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Mobile Resources

A curated collection of tools, plugins and guides to help you build, ship and maintain your Capacitor apps. Most of the building blocks used by these starter templates come from Capawesome, so this page is a good starting point when you want to go beyond what the templates provide out of the box.

Everything listed here is curated and battle-tested by thousands of development teams already running their apps in production.

From prototype to production

Shipping a mobile app is more than writing code — you also need to build, test, release and keep it up to date. The tools below cover the full lifecycle so you can go from a first prototype to a maintained production app without stitching together a dozen services.

flowchart LR
    build(Build)
    ship(Ship)
    update(Update)
    grow(Grow)

    build --> ship --> update --> grow
  • Build — Develop with Capacitor plugins for native features, then compile iOS and Android binaries in the cloud with Native Builds — no Mac required.
  • Ship — Automate store submissions with App Store Publishing to reach TestFlight and Google Play.
  • Update — Push fixes and features instantly with Live Updates, skipping the app store review for web-layer changes.
  • Grow — Ask for ratings, prompt for updates and monetize with the App Lifecycle & Growth plugins.

Capawesome Cloud

Capawesome Cloud is a platform to build, deploy and update Capacitor apps.

  • Live Updates

    Ship over-the-air updates to your users without going through the app store review — fix bugs instantly and release features on demand.

    Learn more

  • Native Builds

    Build your iOS and Android apps in the cloud. No Mac required, no local setup — just push your code and get signed binaries back.

    Learn more

  • App Store Publishing

    Automate submissions to the Apple App Store (TestFlight) and Google Play Store straight from your pipeline.

    Learn more

  • CLI

    Manage apps, native builds, live updates and channels from the command line or your CI/CD pipeline.

    Learn more

Capacitor Plugins

Capawesome maintains 60+ Capacitor plugins. Below is a selection of the ones most commonly needed when building a production app, grouped by use case. Browse the full plugin directory for the complete list.

Authentication

Storage & Files

Device & Hardware

App Lifecycle & Growth

Guides & Tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

What is cross-platform mobile development?

Cross-platform mobile development lets you build apps for multiple platforms — typically iOS, Android and the Web — from a single codebase, instead of writing and maintaining a separate native app for each one. This dramatically reduces development and maintenance effort while still giving you access to native device features. These starter templates use Capacitor, which wraps your web app in a native container and exposes native APIs through plugins.

How is Capacitor different from a fully native app?

A native app is written in each platform's own language (Swift/Objective-C for iOS, Kotlin/Java for Android) and shares no code between platforms. With Capacitor, your UI and business logic are written once with web technologies and run inside a native shell, while native functionality is accessed through plugins. You still ship a real native app to the app stores — the difference is that most of your code is shared across platforms.

Do I need a Mac to build an iOS app?

To build and sign an iOS app locally you normally need a Mac with Xcode. You can avoid this by building in the cloud: Capawesome Cloud Native Builds compiles and signs your iOS and Android apps on hosted machines, so you can release from any operating system, including from a CI/CD pipeline.

Can I update my app without going through app store review?

Yes, for changes in the web layer (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). Over-the-air (OTA) updates such as Capawesome Cloud Live Updates let you push bug fixes and new features to users instantly, without waiting for app store review. Changes that touch native code or plugins still require a new binary submitted to the stores.

How do I access native features like the camera, biometrics or Bluetooth?

Native functionality is added through plugins. Capacitor ships with a set of core plugins, and you can extend your app with additional ones such as the Capawesome plugins for biometrics, NFC, barcode scanning and more. If a plugin does not exist for what you need, you can write your own.

How do I create an Apple Developer and Google Play account?

To publish on the stores you need an Apple Developer account ($99/year) and a Google Play Console account ($25 one-time fee). Enrollment can take time — organizational accounts may require a D-U-N-S number, which can add days to the process — so it is worth starting early. See How to Create Your Apple and Google Developer Accounts for a step-by-step guide to the costs, timelines and requirements.

What do I need to prepare for my app store listing?

Besides the app binary, each store requires listing assets and metadata: an app icon, screenshots, a title and description, a privacy policy, an age rating and data-safety disclosures. Getting these right the first time avoids review rejections. See How to Prepare Your App Store Listing for the full requirements and best practices for both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

How do I publish my app to the App Store and Google Play?

You need an Apple Developer account and a Google Play Developer account, then you build a signed release binary and submit it through App Store Connect and the Google Play Console. To automate this, App Store Publishing can submit builds to TestFlight and Google Play for you. See the 11 Steps to Get Your Web App on the App Store guide for a full walkthrough.

How do I create the signing certificates for iOS and Android?

Both platforms require your app to be cryptographically signed before it can be installed or published. On iOS you need a signing certificate and a provisioning profile from your Apple Developer account. On Android you sign the app with an upload keystore that you generate yourself. Managing these credentials manually can be error-prone, so Capawesome Cloud can generate, store and rotate your signing certificates for you and apply them automatically during a native build. You can also manage them from the Capawesome CLI in a CI/CD pipeline.

How do I test my app on a real device?

During development you can run your app on a connected device or emulator through Xcode (iOS) or Android Studio (Android). For sharing test builds with your team or beta testers, distribute them via TestFlight for iOS and Google Play's internal testing tracks for Android.