12 Tumblr Porn Alternatives: Which Sites Have Filled The NSFW Void?

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Tumblr broke our dirty little hearts in 2018 when it shafted porn and removed all adult content from its platform.

In a bewildering act of self-sabotage, the platform banhammered thousands of amateur adult content creators (and fans), forcing an exodus of porn-loving refugees, and leaving many of us to ask the question: what are the best Tumblr porn alternatives?

Tumblr tickled our hopes of a return to the good old days when it walked back its ban on nudity in 2022, but sexually explicit content is still banned, meaning you’re going to have to look elsewhere to enjoy anything that isn’t an artsy-fartsy titty flash.

That’s probably why over a quarter of users left the platform within a year of the ban. 😉

In this guide, I’ll give you the lowdown on why Tumblr was so awesome for porn in the first place, and the best alternatives that have swooped in and stolen their X-rated traffic.

Why Was Tumblr Such a Great Place for Porn?

Tumblr porn alternatives

A multimedia micro-blogging and social networking site launched in 2005, Tumblr was always set to be a different kind of animal to that of Facebook, Twitter or LiveJournal.

It fostered a progressive community that allowed open and healthy exchanges and hosting for issues such as sexuality, identity and body image.

It became a popular place for LGBTQ+ users to share content and to engage in debate. This was bolstered after the Russian government took over the blogging site LiveJournal and began censoring any content that was pro-LGBTQ+. Not a good look, fellas.

In short, moderation on Tumblr was relaxed and welcomed opportunities for discussions that would have been taboo on other platforms.

This level of openness and freedom on the site led to Tumblr being seen as a safe space for the creation and curation of Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content. In other words… Tumblr was great for porn.

So What Happened to Tumblr’s NSFW Content?

Such a haven for content that was poorly moderated unfortunately led to trouble. Material on the popular platform that depicted illegal activities and politically charged images/messages was not uncommon.

At the end of 2018, Tumblr made the decision to ban adult content from its network. The move followed allegations made in the Fall of 2018 that the site was being used to distribute child pornography. The complaints were taken seriously and the Tumblr app was immediately removed from the iOS App Store.

The company itself responded by making some changes to its terms and conditions and now has a blanket ban on all adult content.

The decision has meant that many micro-bloggers have found that access to their sites has been blocked and thousands of popular bookmarks no longer work at all.  

Whilst Tumblr only wishes to prohibit access to porn, their stringent moderation algorithms have meant that blogs containing artistic erotica or images with any nudity (including those depicting pre and post-operative transsexuals) have been targeted.

Whilst only a small percentage of the site’s actual bloggers were producing NSFW content, it is estimated that these blogs were attracting over a quarter of Tumblr’s traffic.

As a result of the ban, visitor numbers to the site have fallen dramatically. What was once a sex-positive and open community has turned into a service where users are confused or wary about the new policy changes.

But Wait! Tumblr Brings Back Nudity…

In 2022, Tumblr caused a furore when it “unbanned nudity”, leading many users to believe porn was back in business.

Not so fast, though…

If we look at the actual community guidelines, it’s clear that the Tumblr porn sharing of yesteryear is still very much in the chopping block. Here are the current guidelines:

Sexually Explicit Material. Visual depictions of sexually explicit acts (or content with an overt focus on genitalia) are not allowed on Tumblr. That includes pictures, videos, GIFs, drawings, CGI, or anything similar. Historically significant art that you may find in a mainstream museum and which depicts sex acts—such as from India’s Śuṅga Empire—are now allowed on Tumblr with proper labeling.

Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally welcome. We’re not here to judge your art, we just ask that you add a Community Label to your mature contentso that people can choose to filter it out of their Dashboard if they prefer.

You have the option to add a community label when making a new post, reblogging a post, or editing an existing post. Depending on your content, you can label it as generally mature or choose a specific category such as “Sexual Themes” if your post contains sexually suggestive subject matter.

Blogs which have a focus on mature content may not be eligible for certain Tumblr features, including monetization options. We need to consider the policies of our partners in the payments space, so the rules there are a bit different.

Source: Tumblr Community Guidelines

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg was quick to insist that Tumblr would be resisting the urge to “Go nuts, show guts“.

This leads me to the most obvious question on the lips of horndogs across the land…

What Are The Best Tumblr Porn Alternatives?

Fortunately, there are plenty of sites that are similar to Tumblr that haven’t banned porn with some saying they never will. God bless you, sweet filthy interwebs.

Perversely, the popularity of these sites has increased since Tumblr cleaned up its service.

I’ve picked out some adult alternatives to Tumblr where traffic is healthy and the community vibes are still very much NSFW.

Either way, whether you are a NSFW content creator, curator or aficionado there should be a suitable new home for you below.

1. Reddit

www.reddit.com

Reddit communities (BigAss)

Reddit is one of the best alternatives to Tumblr for NSFW content. It’s also one of the most cutthroat communities on Earth, so keep your wits about you and read the rules – or you’ll be torn apart by the old-timers.

There are very few restrictions for the kind of adult material that you can upload and, as one of the world’s most popular sites, it has a huge range of content to choose from.

You don’t need to have an account to read material so you can browse without registering any details. However, you do get the best experience from Reddit by being a member of the community. And you’ll need to log in to view the age-protected NSFW communities, which is why we’re here, right?

Also, some subreddits are restricted to members only. I wouldn’t worry too much about which communities are gated just yet. There’s a colossal amount of NSFW content to go around, and you can practically drown in the smut if you keep on digging.

Not sure where to start your search? Check out our massive guide to NSFW subreddits.

2. Lemmy

Lemmy NSFW content

All aboard the Lemmy hype train!

A newer platform that’s getting a lot of traction, Lemmy is an open-source, federated link aggregator, similar to Reddit. It’s a part of the Fediverse, which is a collection of interconnected servers used for sharing random crap with other users (like porn!). Lemmy focuses on community discussions and link sharing, with an emphasis on decentralized moderation.

It takes a bit of getting used to if you’re not tech-savvy. One of the things I loved about Tumblr was how easy it was to cruise through a mountain of porn. Lemmy is more fragmented and it’s not always obvious where you’re going to find the NSFW content. Trust me, though, it’s there in good measure.

I found several Lemmy instances that host NSFW content, including LemmyNSFW and Porn Lemmy. You’ll have to sign up before you can enable adult content on many of the larger hosts.

3. ImgBash

www.thumbnailr.com

Imgbash

Promising refugees from Tumblr a safe NSFW haven, ImgBash (formerly known as Thumbnailr) has many of the features offered by Tumblr including:

  • Galleries
  • Widgets
  • Drag and Drop images from other sites
  • Repost images
  • Full image browsing

In fact, the site purports to offer not just an alternative to Tumblr but ‘Tumblr on steroids’.

Its getting some attention in the community of Tumblr refugees and uptake is good due to its social networking, forums and customizable features. It also offers a subscription-based service so you can hide content from non-paying visitors.

I had high hopes for this service when it first launched, but it doesn’t look to have gained the foothold that we might have expected post Tumblr porn apocalypse. The re-brand to ImgBash marks a pivot towards the wider image sharing community – now that (four years on) Tumblr is less associated with porn.

4. Pillowfort

www.pillowfort.social

best tumblr porn alternatives pillowfort

Pillowfort is a new social blogging platform that is about as close to Tumblr as you can get when it comes to design and community features. The main difference is that the content on Pillowfort is locked away from general access and is only available to holders of a ‘key’.

Keys are sent out by invitation but once users log in using the access granted to them they can interact with a blog in the same ways as via Tumblr.

It’s a Kickstarter project which is still being developed and the company has received a huge influx of new users since Tumblr closed its doors on adult content.

This means that registering a new account with Pillowfort depends on the capacity of the system.

As far as NSFW restrictions go, there are very few restrictions so you should find a safe space to share your adult content here.

5. 4Chan

www.4chan.org

4Chan Tumblr porn alternatives

A very simple image-based sharing service that is both SFW and NSFW, 4Chan has content from Japanese animation to music, video games and popular culture. If you’ve ever visited this site, you won’t need me to tell you that it’s the fucking Wild West on there.

You don’t need to register an account to join in with the community and there is a good deal of interaction going on in the adult content categories. Some of it borders on the taboo, or the morally dubious, but what else can you say? 4Chan users gonna do 4Chan things.

Best not to visit this site with a morality complex, that’s all I’m gonna say.

4Chan is a natural home for users who are interested in Hentai, Ecchi, Yuri and Yaoi. But dig a little deeper and it has a bottomless pit of dirty GIFs and hardcore material.

6. Fetlife

https://fetlife.com/

MetLife

Fetlife is a social networking site designed for people with an interest in kinks, fetishes and BDSM. As a result, the design of the service is not really similar to Tumblr at all; in fact, it shares more of a resemblance to Facebook.

However, it does offer another way to form and build communities and share content such as NSFW gifs, graphic stories and other media. The key difference is that much of what gets shared is by the original creator.

FetLife doubles up as a BDSM hookup community. It’s not the sort of place I’d recommend for anon-porn blasting kicks, but it’s pretty damn hot if you like gobbling up amateur porn tied to real-life accounts.

Be respectful or you’ll get booted fast.

7. Sharesome

www.sharesome.com

Sharesome hot topics

A brand-new social media platform that is designed specifically for people in the adult industry, Sharesome is more akin to Facebook than Tumblr. However, due to the community that the site is targeted at, it does mean that the space is safe for sharing NSFW content.

You do need to be a verified user to access content but you can link your Twitter account to do this. We took an extended look at the service in our detailed Sharesome review.

To summarise, it’s an excellent source of amateur porn and verified amateur content, but we weren’t fans of the relentless advertising. The site could do with a serious marketing drive to unleash the network effects that would be necessary to match Tumblr in its pomp.

Still, an underrated choice for choice.

8. Newgrounds

www.newgrounds.com

Newgrounds adult toons

Newgrounds has been around for as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure I was accessing this site on the sly at school, and I’m nearly 40 now. Yikes.

It was originally launched in 1999. Like Deviant Art, it focuses very much on cartoons, drawings, art and Hentai. You’re not going to find actual photos or porn vids here, but for smutty artwork, it’s a decent Tumblr alternative. This is another independent site with some pretty broad content policies.

There’s some good NSFW content and you can use the site to connect with other users in a similar way to Tumblr. It’s also got a ton of hidden NSFW games, too.

9. Twitter / X

www.twitter.com

Twitter X

It’s hard to predict Twitter X’s next move with Elon Musk at the helm, but it doesn’t look like NSFW content will be disappearing anytime soon.

When Tumblr banned porn, the only thing keeping many amateur creators and porn viewers from migrating straight to X was the knowledge that they’d be living two separate lives on the platform.

One to keep up with friends and boring work followers, another to Like and Retweet the crap out of the latest escort nude selfies. Sure, you can set up a separate account for your porno browsing, but if you’re anything like me, you still live in fear of reweeting the wrong post on the wrong account.

Gotta be careful in 2024, fellas, sharing a candid anal scene is a cancellable offence. 😉

Still, there’s no denying X is host to a crap ton of porn, including the annoying spam variety from AI girls trying to slide in to your DMs. It’s noisier than Tumblr, but it’s all there if you want it.

10. Mastodon

https://joinmastodon.org/

Mastodon server list

More of a Twitter alternative than a Tumblr replacement, Mastodon is an open-source, community owned platform for connecting with other users and sharing content. It’s basically where you go to stick one up Elon Musk for his latest insane shit-fit on X… whatever that may be.

Mastodon isn’t exactly shy about wanting a slice of the Tumblr pie. Founder Eugen Rochko came out and posted a pitch offering five reasons to make the switch!

Using a decentralized network of servers, users have way more control and privacy over their posts (or ‘toots’).

In fact, it’s one of the safest social media platforms around. With active user figures reaching 1.7 million, the total number is actually significantly down on its peak in December 2022 (2.7 million). The reason for that spike? Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter, of course.

“Screw you, Elon! I’m moving to Mastodon. Wait, it’s dead here.”

It’s not dead, to be fair. But it’s obviously much quieter than the sprawling chaos of X. Mastodon offers a diverse range of communities and has a few servers available in the adult category.

The best part of Mastodon is that is completely ad-free and not monetized in any way. For the people, and all that jazz. The jury is out on whether this will be the making of Mastodon, or the reason it fails, but it should be fun to watch.

11. Discord

https://discord.com

PornHub Discord

Discord is one of those services that has crept up in recent years made made me feel really, really old. You hear it mentioned all the time in, well, let’s just say… younger circles.

It was launched in 2015 by James Citron as a gamer-friendly text and video chat platform. As is the case with any platform where users ‘hang out’ for hours on end, the porn was soon to follow.

These days, Discord has over 30,000 servers tagged as NSFW. Some of these are absolutely huge. I’m talking ‘member counts’ of over 150,000 users, including thousands live at any given time.

It’s also home to an official PornHub Discord server (see above).

I spent an entire weekend exploring the best of Discord’s porn servers, so I’ll point you in the direction of that post for some good places to start your smut search.

As with any platform targeted at young tech-savvy users, there’s a learning curve associated to using Discord. It’s not simple like sweeping through Tumblr and mopping up all the porn. For most servers, you’ll need to verify your age before you can unlock the good stuff.

12. Telegram

https://web.telegram.org

Telegram for adult content

Finally, we have Telegram.

It’s not a like-for-like replacement for Tumblr. It’s a privacy-focused messaging app founded by Pavel Valeryevich Durov, a stupidly rich Russian billionaire who doesn’t want the government (or any third parties) snooping in on your next cum-fuelled adventure.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, porn is rampant on Telegram. Many users have the app installed on both desktop and mobile, meaning that the top populated groups are a throbbing hub of activity. It’s like one big orgy of sharing and not-caring.

Our Games Editor Mike Morris spent some time cruising around Telegram and he came out looking a little worse for wear.

He eventually put together a list of his favorite Telegram porn channels, but I’ll warn you in advance, the man has a rampant Asian fetish.

I’m not sure his suggestion for ‘Best of Vietnam‘ would make a traditional top ten list. Still, it’s worth a look, and it’s a good place to start if you still have the Tumblr porn ban blues.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Simon Regal

Simon Regal is the editor and founder of AdultVisor, with a decade of experience covering the adult entertainment industry. Simon's background includes collaborations with two pioneering adult studios at the forefront of VR tech. His work has been featured in Men's Health, Vice and TechCrunch. Simon is a regular attendee on the adult conference circuit, making appearances at XBiz, The European Summit and AdultCon in 2023. Say hello if you see him!
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