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CodePen VS CSS Reference

Compare CodePen VS CSS Reference and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

CodePen logo CodePen

A front end web development playground.

CSS Reference logo CSS Reference

Sleek and comprehensive online reference for CSS
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • CSS Reference Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-01

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.

CSS Reference features and specs

  • Comprehensive Coverage
    CSS Reference provides a detailed and comprehensive guide to CSS properties, including descriptions, examples, and practical use cases, making it a valuable resource for both beginners and experienced developers.
  • Interactive Examples
    The resource includes interactive code examples that allow users to see the effects of CSS properties in real-time, enhancing the learning experience and understanding of CSS application.
  • Visual Focus
    CSS Reference emphasizes visual representation, providing clear and illustrative examples of how CSS properties affect elements, which is beneficial for visual learners.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The website is designed with a clean and intuitive interface, making it easy to navigate and find specific information quickly without being overwhelmed.

Possible disadvantages of CSS Reference

  • Basic Level Content
    CSS Reference may lack depth in advanced topics and techniques, which might not be as beneficial for more experienced developers seeking in-depth knowledge or complex use cases.
  • Limited Flexibility
    The examples provided, while useful, may not cover every possible use case or variation, potentially limiting users who need more comprehensive examples.
  • Update Frequency
    The frequency of updates to the website might not keep pace with the latest CSS developments or practices, potentially leading to outdated information over time.
  • Internet Dependency
    Access to the resource requires an internet connection, which could be a limitation for users needing offline access to reference materials.

CodePen videos

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

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

CSS Reference videos

No CSS Reference videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CodePen and CSS Reference)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
CSS Tutorials
0 0%
100% 100
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
CSS Tools
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 CSS Reference

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.

CSS Reference Reviews

We have no reviews of CSS Reference yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen seems to be a lot more popular than CSS Reference. While we know about 502 links to CodePen, we've tracked only 7 mentions of CSS Reference. 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

CSS Reference mentions (7)

  • 21 Resources to Learn And Practice Your CSS Skills
    CSS Reference provides an easy-to-navigate reference guide for CSS properties. It’s a handy tool for quick lookups and learning. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • A Quality Alternative to Bootstrap - W3.CSS is Smaller, Faster and Easier to Use.
    I disagree, if it comes to CSS refference that's more readable https://cssreference.io/ Also their site is outdated by years sane as their "bootstrap alternative". Source: over 2 years ago
  • How to approach CSS as a backend guy?
    And a few others for your leisure browsing - https://cssreference.io/ - https://learncssgrid.com/ - https://flexboxfroggy.com/ - https://blog.webdevsimplified.com/2021-12/box-model/ - https://blog.webdevsimplified.com/2021-11/flexbox/ - https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/ - https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/complete-guide-grid/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • 📚🏆 Top 20 Web Development Learning Resources: From Beginner to Advanced
    9. htmlreference.​io and cssreference.​io. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Lots of questions…
    Take a look at this site, they have examples for all css properties and settings: https://cssreference.io/. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CodePen and CSS Reference, 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

htmlreference.io - Learn by example with this free web-based guide to HTML.

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.