A Fic Reader's Guide to Finding Fics Off Ao3

[ravensilversea]

I originally posted this list to Tumblr as ways to find fics to read on personal websites because Ao3 was going down for maintenance. I have since added the list of fanfic archive sites that I've been collecting on my Neocities resources page. This list does not currently include sites like tumblr, dreamwidth, or pillowfort because I was focusing on on dedicated archive and reading sites vs social media platforms that also host fic, but this is a list in progress and I may add a section dedicated to finding fics on social media sites in the future.

Additionally, if anyone knows of a site or webring or directory I missed, please let me know! This list is limited by what I have personally stumbled across as I surf the waves of the web lol



The Fandom Webring - Not strictly just for fanfiction, anyone who joins this webring is simply a part of fandom and not all sites are fandom-focused. However, some of them are and some host fanfiction! You should poke around and check them out

The Fanfiction Webring - A webring for fic archives, either personal or communal! Every site in the directory should host some kind of fic somewhere, and there are ton of different fandoms and genres

Fan Archives Directory - A directory of fanfic websites! May have strong overlap with the fanfiction webring tbh, but also a cool thing to check out





Ad Astra - A Star Trek fan community founded in 2009. This site hosts a variety of Star Trek fanfiction, including crossovers, and some original science fiction stories

Asianfanfics - An archive website founded in 2009 specifically for Asian fandoms. Lots of KPop fics to be read here

Audiofic - A multi-fandom podfic archive founded in 2006. After suffering a server corruption in 2016, it is back and hosting thousands of podfics

CFAA - The Comic Fanfiction Authors Archive founded in 2024. This site is dedicated to comicbook and adjacent fandom

EFP - An Italian fic archive started in 2001. Fanlore says it's the largest Italian-language fic archive and that it has a connected forum

Fanfiction.net - A multi-fandom archive founded in 1998, and I bet most of you are familiar with it already. But if you're not, there are thousands of fics for all kinds of fandoms, and honestly, if you're in an older fandom, you may find more fics here than are on Ao3

Fanon - Started in 2024, Fanon is a site focused on hosting fan comics and fan films

Fimfiction - Founded in 2011, this is a site dedicated to My Little Pony fanfiction

Honeyfeed - A web novel community that also allows for the posting of fanfiction. They've been around since at least 2018 as far as I can tell

Jedi Council Forums - TheForce.net's dedicated forums. TheForce.net has been a fan-run Star Wars news site since 1997, and the Jedi Council Forums have been up since at least 2002. They have a dedicated Fanfiction section, which does include a sub-category for non-Star Wars fics

The Lodging House - A Newsies fanfiction archive hosted on the Neocities site scrapes-and-bruises

MediaMiner - A fanfiction and fanart archive founded in 2000, primarily focusing on anime fandoms

Quantum Bang - The host site for a multi-fandom year-long writing challenge focusing on fix-it themed fanworks. All fics here are over 50k words, and they have been running since 2019.

Quotev - Founded in 2008 as a platform for stories and quizzes, both original and fandom related. This site is peak nostalgia for me because this is my original fandom site <3

SpaceBattles - A forum that's been around since 1998. It hosts both original and fanfiction stories. Tho it's probably most associated with science fiction-related fandoms, such as Worm or Warhammer, there are a variety of different fandoms represented here

Squidgeworld - A multi-fandom archive that's been around in one form or another since 1994. In additional to fanfiction hosting, this site is the preferred site for people posting meta essays

Sunset - A multi-fandom femslash archive founded in 2025, hosting over a thousand fics

Superlove - A multi-fandom archive founded in 2023 that also hosts over a thousand fics

A Teaspoon and an Open Mind - A Doctor Who fic archive founded in 2003 with over 40k posted stories

Twisting the Hellmouth - An archive founded in 2003 that primarily focuses on crossover fanfictions with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and/or Angel

Wattpad - A platform founded in 2006 for hosting both original stories and fanfiction

Comments

[queenslayerbee]

This is really useful, thank you for sharing it!

[mossy_bench]

Very neat!

super useful!

[arimamary]

I've been eyeing SQWA to move off AO3 in the near future but I'm still looking at options. Thanks for sharing this list! It's really cool to see how many different archives are out there, many who have been active for decades.

Not sure about the other archives, but as a former Wattpad user, its mention really stands out. It's more similar to Tapas and Webtoon where it gives authors the opportunity to earn a living off their stories. Then there's the enshittification of their free tier with ads and limited offline reading experience. Not sure about the cut-off you're using for this list so I just wanted to share my knowledge in case it's relevant to your decision-making :D.

Re: super useful!

[ravensilversea]

No problem! I started gathering them because I saw someone ask about other archives over on Tumblr - the person they were asking was incredibly pro-decentralizing fandom, so it wasn't reliant on just one or two sites - and I tossed the ones I knew of off the top of my head out there. Then I decided to add a section for them on my Neocities, and I've been keeping an eye out for mentions ever since.

I appreciate the info on Wattpad as I've never used it! Honestly, my criteria for this list is more or less "You can find fanfiction here" with no real value judgement on the site itself, especially since I haven't used most of these sites lol. But most of these are dedicated fandom sites of some kind, with Wattpad, Honeyfeed, and Quotev being the standouts for not being primarily fandom-focused. I think Quotev might be the only one out of those three without commercialization options, but I haven't used it in years and I didn't poke Honeyfeed that much so take that with a grain of salt.

I do hope you find a non-Ao3 site that works for you! ^-^

Re: super useful!

[arimamary]

No problem! I started gathering them because I saw someone ask about other archives over on Tumblr

I was scrolling through the neocities tag on Tumblr some time ago and found some posts related to that! Those posts sparked my interest in fic archives. Little places of the old web that are still afloat.

I had no idea there was fanfiction in Quotev. It's always surprising how people can use for completely different intent it was designed for XD.