Not at all. We juggle a mountain of stuff to do each day and subsist on sticky notes. The last thing we want to do is try to remember to visit a number of individual websites. At one time we did follow a few comics outside of Tapas but its simply too much effort to add it to the daily/weekly routine so we stopped. The app makes it where we can easily maintain a reading list and just binge read when we're stuck somewhere with nothing else to do but use our phone (like in the line at the post office which is always a 20 minute drag). We just read up on everyone then. The only drag with the app is that commenting is much more difficult vs. using the desktop and creators can't earn anything from display ads. Our phone rarely shows any display ads vs. the desktop which always delivers two each episode.
In its current state, we have Hiveworks predicted to eventually cease operations. Readership is increasingly going mobile. Wattpad reports that 90% of its traffic is mobile based. Hiveworks does not have an app. "Wanting an app" is a lot different than able to make one. Creating an app is a monumental task financially and its our opinion that Hiveworks does not have that degree of internal resources to get it done. Tapas had to go out and get millions in preferred financing to get theirs done. Hiveworks could put something together like what Pop! Comics rolled out but the app is bare bones and takes away from the reading experience to the point that you don't want to use it. Readers have a certain level of expectations and if you deliver less than that they will simply go elsewhere.
We've mentioned this before but Hiveworks primary source of income is ads, which unfortunately remains on the decline. Tapas saw the writing on the wall so they switched to adding novels and premium content. Like it or not, this is the main way Tapas keeps the lights on. They also have the tipping feature which Hiveworks also lacks. Tapas is currently so far ahead of Hiveworks that it seems unlikely that will be able to keep up.
LINE Webtoons is the dark horse. They announced in their ToS update that they have been spun off into their own corporation which is a concern because it indicates that Naver wants Webtoons to start carrying its own weight. Webtoons is going to be adding ads soon so that increases the likelihood that they will continue forward, but as we can see from what Tapas is doing, ads alone aren't enough. Another big unknown is how readers will respond to "first contact" with ads on Webtoons. Will it negatively impact traffic? If so, to what degree?
The next big real tell will be what happens in July when their current Patreon bonus program is scheduled to end. They put up $3.6M into that program last year and the tell will be if they renew it or not. We're predicting that they won't.
These are all the reasons why we decided to host on Tapas rather than on our own.
Not saying that Tapas is perfect. There's certainly a lot of room for improvement but it's currently the best in class among all the self-service comic platforms out there.