In recent years, fanfiction has become a staple in fandom culture. In most cases, the “rite of passage” to join a fandom lies in reading fanfiction with absurd ships and masterclass writing, leading to popular fandoms such as Marvel and Harry Potter amassing hundreds of thousands of fanfictions over the past few years.
With the undeniable buzz around fanfiction, we decided to test out the three most popular sites: Archive of Our Own (Ao3), Wattpad and Fanfiction.net.
DISCLAIMER: Some of these websites may include TV-MA writing with mature themes. Make sure to have your filters on!
As one of the first fanfiction sites, Fanfiction.net made history in the late ‘90s by providing people with free media that can entertain one’s wildest dreams.
Although it was initially revolutionary, it now feels extremely dated and is burdened with frankly, a visually unappealing interface. Even with its vast library of stories, the confusing filtration system doesn’t make it easy to find good-quality fanfiction.
Despite these cons, one of the redeeming qualities of Fanfiction.net is its amazing community. On this site, there are forums and communities that allow users to interact with fellow fanfiction lovers, and these forums are moderated to give them the best experience possible. Additionally, there is a treasure trove of expired fandoms from pop culture years ago, so if you’re looking for nostalgia, Fanfiction.net is the site for you.
Rating: 3/5 Falcons
Historically, Wattpad has the most stigmas associated with its use. While we can’t say that this common belief is wrong, out of the three options up for review, it has the most modern look in its web design. The website holds its quality on laptops, tablets and even phones, with its well-designed interface. It even has its own app!
At a solid 97 million users, the site also has archives filled with pages and pages of fanfiction, most of which are far from polished and unedited.
Sophomore Devika Nair, an experienced fanfiction reader, offered a critical assessment of the site, saying, “Wattpad fanfictions are really low quality. I think reading books is better. If you want different endings to a book, just imagine it.”
Another downside: The website requires regular users to sign into an account to use the service and watch ads frequently. However, it does offer a premium option for $5.99 a month without ads.
One interesting bonus aboutWattpad is its high visibility in the film industry. Amazingly, some of its fanfictions have been adapted into movies, TV series and even published books, such as the smash hit trilogy “The Kissing Booth” and the “After” series. Wattpad has a lot of visibility and a good interface but a bad reputation and low writing quality in our opinion. For any BTS fans, this site has thousands of options and is heaven for any Taekook shippers.
Rating: 2/5 Falcons
While the other fanfiction sites have their pros and cons, Ao3 takes the prize for the best site. The sheer ratio of well-written works to terrible fanfiction is far greater than any other site, simply because the community on Ao3 sets high standards for the writing available on the site.
The interface on Ao3 might be a little confusing at first due to the large number of filters, but it becomes extremely easy and efficient once users get the hang of it. On this site, users can filter by maturity, relationships, characters and word count, just to name a few. A tip we’ve learned from using this site is to filter by kudos (the equivalent to likes on Ao3), as it usually brings the best results.
While being a reader on Ao3 is great, writers often don’t get the option to get compensated and monetize their works here, unlike Wattpad, which sometimes discourages would-be writers from using it.
Despite these small flaws, Ao3 proves to hold its own as the Falcon’s highest-rated fanfiction site.
Rating: 5/5 Falcons
Further recommendations
If you love fanfiction like Medha, you’ll love Archive of Our Own for its tagging, stunning interface, and the best enemies to lovers slow burn out there. Some of her favorite fanfictions are Force of Gravity (“Stranger Things”), Well This is Galling (“She-Ra”) and A Step to the Right (“Harry Potter”), all of which are located on Archive of Our Own, so go check them out!
If you’re not an avid fanfiction reader like Sanyukta, realize that sometimes it’s still interesting to check out some popular adaptations, especially if the original author isn’t around anymore. However, feel free to send an email to the authors of the original works begging them to write sequels instead of wasting valuable time scouting for good stories on fanfiction sites.