Anime.js alternative

Choose Annnimate if you want finished, production-tuned components rather than a library to build them with, need pinned and multi-stage scroll scenes, or want React and Vue versions maintained for you. Anime.js is the right tool if you want a small, MIT-licensed engine for your own DOM and SVG animation and v4's built-in scroll, drag and text splitting cover what you need.

Anime.js is a framework-agnostic JavaScript animation library, not a component catalog. Version 4, released in 2025, rewrote the API around named function imports instead of a global anime object, and added first-party modules for scroll-triggered animation, dragging, text splitting, and SVG motion paths, areas that used to require a separate library or GSAP plugin.

• Type: animation library (not a component catalog)
• Framework support: framework-agnostic core; no official React or Vue hook, integrates via createScope() inside useEffect (React) or onMounted (Vue)
• Engine: JS-driven, modular build so you only bundle the parts you use
• Pricing: free and MIT-licensed
• Bundle: roughly 17KB gzipped for core tweening, full bundle around 24.5KB (animejs.com, 2026-09); npm shows about 1.1M weekly downloads and 72.7k GitHub stars (2026-09)

• Small, modular bundle, import only the modules a page actually uses
• v4 closed real gaps: built-in ScrollObserver, Draggable, splitText, scrambleText, and SVG motion paths that used to be GSAP-only territory
• Simple, readable API for straightforward DOM and SVG tweening
• Free, MIT-licensed, no cost barrier at any scale
• Large, active community: 72.7k GitHub stars and over 1.1M weekly npm downloads (2026-09)

• It's a library, not a component catalog, every effect is yours to design, build, and harden
• No official React or Vue hook, you wire createScope() into lifecycle methods by hand
• ScrollObserver covers enter-view triggers and basic scrub, but doesn't match ScrollTrigger's depth on pinning and complex multi-stage scroll scenes
• Timeline nesting and position control are lighter than gsap.timeline()'s position parameter for large, overlapping sequences
• v4's API changed enough from v3 (global anime object gone, renamed params and callbacks) that existing v3 projects face a real migration, not a drop-in upgrade

Annnimate is the better pick when the goal is shipping a component, not writing one. Anime.js gives you the tween; the drawer, the gallery, the text reveal and their edge cases, font loading, resize, reduced motion, cleanup on unmount, are still yours to build. Annnimate ships those finished on GSAP, with the React and Vue integration done through useGSAP and template refs instead of hand-wiring createScope into lifecycle hooks, and with ScrollTrigger's pinning and nested timelines for the scroll scenes where ScrollObserver runs out.

Anime.js is the better pick if you want a light, free engine and you enjoy building the motion yourself. v4 is a real step up: ScrollObserver, Draggable, splitText and SVG motion paths in a modular bundle around 17KB gzipped, MIT licensed, with 72k stars behind it. For a landing page with a handful of custom tweens, or a project where bundle size is the constraint, there's no reason to pay for a component library. Just budget for the v3 to v4 migration if you're upgrading.