head to head · open source
motion vs primitives
motion has 33,670 GitHub stars, 1,364 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. primitives has 19,309 stars, 1,247 forks, 356 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. motion leads on adoption by 74% (33,670 vs 19,309 stars). motion is written in TypeScript under MIT; primitives is written in TypeScript under MIT. motion has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, primitives 6%. motion was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (react), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| motion | primitives | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick motion if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick primitives if
- You want the primitives feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and primitives fits your workflow better
About motion
Motion is an open source, MIT licensed animation library for React, JavaScript and Vue that provides a simple API and a hybrid engine for 120fps, GPU accelerated animation.
read the full motion overview →
About primitives
Radix Primitives is an MIT licensed, TypeScript UI component library for React, maintained by WorkOS, that gives teams building design systems and web apps low level components focused on accessibility, customization and developer experience.
read the full primitives overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Design & Prototyping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Design & Prototyping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is motion or primitives more popular?
motion has 33,670 GitHub stars and primitives has 19,309. motion has the larger community by that measure.
Are motion and primitives free?
Both are open source. motion is licensed under MIT and primitives under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between motion and primitives?
motion is written in TypeScript and primitives in TypeScript. 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 primitives?
Choose motion if you want the larger community (33,670 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose primitives if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.