The best cross-platform UI frameworks, according to hackers
13 cross-platform UI frameworks were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 4 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended cross-platform UI frameworks with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Shares logic across platforms
Recommended for sharing core logic across Android, iOS and desktop in Kotlin; people call it mature and less opinionated than Flutter. Common caveat: Gradle and toolchain complexity.
Fast development without native tooling
Free open-source framework for building cross-platform mobile and web apps from the command line, quick for beginners. Critics say dependency churn, breaking upgrades and paid build credits.
Native toolkits on both platforms
Lets developers who know Swift and SwiftUI build iOS and Android apps with native toolkits, and it is now free and open source. Main caveat: 32GB RAM recommended.
All 13 cross-platform UI frameworks, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flutter | 171 | 106 | 62% | 12 | 3 yrs11 owners | — |
| 2 | React Native | 98 | 128 | 43% | 12 | 8 yrs7 owners | — |
| 3 | Kotlin Multiplatform | 27 | 12 | 69% | 9 | 2 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Tied 4 | Expo | 21 | 10 | 68% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Tied 4 | .NET MAUI | 21 | 68 | 24% | 7 | — | — |
| 6 | Skip | 19 | 7 | 73% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 7 | Capacitor | 11 | 2 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 8 | Valdi | 10 | 4 | 71% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Crux | 7 | 2 | 78% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Hotwire Native | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| 11 | Uno Platform | 6 | 1 | 86% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | Hypen | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | Dart and Flutter | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same cross-platform UI framework in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to cross-platform UI frameworks that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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