In the past, I was using Intel XDK, PhoneGap Build, and Cocoonjs to build a native app.
But now, all these 3 solutions are gone.
Nowadays, you have to choose between Capacitor and Cordova. Cordova is easy to use, as it just needs one config.xml file. Capacitor is more modern, but you have to deal with, at least some, native code.
Why not combine the simplicity of Cordova’s config.xml and the modern Capacitor into one package that compiles in the cloud?
Well, that’s what I’m about to do. Please have a look:
Really cool demo!! Thanks for sharing this out. Scaffolding out a quick poc with this can be made super quick. Also nicely bridges a gap for those more familiar with a raw web development environments vs the current framework/library rich trend.
Getting your devices UDID, settings up certificates, installing ad-hoc app on your device and publishing it to the app store. All without the need of a mac, directly in the browser!
Capacitor creator here. If you want to make it easier to automate configuration (say, of AndroidManifest.xml) you can now use a tool we built called Trapeze to do that. It’s similar to config.xml in Cordova but more powerful and more explicit (you only modify the project when you want to and you can see all the changes that will be made before you make them): trapeze.dev
I’m well aware of trapeze. Actually we spoke before in #67.
At this moment, I’m still using @capacitor/configure (predecessor of trapeze). html2app uses a fancy wrapper around @capacitor/configure, to make it easily work in a ci/cd pipeline.
Btw, great work on configure and trapeze. Really like this declarative configuration for building mobile apps.
Building the app from the cli would also be awesome.
Hello, yes please, I’m not confident about uploading personal data onto webservices, not doubting you directly but your server or security can be compromised even if you are careful, so I would prefer a way to bundle the apps locally.
Well I would argue it is very safe. Your credentials are encrypted and only YOU have the encryption keys. Also the credentials are only decrypted in-memory.
About your personal information. There are no personal information stored at all. The only way to identify yourself is a hash of your github account number.
About a potential CLI tool: It would still upload your data and build the app on the server.
I’ve been working on a major 2026 update for html2app.dev based on feedback from over 10,000 users. To provide a more reliable and feature-rich experience for the community, I’m rolling out several major improvements:
Unified Bridge: I am moving to a solid Flutter-based core with pre-validated native plugins (AdMob, Notifications, Share, etc.). No more hunting for compatible plugins—just enable and configure the plugins you need directly from the dashboard.
Developer App: This is a massive productivity boost for game testing. Install the “Developer App” on your phone, connect it to your PC, and enjoy live autoreload and remote console logging directly from the physical device. This makes testing and debugging native interactions much easier, eliminating the need to rebuild the app for every small change.
Smart Validation: Projects are now validated before being sent to the pipeline. Errors in icons, plugin configurations, or app metadata are caught directly in the dashboard, so you don’t have to wait 10 minutes for a pipeline error message just to find a typo.
The rollout is planned for Q1 – Q2 2026. My goal is to build a reliable toolset for developing and releasing your Phaser games to the App Store and Google Play!
it!
