framer-motion vs popmotion vs gsap vs react-spring | Animation Libraries for Web Development

Package	Downloads	Stars	Size	Issues	Publish	License

framer-motion	13,302,433	30,473	2.34 MB	318	6 days ago	MIT
popmotion	1,712,097	-	304 kB	-	-	MIT
gsap	1,291,123	23,384	6.11 MB	10	7 months ago	Standard 'no charge' license: https://gsap.com/standard-license.
react-spring	889,796	28,990	8.36 kB	134	3 months ago	MIT

Animation Type

framer-motion:
framer-motion specializes in component-based animations, transitions, and gestures within React applications. It provides a simple API for animating elements based on their state, making it easy to create interactive and dynamic UIs.
popmotion:
popmotion offers a variety of animation types, including tweening, physics-based animations, and keyframe animations. It is particularly known for its modularity, allowing developers to use only the parts they need, such as tweening, spring, or physics animations.
gsap:
gsap is a versatile animation library that supports a wide range of animation types, including tweening, keyframe animations, and timeline-based animations. It is highly flexible and can animate any property of any DOM element, SVG, canvas, or JavaScript object.
react-spring:
react-spring focuses on spring-based animations, providing a more natural and fluid motion compared to traditional tweening. It uses physics to create smooth transitions, making it ideal for animating React components in a way that feels more organic.

Performance

framer-motion:
framer-motion is optimized for performance, especially in React environments. It uses the requestAnimationFrame method for smooth animations and minimizes layout thrashing by calculating styles efficiently.
popmotion:
popmotion is lightweight and performs well for most animation tasks. Its modular nature allows developers to include only the features they need, which helps keep the bundle size small and improves performance.
gsap:
gsap is known for its high performance and efficiency, even with complex animations and large numbers of animated elements. It is designed to handle heavy animations without causing jank or slowdowns, making it a reliable choice for professional-grade projects.
react-spring:
react-spring provides good performance for spring-based animations, but the performance can vary depending on how the animations are implemented. It is generally efficient, but developers need to be mindful of how they structure their animations to avoid performance bottlenecks.

Ease of Use

framer-motion:
framer-motion offers a user-friendly API that is easy to learn and use, especially for React developers. Its declarative approach makes it simple to integrate animations into components without much boilerplate code.
popmotion:
popmotion is relatively easy to use, especially for developers who appreciate its modular design. The documentation is clear, and the library encourages a hands-on approach to animation, allowing for creativity and experimentation.
gsap:
gsap has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set and more complex API. However, it is well-documented, and once developers become familiar with it, they can leverage its full power for creating intricate animations.
react-spring:
react-spring provides a simple and intuitive API for creating spring-based animations. Its declarative nature aligns well with React's design philosophy, making it easy for React developers to implement animations quickly.

Integration with React

popmotion:
popmotion is also not React-specific, but it can be integrated into React applications. Like GSAP, it requires some manual handling of animations within the React component lifecycle.
gsap:
gsap can be used with React, but it is not React-specific. Developers need to manage the integration manually, which can involve using refs and lifecycle methods to control animations within React components.
react-spring:
react-spring is designed for React and provides a declarative way to create animations that work well with React's component model. It offers hooks and components that make it easy to implement animations in a React-friendly way.

Code Example

framer-motion:

Simple Animation with framer-motion

import { motion } from 'framer-motion';

function Example() {
  return (
    <motion.div
      animate={{ x: 100 }}
      transition={{ duration: 0.5 }}
    >
      Animate Me
    </motion.div>
  );
}

popmotion:

Simple Animation with popmotion

import { motion } from 'popmotion';

function Example() {
  const boxRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    motion.to(boxRef.current, { x: 100, duration: 0.5 });
  }, []);

  return <div ref={boxRef}>Animate Me</div>;
}

gsap:

Simple Animation with gsap

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import { gsap } from 'gsap';

function Example() {
  const boxRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    gsap.to(boxRef.current, { x: 100, duration: 0.5 });
  }, []);

  return <div ref={boxRef}>Animate Me</div>;
}

react-spring:

Simple Animation with react-spring

import { useSpring, animated } from 'react-spring';

function Example() {
  const props = useSpring({ to: { x: 100 }, from: { x: 0 }, config: { duration: 500 } });

  return <animated.div style={props}>Animate Me</animated.div>;
}