As I am being slowly pummeled by school work, job applications and walking from Shiffman to Village multiple times a day, I decided to dedicate this week’s article to the one thing that truly brings me joy: fanfiction. I have been an avid reader of fanfiction since 2013 and am thus well versed in the field and filled to the brim with opinions that most of the people in my life will never care about. Fanfiction is not a widely popular nor celebrated medium of content, but, despite the slander it receives constantly, it is important and legitimate and I am far from alone in reading much more fanfic than I do published literature.
While my years of reading have allowed me to explore many of the subcultures within fanfiction, it is a medium that varies wildly between readers. That is why this ranking is not a judgment of a website’s quality of work, reputation or depth of content within any given fandom. This ranking is primarily based on ease of use (mostly meaning how easy it is to search for a specific work), general diversity of content and, of course, vibes. This list contains a tiny fraction of all fanfiction websites and is wholly subjective, like everything I write, but any disputes over where Archive of Our Own falls on this list are wrong.
No website on this list is without its merits; I have spent hours reading content on all of them, but the hours I have spent on DeviantArt are usually spent hate-reading. DeviantArt, as the name implies, is the place to go when you are looking for the more adult side of fanworks. This is not to say the entire website is porn, or that only adults use it, but most people’s association with DeviantArt is likely furry fanart. The website is simple to use and has a well-designed mobile homepage, where mature content can be filtered out, but it is a website with a clear dedication to fanart over fanfiction, and no way to distinguish between the two when searching for content. Further it sways heavily towards anime fandoms—understandable on an art-based platform, but a niche I personally have no interest in—that the website does not allow me to avoid. DeviantArt has a great appeal to a specific audience, but as far as general fanfiction websites go, it sits at the bottom of the list.
Wattpad may be the most well-known place for fanfiction to the general population. Its claim to fame is that select works written on the platform are occasionally published. Some have been New York Times bestsellers while others went on to become movies. But the Wattpad vibes are off. Ask any fanfiction reader above the age of 14 and they will say the same. While its reputation, as promised, does not actually affect its standing on this list, it cannot go unsaid that Wattpad is the website known for being full of works written by children. Putting that aside, Wattpad has a horrible search tool, with very few options to filter. Its home page, while nicely filtered similarly to Netflix, follows an algorithm that will push certain content no matter what you read. Also, unsurprisingly, content skews heavily towards whatever middle schoolers are interested in at a given moment. Despite all of this, individual works on Wattpad are presented clearly, with summaries and word counts that raise its ease of use; it is a website dedicated entirely to fanfiction (or hypothetically original writing) and it is, unfortunately, a staple of the fanfiction community.
Next on the list is Tumblr. It is a social media platform rather than a fanfiction website, but that comes with some perks. Since nearly its inception it has been a hub for fandom culture and writing. Tumblr search functions are on par with DeviantArt’s, though it lacks the functionality to add chapters to a work, so each chapter must be its own post. It is also known for having a learning curve; there are a lot of unwritten rules for using the platform, but once you get the hang of it, it is extremely user-friendly. The thing that sets Tumblr apart from its predecessors is the ability to reblog (or repost) fanfiction. It turns fanfiction into a more communal experience and allows users, instead of an algorithm, to decide what works should be propped up. Tumblr also has a wider user base than Wattpad or DeviantArt, creating a better diversity of content.
The second-best website on this list is also the oldest. It was the first website I ever read fanfiction on and for a long time, it easily would have held the top spot on this list. Fanfiction.net (FFN) was one of the first websites dedicated to collecting a wide variety of fanfiction, as opposed to being specialized. The search functions work very well, with a better filtering tool than on any of the prior websites. It has no homepage and serves as more of an archive than a social media, so it takes great care in describing what is contained within each individual story. Its long history means it has an incredible range of fandoms represented; it also holds a few dozen famous works, within the fandom community at least, including what was for many years the longest work of fiction in the English language. The website’s greatest flaws are its interface, which has looked dated since 2012 and its ongoing comparison to the number one website on this list.
Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a fanfiction utopia, an archive that does everything FFN does but better and smoother. It is run by a small active board who are elected annually by members of the website. Its search functions completely changed how one can narrow down a search to find exactly the work they want to read; the website looks sleek and is extremely easy to use. It also has the privilege of being the go-to website for most fanfiction enjoyers and thus, with over 10 million works from over 56,000 fandoms, there is truly something for everyone.
