Fansly

One might never have heard of Fansly at all had it not been for the actions of its main competitor. This is more than ironic, but also more than funny: Remember how in August, OnlyFans suddenly announced that it would ban adult content within a few months. They quickly retracted that announcement after that, but not before hurting their own brand, and even after assuring DIY models, InstaCelebs and Camholds that they were safe on the platform, the exodus of creators who think OnlyFans is crap continues. Where do you think all the fed up girls from OnlyFans have gone.

If you don't believe me, just look at the traffic charts. Until a few months ago, Fansly.com was just a tiny corner of the Internet, an abandoned island that could only dream of becoming the next big porn platform on social media. Until OnlyFans made a silly announcement, after which the number of visitors to Fansly jumped from 2 million to 25 million a month. You can call this site a copycat or an alternative to OnlyFans, which would be a fair assessment, but that's what really sets it apart from the original. But what sets it apart from the original. I figured the best way to find out is to put lotion on it and wiggle my penis, so let's hope I don't get kicked out of Starbucks before I write my review.

Looks like OF to me.

Like the sterile landing pages you find on OnlyFans, Fansly gives you nothing to lure you in. It looks pretty darn professional; stock photos of beautiful people don't really scream sex. It is, however, tastefully lined with text that talks about "interacting with your fans" and "selling content to your audience," and most modern pervs will immediately recognize it as a DIY media platform setup, OnlyFansly style. On the other hand, a grandmother who stumbles upon the site might find it the perfect place to find and sell apple pie recipes and craft photos.

The look is so clean that, unlike other porn sites, grannies can pass by without being offended; on Fansly, you have to first register and log in before you can see anything. After the 10-second registration process, however, it becomes even more obvious what the site is about.

After logging in, the members section is the familiar content feed you've seen on almost all social media and social porn sites. But for the first time, since you're new and don't follow anyone, it offers a few suggestions on the side of the screen. It's that little thumbnail shot with her butt facing the camera and the thin black strap-on hiding almost nothing. She is the biggest star of this new amateur genre and recently became an Internet sensation after being banned from almost all online platforms.

I quickly filled my feed with sexy recommendations, fearing that second-rate wannabes, washed up expletives and complete underdogs would sit on Fansly.com, which has only recently gone public. Instead, I found a nice mix of established Internet gals and many homegrown starlets. Sure, there are guys and girls on the platform, but looking at the recommendations I gave to brand new users, it's safe to say that most of the creators are Instamodel, cosplay chick and webcam porn star found on similar sites.

How to find the good stuff.

One of my constant complaints about OnlyFans is that there is no good way to browse a selection. Unfortunately, Fansly is similar in this respect in many ways. You can type in the name or model's name if you know it, but you can't view a list of girls who post content that matches your favorite fetish. Of course, both sites have to invest in the infrastructure to do this, but once implemented, it seems like an easy way to make money. In other words, those who first deploy something like this will have a strong advantage over their competitors.

Until then, however, you will have to wait for the models you follow elsewhere to provide a link to Fansly.com. Your only option is to choose from the girls who appear in the suggestion sidebar. I like that the site offers a wide range of content, though I know I'm only given a limited choice, which will be determined by who's trending, who's paying, or a combination of the two.

Scrolling through the content of the dozen or so random girls I follow, I see BDSM photo shoots, striptease, naked yoga, fetish fantasy, masturbation, full-on sex and numerous cosplays. This variety of work is even more frustrating because of the site's poor searchability.It would be great if you could just click on the tag and go from dildos to boobs, MILFs and fetish models. I was a little curious to know what was allowed and what wasn't, so I checked out Fansly.com's terms of service. It's more or less the same set of basic standards found elsewhere. Almost everything that is legal is allowed, but there are boundaries for incest, shit and vomit, animals and hateful content. These are community standards that can be found on most pornographic sites, especially those that accept payment. Credit card companies are not fools when it comes to content.

Getting more for less

One of the most notable differences between Fansly and OnlyFans is Fansly's tiered pricing. For example, Amouranth's regular subscription fee is just under $10 per month. For example, Amouranth's regular rate is just under $10 per month. Diamond memberships cost $100, and VIP memberships cost twice that. The high price is not a donation to paying pigs or findom fanatics, but more content for more money.

You can see all the implications in your feed, and we like this mechanism, which allows you to produce both free and paid content from the same account, rather than subscribing to different profiles like OnlyFans does. The big downside is that your feed gets cluttered with empty boxes that hide closed content.

But will it distract creators and users from OnlyFans. I'm not sure, but I think fans will follow their favorite models wherever they go. Both sites have the same basic structure: they allow users to directly subscribe to adult content from the same women who masturbate on social media. But, again, both sites offer girls direct access to social media-style social networks by clicking through DMs and tipping them for user-generated content. It's one of the magical elements that made the genre what it is -- a bit of hidden intimacy you don't get at the big studios.

Fansly.com at one point offered big profits under this model, but has now dropped it to 20%, the same amount that OnlyFans pays, which isn't surprising since OnlyFans is big enough to set the standard for this kind of DIY porn-selling platform. This begs the question of what they are doing to attract creators - other than hoping that the ill-will toward OnlyFans will continue to run rampant on its own. Overall, it's a finished product, but it needs some tweaking.

The same can be said for OnlyFans, although the lack of searchability makes it a little difficult to recommend Fansly for fapping right now. Both sites can be perfect on the spot, but it depends a lot on which of your favorite models are submitting stuff to that platform. The random suggestions that appear in the sidebar are a good place to start looking, but I don't think users will really be interested until they see more girls posting links to Fansly.com on their other social networks. However, when I see that traffic is increasing, I think that time may be coming.