I’m new (literally 30 minutes in) to ionic and I’m very impressed. Before I get started, though, I’m wondering whether I need an actual Mac to build/deploy my app to the app store.
I watched the Getting Started video and it is not clear, as the presenter is using a Mac.
You will need to use a Mac in some capacity to build for iOS, but you do have options. It’s only the final build process that you really need a Mac for so that could be a mac you own, you could use a virtual mac, a friends mac, or you can use a service like Ionic Package: https://ionicframework.com/docs/pro/package/ that handles the build process for you on their servers.
Debugging is a lot easier with safari on OS X.
Just get a cheap one from eBay.
In case you’re thinking about Ionic Pro: it will build an iOS IPA file, but you’ll still need a Mac with XCode to upload the IPA files to the App Store.