Top React animation libraries (and how to pick the right one in 2025)

Animations can make or break your UI. Done well, they make interfaces feel smooth, modern, and alive. Done poorly, they slow things down and frustrate users.

In 2025, React developers have no shortage of animation libraries to choose from. But with so many options, it’s easy to get lost comparing features, performance, and compatibility.

This guide cuts through the noise. We’ll walk you through the best animation libraries for React in 2025; when to use them, where they shine, and how to pick the right one for your project.

What to look for in a React animation library in 2025

Before diving into the list, here’s how to evaluate any animation library:

• Performance: GPU acceleration, async rendering, and responsiveness.
• Compatibility: Next.js, Remix, RSC (React Server Components), SSR.
• Developer Experience: Setup time, ease of integration, documentation.
• Animation Model: Declarative vs Imperative APIs.
• Ecosystem & Support: Community size, plugin availability, updates.

Top animation libraries for React in 2025

1. Framer Motion

Framer Motion remains the most popular choice for UI-focused animations in React, and for good reason. It offers a declarative, component-based API that makes common transitions feel effortless: enter/exit animations, hover effects, page transitions, land ayout shifts. It’s built with production apps in mind, and supports animation orchestration, gesture handling, layout-aware motion, and even scroll-based triggers.

Why developers like it:

• High DX: Intuitive props like initial, animate, exit, and whileHover
• Great for UI work, especially dashboards and micro-interactions
• Works well with React 18+, Next.js, and RSC
• Layout animations are automatic and smooth

Limitations:

• Larger bundle size
• Not ideal for SVG sequencing or path morphing

When to use: For devs building production UIs, admin panels, or dynamic dashboards that need polished transitions with minimal setup.

2. GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform)

GSAP is the veteran, battle-tested in the animation world, especially for high-fidelity, timeline-driven control. It integrates with React via refs and imperative APIs, making it less “React-y” but extremely powerful.

Why developers like it:

• Unmatched timeline control
• Ideal for SVGs, scroll-based triggers, advanced storytelling
• Plugins like ScrollTrigger and MorphSVG add serious power

Limitations:

• Imperative model
• Steeper learning curve

When to use: For landing pages, marketing visuals, or product experiences that rely on precision and cinematic motion.

3. React Spring

React Spring is a physics-based animation library designed for fluid transitions and natural motion. It uses hooks like useSpring and useTransition to animate values over time, often resulting in smoother, less robotic-feeling animations.

Why developers like it:

• Spring physics = natural motion
• Supports interpolation, animated values, shared transitions
• Flexible and expressive

Limitations:

• Learning curve with animated values and interpolation
• Less intuitive than Framer for beginners

When to use: Ideal for expanding cards, drag gestures, onboarding transitions — where the feel of motion matters as much as the outcome.

4. React Transition Group

React Transition Group (RTG) is a lightweight, low-level API for managing enter and exit transitions. It doesn’t animate anything by default; instead, it gives you the hooks and structure to tie in your own CSS or JS animations.

Why developers use it:

• Extremely lightweight and stable
• Precise control over mount/unmount lifecycle
• Great with CSS modules and Tailwind

Limitations:

• Not declarative — you have to wire everything manually
• Verbose for complex UIs

When to use: For teams needing basic, reliable animations with full control, especially in dashboards or enterprise settings.

5. Motion One

Motion One is a modern, lightweight animation library built on the Web Animations API (WAAPI). It works with React, but also vanilla JS and other frameworks.

Why developers like it:

• Tiny footprint (~2kb)
• Fast and GPU-accelerated
• Cross-framework friendly

Limitations:

• No layout animation or gestures
• Imperative usage via refs

When to use: For performance-sensitive interfaces where only basic transitions are needed. Great for SPAs, micro-frontends, or lightweight UIs.

6. Remotion

Remotion is not a UI animation library — it’s a tool to build videos using React. You write React code to generate scenes, transitions, overlays, and export them as MP4/web videos.

Why developers like it:

• Code your motion graphics using React
• Supports SVG, charts, Lottie
• Useful for automating branded video content

Limitations:

• Not used in web UIs
• Heavy if you only need a few motion effects

When to use: Great for programmatically creating content: social metrics, videos, resumes, dashboards.

7. Anime.js

Anime.js is a lightweight, powerful JavaScript animation engine that works across frameworks. Used in React projects via useEffect + ref, it’s great for SVGs, timelines, and chained transitions.

Why developers like it:

• Flexible and easy to pick up
• Animate DOM, paths, or JS objects
• Excellent control over timing and easing

Limitations:

• Not React-native (imperative)
• Not ideal for layout transitions

When to use: Landing pages, hero sections, SVG-based product visuals.

8. Lottie

Lottie renders vector-based JSON animations exported from After Effects. It’s a great way to add designer-created motion without coding every detail.

Why developers like it:

• Offloads motion work to design
• Lightweight, scalable visuals
• Plug-and-play for empty states, onboarding

Limitations:

• Prebaked; can’t dynamically modify motion
• Requires After Effects + Bodymovin

When to use: Customer-facing UIs, mobile-friendly animations, delightful motion that matches your brand.

9. AutoAnimate

AutoAnimate automatically animates DOM changes (add/remove/move) with zero config. It works in React via a simple useAutoAnimate() hook.

Why developers like it:

• Dead simple; no animation code needed
• Great for dynamic lists, dropdowns, modals

Limitations:

• Limited control
• Can’t choreograph custom sequences

When to use: Internal tools, admin panels, prototyping — when you want polish without complexity.

10. Floating UI

Floating UI is not an animation engine but a powerful positioning library. It’s essential when animating popovers, tooltips, dropdowns — works well in combo with Framer Motion.

Why developers use it:

• Precise positioning
• Supports collision handling, flipping, smart offsets

Limitations:

• Doesn’t handle animation itself

When to use: Tooltips, dropdowns, floating modals where you care about behavior and polish.

Don’t want to handle animations yourself?

Animations take time. If you’re building internal tools or admin panels, you might not want to worry about UI polish.

With DronaHQ, you get pre-built UI components with smooth transitions, modals, drawers, and alerts, no animation library setup needed. Just drag, drop, and configure.

Final thoughts

The best animation library is the one that fits your use case, team, and tech stack. What matters most isn’t just motion, it’s motion with purpose.