CodePen is where front-end developers experiment, learn and show off, and it's brilliant at that. When a Pen needs to become a site people visit on its own address, with pages, media and a contact form, the trade-offs change. Here's how htmlhost compares as a CodePen alternative for publishing real websites.
Last updated · Facts checked against CodePen's official pricing and documentation. Sources
CodePen: "Pen Deployment is only a PRO feature."
Free Pens are limited to three files with no media uploads; asset hosting is PRO.
CodePen: 5 domains on Starter, 10 on Developer, 25 on Super.
Use CodePen to prototype, learn, share demos and get feedback from its community. Use htmlhost to publish the result as a website: htmlhost Free hosts multi-page sites with media, forms and analytics at their own address, while CodePen's free Pens are public, limited to three files without media, and live deployment and custom domains require PRO (from $8/month).
The steps a typical person follows on each platform, from a finished HTML file to a live page.
Highlighted cells mark the stronger option for publishing and editing HTML sites. Ties are left plain.
| Feature | htmlhost | CodePen |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Hosting and editing websites. | Writing, sharing and discovering front-end code. |
| Free plan | Free: 3 sites, 500 MB of storage, 50 form messages a month, 10 AI edits a day, sites that never expire by default. | Public Pens (open-source licensed), up to 3 files each, 1 MB text files, no media uploads or asset hosting. |
| Paid plan | Pro is a $12/month or $120/year pass with no auto-renewal: unlimited sites, 10 GB, unlimited custom domains, password protection, 5,000 form messages a month and 3,000 AI edits a month. | Starter, Developer and Super PRO, from $8/month. |
| Live website | Every published site is a standalone website at its own address. | PRO Deploy publishes a Pen to a random codepen.app subdomain; undeployed if you downgrade. |
| Custom domains | $5/yr each on Free; unlimited and included on Pro. | PRO: 5 (Starter), 10 (Developer), 25 (Super). |
| Media and assets | 500 MB on Free, 10 GB on Pro; files up to 25 MB / 100 MB. | None on Free. PRO assets: 5 MB files / 2 GB (Starter) to 50 MB / 50 GB (Super). |
| Privacy | Sites are public by link; password protection on Pro. Source isn't published. | Free Pens are public. Private and password-protected Pens are PRO; deployed Pens can't be password-protected. |
| Forms | Forms deliver to a dashboard inbox and email with a built-in spam trap: 50 form messages a month on Free, 5,000 form messages a month on Pro with file attachments, Google Sheets and webhooks. | None built in. |
| Editing | Visual editor, code editor and AI Edit. | Live HTML, CSS and JS panels with preprocessors; CodePen AI on PRO. |
| Community | None: htmlhost is a publishing tool. | A large developer community for sharing and discovering Pens. |
CodePen details as published on its official pages, checked ; plans change, so check the linked sources before you buy. htmlhost figures are read from the plan limits and pricing the app enforces.
CodePen is built for writing and sharing code: live panels, preprocessors, forks, collections and a large community. Pens are public by default and open-source licensed, which is exactly right for demos and learning.
Free Pens are limited to three files of up to 1 MB of text, with no media uploads and no asset hosting. That's plenty for a component demo, but not for a site with images, fonts and several pages.
CodePen 2.0 can deploy a Pen as a live website, but "Pen Deployment is only a PRO feature." Deployed Pens go to a random codepen.app subdomain, can use custom domains (5, 10 or 25 depending on the PRO tier), get 1 TB of bandwidth a month each, and are undeployed if you downgrade to Free. Deployed Pens can't be password-protected.
htmlhost publishes standalone sites on its free plan, with 500 MB of storage, built-in forms and analytics, and a custom domain for $5/yr each. If a Pro pass ends, sites stay online at their htmlhost.co addresses.
A common workflow: prototype in CodePen, then copy the HTML, CSS and JavaScript into htmlhost (paste it as one page or drop the files) and publish. From there, edit visually or with AI, add pages and a contact form, and connect your domain.
With PRO. CodePen 2.0 can deploy a Pen to a codepen.app subdomain and custom domains, but Pen deployment is a PRO-only feature and deployed sites are undeployed if you downgrade. htmlhost hosts websites on its free plan.
No. Free Pens are limited to three files with no media uploads, and asset hosting is a PRO feature. htmlhost Free includes 500 MB of storage for images and media.
Copy the HTML, CSS and JavaScript into one HTML file and paste it on htmlhost.co, or drop the files as a folder or ZIP. Then publish, and edit visually or with AI.
Pens are public by default on the free plan and open-source licensed. Private and password-protected Pens are PRO features.
Every CodePen claim on this page comes from these official pages. Last updated . Spotted something that has changed? Email hey@htmlhost.co and we'll correct it.
A delightful, inexpensive builder for one-page sites. You build inside Carrd's editor, so you can't upload your own HTML, and forms, domains and passwords sit on higher Pro tiers.
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A free, ad-free home for hand-made personal websites with an in-browser HTML editor. Its free plan has no custom domains, limits file types and blocks requests to other servers.
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Free, reliable static hosting straight from a GitHub repository. Brilliant for developers and docs; it needs Git, has no forms, and isn't meant for online businesses or stores.
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Paste code, or drop a file, folder or ZIP. You get a preview first, and nothing is public until you publish.