Ionic Framework is an open source mobile UI toolkit for building high quality, cross-platform native and web applications. It allows you to move faster with a single codebase that runs everywhere.
We all know that building an application can be a hard process, and we're always looking for ways to make the process easier. In this article, we're going to mention some reasons why you should build your next application using Ionic Framework.
Ionic Framework is a
With Ionic, you can create one codebase that can go across all these platforms just using your web skills and target the different native APIs and features, like Geolocation, Camera, Bluetooth.
If you are new to Ionic Framework, I suggest you to read more about Ionic's key components. Also, when it comes to PWAs, we wrote a Complete Guide To Progressive Web Apps in Ionic that you may want to bookmark for a future reading because we deeply explain what are PWAs, why you should definitely consider them for your next project, and also show how easy is to build a feature complete PWA with Ionic and Angular!
Ionic Framework is Free
Ionic (the company) does have premium features, but building an Ionic app itself using Ionic Framework is free. You can create a production app using their beautiful UI components for free. Just go ahead and install Ionic on your computer, fire up your favorite IDE and go! Build a complete mobile app with Ionic Framework.
Open Source
Stability is a big concern when "open source" is mentioned. They can be unstable and that's why people worry about open source projects. They fear they're going to be abandoned. So, instead, they spend a lot of money on other frameworks. We're not trying to question other frameworks in this article but instead, we're trying to show you the benefits of Ionic Framework. Probably one of the key benefits is stability.
We all need to admit that when it comes to a community, we want it to be active and big. We can truly say that Ionic has the biggest community, they're super active and have great content creators. Ionic team members are very active on social media and are easy to get in touch with, this includes their founders as well! A lot of members also hang out in Ionic Slack channel. Also, to get help you can go to the Ionic Forum.
Framework Agnostic
One of the biggest changes introduced by Ionic 4 is that the framework is now completely agnostic of the base framework (previously this place was occupied only by Angular).
Since the components of Ionic Framework are now encapsulated as Web Components, it's no longer necessary to bind to a base framework. Web components work with any framework, in fact if you prefer you can not use any Framework at all!
This was a huge change for the Ionic community because it opened the door to applications that can be created in Angular, Vue or in React using the Ionic web components.
Ionic UI Components
Ionic apps are made of high-level building blocks called components, which allow you to quickly construct an interface for your app. These include modals, popups, cards and many others. They are reusable UI elements that serve as the building blocks for your mobile app, made up of HTML, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript.
These components allow you to quickly build an interface for your app. Ionic comes with lots of components such as lists, tabs, modals, cards among many others.
Every Ionic component adapts to the platform on which your app is running. This is called Platform Continuity and you can find more information in the Theming section of the Ionic Framework documentation.
Ionic Native APIs
Ionic Native APIs allow you to build native-powered app experiences with a collection of open source plugins and integrations that make it easy to add native device functionality to any Ionic app with Capacitor or Cordova. A typical example is if you want to use the phone's camera inside your app to provide users with the possibility to take a picture that they will then use on the app. There are plenty of Ionic Native plugins that you can use to extend your app functionality.
Plugins are a big part of the magic of Ionic app development. A plugin is a bit of add-on code that provides JavaScript interface to the phone's native components. They allow your app to use native device capabilities beyond what is available to pure web apps.
Native Cross Platform with one Code Base
Using Capacitor, you can create cross-platform apps with just one code base and save loads of time. Capacitor is a cross-platform runtime created by the Ionic team that allows you to target different types of native platforms like iOS, Android, the desktop using Electron and the Web.
Capacitor has first-class support for Progressive Web Apps and native apps. That means that Capacitor's plugin bridge supports running in either a native context or on the web, with many core plugins available in both contexts with the exact same API and calling conventions. This means you'll use @capacitor/core as a dependency for both your native app and your Progressive Web App, and Capacitor will seamlessly call web code when required and native code when available. Learn more about Ionic Capacitor.
There we have it, 6 great reasons to use Ionic Framework, among many others! If you want to translate the dream of building a good mobile application into reality, without spending a penny and in a fun manner, then we highly recommend you to use Ionic Framework.
After learning what Ionic Framework is and why you should use it to build your next app, you can focus on:
- Main differences between Ionic versions. Learn which are the main building blocks of any Ionic app.
- Learn how to build a complete mobile app with Ionic Framework.
- Don't get confused by all these new concepts. Use the Ionic Glossary to understand who is who in the Ionic world.
If you want to start creating your Ionic Framework app but don't know how to start, I suggest you to try Ionic 6 Full Starter App. It's a mobile app and PWA built with Ionic and Angular that you can use to jump start your app development and save yourself hundreds of hours of design and development.
Some features you can find in this Ionic template are: Firebase integration, authentication, forms and much more. Also, you will get more than 100 ready to use Ionic pages and components such as profiles, forms, cards, lists, categories, listings, and so much more.
I know, it may sound like a lot to start, but you are free to use just what you need and remove all the rest.
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