Should I use motion or react-spring in 2026?

Use motion if: You are doing any non-trivial React animation — page transitions, gestures, layout animations. Use react-spring if: You are building interruptible drag interactions, momentum-based UI, or physics-feeling motion.

All comparisons

Open-source comparison · Animation

motionvsreact-spring

Motion uses tween-based animations and is easier to learn. React Spring uses physics-based animations and integrates beautifully with React Three Fiber.

Option A

motiondivision

motion

github.com/motiondivision/motion

Formerly Framer Motion. The default React animation library in 2026. Declarative, gesture support, layout animations, scroll, presence. ~31k stars and 3.6M weekly downloads. Trusted by Framer and Figma. Now a hybrid engine targeting 120fps GPU-accelerated animations.

Full review →

Option B

pmndrs

react-spring

github.com/pmndrs/react-spring

Physics-based spring animations for React. ~29k stars. Better than Motion when you need genuinely physical motion (interruptible drags, momentum scrolls). Less DX polish than Motion for the common cases.

Full review →

Which should you pick?

Pick motion if…

You are doing any non-trivial React animation — page transitions, gestures, layout animations.

Skip motion if…

You are doing only static fades — CSS transitions are enough and ship zero JS.

Pick react-spring if…

You are building interruptible drag interactions, momentum-based UI, or physics-feeling motion.

Skip react-spring if…

You want declarative tween-based animations — Motion is easier.

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