Fanvue vs OnlyFans
Both take a cut, neither sends you an audience, and the gap between them is smaller than either would like you to think. Here is what actually differs.
The money, plainly
| Fanvue | OnlyFans | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform cut | 15% for your first 12 months, then 20% | 20% flat |
| You keep | 85% in year one, 80% after | 80% always |
| On $1,000 earned | $850 in year one | $800 |
| Exclusivity | Not required | Not required |
The 5-point difference is real but modest, and it expires. Choosing a platform purely on the cut is the wrong basis — what you can actually earn on it matters far more than what it deducts.
The thing neither platform tells you
Neither one is a traffic source. This is the single most important fact for anyone deciding between them, and it is the reason most new accounts earn nothing on either. Both are payment and delivery infrastructure: they host your content, handle billing, and take their percentage. Finding the audience is your job, done somewhere else — social platforms, a directory like this one, communities, wherever your people already are.
Once you accept that, the comparison changes shape. The question stops being “which platform will get me subscribers” and becomes “which platform will annoy me and my subscribers least once I bring them.”
Where they genuinely differ
- Size and competition. OnlyFans is vastly larger. That means more fans who already have an account and no friction subscribing — and also a crowd so large that being found inside it is hopeless. Fanvue is smaller: fewer browsers, but a new page is less invisible.
- Name recognition. “OnlyFans” is a household word, which cuts both ways. It converts a fan who already knows the drill, and it is also the name people are most cautious about having on a bank statement.
- AI features. Fanvue has leaned into AI creator tooling harder, which matters if you want automated chat or an AI persona. If that is irrelevant to you, it is irrelevant.
- Year-one economics. The 15% window is genuinely worth having in the period when you are earning least and every hundred dollars counts most.
So which one?
If you already have an audience that knows what OnlyFans is, going where the friction is lowest is defensible. If you are starting from nothing, the lower first-year cut and the smaller crowd make Fanvue the easier place to begin — and since neither demands exclusivity, the honest answer for a lot of people is both, with one as the main page and the other catching whoever prefers it.
What decides your income is not this choice. It is whether anyone outside the platform knows you exist. The starting guide is mostly about that.
Ready to set the page up?
Creating an account is free and takes a few minutes. You will need government photo ID to verify you are 18 or over, and you can set your content and privacy rules before anything is published. Having the page does not oblige you to post — plenty of people set up, look around, and start properly a week later.
Create your Fanvue page →18+ only. Identity and age verification required. Opens the official signup.
Keep reading
How to actually make money on Fanvue · browse 37 creators already listed here by niche or location · and if you have a page already, add it to the directory free.