Why I'm Optimistic About Webcomic Hosting Sites

Hello! I'm the person who writes the 'I'm on so many different sites' thread and am overall very active within the community. I've not been around that long, so my opinions might be a bit different compared to people who have been at this longer than me. I've seen lots of people throw their hat in the ring on how they feel about the state of various web hosting websites. As opposed to the in-depth reviews I usually give in my 'I'm on 5 different sites' or '8 different sites' threads, I'm going to do a small breakdown on some sites I wish to talk about.

I will be mainly basing this thread on site traffic/activity as well as where I feel these sites are going to be currently and in the near future. Think of this as essentially part 3.

I feel that right now, webcomic hosting sites are very reminiscent of the 5th generation of game consoles (Nintendo vs. Sega vs. Sony vs. Atari vs. Panasonic, etc.). Albeit with one main difference, we don't have a site that's a perfect 1 to 1 with what Sony was in 1994/5 nor an up-and-coming site that necessarily has the massive marketing budget that company had. Luckily for us, webcomic hosting sites are not game consoles. Game consoles are a massive financial risk in a way that websites for the most part simply aren't.

For instance, The Duck is in many ways the webcomic hosting site equivalent of Atari. It's old school but thankfully it is still alive.

From what I've been seeing personally as well as talking to the admins running the platform, the site is making a bit of a comeback. This is good news for anybody who made NSFW or adult-oriented comics. Years ago, The Duck was in quite a bit of turmoil with site glitches (like comments randomly going missing); however, nowadays the site is looking stronger. More people are choosing to back it on Patreon, and things are honestly looking up. If you make adult comics, join this site—if you want to make money on your adult comics, use the site button feature to link to your Patreon or Ko-Fi or honestly anywhere you want linking to. Now is a very good time to give this site a try, things are genuinely going well right now.

Comic Fury is a similar story; more people have been joining it as of late and have been giving it a try. It's a site that doesn't really have a 1 to 1 with a 5th generation game console. Like The Duck, it doesn't have an app due to the fact many of its comics are NSFW. If you make adult content, join this site as well. If you hate AI comics, they have them banned completely from the website. Overall, the site is growing and things are looking good. I sometimes wonder what my journey with all of this would have been like if I joined Comic Fury first. I think Fury, Duck, and Tapas are much more beginner/creator-friendly compared to Webtoons. They have dedicated forums you can go to and overall better site visibility. One thing I will say is that the site has some top-tier fan artists. Shoutouts to the creator of Nocturne 21; still love this one.

Before I talk about the next two sites, there are two things I need to address. 1. Ad revenue is down everywhere. 2. YouTube is in a stupid war with ad blockers and as a result has inadvertently made people switch to stronger ad blockers to view its website. So as a result, more people have ad blockers now.

This isn't a particularly good look for Tapas on the surface. The reason why things like "watch ads for free" has been scaled back is likely because there's less ad revenue to go around. That being said, I personally do not believe Tapas is in any way doomed. In fact, I believe the site is actually attracting new creators and readers. I post on other people's walls a lot, and I run into quite a few people who are deciding to come back to Tapas and give it a try. So I think in the near future, site traffic will actually be going up a bit. People also want to get their comics and novels up on more sites, and Tapas is one of the more well-known sites to mirror onto. So overall it's good news and bad news. Good news is higher site traffic is always a good thing, bad news is the reason free Ink rewards are getting scaled back in places is probably because they're not making as much ad revenue. I've not been on this site that long but I am very active on it; I've also read up on older sites that were discontinued like SmackJeeves. Tapas hasn't made a colossally bad decision like Jeeves did as of yet. So I think this site will be ok; I could be wrong, but I think it's going to be alright. The YouTube ad blocker "war" might in theory benefit this site a little bit at some point because the Tapas offer wall rewards people for engaging with ads more directly. It is possible that advertisers could see Tapas as lucrative and want to start bidding for ad space. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

I will say this for Webtoons: Some creators have been leaving the site because they're fed up and want to try other options. This is a big reason why everywhere other than said website has been growing. On a positive note, I have been informed I helped get the infamous comment bot fired after I left the site. The Terms of Service caused a panic earlier this year but it's been ameliorated and it's water under the bridge. The site is considering a tipping system; the tipping system is not implemented yet so I've nothing else to say on that aspect. If you're like me and your comic flopped on there and you chose to leave, you've no need to worry. There are lots of other sites to try that have much better visibility. If you are someone who does do well, be wary of signing any originals contracts I've heard war stories about people who have signed them and have been worse off for it.

Now for Globalcomix.

The site is growing, thanks to the Globalcomix app dropping. They've also overhauled the comment section a bit and so far the changes are well received. The app is in its early days but it is a solid app. Even though the site has comics by publishers, like Image or Dark Horse, indie comics from what I've seen effectively rule the site with an iron fist right now. I have also read the Terms of Service; it's fairly reasonable and it's nothing too dissimilar from Tapas or Namicomi. Only thing it mentions is they might share some overall site analytics and look at how people are using the site. I'm not a lawyer but nothing seemed particularly shady or untoward. In my experience, it is a great website. Professionals even have a commissions section to advertise in, that might be worth looking into.

Now for Namicomi.

Namicomi is a beast; I joined it recently and was floored by how good it was. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future Globalcomix and Namicomi compete with each other like present-day PlayStation and Xbox, with WT and Tapas sort of just sticking around in the background. Namicomi has so much going for it—a social page that's just like Twitter, the ability to set tiers like Patreon and Ko-Fi, contests to enter with real cash prizes. It's still in beta but holy heck, this site went from potentially great to amazing the moment they got notifications sorted!

Only thing is when you update, it needs to get reviewed by a moderator before your chapter goes up. It might also have a few site quirks because it's still in beta; other than that, double thumbs up. It's still small but it's only a year old and it's making big strides! S-tier site.

Next is Blocktoons.

Blocktoons has a lot of good ideas, reader rewards, online gaming-style leaderboards but, site traffic is low and it took Thirley Peak a week for one chapter to get verified. Then when it was verified, the comic glitched, and nobody could read it... It's still in beta, to be fair, so things like that will happen.

Lastly, there are sites like Top Webcomics, Indie Comics Zone, and Comic Rocket that advertise you for free. That being said, it's debatable how effective they are. In fairness, they're mostly low effort and it doesn't hurt to give it a shot. I know one person who actually got a backer from Top Webcomics, so you never know.

Competition is a good thing; we have more options now than ever. The best piece of advice I can give is to be open-minded and try most of these sites out. If there are any I've missed, feel free to suggest them. I don't recommend anything on the list D-tier or lower currently. Blocktoons I think will genuinely get better in the near future, so that site is worth trying. Everything above it, give it a go and see if you like it.

Hope this helps! Thank you for reading.