Skip
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 13 cross-platform UI frameworks by recommenders
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.
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.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 4 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: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Native toolkits on both platforms
“builds iOS and Android apps, which is really neat, because it means your Android app's logic etc is all natively compiled”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Swift 6.4 Released” “the unique benefit of Skip is that you are using the real native toolkits on both platforms”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “maps it to native Android components, fully accessible and meeting platform expectations”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Paul Hegarty's updated CS193p SwiftUI course released by Stanford” Now free and open source
“I for one, welcome another great open source! Thanks for going open source and Good luck to skip in future!”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “developer tools really need to be freely obtainable in order to gain mass adoption”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “This is amazing! Thank you for open sourcing the project.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” Swift and SwiftUI for mobile apps
“if you like Swift and SwiftUI, and are happy working with the Apple developer tools, then you should give Skip a try. It really is magic.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “This is great news and hopefully makes SwiftUI more feasible as a long term cross-platform UI option.”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “this might be a convenient way to use a pleasant language to write mobile apps”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” Built-in platform accessibility support
“maps it to native Android components, fully accessible and meeting platform expectations”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Paul Hegarty's updated CS193p SwiftUI course released by Stanford” “So you automatically get the platforms' built-in accessibility support.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs 32GB RAM for development
“At least 32GB of memory is recommended for development with Skip.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “Seems like it requires 32gb of ram!”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” No LICENSE file in repository
“This is cool, but there is no LICENSE file putting this in DONT USE territory.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source” “there is no LICENSE file putting this in DONT USE territory”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Skip Is Now Free and Open Source”
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 |
| SkipThis page | 19 | 7 | 73% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
30 of the 35 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“builds iOS and Android apps, which is really neat, because it means your Android app's logic etc is all natively compiled”
“Skiptools add extra swift runtime”
“you can use slick to convert your swiftui to jetpack compose for a andriod build from the ios source of truth”
“This might actually limit the enthusiasm of people to jump on this.”
“You don't need to worry about using (L)GPL build tools to produce non-GPL apps.”
“Skip requires a macOS 15+ development machine with Xcode 16.4 or later installed.”
“This is great news and hopefully makes SwiftUI more feasible as a long term cross-platform UI option.”
“It just doesn't work well, like the maker of Skip noticed.”
“SwiftUI to Android sounds promising.”
“I'm sort of surprised that only the largest plan ($5000/month) and not the ($10/$500/$2,500/month plans) includes a license that doesn't involve figuring that nonsense out.”
“Flutter's grim outlook has resulted in a surge of interest in Skip”
“if you like Swift and SwiftUI, and are happy working with the Apple developer tools, then you should give Skip a try. It really is magic.”
“this might be a convenient way to use a pleasant language to write mobile apps”
“Seems like it requires 32gb of ram!”
“seems like a cool project”
“I for one, welcome another great open source! Thanks for going open source and Good luck to skip in future!”
“So you automatically get the platforms' built-in accessibility support.”
“the unique benefit of Skip is that you are using the real native toolkits on both platforms”
“The reasoning for making this choice was refreshingly sober and clear-minded.”
“they make it more easier for us non-Apple Developer to make an App”
“developer tools really need to be freely obtainable in order to gain mass adoption”
“At least 32GB of memory is recommended for development with Skip.”
“This is amazing! Thank you for open sourcing the project.”
“there is no LICENSE file putting this in DONT USE territory”
“This is cool, but there is no LICENSE file putting this in DONT USE territory.”
“They're not truly cross platform, they just wrap Apple's native design code.”
“Skip is also very compelling”
“maps it to native Android components, fully accessible and meeting platform expectations”
“seems like Swift is going in the right direction here”
“Parsing the XSLT file fails in Firefox”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.