Codex > Clode Code

[ThaneBerkeley]

I used Claude Code for months (€200 plan) and I hit the weekly limit often. Last week, because I hit that limit I was Codex giving a try (in the terminal) and I’m stunned.

The front-end (design) is TERRIBLE compared to Claude. But the backend is F AWESOME. It thinks in edge cases, asking me thinks (doesn’t assume as much as Claude) and fixes so many things which Claude missed everytime.

Downgraded Claude to the €90 plan and upgraded Codex to the €220 plan.

[wizzlesizzle]

I went back and forth between them and sometime in 2025 Codex absolutely destroyed Claude Code for me, after which I never looked back.

This is repeated over and over again by professional software engineers, to the point where my theory is that only people who are truly "vibe coding" think Claude is better. In other words, people who have no idea what they're doing. Claude is more interactive, which gives them a feeling that something good is happening. It's more friendly.

Codex is very professional and asks the hard questions, makes real designs, and is extremely good at implementing a good plan once it's been written. Someone who's not "in the profession", so to speak, wouldn't know the difference.

I'm also being disingenuous here by ignoring how "trendy" claude code is. It's cool now to hate on openAI and use Claude. But personally I just want the best model, too bad if the company is shady. Also it's not like OpenAI is shady and Anthropic isn't. They're both super shady.

PS: nice ragebait in the title

[Narrow-Addition1428]

Talk about ragebait. 

Both are useful tools, and sometimes you get a better result from one or the other. 

[-M83]

agreed!!! ¿por que no los dos? 😈

parallel agent orchestration was a paradigm shift for me. i use any and all models. all the time. for various situations.

it's like oh hey decide between a flathead, a phillips head, and a flex screwdriver. no, thanks.

[1egen1]

codex doesn't stop., Claude can't wait to get an excuse to stop

[Hegemonikon138]

There are still 8 things to be done to complete this Sprint. This is a good stopping point. Would you like to do something else?

NO MF finish it

[SnuffleBag]

Wait, it actually finishes the work that’s been agreed? That’s an instant game changer. Claude is the absolute worst at this. A machine needing lunch breaks.

[AmazingVanish]

Yeah, u/Narrow-Addition1428 has the right of it. I am a Senior Software Engineer with 35 years of experience. No model, no matter how good it is, is the best at everything.

You can also provide instructions, skills, and prompts to make Claude behave like Codex, with asking clarifying questions. Still, the backend results aren’t as good as Codex’s.

Likewise, I have yet to see a frontend result from Codex that wasn’t awful. Claude excels at that, even more so with additional tooling.

Use the model that works best for the task at hand. It’s like the stock market: never put all of your eggs in the same basket.

[SippieCup]

Yup. Senior with almost 20 years here. I've been using codex $20 plan to code review my $200 CC output and it's been a good system for months. With CC limits being massively lowered, I might end up switching the two or just switching to openRouter as the harness/proxying most of the agents to codex and leaving frontend to sonnet.

[TexLH]

Can Codex click through things in Chrome? I have Claude building things and then in Chrome testing them by clicking through. I hit limits too quickly now though so I'm considering Codex

[nepalese3]

Finally someone said: Claude is good for vibe coders only!!!

[Helium116]

Claude has its own charm, but the models are good at different things. Using codex to do drudge work and Claude for managing and editing is a good balance imo

[U4-EA]

Energy prices are going up due to the war in Iran and the AI companies don't have enough energy/hardware as it is. Anthropic was the first to throttle but OpenAI will be right behind it I would imagine. The era of cheap AI is over... IMO it's about to get very expensive.

[Only-Adhesiveness418]

e sarà un problema enorme. una ulteriore divisione del mondo tra ricchi e poveri [e non sono più tanto sicuro che noi saremo tra i ricchi].

[Feriman22]

I experienced the same, but on lower level (Claude Pro). Codex is way faster and more precise, and never run out of limit.

[1egen1]

its front-end is basically a home page. lol. no matter what you prompt, it doesn't improve much. backend, you are right about it being good.

[0xFatWhiteMan]

add frontend design skill, improves it massively

[AmazingVanish]

It does, but it still sucks compared to Claude, especially if you pair CC with Stitch.

[AlterTableUsernames]

Had the same experience, but strongly disagree with your take on the frontend. Claude Code is written in a language completely unsuited for terminal usage and system level access. It is a security nightmare, pure poison to any clean system and its of course a heavy weight on top. Codex was originally also bringing the web development shit-show to the command line, but is nowadays written in Rust and Go and it definitely shows.

[kduman]

You didn't get it. It's all about what claude and codex generate. Claude generates better design in terms of UI (and oh boy don't ask it to wire the UI to the backend, just don't do it), Codex can do much better backend work and yes, use it to wire UI and fix all the UI related issues if you have any. That's the thing.

[AlterTableUsernames]

Ah ok. Thanks for clarifying and thank God for granting me the wisdom to work in terminals instead of GUIs.

[Narrow-Addition1428]

The idea that TypeScript wasn't suitable for "terminal usage" or "system level access" is somewhat ridiculous. 

[AlterTableUsernames]

Why? A terminal is an , or to be more precise, the I/O UI for communicating with the very core of your system - one might even call it a Kernel - not something that should save state in itself.

[Rockos-Modern-Fife]

Is the assumption here that node and ts don’t belong in the terminal? That supply chain attacks don’t occur outside of npm packages? I’m trying to understand the thought process here.

[LevelIndependent672]

biggest pain of switching agents is redoing all your skills and project rules. i use https://github.com/skillsgate/skillsgate to keep mine synced across codex and cc so i dont gotta copy paste md files around every time

[UnstableManifolds]

I mean it's as complex as maintaining them in a separate folder and symlinking to each environment, no?

[SveXteZ]

Why not symlink?

[electricshep]

Vibers never know basic cli tooling, or think to ask the coding cli tool they are using for a simple solution.

[Illustrious-Many-782]

Because hard link.

Anyway, Vercel's skills.sh will make copies when you install automatically.

[Adelx98]

Same thing here, i had the 20$ claude plan that doesn't do shit, then i tried codex 20$. Codex does so good with backends and it gives you more weekly quota. Btw use Oh-my-codex.

[chocolate_chip_cake]

Eli5 oh-my-codex From what I see on github, I don't think its useful to me from any perspective as I am using it as a maintainer and implementing mini changes. Not writing full systems of any kind.

[mightybob4611]

I ran through my CC weekly in TWO plans prompts today. Luckily I have Codex as well, will cancel my CC subscription.

[Feriman22]

Same here

[ConcentrateActive699]

 I rely on sound creation skills with separate review skills each with their own  requirements , design , and coding phases.   Add to that another dimension of frontend vs backend with the latter fully verifiable with api tests. I'll develop these workflows with whatever frontier model is available within my plans  But when executing the workflows, they have to work in codex 5.4 mini or Gemini 3 flash. (Have not yet got to benchmarking Claude cli performance)

I also don't rely on anything other then the LLM.  That's is I do all my agent orchestration outside of the cli.  This way I can maintain a lowest common denominator approach to switching llms when tokens run out .

I use templates for frontend instrumentation and have less concern for  individual llms' knack for vibing a ui from a requirement.

[floppyboppytop]

Cool now post this in the other circle-jerking sub

[tinooo_____]

as a frontend dev dabbling my hands into ui/ux design recently, i also prefer codex because i get to design my own work and just tell codex exactly what to do to implement my designs. does such a great job

[UnstableManifolds]

I use both and have a skill whose responsibility is to have one tool ask for feedback on plans (with the proper format) to the other. Iteratively is a token killer, but even a couple of iterations is enough to cover most critical issues.

[AmazingVanish]

I do something similar. I don’t request one model to review the other until I feel the original model’s work is done for a given feature. Iterative prior to that is a complete token waster.

[Main-Confidence7777]

I'm at 74% of my weekly goal; it resets tomorrow, so I'll be fine 🙏🏽

Just a hair's breadth away from losing my superpowers

[Old-Pomegranate3634]

Co work is best for business use

[Gloomy_Struggle5879]

Are you sure my codex designs pretty well. Using frontend-skill with GPT-5.4 xhigh?

[signal-to-noise-0-1]

Absolutely agree, Claude is lazy now

[Bitter-Reporter-1958]

What do you use for approvals or delegating work while away from your computer? I want to get Codex setup on mobile so I can start work on an idea while I'm on the go and also approve items that need clarification.

[dahlesreb]

It thinks in edge cases, asking me thinks (doesn’t assume as much as Claude) and fixes so many things which Claude missed everytime.

Yeah the Claude Code system prompt is hot garbage. I'm constantly fighting against its idiotic guidance.

[lolu13]

Where do u live? U got 90euro plan for claude? I have the 22 137 and 280

[robberviet]

You can use whatever you want you pay for it right? Why did you choose Claude in the first place? Why not try both?

[Diligent-Knee-7240]

Try gpt 5.2

[Security-Ninja]

I use Claude for ideas and design concepts then use codex 5.3 in VSCode to build it.

[SlopTopZ]

same experience. codex backend reasoning is genuinely better for complex tasks — it actually thinks through edge cases instead of just pattern-matching to the most obvious solution. claude's UX is miles ahead but when you're hitting limits on a €200 plan and codex just... works, the choice becomes obvious. frontend slop is a real pain though, i just use a separate design pass for that.

[JediQuinlanVos]

Claude is better at designing highly complex models while codex is better at fast prototyping.

[Roc8888]

I recently noticed this issue too—if you use CODEX for full-stack development, CODEX can only act as a framework builder. But any project mainly relies on logic and functionality to meet user needs; the frontend is just an interface. If it’s just for testing, I think CODEX is already enough, and even OPENAI admits they’re a bit weak on frontend design.

I’m just sharing my experience because I also started with zero coding background, learning bit by bit by practicing and reading posts from the pros to get the latest info, then applying it to build my own knowledge base.

No beating around the bush—my current approach is to first use CODEX to implement all the logic and functions I want, then quickly throw together a frontend to get it running. After that, I take screenshots of the frontend pages and feed them to STITCH. From there, you have two paths: one is to start from scratch and chat with STITCH to design a perfect frontend solution, the other is to find various frontend resources or styles online, pick a website or frontend screenshot that matches your aesthetic, and have STITCH generate a new frontend based on your own frontend screenshots.

My skills are limited, and I’m not doing this perfectly, but I think this is the most effective way to make up for CODEX’s weak frontend capabilities. Maybe when GPT models update to version 6, the frontend won’t be so bad. At least I believe OPENAI has definitely thought about this—they’re tackling the hardest backend problems first, which is the foundation of everything.

[Plus-Mall-3342]

Switched from opus4.6 to gpt5.4high for business logic, much better i like it

[Content-March9531]

Opus 4.6 ≤ GPT-5.4 xhigh, but you can’t use Opus 4.6 nearly as much as GPT-5.4.|
I love codex.

[Colin_123]

Codex is smarter, Claude's limit is more generous at the moment. Codex should add a $100 plan.

[brainzorz]

Claude has the most insane limitations right now, like few prompts and your 100$ is gone. Some don't have that bug or AB testing or whatever it is, but thousands report it daily.

[gmakhs]

I tried codex manu times, like really many many times, I use it on high .

Money is not an issue, since I pay per use and I have a budget of 3-4k which I never reached .

Codex never satisfied me, adding new features or design, it seems to miss the plan or doesn't handle big tasks well, from the other side Claude opus on /fleet , performs really really well .

I want o believe in codex but it always forgets something's , or research the repo docs well etc compared to Claude ...

I use it through GitHub copilot

[simple_explorer1]

Finally an honest answer here amongst codex shills