What are some techniques for reducing reflows and repaints?

TL;DR

Measure rendering work first. Keep the DOM and affected layout area small, batch related mutations, group layout reads before writes, and schedule visual changes with requestAnimationFrame(). Prefer animating transform and opacity when appropriate. Use will-change only shortly before a known expensive change and remove it afterward; leaving it broadly enabled can waste memory and make performance worse.

Browser rendering work

Different changes enter the rendering pipeline at different stages, so avoiding layout-triggering work can save more than merely reducing paint.

The exact stages depend on the property and browser; measure with performance tools instead of assuming every DOM change causes a full pipeline.

Techniques for reducing reflows and repaints

Minimize DOM manipulations

Frequent changes to the DOM can cause multiple reflows and repaints. To minimize this:

• Use DocumentFragment to batch DOM updates
• Clone nodes, make changes, and then replace the original node

Batch DOM changes

Grouping multiple DOM changes together can reduce the number of reflows and repaints:

• Build a detached subtree and replace or append it once. Use innerHTML only for trusted or correctly sanitized markup; performance is not a reason to create an XSS sink.
• Use requestAnimationFrame to batch updates

Use CSS classes for style changes

Instead of changing styles directly via JavaScript, use CSS classes:

const element = document.createElement('h1');
element.classList.add('text-center');

console.log(element); // Notice that the class has been added.

Keep style and layout scope manageable

Selector cost is usually secondary to the amount of DOM and layout affected by a change. Prefer clear selectors, contain independent regions where appropriate, and profile style recalculation before rewriting selectors solely for speed.

Use requestAnimationFrame for animations

Using requestAnimationFrame ensures that animations are synchronized with the browser's repaint cycle:

function animate() {
  // Animation logic
  requestAnimationFrame(animate);
}
requestAnimationFrame(animate);

Use will-change sparingly

The will-change property can ask the browser to prepare for a specific upcoming change. Apply it shortly before the change and remove it afterward; do not add it permanently to many elements.

.element {
  will-change: transform;
}

Avoid layout thrashing

Reading and writing to the DOM separately can prevent layout thrashing:

// Mock div element
const element = document.createElement('div');

const height = element.offsetHeight; // Read
element.style.height = `${height + 10}px`; // Write

console.log(element);

Further reading

• MDN Web Docs: Reflow
• web.dev: Avoid large, complex layouts and layout thrashing
• CSS-Tricks: Debouncing and Throttling Explained Through Examples

Exercises