Rails 3 advice: Create new Admin User class or use CanCan?

I've got a rails 3 app in beta right now that uses Devise for authentication for users, and need some advice. I want to add an admin-user that has some additional abilities, but I will be the only admin user (or admin users can be created via terminal - ie people cannot sign up to be admin users). All regular users have the same abilities. I was just about to use cancan to separate abilities based on user roles. Then it occurred to me that using cancan may just be overkill. does it make sense to just create a different class of user instead? Am I giving anything up by doing this?

I 开发者_开发百科can foresee in the future that if this app is successful, there may be different roles for users (a free versus paid account, etc). Even in that case, does it make sense to NOT have an admin user via devise? Thoughts?

Thanks!!

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If you only have two types (users and admins) it seems perfectly fine to have two classes. It might even be easier to implement than a full-fledged role system. But if it is foreseeable that you will get more roles in the future it would be better to lay a solid foundation and use a role system from the start.

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If you are the only admin, I would create a field in your user model called Admin and then when you are going to add a function that is only for you, use the admin? check in your code.

For most of my projects, I have been using Devise and then use Option 2 from their Admin Role Wiki which is super easy to implement.