The table below is a summary of my research around the features that current JS Playgrounds provide.
Feel free to contribute to this list, either corrections (some playgrounds get updated frequently) or additions.
This list was updated on: 02/10/2015.
| Criteria | JSFiddle | CodePen | JSBin | Plunker | Liveweave | CSSDeck | Dabblet | Kodtest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Efficiency | ||||||||
| Library Quick Load | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Key Bindings | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes, kind of | yes | yes | not really |
| Emmet Support | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| CSS Prefixing Support | yes (js lib integration) | yes | yes (js lib integration) | yes (js lib integration) | yes (js lib integration) | yes | yes | yes (js lib integration) |
| CSS Reset Support | yes | yes | yes (js lib integration) | yes (js lib integration) | no | yes | no | yes (css integration) |
| Beautify / Tidy | yes | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Linting Support | no | Javascript, CSS | HTML, CSS, JS, CoffeeScript | Markdown, HTML, CSS, XML, JS | CSS, JS | JS | not really (w3c validation popup) | no |
| | | | | | | |
2. Live Reload | | | | | | | |
HTML | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | es
CSS | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes
JS | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes
| | | | | | | |
3. Preprocessing Support | | | | | | | |
HTML | no | Markdown, haml, slim, jade | Markdown, jade | Markdown | no | HAML, Jade, Markdown, Slim | no | no
CSS | SCSS | SCSS, Sass, LESS, Stylus, PostCSS | LESS, Myth, Sass, SCSS, Stylus | Jade, Sass, LESS, Stylus | no | LESS, Stylus, SASS, SCSS | no | no
JS | CoffeeScript, Babel, TypeScript | CoffeeScript, Babel, TypeScript, LiveScript | Babel, React, CoffeeScript, Traceur, TypeScript, LiveScript, Clojurescript | Babel, CoffeeScript, Traceur, TypeScript | no | CoffeScript | no | no
| | | | | | | |
4. Flexibility | | | | | | | |
Arrangeable views | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes
OpenSource | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | no
Access to HEAD | actually yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes
Theming | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | yes
Optimized for mobile | no | yes | no | no | not really | no | kind of | kind of
Offline Mode (only self deployment) | no, only local drafts | no, only a questionable GitHub project | yes | yes | no | no | probably, but no documentation | no
| | | | | | | |
5. Snippet Management | | | | | | | |
Private Snippets | kind of (no public repo) | PRO feature | PRO feature | yes | kind of (no public repo) | yes | kind of (no public repo) | kind of (no public repo)
Versioning | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes
Fork Snippets | yes | yes | yes | yes | not really | yes | yes | yes
Multiple Files | no | not really, only Pen in Pen | no | yes | no | no | no | no
| | | | | | | |
6. Connectivity | | | | | | | |
API Available | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | not yet | no
StackOverflow Integration | yes, but SO discourages it | no | no | no | no | no | no | no
Browser Integration | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | yes | no
| | | | | | | |
7. Troubleshooting | | | | | | | |
Debugging Mode | actually no | yes, as RAW output page | kind of (see DOM tree) | yes, as preview page | no | yes, as preview page | yes, as preview page | no
Console View | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no
| | | | | | | |
8. File Import | | | | | | | |
Archives (ZIP) | no | no | no | not yet | no | no | no | no
GitHub (gists) | yes | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | no
| | | | | | | |
9. Project Export | | | | | | | |
Web Embedding | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | no | no
Archive | no | yes | yes (single HTML) | yes | yes | no | no | yes (single HTML)
GitHub | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | yes | no
| | | | | | | |
10. Collaboration | | | | | | | |
Profiles | yes | yes | yes (private) | yes, almost | yes, almost | yes | yes | yes, almost
Portfolio | not really, just personal | Pens, Posts, Collections | no | yes, almost | no | yes | no | no
Comments / Likes | no | yes | no | Stars | no | yes | no | no
Live Collaboration | Edit, Mouse, Chat, Mic | Edit, Cursor, Chat | not yet | Edit | Edit, Mouse, Chat, Mic | not yet | no | no
| | | | | | | |
11. Community | | | | | | | |
Twitter | yes (21k followers) | yes (40k followers) | yes (2.7k followers) | yes (274 followers) | yes (1093 followers) | yes (10.3k followers) | yes (1.3k followers) | yes (161 followers)
GitHub | yes (213 stars, 700+ issues) | yes (13 stars, 82 issues) | yes (2675 stars, 1847 issues) | yes (447 stars, 98 issues) | no | no | yes (661 stars, 216 issues) | no