Systems and methods for developing and delivering platform-adaptive web and native application content are disclosed. A hierarchy of templates is provided in which each template includes content compatible with a device that has various associated characteristics, such as particular hardware and software configurations. At least one of the templates has an inheritance relationship with one or more other templates in the hierarchy. A request for content is received from a requesting device. The request includes a device identifier, such as a user agent string, indicative of one or more characteristics associated with the requesting device. One or more of the templates are then selected based on the device identifier and are used to generate content compatible with the requesting device.