7 Useful React Animation Libraries for Web Development

Modern web development makes effective use of animation. It not only improves the visual appeal of your application for the user, but it also offers interactive features like the ability to show and hide content in response to user input.

A JavaScript library called React is used to create user interfaces. While some developers refer to it as React.js, others are more familiar with the name React. It is a JavaScript library that was created entirely in JavaScript.

Developers are knowingly taking a risk by incorporating it into their updates or projects. Programmers will find this informative and advantageous. On the other hand, users enjoy seeing the results of their actions on whatever website they visit.

React is a fantastic tool for animation creation. You will undoubtedly benefit from using the React animation libraries that are given here when creating your next React-related software application.

In this article, we'll introduce you to some of the top 7 React animation libraries for your use and consumption.

We will go over the following:

1. Framer Motion
2. React Transition Group
3. React Spring
4. React Reveal
5. React Motion
6. React Ticker
7. React Anime

#1 Framer Motion

Popular React animation library Framer Motion makes it simple to create animations. It boasts a streamlined API that abstracts the difficulties associated with animations and enables developers to easily construct animations. Its support for server-side rendering, gestures, and CSS variables makes it even better.

A production-ready React library from Framer is called Framer Motion. It offers movements and transitions that are simply created for layout navigation across HTML and SVG elements. Set the values for the animate prop, and Motion will take care of the animation coding for you—you don't need to write any code or utilize a timeline.

Framer Motion delivers pre-built animation components, much like react-spring. To surround your object for animations, use motion.div. It makes styling your components and elements quicker and makes the code easier to read. The drawback of this is that as your collection of animation elements expands, it could get bulky.

Run any of the following two commands on your terminal to install framer-motion:

yarn add framer-motion

Or

npm install framer-motion

In addition, there are a lot of reasons to be enthusiastic about this:

• Offers assistance for sophisticated physics-based animation
• The Motion API may produce animations automatically if the proper conditions are configured
• Hover, tap, pan, and drag gesture recognizers are supported
• Supports server-side rendering
• Easy to change and manipulate colors
• Easy to learn, good documentation
• Supports TypeScript

In conclusion, Framer Motion is a very solid, highly adaptable, and potent library:

• Bundle Size
  The size of framer-motion v6.3.11 is 140.7 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  Documentation is simple to understand and beginner-friendly.
• Popularity
  GitHub has 15.1k stars, while npm has over 1,124,080 weekly downloads.

Despite having a considerably bigger bundle size and fewer ratings than react-spring, Framer Motion is still worth considering for your next React project because of its more user-friendly documentation.

#2 React Transition Group

React Transition Group is a development tool that minimizes the need for boilerplate code. React Transition Group offers simple and direct components for defining animations, in contrast to many other React animation libraries like react-spring.

The library does not define styles directly; instead, it makes useful DOM manipulations that make the implementation of transitions and animations much more comfortable. To put it another way, the React Transition Group provides a simpler method for animations and transitions.

This library's approach is really simple; all it does is keep track of components’ "enter" and "exit" states. It is up to you and your CSS skills what you do with that information and how you choose to animate it.

Read how Vertically Center Content in CSS.

To install the react-transition-group, enter one of the following commands in your terminal:

npm i react-transition-group

Or

yarn add react-transition-group

Let's examine what makes React Transition Group special:

• It is a React Community plugin
• A transition using a simple declarative API from one component state to another over time
• It's employed to animate the mounting and unmounting of a component
• It can also be used to describe transition phases that are already in existence

Now let’s analyze React Transition Group’s popularity and code quality:

• Bunde Size
  The size of react-transition-group v4.4.2 is 13.5 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  The documentation is simple enough for beginners to understand.
• Popularity
  More than 8.9 million weekly downloads on npm and 9.3k GitHub stars.

This library's biggest advantage is how easy it is to get started. But that is also its biggest drawback; if you're looking for something that isolates you from CSS transitions, this is not your choice because it primarily relies on your own familiarity with them.

#3 React Spring

React Spring is a modern react animation library that uses spring physics as its foundation. It is quite adaptable and includes the majority of animations required for a user interface. React Spring derives some features from React Motion, including interpolation, performance, and ease of use.

Install react-spring by using one of the commands listed below to see it in action:

npm install react-spring

Or

yarn add react-spring

Let's examine what makes React Spring so exceptional now:

• Offers hooks to handle a variety of situations
• The ability to use animations without relying on React to render updates frame-by-frame
• Jest provides help for testing
• Good-quality, user-friendly documentation
• Supports both web and react-native applications

Let's compare React Spring to other React animation libraries:

• Bundle Size
  The size of react-spring v9.4.5 is 168.5 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  React Spring's documentation is well-written and user-friendly, and it enables you to copy a code snippet from the documentation and test.
• Popularity
  Businesses and startups like Aragon, Next.js, and many others use react-spring. It has 23.5k stars on GitHub and over 793,830 downloads each week on npm.

Explore React Component Libraries/Frameworks.

#4 React Reveal

React Reveal is a React-specific animation library with a tiny file size and an MIT license. It can be used to create animations, such as the scroll reveal animation. As the user scrolls, you can highlight key phrases in your message.

A quick and simple approach to add excitement to your message is using React Reveal. It offers top-notch assistance for collapsing parts. Pop-up windows, which are generally despised, are no longer necessary.

To install the react-reveal, enter one of the following commands in your terminal:

npm install react-reveal --save

or

yarn add react-reveal

Let's look into React Reveal’s unique qualities:

• You can use it to make a variety of visually appealing reveal on scroll animations for your application
• Supports server-side rendering out of the box
• It is regularly checked against Googlebot

Now let’s analyze React Reveal popularity and code quality:

• Bunde Size
  The size of react-reveal v1.2.2 is 35.0 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  The documentation is simple to understand.
• Popularity
  More than 57,641 weekly downloads on npm and 2.4k GitHub stars.

#5 React Motion

An animation library called React Motion claims to make designing and using realistic animations simpler. React elements are animated almost naturally due to React Motion, which uses physics.

Spring, Motion, StaggeredMotion, TransitionMotion, and presets are the main five components it offers.

React Motion is far more involved than the previous libraries we've discussed, so in addition to these five specific exports, there are many more things you should learn before using it. We advise you to read over the well-documented samples of their features first.

Start your terminal and enter the following commands to install react-motion and produce a simple animation:

yarn add react-motion

Or

npm i react-motion

Now let's look at what makes React Motion so special:

• It is a very helpful quality for resolving animation-related challenges
• It only consists of extremely intricate animations
• Any other UI library for React can be used in conjunction with react-motion

Let's examine React Motion’s popularity and coding standards now:

• Bundle Size
  The size of react-motion v0.5.2 is 19.8 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  Interactive documents can be used. You can take a copy of a component's source code from the documentation.
• Popularity
  21k GitHub stars and more than 531,000 npm downloads.

With its nearly lifelike animation behavior, React Motion is an effective animation library for your React application overall.

#6 React Ticker

React Ticker is a small, effective React component that endlessly scrolls between text, photos, and videos like a newsticker. Other than React 16+, React Ticker has no dependencies (the minimum minor release still has to be looked up).

Along with Internet Explorer 11, all contemporary browsers will support React Ticker.

Install the react-ticker library with npm or yarn:

npm install react-ticker

or

yarn add react-ticker

Now let's look at React Ticker's feature:

• Move the child components of this element to the left or the right
• Dynamically generating child elements, such as via an API. (Yet fails to function with dynamic widths)
• Repeat the components endlessly
• There are three different repeating modes
• Regulate your pace, beginning, and stopping
• Establish start offset

Now let's look at React Ticker's popularity and code standards:

• Bundle Size
  The size of react-ticker v1.3.2 is 9.5 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  React Ticker's documentation is well-written and user-friendly, and it enables you to copy a code snippet from the documentation.
• Popularity
  244 GitHub stars and more than 16k npm downloads.

Explore React Chart Libraries.

#7 React Anime

React Anime is a very user-friendly library for React animation. By using the delay prop, animations can be simply cascaded. Animating CSS, SVG, and DOM features are simple when you use props with their corresponding names.

All you have to do is insert the component into the object you wish to animate.

Install the react-anime package:

npm i react-anime -S

Let's look at React Anime's feature:

• Almost all CSS, SVG, and DOM attributes can be animated by including a prop with their name (For example, opacity, backgroundColor, and transform inputs like translateX)
• It's simple to create nested animations by nesting components within one another
• A delay prop is used to create cascading animations
• Dynamically add elements and make them animate
• TypeScript definitions included

Now let's look at React Anime's popularity and code standards:

• Bundle Size
  The size of react-anime v4.1.1 is 19.8 kB (minified).
• Documentation
  The documentation is simple to understand.
• Popularity
  1.5k GitHub stars and more than 4k npm downloads.

Finally!!!

You can easily and rapidly build user-friendly animations and transitions with the help of numerous animation libraries. Many of these libraries can be modified and have fantastic built-in functionality. With the help of this article, you can be able to select the best library for your next React application.

1. Framer Motion
2. React Transition Group
3. React Spring
4. React Reveal
5. React Motion
6. React Ticker
7. React Anime

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