Want to Integrate Motion with WordPress? Here is a Complete Guide for Developers and Designers.
Animations can significantly enhance the user experience on websites by adding visual cues and engaging interactions. However, performance often becomes a trade-off when using traditional animation libraries. That is where Motion.dev comes into play—a modern, lightweight animation library built with performance and developer experience in mind.
In this guide, we will walk through the process of integrating Motion.dev with WordPress, including both no-code and custom-code approaches. Whether you’re a developer looking to implement custom animation logic or a designer seeking a smoother animation experience, this guide is for you.
What is Motion.dev?
Motion.dev is a modern JavaScript animation library designed for performance and ease of use. It operates without dependencies like jQuery and uses the latest browser APIs. Its animations are powered by the browser’s requestAnimationFrame, ensuring smooth frame rates and low overhead.
Some features include:
- ESM (ECMAScript Module) compatibility
- Out-of-the-box support for scroll, hover, press, and mount animations
- Minimal file size and high performance
- Declarative and imperative APIs
Now, let’s look at how you can bring Motion.dev to your WordPress site.
Step 1: Prepare Your WordPress Environment
Before integrating any custom scripts, ensure that your site is running on a modern theme that supports custom scripts in the header or footer. You should also have administrative access to your WordPress dashboard.
To keep your theme files clean and updates safe, use a plugin that allows you to insert custom code. One such plugin is WPCode (formerly known as “Insert Headers and Footers”).
How to Install WPCode:
- Navigate to your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
- Go to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for WPCode or Insert Headers and Footers.
- Click Install Now, then click Activate.
This plugin will allow you to insert JavaScript modules in the <head> or <footer> section of your site.
Step 2: Add Motion.dev via CDN
Motion.dev is distributed via CDN, making it extremely easy to load the library using a <script type="module"> tag.
Example: Fade-In Animation for Headings
- Go to Code Snippets > Header & Footer in the WPCode plugin settings.
- Under the Footer section (so it does not block page rendering), insert the following code:
<script type="module" defer>
import { animate } from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/motion@11.13.5/+esm";
animate("h1", {
opacity: [0, 1],
transform: ["translateY(20px)", "translateY(0px)"],
duration: 1.2,
easing: "ease-out"
});
</script>- Save changes and reload your site. You should see all
<h1>elements fade in with a slight vertical motion.
This basic implementation demonstrates how to animate elements on page load using Motion.dev.
Step 3: Creating Scroll-Based Animations
Motion.dev also supports scroll-triggered animations out of the box, which can be incredibly useful for storytelling, landing pages, and content reveals.
Example: Animate Elements into View on Scroll
<script type="module" defer>
import { scroll, animate } from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/motion@11.13.5/+esm";
scroll(".fade-in-on-scroll", ({ target }) => {
animate(target, {
opacity: [0, 1],
transform: ["translateY(40px)", "translateY(0px)"]
});
});
</script>To use this, add the fade-in-on-scroll class to any element you want animated:
<div class="fade-in-on-scroll">This content will animate on scroll</div>This approach ensures the animation only triggers when the element enters the viewport.
Step 4: Hover and Press Effects
Motion.dev offers convenient hooks for hover and click interactions as well.
Hover Animation Example:
<script type="module" defer>
import { hover, animate } from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/motion@11.13.5/+esm";
hover(".interactive-button", (el) => {
animate(el, { scale: 1.1 });
return () => animate(el, { scale: 1 });
});
</script>To use it:
<button class="interactive-button">Hover Me</button>This code will increase the button size slightly on hover and revert it on mouse leave.
Step 5: Optimize for Performance
Even though Motion.dev is lightweight, performance considerations are still important when implementing animations across multiple elements.
Tips:
- Avoid animating large groups of DOM elements at once.
- Use CSS transforms (scale, translate) rather than layout-affecting properties like
top,left, orwidth. - Test animations on different devices and browsers to confirm smooth behavior.
- Lazy-load elements where possible to delay animation execution until needed.
Step 6: Use with Page Builders (Optional)
If you use a page builder like Elementor or WPBakery, you can still integrate Motion.dev by inserting raw HTML elements or script blocks using the builder’s code widget or HTML module. Ensure that you:
- Only include the
<script type="module">tag once on the page - Manage animation targets using classes or IDs defined in the page builder
Conclusion
Motion.dev is an excellent tool for modern WordPress developers and designers who want to create high-performance, visually impressive animations without heavy libraries or plugins. Its modern API, scroll and event integrations, and compatibility with WordPress make it a powerful addition to any frontend workflow.
By using a lightweight CDN integration and pairing it with WordPress plugins like WPCode, you can implement smooth animations quickly while keeping your site fast and accessible.
If you need custom animations or advanced triggers, Motion.dev’s full documentation at motion.dev/docs provides additional examples and best practices.
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