Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CodePen VS Drift

Compare CodePen VS Drift 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.

Drift logo Drift

A messaging app that helps you grow your business.
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Drift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

Drift

Website
drift.com
Release Date
2015 January
Startup details
Country
United States
City
Boston
Founder(s)
David Cancel
Employees
250 - 499

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.

Drift features and specs

  • Real-time Customer Engagement
    Drift allows you to engage with website visitors in real-time through live chat, helping to convert leads faster and improving customer service.
  • AI-Powered Chatbots
    Drift provides AI-powered chatbots that can handle basic customer inquiries and route them to the appropriate representative, saving time and resources.
  • Advanced Analytics
    Drift offers comprehensive analytics tools to track chat performance, customer behavior, and conversion rates, which helps businesses make informed decisions.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Drift integrates well with popular CRM systems, marketing tools, and other third-party applications, enhancing overall workflow and data synchronization.
  • Customizable Chat Widgets
    Drift provides customizable chat widgets that can be tailored to match the branding and specific needs of your website, offering a cohesive user experience.

Possible disadvantages of Drift

  • Cost
    Drift can be relatively expensive compared to other live chat solutions, making it less accessible for small businesses or startups with limited budgets.
  • Complexity
    The platform has a steep learning curve, especially for those who are not tech-savvy, which can make the initial setup and usage challenging.
  • Limited Features in Free Plan
    The free version of Drift offers limited features, which may not meet the needs of businesses looking for more advanced functionalities.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users have reported occasional performance issues, such as lagging or downtime, which can disrupt customer engagement efforts.
  • Over-Reliance on Automation
    While AI-powered chatbots are a significant advantage, an over-reliance on them can sometimes lead to a lack of personal touch, potentially alienating customers.

CodePen videos

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

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

Drift videos

Drift Review | Adam LZ's 240sx

More videos:

  • Review - THE BEST CAR I'VE EVER DRIFTED! 489Whp C6 Corvette Drift Review
  • Review - YouTubers Drift Crashes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CodePen and Drift)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Customer Support
0 0%
100% 100
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
CRM
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using CodePen and Drift. 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 Drift

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.

Drift Reviews

Top 14 AI Lead Generation Software & Tools: A Detailed Comparison
CIENCE offers a complete lead generation solution, combining human expertise with AI-driven tools like MemoryAI for multi-threaded outreach—something tools like Instantly.ai or Copilot.ai lack. Unlike Seamless.ai, which focuses on contact discovery, or Drift, limited to conversational AI, CIENCE covers the full process, from outreach to appointment setting.
Source: www.cience.com
10 best Manychat alternatives in 2024 (free & paid)
Drift is a platform for conversational marketing, sales, and service. You can use it to connect with your website visitors, answer their questions and get insight into their preferences, collaborate with teammates to sell faster, and more.
Source: chatfuel.com
12 Best Free Chrome Screen Recorder with audio 2022
Drift is also a noteworthy screen recorder for Google Chrome, with which you can easily record videos, screens, and GIFs. It also allows you to record voice and mouse movements from any window.
The 36 Best Marketing Automation Tools to Use in 2020
Drift is a conversational marketing and sales platform that helps you connect with the leads that are ready to buy. Drift is the first company to leverage the power of live chat and automated chatbots for sales purposes. Since their launch in 2014, they’ve established themselves as the best customer messaging platform to help you book more sales meetings, shorten your sales...
Source: encharge.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen seems to be a lot more popular than Drift. While we know about 503 links to CodePen, we've tracked only 1 mention of Drift. 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 (503)

View more

Drift mentions (1)

  • Why is google chrome bypassing my firewall?
    I have a ZYXEL C3000Z modem/router and setup the "Website Blocking" for drift.com. When I use IE, Edge, Firefox, all have page block site from the router which is what I want. Source: almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Intercom - Intercom is a customer relationship management and messaging tool for web businesses. Build relationships with users to create loyal customers.

CodeSandbox - Online playground for React

Zendesk - Zendesk is a beautiful, lightweight help-desk solution.

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.

Freshdesk - Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support software that lets you support customers through traditional channels like phone and email, social channels like Facebook and Twitter, and your own branded community