Both libraries make a web app look and move like a native one, and both sit happily on Capacitor 243,123 . Framework7 572,986 's CLI even offers "Capacitor app (targets native iOS and Android apps)" as a project type next to web, PWA and Cordova 129 (framework7-cli 9.0.2), which is what BookNest's framework7.json would have recorded had Framework7 chosen it. The differences are in scope and ecosystem:
| Ionic Framework 9 20,753 | Framework7 9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Built as | Stencil 672,850 Web Components | Its own DOM library and router |
| Frameworks | React 7,897 , Vue 5,482 , Angular 42,088 | Core (.f7 components), Vue, React, Svelte 36,701 |
| Platform looks | ios and md modes | iOS and Material You 15,533 themes |
| Maker | Ionic (OutSystems 37,408 ), with Capacitor | Mostly one developer, with sponsors |
Choose Ionic when your team already works in Angular, React or Vue: it adds components, not a new application model, and has the most Capacitor-first tutorials.
Choose Framework7 when you want the complete toolkit in one package, router and stores included, with no framework required, as Framework7 showed. Either way the Capacitor layer is identical: the same config, cap sync and plugin calls, so switching UI libraries later rewrites the screens, not the native project.