📚 JS Libraries Hub
Motion | GSAP

Motion vs GSAP

A technical comparison with interactive examples showing the real differences.

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Motion

A modern animation library with spring physics, gestures, and scroll-linked effects.

VS
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GSAP

The most popular JavaScript animation library — animate anything on the web.

⚡ Quick Verdict

GSAP (now owned by Webflow) excels at complex timeline choreography and has a rich plugin ecosystem. Motion offers a simpler declarative API, real spring physics, and gesture support. GSAP is free but closed-source with usage restrictions; Motion is MIT licensed.

Bundle Size Comparison

What ships to your users' browsers (gzipped)

Motion Mini
~2.3kb
Motion Full
~18kb
GSAP Core
~24kb
GSAP + ScrollTrigger
~45kb

Motion's mini version (2.3kb) covers basic animations. GSAP requires more upfront but includes powerful timeline features.

Performance Stress Test

See how each library handles increasing element counts in real-time

10 (light) 250 (moderate) 500 (heavy)
Motion
GSAP
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Result:

Technical Capabilities

Capability Motion GSAP
Animation API animate() — declarative, keyframes gsap.to/from/fromTo() — imperative
Spring Physics Built-in: type: 'spring', stiffness, damping Via ease: 'elastic' or CustomEase plugin
Duration Units Seconds (0.5 = 500ms) Seconds (0.5 = 500ms)
Stagger Syntax delay: stagger(0.1) function stagger: 0.1 property
Gesture Support Built-in: hover, drag, pan, tap Via Draggable plugin ($)
Layout Animations Automatic with layout prop Manual via Flip plugin
Scroll Integration inView(), scroll() — built-in (0.5kb) ScrollTrigger plugin — powerful
Timeline API timeline() — functional sequencing gsap.timeline() — advanced, chainable
Framework Support React/Vue first-class, vanilla JS Framework-agnostic, works everywhere
Bundle Size 2.3kb mini / 18kb full 24kb core / 45kb+ with plugins

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🎯 Recommendation:

Bottom Line

Motion is the modern choice for React/Vue apps with its declarative API, spring physics, and built-in gestures. GSAP is the powerhouse for complex, framework-agnostic animations with unmatched timeline control.

Choose Motion for modern React/Vue development. Choose GSAP for complex choreography or vanilla JS projects.

Learn Motion → Learn GSAP →