Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CodePen VS JSFiddle

Compare CodePen VS JSFiddle and see what are their differences

CodePen logo CodePen

A front end web development playground.

JSFiddle logo JSFiddle

Test your JavaScript, CSS, HTML or CoffeeScript online with JSFiddle code editor.
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • JSFiddle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-11

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.

JSFiddle features and specs

  • Easy Sharing and Collaboration
    JSFiddle allows users to share and collaborate on code snippets effortlessly by generating unique URLs for each project.
  • Real-Time Editing
    Changes made to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are displayed in real-time, providing instant feedback and streamlining the development process.
  • Supports Multiple Frameworks
    JSFiddle supports various JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as jQuery, Vue.js, and React, allowing developers to experiment with different technologies.
  • Embed Feature
    Users can embed their fiddles directly into websites or blogs, enabling easy demonstration of code and concepts.
  • Version Control
    JSFiddle offers version control, allowing users to save different versions of their code and revert to previous versions if needed.

Possible disadvantages of JSFiddle

  • Limited Backend Support
    JSFiddle is primarily focused on frontend development and does not provide robust backend development capabilities.
  • Performance Issues
    With complex or resource-intensive projects, JSFiddle can experience performance lag, impacting the user experience.
  • Basic IDE Features
    Compared to full-fledged Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), JSFiddle lacks advanced features such as code linting, debugging tools, and extensive plugins.
  • File Management
    JSFiddle does not offer comprehensive file management, making it challenging to work on larger projects with multiple files.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies can be cumbersome, as JSFiddle does not provide built-in tools to handle package management seamlessly.

CodePen videos

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

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

JSFiddle videos

Dashboard JSFiddle Online JavaScript Editor jQuery, Angular, Backbone, Underscore, Knockout, Y

More videos:

  • Review - 1.3 Using JSFiddle to Create a Simple Web Page

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CodePen and JSFiddle)
Text Editors
68 68%
32% 32
Programming
63 63%
37% 37
Software Development
100 100%
0% 0
Programming Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using CodePen and JSFiddle. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

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.

JSFiddle Reviews

8 Best Replit Alternatives & Competitors in 2022 (Free & Paid) - Software Discover
Test your javascript, CSS, HTML or coffeescript online with jsfiddle code editor. Jsfiddle – code playground.
12 Best Online IDE and Code Editors to Develop Web Applications
JSFiddle cannot be used to host code on your server. The code has to be on JSFiddle and is public all the time.
Source: geekflare.com
6 Coding Playgrounds For Web Developers
What is missing from JSFiddle is live previews. You have to basically refresh the page by clicking on the play button. And compared to other playgrounds, JSFiddle is probably the slowest. Another slightly frustrating quirk of JSFiddle is its run button, sometimes clicking on it doesn’t work, so you’ll have to click a couple more times before it actually runs the code (and...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen should be more popular than JSFiddle. It has been mentiond 502 times since March 2021. 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

JSFiddle mentions (201)

  • Imagine telling 2010 devs that in 2025, collapsing a div would require $8M
    > This specific example, https://jsfiddle.net, is not a monopoly and has many suitable replacements (e.g. https://livecodes.io/, https://liveweave.com). The other two don't even have sidebars... They are suitable replacements in the same way that crickets are a suitable replacement for beef – It'll get the job done. But often the customer wants more, like the whole experience, and jsfiddle does have a... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • HTML Basics: A Beginner's Guide
    Open a code editor (or an online editor like CodePen or JSFiddle) and try this:. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Embedding JSFiddle in dev.to Articles
    Save your work to get a unique URL like https://jsfiddle.net/yourusername/yourfiddleID/. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    JSFiddle: Customize the environment to test your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Level Up Your Interview Game with Practice Problems
    But we got this, jumping into https://jsfiddle.net/ instantly and writing:. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

CodeSandbox - Online playground for React

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.

Pastebin.com - Pastebin.com is a website where you can store text for a certain period of time.

replit - Code, create, andlearn together. Use our free, collaborative, in-browser IDE to code in 50+ languages — without spending a second on setup.

JS Bin - Sample of the bin:

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft