What Is Ionic? Understand In 200 Words

Over 5 million apps created using Ionic according to its official site.

Used by some well-known brands including Sworkit, Untappd, MarketWatch, Nationwide, Amtrak, and NASA.

Ionic is a top choice for building high-quality hybrid mobile apps.

Hybrid apps are built using web tech like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and then wrapped in native wrappers like Cordova or PhoneGap to make it native iOS or native Android. Can be distributed and installed through app stores.

Ionic is an open-source mobile UI toolkit developed by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley of Drifty Co in 2013 for developing cross-platform hybrid apps.

It is popular as “Bootstrap for Native.”

Advantages:

• Faster time-to-market
• Native-like performance
• single code base for multiple platforms –web, PWA, iOS, Android, desktop
• Reduced cost and time
• Easy accessibility to 3rd party code
• Native platform support
• Rich library of front-end UI components
• Pair with any JavaScript framework – Angular, React, Vue

Cons include performance issues in native apps, dependencies on plugins, app size, and security issues.

Ionic is built on AngularJS and Apache Cordova.

Ionic 4 is widely used for building high-quality, best-in-class PWAs combining best of mobile and web to deliver superior experiences.

A Good Read: React Native vs. Ionic