It's the best solution so far. I started deploying with FCGI and it was a pain. Then came mongrel and it was better. Then came mod_rails and it was WAY better.
Also a lot of large cool application are migrating to mod_rails including some by 37signals, so you know that's good.
I'll just end with a quote from DHH:
The one-piece solution with Phusion
Passenger
Once you've completed the incredibly
simple installation, you get an Apache
that acts as both web server, load
balancer, application server and
process watcher. You simply drop in
your application and touch
tmp/restart.txt when you want to
bounce it and bam, you're up and
running.
But somehow the message of Passenger
has been a little slow to sink in.
There's already a ton of big sites
running off it. Including Shopify,
MTV, Geni, Yammer, and we'll be moving
over first Ta-da List shortly, then
hopefully the rest of the 37signals
suite quickly thereafter.
So while there are still reasons to
run your own custom multi-tier setup
of manually configured pieces, just
like there are people shying away from
mod_php for their particulars, I think
we've finally settled on a default
answer. Something that doesn't require
you to really think about the first
deployment of your Rails application.
Something that just works out of the
box. Even if that box is a shared
host!
In conclusion, Rails is no longer hard
to deploy. Phusion Passenger has made
it ridiculously easy.
(via)