Animating SVGs Without a Library: What Actually Works

Every time I reach for an animation library to animate an SVG, I remind myself that SVG has built-in animation capabilities that are more performant, more precise, and require zero dependencies. The problem is that SVG animation is poorly documented and full of gotchas. The three animation approaches SVG supports three distinct animation methods, each with different strengths. SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language). Native SVG animation elements like <animate> , <animateTransform> , and <animateMotion> . These live inside the SVG markup and run without JavaScript. Chrome deprecated SMIL in 2015, then reversed the deprecation. It works in all modern browsers today. <circle cx= "50" cy= "50" r= "20" fill= "#6C5CE7" > <animate attributeName= "r" values= "20;30;20" dur= "2s" repeatCount= "indefinite" /> </circle> CSS animations. Standard @keyframes applied to SVG elements. Works well for transforms, opacity, and color changes. The SVG must be inline (not referenced via <img> )