Why Theo doesn't talk about Ionic/CapacitorJS? [Capacitor vs React Native]
In my startup we've just went trough a rewrite or our product,
going from an EXPO React Native + NextJS solution to an Ionic / CapacitorJS with React VITE solution.
Honestly, we couldn't have made a better move. We are moving so much faster and we're having no problems at all with code sharing.
It's a multiplatform app by nature, so in February this year I picked for us the Create T3 Turbo template (https://github.com/t3-oss/create-t3-turbo) with a React Native Web strategy to share as much code as possible....
In the end this wasn't the right call. There are libs like Solito that can help with code sharing between the React Native and the React world but honestly it's a pain to deal with the unpredictability of making something work in both infrastructures. Sure you could still share 80% of your code and make it work instantly on both, but those 20% are no small deal...
Now that we moved to Ionic/Capacitor we are probably sharing something crazy like 98% of the codebase, cus it's all WebView wizardry.
When we made that move I was ready to make some sacrifices in the name of Code Sharing... after all React Native is awesome, right? We'd stop using the industry standard and sure there would be consequences, right?
OMG what a good surprise to see how seamless is the app experience in the Ionic ecosystem. CapacitorJS is now in a super mature state and I'm sure there is nothing you can do in React Native you can't do in Capacitor. I invite anyone to do the research on your own or be welcome to start a thread in the comments about this... you can do native bridges, access native capabilities with the plugins (like Camera, Geolocalization...)
It's crazy
In a blind test I can't tell if an app was made in Ionic, that's how good it is... for sure YOU have already used an app made with Ionic and didn't even realize.
So here lies the question.... Why Theo doesn't talk about Ionic?
Web DEVs are cheaper, DX is easier, UX is the same, code sharing is insane
going from an EXPO React Native + NextJS solution to an Ionic / CapacitorJS with React VITE solution.
Honestly, we couldn't have made a better move. We are moving so much faster and we're having no problems at all with code sharing.
It's a multiplatform app by nature, so in February this year I picked for us the Create T3 Turbo template (https://github.com/t3-oss/create-t3-turbo) with a React Native Web strategy to share as much code as possible....
In the end this wasn't the right call. There are libs like Solito that can help with code sharing between the React Native and the React world but honestly it's a pain to deal with the unpredictability of making something work in both infrastructures. Sure you could still share 80% of your code and make it work instantly on both, but those 20% are no small deal...
Now that we moved to Ionic/Capacitor we are probably sharing something crazy like 98% of the codebase, cus it's all WebView wizardry.
When we made that move I was ready to make some sacrifices in the name of Code Sharing... after all React Native is awesome, right? We'd stop using the industry standard and sure there would be consequences, right?
OMG what a good surprise to see how seamless is the app experience in the Ionic ecosystem. CapacitorJS is now in a super mature state and I'm sure there is nothing you can do in React Native you can't do in Capacitor. I invite anyone to do the research on your own or be welcome to start a thread in the comments about this... you can do native bridges, access native capabilities with the plugins (like Camera, Geolocalization...)
It's crazy
In a blind test I can't tell if an app was made in Ionic, that's how good it is... for sure YOU have already used an app made with Ionic and didn't even realize.
So here lies the question.... Why Theo doesn't talk about Ionic?
Web DEVs are cheaper, DX is easier, UX is the same, code sharing is insane
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