Hi! LOVE Drunk Duck - I think it's the best webcomic hosting site out there.

But I was wondering if anyone found any others that are good - I'd like to host my comic there as well.

I've tried Comic Space, The Drawing Board.org, and ToonsUp.

Rampage network is pretty rad, and keenspot used to have a pretty great line-up but the qualities slipping pretty bad lately.

Smackjeeves is decent if you have a comic geared towards pre-teens, if not don't expect many fans. Not as friendly or awesome as DD

ComicPress, which is a part of WordPress.org, is a great one also, but of course you need a domain name first before you can get a comic set up over there, so it's not free.

I have my comic mirrored at SmackJeeves, but it's not great. If you look at the popular comics over there, 90% of them are shounen-ai. Not my cup of tea, and if your comic doesn't qualify as such then you might have a hard time finding a good fanbase. Also, ditto on what Skullbie said; the community over there is kinda lame.

One thing I would personally urge you to NOT do is get on Webcomics Nation. First of all, it takes forever to get an account set up over there for some reason, and the layout of the whole place is just a hot mess, especially on your Account page. I tried to get my comic set up over there...and gave up after a couple of days. It just wasn't worth it.

Tokyopop has a pretty cool feature on their website for comic hosting. Plus your comic is uploaded to this neat lil thingy that lets you embed it on other sites. Also this might seem strange but I've found a decent audience on myspace. Comicspace is nice also.

The SpiderForest folks have been good to me so far, and updating the site there so far has been a BREEZE.

>Net

From my personal experience, and I may be wrong, but Rampage expects you to be able to build your own pages, backgrounds, etc. I'm not skilled enough in computer graphics, so I wasn't able to do this, and they kinda forgot about me. I really wanted on there too, so it was a downer for me. If it weren't for Drunk Duck's simplicity when it came to uploading, I wouldn't be here either. I guess I need to someday learn that kind of stuff, but it just doesn't seem to want to stick in my caveman head...........ugh.....me go and find sticks now.

Haha. Me too with the lack of html/etc. knowledge.

Another thing about Rampage (and correct me if I'm wrong): While they do allow you to mirror, or maintain your own domain, their terms and conditions require that their site be your primary host- in other words, you're supposed to update there before any other site. There might be some more conditions to that effect, but I don't remember exactly.

New comics are uploaded on istrip, which has the same system as DD like fast uploader, built in comments and next/last buttons+menu's which the owner does entirely for you now(i kept my wordpress system) if you make the banners and buttons.
Plus you could have hand drawn your own banner/buttons and scanned them...which many people do, you don't need to know html to have a site there now.


@Hyena
Not sure what applies to updating as but i'm pretty sure rampage is supposed to be your link-to site, as in on onlinecomics or lists like that.

Other things about it are that you can choose to put their ad on your page and get in on free rampage advertisement on some sites, and if they bought the domain for you and you don't update for a year they'll no longer pay for it. Also technical problems are always solved lightning fast which is always awesome ^_^

Thanks for the info Skullbie.

Yep. Those and DD.

Just hoping on to try to shed some more light. Yes, we have the creators design the layout themselves because we sadly do not have the time to design a completely custom layout for each member. BUT we are able to code ANY design you send to us and we will handle all the coding for you at that point (but you do have access to the code of course in your admin panel). YES we do have a slight requirement concerning mirrors, only for the fact that we host mainsites and buy domains, buy ad space for members at other sites, and more. So the site we maintain and promote for you should be your main site and get some type of priority. An example of some of the advertising we do: we currently have an exclusive ad spot at http://www.webcomicz.com on all their pages (the big square ad). We do not force any ads on you but we do have an optional ad that goes to helping with the server fees and the like. You can find more details here: http://www.rampagenetwork.com/hosting/

Wow I checked out your site and it actually seems to good to be true to me. But I wan'na give it a go.

Not really that strange. Laura Park was able to get a name for herself by posting comics on Flickr, Liz Prince did the same with Livejournal.

Hell I do anything if it can increase my fame. Any Hollywood hotshots need a nice BJ?

Believe me, that's what I thought too almost a year ago when I first heard of Rampage, but so far my experience with the site has been nothing short of amazing. Horatio is very supportive of every artist on the site, from the wildly popular Allan to the lowly and somewhat blundering Cheeko (that's me). The only programming errors on the site are my own and are on account of my own laziness, nothing the actual hosting site has had an effect on. I'd highly recommend checking it out.

when I first heard of the Rampage Network, which was somewhere about 3 to 4 years ago, I thought it was either a special invite only group (which to a degree, it sorta is) or a weird hosting service with a very well hidden scam behind it.

for the longest time I just thought of it as an off-hand site where you just pop by and not think about it afterwords.

but then a little over a year ago, I got invited to join the group. you could imagine my shock and confusion at first, so it's understandable if I were to say I had a ship load of questions all over the place thrown at the owner (i.e. John Horatio) the more I asked, the more I got convinced that it really was not a scam at all, but an actual effort from an individual who collects comic artists and offers them what every second hand comicer wants: a main domain.

not some cheap hand me down hosting site where the comic title comes either before the hosting site's name or after the .com. but an actual domain where you get the 3 Ws before and the .com after (or .net if you so prefer)

there are absolutely no unwanted adds, banners, hot links or any other garbage to clutter up your site save for the ones you yourself add or allow, and the service has been so far unimaginable. any kinks or errors are fixed as soon as within the hour or as late as a few days (a week max!)

you even get the full service of auto archiving, a gallery complete with separate filing, and a link manager which couldn't be easier to use if you stuck a "go here" sticker on every command button on the control panel. and if that's not enough, then add this to the package, it's all "unlimited". granted I have no idea how unlimited that would be, as every domain usually has it's limit somewhere, but until now it's been very true so far.

and to think you get to have all this with the only asked price of designing your site before hand, and making sure you update regularly afterwords.

so what if you can't code up a site? one of the things that's awesome about the internet is that information is flooded all over the place. all you have to do is search for it.

when I first joined DD about 6 years ago before the giant meltdown, it was for a want of being unique that I first started searching on how to code HTML. and I learned everything through the net. no self help books, no classes, nothing. just me and Google and whatever comes out of the search. and then when I got offered to join the Rampage, I decided I wanted a more professional looking site and learned how to use CSS coding (but just barely mind you)

"but I don't wanna bother with learning all that crap!" you might say...

well, who says you need to learn all of it? feh, take another search field and google up "templates" or "themes" or even "free site designs" and you'll get a whole truck load of sites with free designs you could use. don't like the coloration??? then just learn enough coding to simply change a few colors and switch a few images. you can't get an easier short cut then that.

but besides site designing (which even for me is still difficult because I only know enough to blunder by) you still get excellent service. I say keeping a regular update is a small amount to pay for what I'm getting in return, wouldn't you agree?

Going on a site other then DD is treason.
There, I said it!
Those betraying the duck will be found and destroyed!
*sends out secret police death squads to deal with these counter-revolutionary elements!*

i gotta go with harkovast; i have no interest in posting my comic anywhere else. i'd like one day to have my very own site, but even then i would keep updating my comic here.

haha that makes me think of an administrator like "...are you sure? you really don't HAVE to post your comic here, you know..."

I host on a couple sites including my own domain.

I guess I just like to keep all of my options open. Plus having your own domain is nice. I'm not great at web design, but I'm average, and setting up with comicpress is pretty simple.

At the very least, If your really serious about promoting your webcomic, I would encourage everyone to at least get a domain name for their comic. That way you can promote using a www.address, but have the domain point to your comic here at DD or whatever hosting site you have.

That Rampage Network looks pretty sweet.
I am can not do web design though.
I wish I had someone who could assist.
*wink-wink-nudge-nudge*

Yeah, Rampage wants you to be able to update there 1st and to use their forum.

Not too bad of a deal IMO, the webmaster appears to be pretty patient too. As so far he hasn't kicked me since I don't have my completed comic on there yet. He's been very patient waiting for me to tweak what I want before I upload and I promised him I'll be putting my new story on his site 1st.

I haven't forgotten borg484 ^_^

That's pretty much it.

We have your names now people. Make your peace with your gods and get your affairs in order...

Personally, I feel DD is the best.

Although, Rampage Network does have some great comics.

Drunkduck has an easy uploading system, and I love the community.
Drunkduck is kind of like my second home.

I love you guys so much <3

The only other place I've gone to is my own site, but I'm still using DD as a mirror.

I do, however, have the HTML/CSS/Java/PHP knowhow to do all website creation stuff so if any of you are interested feel free to ask me.

If I was a moderator I would lock this thread for treason against DD!

Thanks everyone! Great advice!

Eyeskream and Rampage Network have a very talented cast. Rampage asked me to join, and I'm thrilled, and they allow me to keep Drunk Duck as a mirror.

I'll always be hosted on Drunk Duck, because it's such a great interface, and the fans and support I've gotten here has been overwhelming!