Claude Code or Codex? Why I use Claude Code
I built this site from start to finish with Claude Code. I read the comparisons with ChatGPT's Codex, and here's why, as a designer, I chose Claude Code.
Zafer YılmazGraphic & Web Designer
I built the new version of this site, the blog page, the admin panel, the bot protection on comments and the visitor stats with Claude Code. And over the last few weeks, the question I've been asked most is: "Why Claude Code and not ChatGPT's Codex?"
My short answer: they're both good tools, but for someone like me, who comes from design and gets the code written for him, Claude Code is the better work partner. GPT agreeing with you on everything, and the answers it gives when it's talking nonsense, defences like "you're right, I didn't think of that" or "you're right, I shouldn't have done it that way", drive you crazy after a while. Claude, on the other hand, corrects my mistakes and answers with things like "no, that's not how it works, it should be like this", and that's when I realised Claude was the right choice. To go into more detail,
What do they both do?
They're both "coding agents". You write what you want in plain language, and they read the files, write the code, test it and tell you the result. Claude Code is developed by Anthropic, Codex by OpenAI. Codex comes included with a ChatGPT subscription.
The difference is in how they work. In the comparisons I've read, this difference always gets summed up in the same sentence: with Codex you hand over the job and move on to something else, with Claude Code you work side by side. One is like an employee you hand work to, the other like a colleague you think things through with.
Why Claude Code?
It explains what it's doing. Before a change it tells you clearly what it's going to do, and afterwards what it did. For someone who doesn't know code, this is really important. When something changes on my site, I know what changed and why.
It asks before risky steps. For things that are hard to undo, like uploading files to the live site or deleting something, it takes a backup first or asks for confirmation. Every time it updated this site, it left a backup folder on the server.
It understands design. When I tell it "the buttons shouldn't move, only their colour should change on hover" or "the accent colour should always be #0088FF", it remembers that in every job after. The comparisons also say Claude Code stands out especially in interface (frontend) work and tasks that need planning.
Code quality. The comparisons I've read report that in blind tests, where developers rated code without knowing which tool it came from, Claude Code was preferred 67% of the time and Codex 25%. An analysis of more than 500 Reddit comments comes to a similar conclusion. These aren't exact measurements, but they match my experience.
Where Codex is strong
I don't want to be unfair. Codex has its strengths too:
- Price. Codex comes included with the $20 ChatGPT Plus subscription. People who use Claude Code heavily usually end up having to move to a higher plan.
- Background work. Having Codex do a task in the cloud and picking up the result later is really convenient. It's fast on clearly defined, repetitive jobs.
- Ahead in some tests. It's also reported that Codex scores higher in some benchmark tests measured in the terminal.
Which one is for whom?
If you're a developer who knows exactly what you want and prefers to describe the job and leave it, Codex may be enough for you, and it's cheaper too.
If, like me, you figure out what the job will be while you're working on it, and you want to understand every step and check the result with a designer's eye, Claude Code is better. Every part of this site started with a conversation. I asked "Should we add covers to the blog posts?", it explained the options, cropped and uploaded the images once they came in, and then checked that everything worked.
So my answer is clear: as a designer, I choose Claude Code.
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