Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CodePen VS CodeTogether

Compare CodePen VS CodeTogether and see what are their differences

CodePen logo CodePen

A front end web development playground.

CodeTogether logo CodeTogether

Live share IDEs and coding sessions. See changes in real time.
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
Not present

CodeTogether is the perfect blend of functionality and simplicity, designed by a team of remote developers that rely on collaborative development. Whether you are on an Agile team that uses pair programming as part of your regular software development flow or you just like to live share your code in the occasional troubleshooting session, CodeTogether is the best tool for pair programming, mob programming, code review, and more! If youโ€™ve been using screen sharing or an online code editor for collaborative coding, youโ€™ll be amazed at the difference! Seeing is believingโ€”watch our linked videos to see CodeTogether in action.

CodePen

Website
codepen.io
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

CodeTogether

$ Details
paid Free Trial $10.0 / Monthly (Starter Plan, up to 25 users)
Platforms
Windows Mac OSX Linux
Release Date
2020 May

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.

CodeTogether features and specs

  • End-to-End Encryption
  • On-Premises
    Available
  • Cross-platform support
    Across multiple IDEs and browsers, no vendor lock-in
  • Host-provided intelligence
    Advanced content assist, validation, navigation, etc.
  • Simultaneous Coding
    Code in any group (even in the same file at the same time) or on your own
  • Shared servers, terminals & consoles
    Hosts can share servers for remote access, and terminals that optionally allow guests to execute commands
  • Run Tests & Launches
    Guests can remotely run tests and analyze results. They can also execute run configurations from the host IDE.
  • Audio/Video & Screen Sharing
    Option to invite guests that aren't part of the coding session

Analysis of CodePen

Overall verdict

  • Yes, CodePen is considered a good platform for web developers, both beginners and experienced. It offers a wide array of features that facilitate creative development and community engagement.

Why this product is good

  • CodePen is a popular online code editor and community platform for front-end developers to experiment with creating and sharing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets. It provides an easy-to-use interface and real-time previews, making it a valuable tool for learning, prototyping, and sharing web development work. It also fosters a community where developers can showcase their projects, receive feedback, and learn from each other.

Recommended for

  • Front-end developers who want to quickly prototype and test web designs.
  • Beginners in web development looking to learn and receive feedback from the community.
  • Educators and students interested in a platform to showcase projects and collaborate.
  • Developers who want to explore creative coding and share their work with a community.

CodePen videos

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

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

CodeTogether videos

CodeTogether: The Complete Overview to Live Sharing your IDE

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CodePen and CodeTogether)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Code Collaboration
0 0%
100% 100
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
Programming Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using CodePen and CodeTogether. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

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. Codepenโ€™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 โ€œPensโ€ get picked.

CodeTogether Reviews

We have no reviews of CodeTogether yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen seems to be a lot more popular than CodeTogether. While we know about 512 links to CodePen, we've tracked only 4 mentions of CodeTogether. 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 (512)

  • Ambient Website Background Clouds
    Thank you, heartfelt... For sharing an artwork, a miracle! Just in case, have you considered publishing the work at platforms as CodePen, where genius Artists/People express their art, too, as you?: // https://codepen.io/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Haunted Loop: A Pure-CSS Halloween Scene
    Embed on DEV: If you prefer CodePen embed, create a Pen with that HTML and add to the post as: {% codepen https://codepen.io//pen/ %}. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Top 10 Free Tools Every Web Developer Should Know
    CodePen is where creativity meets frontend code. You can write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and see results instantly in the browser. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • What is the Most Effective AI Tool for App Development Today?
    For those preferring agent-based approaches, Replit Agent shines. Khris Steven, Founder of KhrisDigital Marketing, notes, "You can simply describe what you want your app to do in plain English, and Replit Agent will generate the code and deploy it." This natural language interface fosters collaboration, turning ideas into deployable apps in minutes. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • How I Built a Responsive Dark Mode Toggle Using Vibe Coding?
    After wrapping everything up, I hosted the final toggle on CodePen so others could test it out and learn from the approach. What started as a simple idea became a complete, responsive, and accessible component, thanks to a process that blended creativity with automation. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

CodeTogether mentions (4)

  • Hey! Are there any coding platforms where you can share a simple link with other people to use an app? I keep wanting to find something other than code.org (which makes sharing pretty easy and accessible to anyone)
    Looking for collaboration and advanced features? Most decent ones cost money ... Start with replit.com, also look at codeanywhere.com, and also codetogether.com (requires download, free+paid plans). Source: over 4 years ago
  • QUESTION: How to manage pair programming?
    Are you using the right tools? Screen sharing isn't great for longer sessions, and you need a code focused tool like Live Share, or one we make - CodeTogether, especially if you need to work across IDEs. Source: about 5 years ago
  • dual keyboard / mouse input?
    Just addressing the pair programming aspect of this - if you were doing this remotely, you could use something like codetogether.com Each of you would have your own machines and screens, but be looking at the same piece of code (if you want) or investigate / code in different areas of the project too. Source: over 5 years ago
  • PhpStorm 2021.1 Released: Preview for PHP and HTML Files, 20+ New Inspections, Improvements in All Subsystems, and Pair Programming via Code With Me
    If any of you are looking for a pair/mob programming solution that works across IDEs, do try codetogether.com. Host in IntelliJ, join from VS Code or Eclipse if you want. We just added the support for writeable shared terminals. Video covering all the features is here: https://youtu.be/OgCWc3hTBc0. Source: over 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CodePen and CodeTogether, you can also consider the following products

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

CodeShare.io - Realtime code sharing for developers

CodeSandbox - Online playground for React

Visual Studio Live Share - Real-time collaborative 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.

Teletype for Atom - Collaborate in real time in Atom