Version 12.38.0
0
85
ExcellentA simple and powerful JavaScript animation library
- Weekly Downloads
- 39.6M
↑78%
- Bundle (gzip)
- 57.7 KB
- Updated
- Vulns
- 0
Health Score Breakdown
Maintenance
100
Popularity
100
Quality
50
Security
100
Stability
70
Framer-motion vs Lottie-web
Side-by-side NPM package comparison
Quick Verdict
Framer-motion leads across all categories in this comparison. Check the detailed metrics below to see how each package performs for your specific needs.
Version 5.13.0
0
67
GoodAfter Effects plugin for exporting animations to SVG + JavaScript or canvas + JavaScript
- Weekly Downloads
- 4.8M
↑18%
- Bundle (gzip)
- 75.0 KB
- Updated
- Vulns
- 0
Health Score Breakdown
Maintenance
40
Popularity
100
Quality
50
Security
100
Stability
70
Choosing between Framer-motion and Lottie-web? Here's a data-driven comparison based on real npm data — downloads, bundle size, health scores, and more — to help you decide which package fits your project best.
Downloads & Popularity
Framer-motion leads with 39.6M weekly downloads — roughly 8.2x more. Lottie-web has 4.8M weekly downloads. Higher download counts generally indicate broader community adoption and a larger ecosystem of tutorials, plugins, and support.
Bundle Size
Framer-motion has the smallest gzipped bundle at 57.7 KB. Lottie-web comes in at 75.0 KB. A smaller bundle size means faster page loads, which improves user experience and Core Web Vitals scores.
Health Score Comparison
Framer-motion has an overall health score of 85/100 (very good), with strong maintenance, security, popularity scores. Lottie-web has an overall health score of 67/100 (good), with strong security, popularity scores. Health scores are calculated from maintenance activity, code quality, security posture, popularity, and stability metrics.
When to Choose Each
Choose Framer-motion if you value massive community and ecosystem, actively maintained, strong security track record. Choose Lottie-web if you value large community support, strong security track record.
Our Verdict
Both Framer-motion and Lottie-web are solid choices for JavaScript development. Framer-motion has the edge in overall health score (85/100), while each package brings unique strengths to the table. Evaluate them based on your project's priorities — whether that's community size, bundle efficiency, or maintenance activity — and choose the one that aligns best with your requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is framer-motion better than lottie-web?
- It depends on your needs. Framer-motion has a health score of 85/100 while Lottie-web scores 67/100. Framer-motion has more weekly downloads (39.6M), suggesting broader adoption. Consider your specific requirements — bundle size, community support, and feature set — to decide which is the better fit.
- Which has a smaller bundle size, framer-motion or lottie-web?
- Framer-motion has the smaller gzipped bundle at 57.7 KB. A smaller bundle means faster load times for your users, which can positively impact SEO and user experience.
- How many developers use framer-motion vs lottie-web?
- Based on npm download statistics, Framer-motion has approximately 39.6M weekly downloads and Lottie-web has approximately 4.8M weekly downloads. These numbers reflect package installations, not unique developers, but they indicate relative adoption levels.
- Which is better maintained, framer-motion or lottie-web?
- Framer-motion currently has the higher overall health score at 85/100. Framer-motion has a maintenance score of 100/100 and Lottie-web scores 40/100 on maintenance.
Framer Motion vs Lottie: Code-Driven Animations vs Designer Exports
Framer Motion and Lottie represent two fundamentally different animation workflows. Framer Motion is a code-first animation library — developers define animations in React components using props, hooks, and spring physics. Lottie is a runtime that plays pre-made animations exported from After Effects (or other design tools) as JSON files. The choice between them often comes down to your team structure: are your animations created by developers or designers?
Lottie excels when you have professional motion designers creating complex, brand-specific animations in After Effects — character animations, logo reveals, onboarding illustrations, or micro-interactions that would be nearly impossible to recreate in code. These animations play identically across platforms because they're pre-rendered vector data. The downside is the workflow dependency: every animation change requires a designer to update the After Effects file, re-export, and deliver a new JSON file. Lottie files can also be surprisingly large for complex animations.
Framer Motion excels when animations need to respond to data, user interactions, or application state — things like animated charts, gesture-driven interfaces, shared layout transitions, or any animation that's dynamic rather than pre-defined. The bundle size trade-off is straightforward: Framer Motion adds a fixed ~30 KB gzipped to your bundle regardless of how many animations you create, while each Lottie animation file adds incremental weight. For applications with many small UI animations (hover effects, page transitions, loading states), Framer Motion is more efficient. For applications with a few complex, designer-crafted animations, Lottie is the better tool.
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