When to use Lottie instead of a GIF

A 300KB GIF and a 12KB Lottie can look identical on screen. The difference shows up on a slow connection, on a high-DPI display, and the moment you want to change a colour.

Reach for Lottie when

• The animation is vector artwork
• You need it crisp at any size
• You want to pause, scrub or recolour it at runtime

A GIF is still fine when

The source is video or raster, or the surface you are embedding into cannot run JavaScript — an email, for instance.