SMRTR ProgrammingMay 27, 2026lobste.rs

CSS vs. JavaScript

SMRTR summary

CSS animations run on a separate thread, making them immune to main thread blocking — unlike JS-based animations using requestAnimationFrame, which compete with React updates and fetch calls. Interestingly, the Motion library sidesteps this by using the Web Animations API under the hood, giving it CSS-level performance. GSAP trades that benefit for greater feature power.

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