Capacitor
Frontend Frameworks
Develop once for the Web, native experiences across platforms
Overview
Capacitor is the modern native runtime from Ionic that lets you build cross-platform apps with HTML/CSS/JavaScript, outputting iOS, Android, Electron and PWAs while bridging Web and native ecosystems.
Core features
- A unified
PluginAPI for accessing native capabilities like camera, geolocation, files, notifications, etc. - Framework-agnostic — works with React / Vue / Angular / Vanilla and other front-end libraries
- Support for writing and integrating custom native plugins, with direct access to native projects
- Provides a CLI, TypeScript support, and a hot-reload development experience
Use cases and target users
Ideal for web developers, mobile teams, and enterprises using Ionic who want to quickly package existing websites or single-page apps into mobile, desktop, or PWA formats. Especially well-suited for projects that need to balance development speed with native capabilities.
Key advantages
- Modern design — simpler and more maintainable than traditional Cordova
- Consistent cross-platform JS API and a rich ecosystem of community plugins
- Direct access to native projects for performance tuning and platform customization
- Well-documented and community-driven, easy to get started and evolve long-term