12 Best Sites for Free Lottie Animations

A small animated icon can make a loading state or empty screen easier to understand. This list is for designers, developers, students, and small businesses who want to find motion assets without drawing every frame themselves.

The sources below include Lottie-focused libraries and broader creative communities. Free downloads do not all carry the same permissions, so read the specific asset licence before using anything commercially.

Quick picks

• Best overall: LottieFiles — broad discovery and preview tools.
• Best for designers: Icons8 — searchable assets alongside other design resources.
• Best community source: Lordicon — animated icon browsing and formats.
• Best for custom work: Canva — simple editing in a familiar design suite.

How we picked

We prioritised recognisable services where a visitor can inspect motion before downloading and identify usage terms. Catalogues and free tiers change, so treat these as starting points rather than blanket permissions:

• Preview: can you assess timing and style first?
• Licensing: is the asset's permitted use clear?
• Formats: does it suit the intended player and platform?
• Control: can you recolour, resize, or customise it?

Lottie-first libraries

1. LottieFiles

LottieFiles is a dedicated destination for finding, previewing, and managing Lottie animations. Its search and player make it easier to check whether an illustration fits a product's tone before sharing it with a developer. Free assets can have individual conditions, and editing or team features may be limited by plan. Free access is available, with paid upgrades.

Best for: product teams browsing a wide range of animated UI illustrations.

2. Lordicon

Lordicon specialises in animated icons, with previews that help compare stroke and colour treatments. It is a natural fit for interface details such as success, search, or navigation states rather than full-screen character scenes. The catalogue is curated around icons, which can feel narrow for editorial storytelling, and usage rights depend on the asset. Free selections and paid plans are available.

Best for: interface designers who want consistent animated icon families.

3. IconScout

IconScout hosts illustrations, icons, and motion assets across a searchable marketplace. Having several asset types in one place can help a freelancer assemble a consistent visual package for a client. Not every result is free, and marketplace licences are not interchangeable, so inspect the listing before downloading. A free plan with paid upgrades is available.

Best for: freelancers sourcing motion alongside matching static graphics.

4. Icons8

Icons8 offers a broad catalogue of icons and illustrations, including animated material. It is useful when you want to search a familiar visual family and compare static and moving treatments. Free use can come with attribution or other conditions, and format availability varies by asset. The service has free resources alongside paid plans.

Best for: designers seeking a consistent visual style across icon and motion assets.

Marketplaces and design communities

5. Canva

Canva is a general-purpose design platform with animation features and a large library of graphic elements. Beginners can adapt simple motion for social posts or presentations without learning an animation editor first. It is not a specialised Lottie asset catalogue, and downloading or exporting particular formats may depend on plan and asset rights. A free plan with paid upgrades is offered.

Best for: small-business owners creating simple branded animated graphics.

6. Envato Elements

Envato Elements is a subscription marketplace that includes motion graphics and design assets. Its breadth may help a project that needs animation plus fonts, templates, or sound in one workflow. The subscription model is not the same as a free library, and users should verify the current licence and included formats before relying on a file. The subscription may include a trial; check current terms before signing up.

Best for: creators who need several kinds of licensed assets regularly.

7. Dribbble

Dribbble showcases work by designers and can reveal animation styles worth exploring. It is inspiration and community discovery, not a guaranteed download library; contact creators or follow their links for assets and permission. That extra step is a limitation when you need a ready-to-use file quickly. Browsing is free, with paid community features available.

Best for: designers gathering references before commissioning or creating motion.

8. Behance

Behance features portfolios and project case studies, some of which include downloadable motion resources. You can see the context behind an animation and discover who created it, which is valuable when asking about a licence. Assets are not uniformly free or packaged for direct product use. The platform is free to browse; individual creator terms apply.

Best for: teams researching creators and motion concepts with context.

More places to explore

9. Pixabay

Pixabay is a stock media community with illustrations, videos, and other downloadable creative material. It can help when a project needs visual material beyond UI icons, but the collection is not a Lottie-specific workflow. Confirm the format and licence on each result rather than assuming it works as an app animation. Many assets are free under the site's terms.

Best for: creators exploring free visual material for broader content projects.

10. Freepik

Freepik offers stock vectors, templates, and other creative assets, with animation-related content among its broad catalogue. Search can surface useful illustration styles for a campaign or presentation. It is not exclusively a Lottie site, and free downloads may require attribution or have other restrictions. Free and paid access options exist.

Best for: marketers who want motion-adjacent illustration and campaign resources.

11. MotionElements

MotionElements is a marketplace for video and motion assets, including material useful in production workflows. Its catalogue is more oriented to media creators than developers seeking a tiny interface animation. Check whether a listing is actually a Lottie file and review the licence before adding it to an app. Free items and paid purchases are available.

Best for: video makers who also need occasional motion assets for web projects.

12. Rive Community

Rive includes a community space for interactive animations built for its runtime. These assets can respond to input in ways a simple playback file cannot, opening possibilities for buttons and interactive illustrations. They require the Rive workflow and runtime rather than a standard Lottie player, so compatibility matters. Rive provides a free option with paid plans.

Best for: developers exploring interactive motion beyond passive playback.

How to choose the right one

First decide whether you need a looping icon, an explanatory illustration, or an interactive animation; they call for different file formats and players. Preview the asset at the size it will appear, then test loading and playback on a modest mobile connection. Read attribution and commercial-use requirements on the individual asset page. Before inspecting animation data, Stockio's JSON Formatter can make structured text easier to read; also browse animation tools and illustrations. See motion and animation articles for related guidance.

Key takeaways

• A free download is not automatically free of attribution or usage conditions.
• Preview motion at the real display size and keep files purposeful.
• Choose a Lottie library for playback assets and a compatible tool for interactive work.
• Marketplace listings differ: inspect format, licence, and export access item by item.
• Keep a static or reduced-motion experience available where appropriate.