supports Hashids, not Sqids
Per-model configuration limited to salt, minimum length, and alphabet

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId Rails is a complete alternative offering Hashids support with Rails integration, plus character grouping, slugs, and maximum length protection.

However, hashid-rails has a hashid ‘signing’ feature that EncodedId doesn’t implement yet.

sqids-rails

ActiveRecord integration for Sqids with has_sqid declarations supporting multiple sqid fields per model with different configurations.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Supports multiple sqid fields per model (e.g., has_sqid :long_sqid, min_length: 24)
Only supports Sqids, not Hashids
No character grouping, slugs, or prefixes
No blocklist configuration

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId supports Sqids with Rails integration and adds character grouping, slugs, and prefixes.

However, if you need multiple sqid fields per model with different configurations, sqids-rails offers this specific capability that EncodedId doesn’t provide.

idy

Simple ActiveRecord ID obfuscator using Hashids internally with minimal configuration.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Only provides find_by_idy method (no other finder methods)
No character grouping, slugs, prefixes, or blocklist

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId can replace idy with more features (character grouping, slugs, blocklist etc).

prefixed_ids

Generates Stripe-style prefixed IDs like user_5vJjbzXq9KrLEMm32iAnOP0xGDYk6dpe using Hashids with table names as part of the salt.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Global cross-model lookup: PrefixedIds.find("user_5vJj...") works across all models
No character grouping or slugs (prefixes only)
No maximum length protection
Optional has_many override for prefix ID helpers

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId supports Stripe-style prefixes through its annotation system and includes numerous other features, but prefixed_ids offers the unique global cross-model lookup with PrefixedIds.find() that works across all models without knowing the model class; a feature EncodedId doesn’t provide.

cool_id

Generates prefixed random IDs for Rails models using nanoid-style generation, producing IDs like usr_vktd1b5v84lr.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Random ID generation (not reversible encoding) stored in the AR record (EncodedID can optionally be configured to persist encoded IDs)
No external dependencies - implements nanoid-style generation internally
Global lookup via CoolId.locate("usr_vktd1b5v84lr") finds records across all models
Can target alternate columns via id_field: option while maintaining traditional primary keys
Configurable alphabet, length, and separator
No character grouping or slugs

EncodedId as an alternative?

cool_id generates random, non-reversible IDs and has global cross-model lookup. EncodedId uses reversible encoding of existing IDs and can persist those, but does not provide a global lookup.

If you want random generation with prefixes and global lookup, cool_id is purpose-built for that.

cloak_id

ActiveRecord-specific obfuscation using a prime number-based reversible hash encoded as strings.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Uses prime number-based hash instead of Hashids/Sqids
find automatically detects cloaked or numeric IDs

EncodedId as an alternative?

Yes EncodedId could be used as an alterative to cloak_id, but if cloak_ids prime number-based algorithm might be of interest to you then check it out.

obfuscate_id and obfuscatable

Transforms sequential IDs into random-looking 10-digit numerical strings using the ScatterSwap algorithm.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Produces purely numeric output (10 digits) vs alphanumeric
Each number 0-9,999,999,999 maps to unique number in same range

EncodedId as an alternative?

Not a direct replacement but it is a more feature complete alternative. obfuscate_id produces purely numeric output (10 digits), which may be preferable for certain use-cases.

sequenced

Generates scoped unique sequential IDs for ActiveRecord models that provide another way to select a record without needing/exposing the primary key.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Provides sequential numbering, not obfuscation
acts_as_sequenced macro
Completely different use case (sequential vs obfuscated)

EncodedId as an alternative?

Not a replacement. sequenced generates sequential numbering (not obfuscation) for use cases like invoice numbers or per-parent sequences—completely different from EncodedId’s purpose of obfuscating IDs.

based_uuid / youyouaidi / shortuuid

Encodes UUIDs to Base32 or Base62 or other alphabets to reduce the size of the UUID. Some support optional Stripe-style prefixes, and ActiveRecord integration

EncodedId as an alternative?

EncodedId can encode UUIDs but if you just need to reduce the size of UUIDs then shortuuid, based_uuid etc will serve you better.

ulid

Generates Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifiers using 128-bit structure with 48-bit timestamp plus 80-bit cryptographic randomness.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Lexicographically sortable (database index friendly)
Time-ordered with millisecond timestamp component
28% shorter than standard UUID (26 vs 36 characters)
Optional custom timestamps for reproducible ULIDs
Timestamp component is extractable (reduced privacy)
Author recommends UUID v7 instead for new projects

EncodedId as an alternative?

Not a replacement. ulid generates time-ordered, lexicographically sortable identifiers with timestamp components.

Database-Stored Alternate Identifiers

FriendlyId

The most popular slug generation solution for Rails. Instead of encoding IDs, it generates and stores human-readable slugs in the database.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Stores slugs in database columns (requires schema changes) - Persistance of encoded IDs in encoded_id-rails is optional
History tracking maintains all previous slugs to prevent broken links
Collision handling automatically appends sequences for duplicates
Reserved words prevention protects system route conflicts

EncodedId as an alternative?

Yes encoded_id-rails can be used as an alternative. Both offer a rich set of features which don’t completely overlap.

So I recommend you read over the features of both to decide which one to go for!

slugged

Minimal slug implementation.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Stores slugs in database (requires schema changes)
Slug history support

EncodedId as an alternative?

Yes but slugged allows for slug-only IDs while EncodedId adds the slug to an encoded version of the numeric ID (the slug is only cosmetic).

Encryption-Based Solutions

These gems provide actual encryption rather than obfuscation, making them suitable for secure data transmission.

EncodedId cannot be used as an alternative to these gems! EncodedId encodings are not secure at the moment!

URLcrypt

Uses 256-bit AES symmetric encryption with modified Base32 encoding specifically designed for URL safety.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Provides actual encryption, not just obfuscation
Dual mode: encrypt/decrypt for security OR encode/decode for basic encoding
Suitable for secure data transmission vs just hiding sequential IDs

encoded_token

Encodes record IDs or UUIDs into secure tokens using encryption ciphers generated from an integer seed.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Designed for password reset links, email confirmations, invitation links
Filters invalid requests before database queries (no DB search needed)

has_secure_token

Built into Rails. Generates secure random tokens stored in database columns.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Stores random tokens in database columns
Common for API keys, reset tokens
Automatic uniqueness validation
Not reversible or based on existing IDs

obfuscate

Uses Blowfish block cipher encryption producing 11-character obfuscated IDs in block mode.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Uses Blowfish cipher instead of Hashids/Sqids
Two modes: :block for numeric IDs (max 99,999,999) and :string for text obfuscation
Fixed 11-character output for block mode

integer-obfuscator

Implements Skip32 cipher (based on SKIPJACK) for obfuscating 32-bit integers with bijective transformation.

Key differences to EncodedId:

Uses Skip32 cipher (SKIPJACK-based)
Limited to 32-bit integers only
Example: 1→418026769, 2→1524067781