/frontend-react-best-practices

Animate SVG Wrapper Instead of SVG Element

Many browsers don't have hardware acceleration for CSS3 animations on SVG elements. Wrap SVG in a <div> and animate the wrapper instead.

Incorrect (animating SVG directly - no hardware acceleration):

function LoadingSpinner() {
  return (
    <svg className="animate-spin" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24">
      <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10" stroke="currentColor" />
    </svg>
  );
}

Correct (animating wrapper div - hardware accelerated):

function LoadingSpinner() {
  return (
    <div className="animate-spin">
      <svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24">
        <circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10" stroke="currentColor" />
      </svg>
    </div>
  );
}

This applies to all CSS transforms and transitions (transform, opacity, translate, scale, rotate). The wrapper div allows browsers to use GPU acceleration for smoother animations.