Tapas, Smackjeeves, or Webtoon?

[TheHappySpaceman]

Hi there,

I'm creating my own webcomic Eight-Layer Inferno: Semesters of Hell, and I've been debating which platform to upload it to. Tapas I've found has a good, convenient layout, but I've also heard that Line Webtoon is a platform where one is more likely to gain success. However, then I remembered that Smackjeeves also exists, and they have a great feature: separation of chapters! From what I've seen, neither Tapas nor Webtoon has that, and that would be very important for the episodic nature of my own comic.

So I guess my question is this:

1. Between the three platforms I've listed, what are the good things and bad things about each and which would you recommend?
2. Does Tapas have--or plan on installing in the future--a chapter separation system that would make webcomics easier to browse through?

Thanks in advance,

~Spaceman

[UzukiCheverie]

Why not all three?

No seriously lol it's not like there are rules restricting you from uploading to all three, and honestly, all the stuff you're gonna hear when it comes to pros & cons will be 90% anecdotal (because different people have different experiences, ESPECIALLY when it comes to what kind of comic they're doing, because different sites have different demographics and tastes in what they like to read. for example, LINE loves Korean webcomics, Tapas loves gag comics and BL, but if you tried to upload a Korean webtoon to SmackJeeves, you probably wouldn't make it that far lol)

Most people's chances of making a living off of just one platform are slim to none (even less than the chances of making your living off all three) so while it may take extra time to format your episodes for other websites, it'll at least get your comic out there to different demographics, especially when it comes to readers that like to stick to one website alone (I usually read on Tapas, I'm rarely ever on SmackJeeves, but I know people who read comics religiously on SJ). Restricting yourself to just one platform is also restricting your comic to gaining potential views/exposure.

If I still have to answer the question, I'm sort of tied between Tapas and LINE, because Tapas has a better community, but LINE has had better viewing exposure, with better reception on uploaded episodes. But again, you're gonna get different opinions on that when it comes to peoples' experiences.

If you're looking for chapter separation, SmackJeeves is the place you need to be. But honestly, LINE and Tapas have automatic bookmarking, so having chapter separation isn't really necessary? (sort of just a nice cosmetic IMO but not absolutely vital to the reading experience).

[travelercomic]

I've never cared much for smackjeeves. It's so hard to get any attention on there. I've had better luck with Tapas and webtoons, but that's just me.

[TheHappySpaceman]

Yeah, as much as I love SmackJeeves' layout and find it much easier to customize, I will admit that it seems rather... vacant? I guess that's the word for it.

[dawgofdawgness]

Yeah, I like Tapas' layout the best as Smackjeeves is kind of old-looking and there's not as much activity on there. But Tap does has its flaws, like how you can't reorder episodes, or how you don't really have much freedom over page design. Smackjeeves also lets you create your own customizable website that you can edit with HTML. I joined SJ for that sole purpose

As for Webtoons, it's larger and more popular, so you'll get more exposure. However the community isn't nearly as friendly and mature as the one here - also they don't have forums. Nyeh nyeh!

[x4ever]

Unlike the people here, so far actually like the webtoons community better! Though I've only posted the prologue, there were a lot of people who sent me nice comments, while on Tapas, I had less engagement and two rude-ish comments (but who knows, my views can change in the future). Personally, it's really hard to get views on Tapas unless you get into the new and noteworthy or you somehow get featured by the site. On webtoons I had 4k views from one upload without any featuring or nothing, while on Tapas I had 48. And then when I got new and noteworthy for Tapas, my views actually spiked up a lot to 4k as well, AND I had a better sub-view ratio. So I guess it's all luck? Either way, it doesn't hurt to post on both and gain a better audience.

[TheHappySpaceman]

Why not all three?

No seriously lol it's not like there are rules restricting you from uploading to all three, and honestly, all the stuff you're gonna hear when it comes to pros & cons will be 90% anecdotal

Hmm. I hadn't really thought about that before. I guess I was just thinking that sites may have certain rules against publishing your work onto other sites. (If they did, I wouldn't know--nobody ever reads the terms and conditions. :P)

If you're looking for chapter separation, SmackJeeves is the place you need to be. But honestly, LINE and Tapas have automatic bookmarking, so having chapter separation isn't really necessary?

I also wasn't aware of that. That's helpful to know.

[UzukiCheverie]

Those rules only apply to contracted artists who are being paid by those websites to make their work exclusive to that website alone. These websites are free to use, and lots of people use them - so not only would it be foolish of them to expect someone to host exclusively with them without compensating the artist for their dedication to the brand, it would also be impossible for them to monitor every single comic that's on their platform (which is a number well into the thousands) and watch for those travelling off site.

So unless you get into a publishing deal with LINE or Tapas, you've got nothing to worry about

[ReroOnyx]

Smackjeeves honestly has the best format when uploading material, allowing for greater control. You can move chapters around, move episodes around. There's a lot of control overall you have on Smackjeeves but unfortunately, that control means nothing without an audience. The site is very inactive and doesn't have anywhere near the same level of activity as other places.

Frankly, the only reason to use Smackjeeves is as a mirror site, a place to get extra reader attention and bring them over to a proper site. Webtoons is simlar but for other reasons. In this case, Webtoons has honestly one of the worst, most elitists community for a hosting site I've ever seen. The problem with Webtoons is that there is no control as a creator and no community or communication within the site as well. This makes it painfully easy to abuse the system there.

The only reason to use Webtoons is to actively become featured or your work specifically tailors to their demands. Otherwise, use it as a mirror site again but there are better options. Webtoons would be far better if many things were added. For example, there is basically no notification system on LINE an as a creator, you have absolutely no way to deal with unsavory individuals other than a report option which hardly does anything. There's also no community, meaning that its hard to really get in touch with other readers or creators.

Quite frankly, the toxic community of LINE, not helped by the way LINE has the site run, is a huge turn off for me. Also as a creator, I want to build a community and relationship with my readers. I have that kind of control on Tapas but I don't have it on LINE. This is why its not uncommon for people to say they have more "subs" on LINE but less "Interaction."

Out of the three, Tapas is the best one and that's not to say Tapas doesn't have its own issues. However Tapas has a good balance between exposure and creator control and communication. It's mature, friendly and gives you enough options to work with.

[AnakngTinapay]

Smackjeeves
Pros: Folders/Partition. Scheduled release feature. Edit/Reorder/Insert a page in between feature. Co-Author feature. Customizable layout. Active forums.
Cons: 1 page per upload. Low filesize limit per page for free users. Low exposure. Your comics will be buried along with countless sketch/children/amateur comics, sprites, BL, dump / showcase / non-comic submissions, and abandoned works.

LINE
Pros: High exposure / Large audience. Regular reader feedback. Popular platform. Multiple page upload.
Cons: Lacks reader interaction. No notification system. Toxic community/Underhanded tactics in contests. Downvoting (??). Non-existing admins. No forums.

Tapas
Pros: Simple and easy to navigate. Multiple page upload. Larger file size submission compared to SJ. Add audio feature. Active community. Forums.
Cons: Low exposure compared to Line. Can not reorder episodes. Non-customizable layout.

The Duck Webcomics
Pros: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cons: Worse than SJ's cons. Even more dead comics.

[kip]

Hey! So I personally completely agree crossposting is the way to go, however here’s my two cents!
I would like to note I apparently had a pretty different experience than most people with readership on tapas and webtoons-

Smackjeeves
Pros:
*Highly customizable site
*Technically you can set up your own ads for revenue
*Schdueling

Cons:
*Vacant

Tapas
Pros:
*Easy to use
*Notifications for all activity
*Ad revenue & tipping
*Higher probability of featuring (thanks to daily snacks and other featuring events)
*Active creator community (forums)
*Fan engagement
*Scheduling
*Active modding / tech support

Cons:
*Easy to get stuck in subs count in the higher numbers
*Slightly more judgmental community from my experience

Webtoons
Pros:
*Easy to use
*Very active community, especially with commenting

Cons:
*No notification system for creator
*Harder to get noticed (from my experience)
*While community is active and positive (from my experience), tend to be less engaged than tapas readers
*No realistic revenue program

For me, tapas was the best experience.
I personally reccomend crossposting here and on LINE!

[LordVincent]

Use all three or you're shooting yourself in the foot, today's industry considered.

Which one is the best will often come down to very individual preferences and the genre you post. Being an lgbt creator myself I find myself cringing at webtoons most often due to the community (have received a lot of homophobic and transphobic comments there. Also seen fans telling each other to commit suicide. Not a nice situation.) and preferring Tapas most out of them since they have the most LGBT friendly staff and approach. They are also the ones who will try their best to protect the creative rights of mature content creators, considering the rules they have to abide by on app store. (Smackjeeves fails this one hard in my eyes, having a very restrictive and sortof prude site owner, especially in regards to gay content. And this is without being a site that depends primarily on a young audience or an app. So technically they have MORE room to be 18+ friendly than tapas is, but they just choose not to be. The site owner may also temporarily take your comic off the face of the site for something so small as having a black border on your cover, so beware.)

[AnakngTinapay]

Sounds like you have some resentment towards SJ.

having a very restrictive and sortof prude site owner

I never really saw Admin's stance towards the LGBT but I noticed on SJ that comics with the said themes won't get in the featured section to avoid homophobic drama.
Have you experienced or seen a comic that got removed without a reason?

[gh0stcr33p]

tapas smackjeeves and webtoon are the only platforms I've used, but I reccomend tapas.
first I'll list the pros and cons of all 3.
on smackjeeves I'm pretty sure there's no size limit for files, which is nice, but you have to upload it all in individual pages, and there's not that much activity.
webtoons' format is pretty similar to tapas, and you do gain activity on there quickly, but from my experience, the activity dropped a lot after a few weeks. also it only supports jpg files which really sucks, and the people on there seem to only be interested in specific things like slice of life or manga styled comics. (not saying they're bad, but that's really most of what gets promoted there.)
on tapas you can upload png files, but they also have to be resized, which is kind of a pain. I like it the most though because it's the most efficient to use, in my opinion.

[ericsalinas149]

Hopefully GoComics will re-instate Sherpa, as it was the best site for gag-a-day comicstrips because the other three sites seem to be better forums for longer webcomics.

[LordVincent]

My comic was removed from the face of the site temporarily because the cover was "too sexual" (It had two men kissing while blushing. Both were fully clothed.) I will mention for the sake of providing a more nuanced retelling of the case that I have met some people who agree with the site owner, however I have met many more who thought the judgement was absolutely ridiculous.

I have also spoken to creators who saw their own comics taken temporarily off the face of the site because of excuses like "your cover has a black border. Upload a cover that doesn't have a black border". Nowhere in the rules does it state you can't have a black border so this was out of nowhere. I've also spoken to creators who have been told that far more innocent covers than mine were "inappropriate".

Most of the creators I've met who have had negative experiences with Smackjeeves were gay content creators.
Admin himself still claims to not have anything against gay people. Judgement is up to you. Personally I find the situation very suspicious to this day.

EDIT: I should add my experience with Tapas regulations and staff in comparison.
I was once, along with many other mature creators, told I had to censor certain pages I was hosting on Tapas. The staff member I was in contact with was polite, reasonable, open to questions, and provided clear descriptive answers in regards to exactly what had to be censored so I could know better for the future.

Smackjeeves admin was short, blunt, undescriptive and unhelpful. Also the gap of what's "too sexual" is huge here. What Tapas regulated me for was actually sexual content. What smackjeeves thought was "too sexual" was "kissing and blushing".

[AnakngTinapay]

on smackjeeves I'm pretty sure there's no size limit for files

Free user: 500kb/file
Donator: 2Mb/file
Premium: 5Mb/file

on tapas you can upload png files, but they also have to be resized

What's the limited requirement for PNGs?

[Amberday]

i'm no creator but i read on tapas and webtoons. here are the pros and cons i observed

Tapas
pros: friendly environment, minimalist UI, readers are okay with 1 page per update (except for premium lol), forums, you can check out user profiles so you can find what else your favorite creator is doing
cons: less people so less views, keys (ugh! ), if you want your comic to be premium then you gotta talk to tapas prior to publishing, ad revenue's almost impossible to get

Webtoons
pros: loooots of people and more reader interaction, they pay non-feature artists if they reach the target amount of likes, views, and subs, every month they pick out ongoing comics to get featured
cons: cluttered UI, readers demand for long updates, comic characters get bullied especially in ship wars, because of extreme competition (or because others are just naturally rude) a lot of people will try to bring you down in the comments section, some readers think you're a machine, the discover section is a battlefield, no forums, there are no user profiles

unless you want your comic to be premium on tapas, i don't see why you have to choose between the the three sites. the more mirrors, the better! publish your comic on every site out there!

[jurinova]

I also recommend posting on all three, or at least two. It's more work but it'll be worth it. I have my comic on all three sites and here's my personal experience:

Smackjeeves:
+ Great creator experience and a lot of freedom thanks to HTML customization
+ Easy to use
+ Easy to get noticed because of the recommendation system and the categories on the front page
- Much smaller than the other sites, so less readers of course
- Looks so outdated

I also have to add that I have a LGBTQ+ comic that got a spotlight on SJ, so I think the experiences concerning that issue seem to vary a lot.

Tapas:
+ Easy to use if you don't want to worry about customization
+ Great community
+ The forums are excellent
+ Good notification system
+ Tipping
- Not being able to edit episode order or have folders of any kind
- Hard to get noticed or to get on the front page
- The tagging and searching systems do not function very well

To me Tapas is like a nice middle ground in the webcomic world. There's plenty of readers but reaching them can a difficulty sometimes. However the community makes up for it, since the forums are a good way to get feedback and talk about all webcomic related things.

Webtoons:
+ Patronage
+ Lots of readers and feedback
- However they seem to be very young, which may result in unpleasant reader behaviour
- Very limited form of posting and file types
- No notifications, none whatsoever, which makes it difficult to communicate with readers
- No profiles, which makes the site feel very impersonal

I feel like Webtoons is obviously a site for young audiences and mobile comics, so success may depend on what type of comic it is. I've gotten lucky with my readers there but I've witnessed some incredibly rude reader behaviour on other comics. People can also drop someone's ratings just out of spite or to boost other comics. It's not really my cup of tea, but I'm sure others enjoy it.

[nekhcore]

I haven't posted either but looking at threads like these I think it's better to use all three. With Webtoons you get more visibility, with Tapas more interaction, and with Smackjeeves a customizable site that can also function as your "home page", since you can add pages for lore and fan art and cast lists and whatnot.The only problem is it's more work posting to both Tapas and Webtoons since they have different image size limits and Tapas is PNG only whereas Webtoons is JPEG only, which lowers your image quality a little. Smackjeeves doesn't care I think.