Using Web Components, Ionic provides custom components and methods for interacting with them. Ionic includes mobile components, typography, interactive paradigms, and an extensible base theme. Ionic allows app building and deployment by wrapping around the build tool Cordova or Capacitor with a simplified 'ionic' command line tool. Users can build their apps, and they can then be customized for Android, iOS, Windows, Desktop (with Electron), or modern browsers. Ionic uses Cordova and, more recently, Capacitor plugins to gain access to host operating systems features such as Camera, GPS, Flashlight, etc. Since January 2019, Ionic 4 allows developers to choose other frameworks apart from Angular like React, Vue.js, and web components. After releasing an alpha version of the framework in November 2013, a 1.0 beta was released in March 2014, a 1.0 final in May 2015, and several 2.0 releases in 2016. In particular, mobile apps can be built with these Web technologies and then distributed through native app stores to be installed on devices by utilizing Cordova or Capacitor. Ionic provides tools and services for developing hybrid mobile, desktop, and progressive web apps based on modern web development technologies and practices, using Web technologies like CSS, HTML5, and Sass.

It also allows the use of Ionic components with no user interface framework at all. However, the latest release was re-built as a set of Web Components, allowing the user to choose any user interface framework, such as Angular, React or Vue.js. The original version was released in 2013 and built on top of AngularJS and Apache Cordova. Ionic is a complete open-source SDK for hybrid mobile app development created by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley of Drifty Co.

Ionic app builder