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CodePen VS A List Apart

Compare CodePen VS A List Apart and see what are their differences

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CodePen logo CodePen

A front end web development playground.

A List Apart logo A List Apart

A List Apart is a fantastic blog that recently released version 5.0 which brought a great new design. A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • A List Apart Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-23

CodePen features and specs

  • Real-time Collaboration
    Developers can collaborate with others in real-time, making it easy to work on projects with teammates or seek help from the community.
  • Immediate Visual Feedback
    CodePen allows you to see the results of your code as you write it, which is highly beneficial for learning and debugging.
  • Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
    CodePen provides a comfortable and feature-rich online IDE environment with syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and more.
  • Community-Driven
    Users can share their work with the CodePen community, receive feedback, and explore a wide range of projects created by others.
  • Extensive Resources
    CodePen offers a wealth of examples and templates for various web development tasks, making it a useful resource for learning and inspiration.
  • Cross-Device Accessibility
    Being an online platform, CodePen can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, making it convenient for developers on the move.

Possible disadvantages of CodePen

  • Limited Offline Functionality
    Since CodePen is primarily an online tool, it requires an internet connection for most of its features to work, limiting its usefulness in offline environments.
  • Performance Constraints
    Complex or resource-intensive projects may not perform as well on CodePen as they would in a full-fledged local development environment.
  • Subscription Costs
    While many features are free, advanced functionalities and additional storage options require a paid subscription, which may not be ideal for all users.
  • Limited Backend Capabilities
    CodePen is primarily designed for front-end development, so it offers limited support for backend technologies, making it less suitable for full-stack or server-side development.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies and libraries can be cumbersome compared to local development environments which have better tools for this purpose, like npm.
  • Security Concerns
    Sharing projects with the public can expose your code and assets to unauthorized use, posing potential intellectual property and security risks.

A List Apart features and specs

  • High-Quality Content
    A List Apart offers in-depth articles and insights on web design, development, and best practices, contributed by experts in the field.
  • Diverse Topics
    The website covers a wide range of topics, including design, coding, user experience, content strategy, and more, catering to different aspects of web development.
  • Community and Reputation
    The site has been around for many years and is highly respected within the web development community, providing a sense of trust and reliability.
  • Thought Leadership
    Many articles on A List Apart challenge conventional thinking and encourage innovative approaches to web design and development.
  • Regular Updates
    The site regularly publishes new content, ensuring that its audience is kept up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in the industry.

Possible disadvantages of A List Apart

  • Niche Audience
    Due to its focus on professional web development and design, it may not appeal to casual readers or those outside the industry.
  • Complexity of Content
    The articles can be quite detailed and technical, potentially overwhelming for beginners or those without a solid understanding of web development concepts.
  • Limited Interactivity
    The site primarily consists of static articles, which might not engage users looking for interactive or multimedia content.
  • Publication Frequency
    While the content is high-quality, the frequency of new articles may not be as high as some users would prefer, leading to less dynamic content updates.
  • Design and Usability
    Some users might find the website’s design and user experience to be somewhat outdated compared to more modern web platforms.

CodePen videos

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

  • Review - Learn to use CodePen from a co-founder of CodePen
  • Review - Using CodePen For Inspiration & Learning

A List Apart videos

Earn Extra Money Writing for A List Apart

More videos:

  • Review - A LIST APART RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN - LEARN MORE BELOW!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CodePen and A List Apart)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
CSS
0 0%
100% 100
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
CSS Tutorials
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare CodePen and A List Apart

CodePen Reviews

Best Forums for Developers to Join in 2025
Codepen is a social network for developers to show off their work, ask and answer questions, and exchange ideas. It's like a Reddit for coding and design, with a large community of talented web developers.
Source: www.notchup.com
Top 10 Developer Communities You Should Explore
Codepen is a social development environment that allows developers to showcase their work and experiment with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a collaborative space. Codepen’s focus on visual and interactive development makes it an excellent community for front-end developers and designers.
Source: www.qodo.ai
8 Best Replit Alternatives & Competitors in 2022 (Free & Paid) - Software Discover
Codepen is a social development environment for front-end designers and developers. Build and deploy a website, show off your work, build test cases to learn.
Best Online Code Editors For Web Developers
Probably the most popular online code editor. CodePen is fast, easy to use, and allows a web developer to write and share HTML/CSS/JS code online.
Source: techarge.in
Top 25 websites for coding challenge and competition [Updated for 2021]
CodePen is a cool online IDE that allows you to write code in your browser and see the result just as you build it. CodePen challenges is a place for leveling up your skills by building things. Each week, new challenges appear for you to tackle, and the best “Pens” get picked.

A List Apart Reviews

We have no reviews of A List Apart yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen seems to be a lot more popular than A List Apart. While we know about 502 links to CodePen, we've tracked only 19 mentions of A List Apart. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CodePen mentions (502)

View more

A List Apart mentions (19)

  • 25 Must-Read Personal Blogs for Computer Programming Enthusiasts
    A List Apart A List Apart is a pioneering blog that focuses on web standards and best practices in web design and development. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • An Event Apart – Farewell
    Wow - it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about this site. I remember … wait this isn’t the same as https://alistapart.com/ I wonder if there is a relation between the two. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Announcing Rust Magazine
    My gold standard for a SWE magazine has always been https://alistapart.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Suggest some advanced books on front end development
    When I was learning front end stuff 20 years ago, it was the wild wild west, but there have been resources like https://alistapart.com/ that are always a good read... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Study: Healthy dev teams are most commonly found in hybrid work environments, followed closely by remote-work companies. In-office orgs rank last.
    Not exactly "indie" maybe but A List Apart generally has some interesting articles and takes on web development and design. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CodePen and A List Apart, you can also consider the following products

JSFiddle - Test your JavaScript, CSS, HTML or CoffeeScript online with JSFiddle code editor.

CSS-Tricks - CSS-Tricks is a website about websites.

CodeSandbox - Online playground for React

Smashingmagazine - Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. Their aim is to inform about the latest trends and techniques in Web development.

GitHub - Originally founded as a project to simplify sharing code, GitHub has grown into an application used by over a million people to store over two million code repositories, making GitHub the largest code host in the world.

Awwwards - Awwards focuses on web design and has an awards system that highlights exceptional design.