Capacitor
Hacker ApprovedRanked 7 of 13 cross-platform UI frameworks by recommenders
Recommended for packaging web code for mobile and other platforms, with good development experience and quick iteration. Critics say it can struggle with native performance and device APIs.
Recommended for packaging web code for mobile and other platforms, with good development experience and quick iteration. Critics say it can struggle with native performance and device APIs.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Packages web apps for mobile
“switched to Ionic's Capacitor and Electron because browser wrappers are still too much easier than writing a PWA”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Temporal: The 9-Year Journey to Fix Time in JavaScript” “great with Electron and Capacitor packaging it up for various platforms”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “The Phaser Game Framework in 5 Minutes” “I've opted for web-tech-based apps (Capacitor) with OTA updates”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin” - Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Does Anybody Actually Like React?”
- Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight”
Good development experience and iteration
“CapacitorJS makes for a REALLY awesome app dev experience compared with React Native”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance” “It’s so nice for iteration.”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin” Works well in practice
“it works pretty well for cross platform web development”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight” “I'm pretty astounded at how well it works out.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)” “I'm super happy with this choice”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 on Hacker News Pairs with web frameworks
“I don't see a reason to use it over web stacks plus CapacitorJS (Or Tauri)”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Shopify is moving from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin” “I have been using SvelteKit + Capacitor to build mobile apps”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Does Anybody Actually Like React?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Native performance and API integration
“they often feel like a browser wrapped in an app and struggle to achieve native performance”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “WebF Beta: Bring JavaScript and the Web Dev to Flutter” “the biggest pain point is always the camera/native api integration, not the rendering”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Toyota Fluorite: "console-grade" Flutter game engine” Needs extra React Native glue code
“will require some react-native and capacitor glue code”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “Google just gave Android power users a sideloading win”
Other cross-platform UI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other cross-platform UI frameworks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flutter | 171 | 106 | 62% | 12 | 3 yrs11 owners | — |
| React Native | 98 | 128 | 43% | 12 | 8 yrs7 owners | — |
| Kotlin Multiplatform | 27 | 12 | 69% | 9 | 2 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Expo | 21 | 10 | 68% | 11 | — | Approved |
| CapacitorThis page | 11 | 2 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Capacitor is growing faster than ever.”
“It’s so nice for iteration.”
“I don't see a reason to use it over web stacks plus CapacitorJS (Or Tauri)”
“I've opted for web-tech-based apps (Capacitor) with OTA updates”
“Still quite feasible, comparable to Flutter in the sense that you need to build a custom UI”
“I'm super happy with this choice”
“it works pretty well for cross platform web development”
“I have been using SvelteKit + Capacitor to build mobile apps”
“will require some react-native and capacitor glue code”
“switched to Ionic's Capacitor and Electron because browser wrappers are still too much easier than writing a PWA”
“the biggest pain point is always the camera/native api integration, not the rendering”
“great with Electron and Capacitor packaging it up for various platforms”
“they often feel like a browser wrapped in an app and struggle to achieve native performance”
“I'm pretty astounded at how well it works out.”
“CapacitorJS makes for a REALLY awesome app dev experience compared with React Native”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.