It seems like every year, sex workers run into a problem with one of the many platforms that benefit from our presence. Moderation, payment processing, discrimination, and other SW-specific issues tend to keep us pivoting constantly. Manyvids has been a topic of this conversation countless times. Given the current climate this platform is looking to create, I bring you an intro to APClips.com, a seemingly obscure yet pretty powerful site that is comparable to the features offered on Manyvids.

This month brought sex workers another virtual blow from popular adult platform, Manyvids, as CEO Bella French came under fire when her personal website biography page was spread across X (formerly known as Twitter). In her bio, Bella shares how she entered the adult industry after a business collapse led to imminent financial ruin. Upon starting her career, she noted that experiencing “systemic exploitation” led her to start the Manyvids platform.

As many online creators know, Manyvids quickly became one of the most popular platforms to host adult content creators. Most notably, more kinky content creators flocked to the site as the site allowed some more taboo kinds of content that rival platform Onlyfans didn’t. Although Manyvids is a private company, it is estimated that the platform makes $10 million to $25 million in revenue annually.

French had a vision for how sex workers could take control of their content and executed it in a way that many platforms did not. It boasted comprehensive service offerings, including clip stores, custom order mediation, live streaming, contests, and more. It’s no wonder why it became a common name and widely respected platform.

“The Vision, Reimagined”

Although French glosses over the success of the platform, she speaks on behalf of Manyvids when she shares the vision for the future of the platform and how sex workers fit in it. She states:

“Our goal is to transition one million people out of the adult industry and do everything we can to ensure no one new enters it. We are working to transform an industry we don’t believe should exist—but we recognize that simple elimination creates deeper shadows. The solution is elevation through meaningful alternatives.”

This isn’t surprising for someone who has been following Manyvids’ trajectory for a while. Their lack of site updates or improvements, support, and transparency has crippled their relationship with their creators to no end. Creators have raised concerns about the site’s payout rates for years, and were furious when the platform announced that they wanted to shift to a more “safe for work” environment.

Manyvids had also gained a reputation for hosting problematic content and creators. There have been multiple instances of poor moderation over the years. The platform defended content with harmful race play tropes on their platform during the BLM protests in 2020, and had a male creator ranked #2 on the site who assaulted a transgender person on a Baddies reality TV show. In spite of this, Manyvids always attempts to position themselves as a safe space for sex workers to exist, while failing to do so in deed by being problematic and discriminatory.

It’s disappointing to know that many sex workers relied on and trusted a platform built by a woman who was supposed to be one of our own, only to be thrown under the bus. However, sex workers are notoriously resilient. Facing constant de-platforming, bad faith legislation, and the whims of major credit card companies keeps us constantly on our toes and ready to pivot. So here, I offer sex workers an alternative to the continued building up of a platform that wants them extinct.

An Intro to APclips

APClips is a platform that has been flying under the radar for a few years now. For myself personally, I set up the platform and mostly forgot about it after my Onlyfans pages took off. However, it is a platform packed with features that make it a suitable solution for content creators who want to have a clip-based platform. Let’s break down some of the features:

• Video Store: the video upload feature has an option to select a 10-second preview or upload your own for videos, as well as a cover picture and your usually video info options. Videos can be tagged via categories (established by the site) and tags (created by creators).
• Fanclub: like Fansly, ApClips offers up to three tiers for subscriptions, where you receive 80% payout on sales made.
• Photosets: this is the most fun option to me. You can create photo sets to sell premade to your fans. The bonus here is that you can combine photosets and videos together to make bundles. Very cool.
• Attachments: APClips has a “vault” feature similar to Onlyfans. When you send media privately, they appear in your attachment folder so you can send via message when needed.
• Discount functionality: you can create time-based or code-based sales for your content.
• Messages: you can send free and paid messages similar to how you can on Onlyfans.
• Custom Video requests (BTO Requests): fans can request custom videos from you and offer a price, which you can negotiate.
• Custom Requests Board: my other favorite feature is a page where fans place custom video requests for creators to respond to. Also very cool.
• AP Lounge: this is an AP models only blog and forum, where you can get site news, discuss tips and tricks, suggest new features, report bugs, etc.

These are most of the core features for an APClips creator account. Their payout structure is a bit different: content sales up to $150 during a two week pay period are subject to a 70% payout rate. Sales between $150 and $800 receive a 75% payout, and sales over $800 receive an 80% payout.

Although a smaller platform, there does seem to be some internal traffic. One can browse creators, content, contests, and fan clubs with ease. Their content rules are in line with most other platforms, with common banned kinks comparable to Onlyfans. Most notably, there is no live streaming functionality. However, I believe that APClips is still a smaller and growing platform and that feature may come down the line. In saying that, I’d rate the platform a solid 8/10 in terms of site offerings, user interface, and usability.

Why APclips?

One would probably wonder why I’d suggest to migrate from Manyvids to APClips instead of Loyalfans, Clips4sale, iWantClips, or Fansly. Don’t misunderstand, all of these platforms are great and have their own pros and cons. However, if trying to migrate from Manyvids, APClips seems to be the best fit. I’ll explain.

Loyalfans, Clips4sale, and iWantClips focus very heavily on fetish content and creators. Loyalfans is considered the top platform for fetish content, and I find a lot of Femdom/Findom creators recommend it for that content. iWantClips self-promotes as a fetish platform, and both it and Clips4sale are considered “fetish sites” within the community. Naturally, you’re welcome to post vanilla content on these platforms if you wish. You can also live stream on Loyalfans. I find that the demographic of fans on these sites lean heavily into kinks like Domination, Findom, Tease and Denial, SPH, and other fetish-related kinks.

If you’re a creator who makes primarily vanilla content like masturbation, sex tapes, vanilla JOI, squirting, etc., you may find that the fans will try to approach it from a submissive standpoint, rather than just enjoying it for what it is. This is not an issue for creators that like the challenge. If you’d rather stay in your lane, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Fansly is more comparable to Onlyfans than Manyvids. Although they have a great user interface, support, and traffic, I find the site to be more subscription centric. Although you can go live on the the site, it is lacking a dedicated clip store. One of the best selling points with Manyvids was their extensive storefront. With the clip store functionality and other options, if you’re looking for a similar experience, try APClips.

The Bottom Line

I don’t believe it’s a reasonable expectation to find an alternative platform to Manyvids that mirrors what Manyvids does. I do think that it’s always great when one can find an alternative that checks most of the boxes. In my opinion, APClips fits that bill. It will take time to see traffic rates mimic some of the more popular platforms like Onlyfans, Fansly, or Loyalfans. Perhaps if enough content creators can migrate with the intent to build and promote, we can grow with the platform.

As I said earlier, sex workers are incredibly resilient; we will always manage to keep our businesses running. I have no affiliation with APClips, and I am not implying that their founders or backend is perfect. Once I decided to delete my Manyvids account I examined the accounts I already have. APClips seemed like the best alternative. In saying that, I sincerely hope that a model who is still in the valley of decision finds this information helpful. Feel free to comment or contact me with any questions!

We are bigger than the powers that try to minimize us.

Thank you for reading! Visit my personal blog to keep up with my thoughts and business happenings.