10 Best Custom Cursors Made With jQuery & Vanilla JavaScript

Cursors are important parts of any graphical interface (GUI) and play a critical role in the user experience (UX). As the cursor is the most present element on the screen at any given time, making sure it is appealing and functional is key to creating an intuitive interface.

In this post I will show you some creative and cool mouse cursors made using JavaScript. They can be used to replace the default OS mouse cursor for its cool look. The idea was born out of curiosity about how a particular effect was achieved and ended up creating cool looking replacement cursors with some cool custom effects.

Originally Published May 25 2022, updated Jan 07 2026

Table of contents:

• jQuery Custom Cursor Plugins
• Vanilla JS Cursor Libraries

Best jQuery Custom Cursor Plugins

Fancy Cursor Animations In jQuery & GSAP - Cursor & Magnetic

A custom cursor plugin that helps you create fancy and customizable cursors with custom hover state when hovering over elements.

[Demo] [Download]

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Pretty Cool Animated Cursor With jQuery - serialCursor

A jQuery plugin for creating a mouse pointer effect with a perpetual animation. The whole design of the cursor is based on a rotating circle which never stops. The movement will be performed by moving the mouse.

[Demo] [Download]

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Fancy Gooey Cursor With jQuery, CSS3 And SVG Filters

This is a fancy, animated, interactive gooey mouse cursor built with JavaScript(jQuery), CSS/CSS3 and SVG filters.

[Demo] [Download]

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Custom Circle Cursor With jQuery And CSS3

An animated, interactive customizable circle (dot) cursor for webpage, built using jQuery script and CSS/CSS3.

[Demo] [Download]

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Interactive Cursor Effects In jQuery And GSAP

A set of pretty cool custom cursors and interactive cursor effects implemented in jQuery and GSAP.

[Demo] [Download]

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Best Vanilla JS Custom Cursor Libraries

Cat Follow Cursor Effect In JavaScript – oneko.js

A JS library that displays a kitten on your screen, which runs towards your cursor when you stop moving the mouse.

[Demo] [Download]

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Creative Custom Cursor Library – MagicMouse.js

A custom cursor library to create a cool, interactive cursor with a circle that follows the mouse pointer.

[Demo] [Download]

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90’s Cursor Move Effects In Pure JavaScript

This package provides eight 90’s retro cursor move effects implemented in pure JavaScript.

[Demo] [Download]

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Interactive Circle Cursor In JavaScript – Pointer.js

A really simple JavaScript library that creates an interactive, customizable, circular cursor to replace the native mouse pointer.

[Demo] [Download]

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Custom Cursor Library with Animated Particle Effects – Cursorly.js

A JavaScript custom cursor library that allows you to create 40+ various cursors with animated trails, emojis, and particle effects.

Features:

• 40+ built-in cursor icons: Pre-designed cursor shapes ready to use without creating custom assets.
• 15+ cursor effects: Includes trails, sparkles, fireworks, neon glow, snowfall, and more particle animations.
• Emoji particle support: Use any emoji as a particle shape, with built-in effects like hearts, stars, and fire.
• Custom effect creation: Define your own effects with full control over color, density, size, and decay rates.
• Dynamic control: Enable, disable, or switch effects and cursors at runtime without reinitialization.
• Canvas-based rendering: High-performance particle system that doesn’t interfere with page interactions.

[Demo] [Download]

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Conclusion:

A cursor is a necessary component when it comes to creating a unique and effective design layout. Developers are in a quest to create scripts which will allow the creation of more attractive and attractive cursors. 

By adding this functionality, you can change the appearance of your web applications much more quickly, easily, and conveniently. It is difficult to choose the most popular custom cursor libraries because they have different features that make each of them unique and attractive. 

In this list, I provide ten JavaScript libraries that will help you create a custom cursor in your own website. Each of these libraries is easy to use, lightweight and has its own usage and limitations. You can learn more about the library with their documentation pages and implement it in your website quickly.

More Resources

Looking for more jQuery plugins or JavaScript/CSS libraries to create custom cursors on the web & mobile? See jQuery Cursor and JavaScript Cursor sections for more details.

See Also:

• 10 Best Hover Effect Libraries In JavaScript & CSS