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Three.js VS CodePen

Compare Three.js VS CodePen and see what are their differences

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Three.js logo Three.js

A JavaScript 3D library which makes WebGL simpler.

CodePen logo CodePen

A front end web development playground.
  • Three.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-05
  • CodePen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Three.js features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Three.js simplifies the complex task of 3D rendering with an intuitive API, making it accessible to developers who may not have deep expertise in 3D graphics.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Three.js is built upon WebGL, ensuring compatibility across modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    The library offers extensive documentation, examples, and an active community, which helps in quickly resolving issues and understanding implementation.
  • Integration with HTML and CSS
    Three.js can be easily integrated with HTML and CSS, allowing for the blending of 2D and 3D elements in web applications.
  • Extensive Features
    It supports a wide range of features including cameras, lights, materials, shaders, and post-processing effects, making it highly versatile for various 3D projects.

Possible disadvantages of Three.js

  • Performance Overhead
    Despite its powerful capabilities, Three.js can have significant performance overhead, especially for complex scenes, which might require optimization.
  • Learning Curve
    While easier than raw WebGL, Three.js still has a learning curve, particularly for those new to 3D graphics, requiring time to become proficient.
  • Limited Built-in Advanced Tools
    Although feature-rich, Three.js lacks some advanced tools out-of-the-box compared to more specialized or industry-standard 3D engines, necessitating custom solutions for certain tasks.
  • Dependency on WebGL
    Three.js relies on WebGL, meaning it cannot be used in environments where WebGL is not supported, which can limit accessibility and compatibility.
  • Frequent Updates
    The library is actively developed, which is generally positive, but frequent updates can mean breaking changes, requiring developers to frequently refactor their code.

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.

Three.js videos

+ Add

Getting Started With Three.js

More videos:

  • Review - Ricardo Cabello (Mr doob) - 5 years of three.js

CodePen videos

+ Add

What Is Codepen?

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Three.js and CodePen)

Three.js

CodePen

Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
Javascript UI Libraries
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
Text Editors
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
Flowcharts
0% 0
Programming
0 0%
Programming
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 Three.js and CodePen

Three.js Reviews

Top 20 Javascript Libraries
Cross-browser JS library and API that allows for the creation of beautiful animations, Three.js relies on WebGL rather than conventional browser-plugins. Through its library utilities, developers can include complex 3D animations on their website without much effort. Three.js include many features like geometry, lights, materials, shaders, effects, scenes, data loaders,...
Source: hackr.io

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.
Source: www.softwarediscover.com
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.
Source: towardsdatascience.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CodePen should be more popular than Three.js. It has been mentiond 503 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.

Three.js mentions (248)

  • React Three Ecosystem
    Note three.js [1] has nothing to do with React out of the box though, this page highlights an atypical way of using three.js through a popular React binding. [1] https://threejs.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 days ago
  • Turn your phone into a wireless Joy-Con with SyncoPath
    The phone in the codepath sample got rendered using Three.js. For fun, I also added some beep sound generated using ZZfx when you tap. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to Build a Portfolio Website with React
    Also, to make your portfolio stand out to recruiters and clients, you can add some creative and interactive animations to it. The following libraries can help you easily do this: Framer Motion, tsParticles, and Three.js. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Rant: state of generative AI in code generation.
    In my experience with AI code generation, in visual projects like UI development or JavaScript based animation (using three.js or p5.js) etc. AI tools work pretty well. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • My son (9 yrs old) used plain JavaScript to make a game, and wants your feedback
    After he's done with v2, might I propose... THE GAMEY GAME 3D ?? https://threejs.org/ I started coding at 9 as well (which was a long time ago now), so I was very happy to play and see this today. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
View more

CodePen mentions (503)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Three.js and CodePen, you can also consider the following products

p5.js - JS library for creating graphic and interactive experiences

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

PixiJS - Fast and flexible WebGL-based HTML5 game and app development library.

CodeSandbox - Online playground for React

Paper.js - Open source vector graphics scripting framework that runs on top of the HTML5 Canvas.

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.

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