When OnlyFans appeared in the online sphere in 2016, it was a groundbreaking platform for adult content creators worldwide. Because of its success, there was an insurgence of similar platforms that wanted to use the momentum, and Fansly was one of them.
But, when OnlyFans started to publicly consider banning and removing adult content from their platform in the summer of 2021, Fansly gained a lot more attention.
Now, Fansly is one of the most popular social media platforms on the internet. In some ways, it even surpasses OnlyFans. Fansly amasses 4000 new subscribers every hour, while the estimated number of adult content creators on the platform has reached 2 million. Comparatively, OnlyFans has only 1.2 million adult content creators.
What is OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a social media platform that creators can use to charge for their content (pics, videos, live streams) through subscriptions, tips, PPVs, etc. OnlyFans’ unique selling point when it emerged was that it was the first mainstream social media platform that adult content creators could use too, and make money from it without being censored.
Currently, OnlyFans still allows adult content on their platform. In October 2022, the CEO of the platform said that “adult content will still have a home on the site in 5 years.”
What is Fansly?
Fansly is an almost identical social media platform that also allows creators to charge for their content through various means. Fansly came later than OnlyFans, and it particularly gained traction in 2021 when OnlyFans considered banning adult content.
Fansly is also oriented towards adult content creators, although, like OnlyFans, users can also find SFW content.
Features
There’s no significant difference between most of OnlyFans’ and Fansly’s features. We’ll go over the features important for creators that both platforms share.
Watermark
Both OnlyFans and Fansly automatically watermark the content you post on the sites to prevent content theft and IP infringement.
With a watermark, if someone steals your content, they’d have to crop the watermark out of it. And if you see this content posted and shared on other platforms or websites in a way that you haven’t authorized, you can contact the platform’s support and ask them for further instructions.
In your communication, you can show the original watermarked video to OnlyFans or Fansly. They will know that it had come from their own platform. This allows them to take action to take them down from the website that stole them.
Geoblocking
Geoblocking is another useful feature that you can find on both platforms. It allows you to block users from parts of the world. For example, the country you live in, from accessing your content.
Why is this so useful? For the simple reason that it helps to protect your privacy. If you don’t want your family and friends to know about the content you post on the platform, then you can use geoblocking to limit their access based on their location.
Dedicated Subreddits
Another shared feature of both OnlyFans and Fansly is the dedicated subreddits.
Subreddits are great for promotion. Creators can use them to promote their new content, and fans/users can use them to look for new profiles in the niches they’re most into.
For example, there are two niche subreddits dedicated to OnlyFans and Fansly creators – r/onlyfansgirls101 and r/Fansly. Before you post your OnlyFans/Fansly link, it’s important to introduce yourself to the community. This way, you can start building relationships with other members and gain valuable insights from other creators. Posting your link is a great way to gain visibility and potentially drive more sales.
You can check out a really comprehensive list of subreddits here. You can use it as a creator to promote your OnlyFans or Fansly content.
Free Content/Pages
Both OnlyFans and Fansly allow their creators to create free pages. They can use free pages to drive visitors to their paid content and convert them to subscribers.
This feature gives you a lot of flexibility. It allows you to make any post you want available for free. And let your fans see part of your content without having to pay for it. You can look at it as taking the freemium approach — make certain parts of your feed accessible for free, and put the rest behind a paywall (so you can charge through PPVs, aka pay-per-view content).
Fansly even allows you to put emojis on the spicier parts of your photos (think of it as a fun way to censor them). This allows you to give fans a sneak peek to whet their appetite and entice them to subscribe.
Read more: Alua Messenger Review
Are Both Sites Focused Solely on NSFW Content Now?
The short answer is – not really. Both platforms promote SFW content such as modeling, PR expertise, fitness, life coaching, expert advice for various professional fields (the music industry, acting, modeling), etc.
Influencers and celebrities use OnlyFans, in particular, as a type of personalized social media platform. The more famous a person is, the more people will flock to their private feed to get exclusive access to their favorite influencers and celebrities.
And then, on the other side, we have Fansly, which is still more oriented towards sexually explicit content. While you can certainly find PPVs, nude photos and videos, and sexual acts on both platforms, Fansly has more lax content rules, making it more alluring for adult content creators.
The best way to start as a new creator on both OnlyFans and Fansly is to choose your niche and start promoting your content on subreddits that are close to your niche.
How Can You Make Money on OnlyFans and Fansly?
Both OnlyFans and Fansly let creators earn money in pretty much the same way. As a creator, you have the choice to charge people to see your content in several ways:
- through PPVs
- live streams
- your private feed and subscriptions
- tips and chatting with fans/subscribers
- referrals.
The biggest difference is that Fansly allows you to have different subscription tiers. So, you can give access to parts of your private feed for a lower fee and then keep more exclusive content (longer videos, for example) for the more expensive tiers.
Let’s get into these different money-making ways in more depth.
PPVs or Paid Posts
PPVs (pay-per-views) are types of content (videos and pics) that exist behind a paywall and can only be accessed if the user pays a sum that you’ve set up for them as a creator. This is possible on both OnlyFans and Fansly, and it’s commonly used by creators who want to earn money but still keep their feeds free.
Live Streams
You can do live streams on both Fansly and OnlyFans. Both platforms allow you to earn money by accepting tips or setting up a paid stream where viewers have to pay a fee to watch.
Private Feed/Subscriptions
Both Fansly and OnlyFans allow monthly subscriptions on their platforms. The big difference here is that Fansly offers tiered subscriptions, as opposed to OnlyFans, which only allows a flat subscription fee.
Through Fansly’s tiered subscriptions, creators can give fans access to different parts of their feeds and content for different prices.
For example, on Fansly, you can:
- Charge higher rates for more exclusive content than for other types of content you post more often.
- Charge one price for photos and one for videos. Charge more for longer videos.
The tiers make Fansly a more flexible platform than OnlyFans when it comes to the ways you can get paid through subscriptions.
Paid Chat
Both OnlyFans and Fansly offer paid chat — a way to make money by replying to fans. Like the other features (except the tiered subscription), this is more or less the same on both platforms.
Tips
Tips are a great way to earn money as a creator, whether you have a free or paid account, and both Fansly and OnlyFans offer it as a feature. You have to have more than five posts on your page for fans and viewers to be able to tip you. You can ask for tips on your profile, in your DMs, and on live streams.
On OnlyFans, if a fan/subscriber has money in their wallet balance, there’s no minimum tip requirement. But, if they want to use their credit card, the minimum tip amount is $5.
On Fansly, the minimum tip amount a fan/subscriber can give is $0.10, and the maximum tip amount is $500.
Referrals
Referrals are a great way to make passive income on OnlyFans and Fansly. Creators can earn a certain percentage of commission if they manage to bring new creators to the platforms. We’ll talk more about what the specific commission percentages are for each platform in the next section.
How Much Money Can You Earn as Creator on OnlyFans and Fansly?
Fansly seems to offer a higher degree of financial and creative freedom for its creators. Top-earning creators on OnlyFans have a maximum $49.99 fee per month, while top earners on Fansly charge fees up to $499.99 per month.
Both of these platforms employ creators as independent contractors, aka as freelancers. Both employ the 80/20 principle, meaning you get to keep 80% of your earnings while they keep the remaining 20%. Since this isn’t a regular type of job, creators are responsible for covering the tax on their earnings themselves. The 80/20 cut is the same for all the earning methods on both platforms.
Both of these platforms allow creators to open free or “teaser” pages, which can be very beneficial for promotion and conversion.
Minimum and Maximum Subscription Rates on OnlyFans
OnlyFans has a minimum and maximum subscription rate that creators can set up on their private feeds. The minimum subscription rate per month is $4.99, while the maximum is $49.99. As we mentioned above, creators also have the opportunity to set up tips and private DMs, with a minimum price of $5.
Minimum and Maximum Subscription Rates on Fansly
With Fansly, it’s a bit different. Fansly offers a much bigger pricing range when it comes to subscriptions, and the maximum subscription rate is way bigger than OnlyFans’.
Creators can set up a minimum subscription rate of $5 per month and a maximum of $499.99 per month, which is a significant advantage of this platform.
Referrals and Commissions
Creators on OnlyFans can earn a 5% commission for every new recruit on the platform. The 5% commission is valid for the first year, and it comes from the referred creator’s earnings. There’s no limit as to the number of creators you can refer to.
On OnlyFans, there are also no limitations on the number of Referred Creators or your total Referral Earnings. There’s also no limitation to the total earnings, but there is a limit to how much you can earn per creator – up to $50,000, or until the first million the referred creator makes.
Sadly, the referral commission ends after one year of being on OnlyFans. Fansly, on the other hand, offers a lifetime commission.
Creators on Fansly also earn a 5% commission for every new recruit for the first year. After the first year, this number drops down to a 1.5% lifetime commission.
Fansly also offers a 1% commission on everything your subscribers spends on Fansly for the first 90 days of subscribing to your profile. This is done through a special link that links customers to creators’ accounts.
Payout Plans on OnlyFans and Fansly
As you can see, there are a lot of similarities between these two platforms, but when it comes to payouts, they are a bit different.
With OnlyFans, you can cash out your earnings on a daily basis. Also, you can withdraw the minimum sum of $20 per transaction through bank transfer.
Fansly, on the other hand, has a minimum payout of $100 for creators. You also have to wait seven days to withdraw the money.
Conclusion
OnlyFans and Fansly are two very similar platforms that nevertheless have some minor differences.
As you were able to see, the biggest difference concerns the subscription feature. Whereas OnlyFans allows only a flat fee and a maximum charge of $49.99 per month, Fansly gives creators the opportunity to make their own subscription tiers and a maximum charge of $499.99 per month.
Another difference is in the referral commissions. While OnlyFans allows a 5% referral commission only for the first year, Fansly offers the same percentage for the first year but also a lifetime commission of 1.5%. This is a great advantage for creators who want to make this kind of passive income.
This makes Fansly very enticing for creators who want more flexibility in their earning strategies. The difference between $49.99 and $499.99 per month is not small.
Overall, Fansly seems to focus on maintaining a more open platform for adult creators, while OnlyFans leaves a lot of room for SFW content as well. Still, these two platforms are very similar in terms of features and earning strategies, and you won’t feel a significant difference if you choose either of them.
