Ionic framework is an open-source UI toolkit for building performant, high-quality mobile apps, desktop apps, and progressive web apps using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It allows developers to build once and run everywhere. It was created by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley of Drifty Co. in 2013. The first beta version of the Ionic framework was released in March 2014.

The Ionic framework mainly focuses on front-end user experience or UI interaction, which handles all the look and feel of your app. It is easy to learn and can integrate with other libraries or framework such as Angular, Cordova, etc. It can also be used as a standalone without a front-end framework using a simple script include.

Officially, the Ionic framework has integration with Angular, but it also provides support for Vue.js and React.js, which are in development.