head to head · open source
motion vs lottie-ios
motion has 34,866 GitHub stars, 1,504 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lottie-ios has 26,926 stars, 3,838 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. motion leads on adoption by 29% (34,866 vs 26,926 stars). motion is written in TypeScript under MIT; lottie-ios is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. motion has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, lottie-ios 14%. motion was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (animation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| motion | lottie-ios | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 27K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick motion if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lottie-ios if
- You want the lottie-ios feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and lottie-ios fits your workflow better
About motion
Motion An open source animation library for JavaScript, React and Vue Table of Contents 1. Why Motion? 2. 🍦 Platforms 3. 🎓 Examples 4. ⚡️ Motion+ 5. 👩🏻⚖️ License 6. 💎 Contribute 7. ✨ Sponsors Why Motion? Simple API: First class React, JavaScript, and Vue packages. Hybrid engine: Power of JavaScript combined with native browser APIs for 120fps, GPU accelerated animations. Production ready: TypeScript, extensive test suite, tree shakable, tiny footprint. Batteries included: Gestures, springs, layout transitions, scroll linked effects, timelines. 🍦 Platforms Motion is available for React, JavaScript and Vue…
read the full motion overview →
About lottie-ios
Lottie for iOS View documentation, FAQ, help, examples, and more at airbnb.io/lottie Lottie is a cross platform library for iOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, Android, and Web that natively renders vector based animations and art in realtime with minimal code. Lottie loads and renders animations and vectors exported in the bodymovin JSON format. Bodymovin JSON can be created and exported from After Effects with bodymovin, Sketch with Lottie Sketch Export, and from Haiku. Designers can create and ship beautiful animations without an engineer painstakingly recreating them by hand. Since the animations are backed by JSON…
read the full lottie-ios overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is motion or lottie-ios more popular?
motion has 34,866 GitHub stars and lottie-ios has 26,926. motion has the larger community by that measure.
Are motion and lottie-ios free?
Both are open source. motion is licensed under MIT and lottie-ios under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between motion and lottie-ios?
motion is written in TypeScript and lottie-ios in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, motion or lottie-ios?
Choose motion if you want the larger community (34,866 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lottie-ios if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.