GSAP 2 vs GSAP 3 performance benchmarks

[Mark Mansfield]

Hey all, I want to bring a good case for upgrading our code base to use GSAP 3.

 

Has anyone done any performance benchmark tests between GSAP 2 and GSAP 3?

 

Cheers

 

Mark

 

[GreenSock]

During development in the early days, yeah, GSAP 3 was basically the same speed, maybe SLIGHTLY faster but I haven't done benchmarks recently because honestly speed is NOT what you should be building your case on. You'd probably never notice a real-world difference. GSAP is plenty fast...in both versions. There are much more important reasons to upgrade to GSAP 3: 

• Significant file size savings. GSAP 3 is about 40% smaller! That alone is probably all you need to make the case. 
• Waaaay more functionality. Tons of new utility methods that'll save you time, hassle, and kb in your own code. New randomization tools, advanced staggers on anything, motion paths, etc. There's not enough room to list everything here. You'll be like a kid in a candy shop.
• More concise, streamlined API. No more TweenLite, TweenMax, TimelineLite, and TimelineMax. Everything hangs off a simple gsap object. Trust me - the developer ergonomics are much better. 
• Built as modern ES6 modules which means it works great in pretty much all modern build tools (and old ones too because we provide UMD files as well).
• Version 2 has been sunset. We're actively supporting GSAP 3. It's definitely the future. 
• There are a plethora of other minor improvements like you can use almost any unit even on transforms, animate to "auto" width/height, get properties of objects/elements and even translate into specific units, repeatRefresh, etc., etc., etc.

I honestly can't think of a reason NOT to upgrade. Hopefully it's a no-brainer. Are you running into pushback from people in your organization or something? If so, I'd love to hear more details about that. Perhaps we can address the concerns more specifically. But again, I definitely wouldn't be overly focused on performance. It's fast and I don't think you'd ever notice a real-world difference from v2. But GSAP 3  packs a ton more power into a significantly smaller package. 👍

 

You might want to check out these resources: 

 

Happy tweening!