A pidgin and a creole are closely related, but the key difference lies in how they are used by speakers. A pidgin is a simplified language that develops for communication between people who do not share a common language, and it does not have native speakers. In contrast, a creole develops from a pidgin when it becomes the first language of a community. Therefore, the main characteristic that distinguishes a creole from a pidgin is that a creole has native speakers, while a pidgin does not.