# Adding Ionic + Capacitor to existing Angular project **URL:** \ **Category:** ionic-v3\ **Created:** [July 22, 2021, 8:34am UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810 "2021-07-22T08:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wekas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/wekas/32/124745_2.png) [@wekas](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/wekas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 8:34am UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/1 "2021-07-22T08:34:18Z")
I have an existing Angular project I would like to add Ionic/Capacitor to. Is there a standard way of doing this or any resources to follow? ---
**Author:** ![EinfachHans](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/einfachhans/32/130917_2.png) [@EinfachHans](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/EinfachHans)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 9:00am UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/2 "2021-07-22T09:00:10Z")
Ionic: [Ionic Packages - Ionic Documentation](https://ionicframework.com/docs/intro/cdn#ionic-angular) Capacitor: [Capacitor - build cross platform apps with the web](https://capacitorjs.com/docs/getting-started) ---
**Author:** ![wekas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/wekas/32/124745_2.png) [@wekas](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/wekas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/3 "2021-07-22T20:20:48Z")
I guess I should expand. I want to turn my Angular app into an Ionic/capacitor app that I can run on ios and android and serve using ionic serve. The same as if I created a new Ionic project. These instructions do not provide that capability. Maybe I will just try making a new Ionic app and copy in all my Angular components. ---
**Author:** ![EinfachHans](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/einfachhans/32/130917_2.png) [@EinfachHans](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/EinfachHans)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/4 "2021-07-22T20:25:56Z")
“For adding Ionic to an already existing Angular project, use the Angular CLI’s `ng add` feature.” ```auto $ ng add @ionic/angular ``` Sounds like what you described ---
**Author:** ![rapropos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/rapropos/32/100227_2.png) [@rapropos](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/rapropos)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/5 "2021-07-22T20:32:44Z")
> [@wekas](#): > > I want to turn my Angular app into an Ionic/capacitor app I think that slash is a bit thicker than you seem to. “Ionic” to me, at this point in time, is best thought of as a component library. I think of Capacitor as a successor to PhoneGap and Cordova. So turning an existing Angular app into an Ionic app and turning an existing app into a Capacitor app strikes me as two radically different things. You very well may wish to do both, or you may wish to do only one, but I definitely wouldn’t necessarily think of them as a package. Capacitor is great. I don’t want to throw shade on it at all. That being said, if you don’t absolutely need it, I would consider PWA an option with considerably less friction involved at many points in the development process: - you can run and debug in a desktop browser with automatic recompilation and reloading - no need to rely on app stores with all their associated baggage for distribution - truly a single codebase, so testing has fewer platform-specific edge cases to worry about Given that you seem to already have an Angular app, the only reasons I would _want_ to get Capacitor involved would be: - I _want_ to distribute via app stores for marketing reasons - I want to add previously nonexistent functionality that needs something on the native side of the bridge For Ionic, the question is whether I (or my userbase) prefers Ionic’s implementation of various UI widgets to whatever else we have currently. That would, in addition to the `ng add` that @EinfachHans is suggesting, require selectively swapping out various existing `` components for `` replacements. That could still be done regardless of the decision to get Capacitor involved or not. ---
**Author:** ![wekas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/wekas/32/124745_2.png) [@wekas](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/wekas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/6 "2021-07-22T21:26:48Z")
It needs to be distributed via the app stores. (I’m a fan of PWA’s but this is not my project). I only need some of ionic UI components really. I tried the instructions @EinfachHans suggested but it is not as simple as that. I am aware of most of the options e.g. Capacitor only but what I am after is explicit instructions on how to do this. I could probably sit down and figure it out but I am trying to see how much work it is in advance as previously I have always created an Ionic project. ---
**Author:** ![rapropos](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/rapropos/32/100227_2.png) [@rapropos](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/rapropos)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 9:36pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/7 "2021-07-22T21:36:40Z")
> [@wekas](#): > > I tried the instructions @EinfachHans suggested but it is not as simple as that. How so? Looks to me like it’s at least _intended_ to be as simple as that. `ng add` support was added [in late 2018](https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-framework/pull/15323), and looking at the stuff in [angular/src/schematics](https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-framework/tree/main/angular/src/schematics), it looks it contains imports for all the twiddly bits needed to support using Ionic components. Now, that’s for Ionic. Capacitor has [a totally separate onboarding procedure](https://capacitorjs.com/docs/getting-started#adding-capacitor-to-your-app) that’s basically `npm i stuff && npx cap init`, which spawns an interactive (_ick_, but whatever) process to fill out the rest. ---
**Author:** ![wekas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/wekas/32/124745_2.png) [@wekas](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/wekas)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/8 "2021-07-22T22:22:17Z")
You are right, I just needed to invest more time. I spent more than 5 mins on it and I got it working on Android just using capacitor. I will have a play with adding in some Ionic components next. Thanks for the response. ---
**Author:** ![source144](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@source144](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/source144)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/9 "2021-07-29T04:31:14Z")
Almost a year ago I managed to port a full webapp I made in react to a functioning PWA and it only took me a couple of days. Added a couple of features that would be mobile specific and some changes between the web-app and PWA and published to Google Play store. Haven’t tried with Angular, but I would assume it wouldn’t be any different, HTML, javascript and CSS are the same and you can consider ionic as a sort of wrapper. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![The-Lone-Druid](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ionicframework/user_avatar/forum.ionicframework.com/the-lone-druid/32/144783_2.png) [@The-Lone-Druid](https://forum.ionicframework.com/u/The-Lone-Druid)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2023, 7:51am UTC](https://forum.ionicframework.com/t/adding-ionic-capacitor-to-existing-angular-project/212810/10 "2023-07-11T07:51:54Z")
As a professional, I totally agree with what you said.