Capacitor

Capacitor is a native runtime developed by the Ionic team for building cross-platform mobile applications using standard web technologies. It wraps a web application in a native shell, providing access to device features like camera, GPS, push notifications, and file system through a JavaScript plugin API while running the web code in a native WebView.

Unlike Cordova, which Capacitor was designed to replace, Capacitor treats the native project as a source artifact that developers can modify directly in Xcode or Android Studio. This means adding custom native code, configuring platform-specific settings, and using native SDKs alongside web code is straightforward. The native projects live in the repository and are version controlled.

For web development, Capacitor provides the lowest-friction path from a working web application to native iOS and Android apps. Any web app built with React, Vue, Angular, or plain HTML and JavaScript can be wrapped with Capacitor. The plugin ecosystem covers common device APIs, and community plugins extend coverage further. The tradeoff compared to fully native development is that UI rendering happens in a WebView, though for most business applications the difference is negligible.