Use GSAP when CSS animations run out of road — scroll-linked effects, orchestrated timelines, runtime-driven values. GSAP is the industry standard for complex web animation and works with any framework. Don't reach for it for hover states or simple transitions; CSS is faster and free of runtime cost. Alternative: Framer Motion is better if you're in React and want declarative animation; GSAP wins for framework-agnostic work.
Last updated: 2026-04-23