Ranking criteria

Why ranks change#

Ranks are not permanent. A site that was first place two years ago may now be fifth, or gone entirely. This is the point: a list that never changes is a snapshot, and snapshots go stale.

Ranks are reassessed on a rolling basis, and any entry can move up or down between assessments.

The criteria, in order of weight#

1. Library size and freshness#

How much there is to watch, and how soon after release it appears. A smaller catalogue with the popular titles beats a huge one that is permanently missing them.

2. Track record#

How long the site has been operating under its current name and ownership, and whether it has stayed reachable. A year-old site with an excellent interface still loses to a five-year-old site with a mediocre one.

3. Interface and usability#

Reading comfort, search quality, mobile behaviour, and how fast pages actually load. This matters more than raw design polish.

4. Ad load#

A tiebreaker, not a primary factor. Obstructive pop-ups cost a site more than a moderate banner would. Bad ads are recorded as a con, not a hidden penalty.

5. Features and community#

Comment sections, watchlists, and community activity. Nice to have; rarely decisive.

What gets an entry removed#

• The site is gone and has no working mirror
• It has become a malware or phishing distribution point
• It is a thinly reskinned clone of a higher-ranked entry
• It has stopped being usable for an English-speaking audience

Removed entries are not deleted. They move to the graveyard with a reason, so you can see what happened and what replaced it.

Grouped entries#

A few sites are listed together under a single entry when they share infrastructure, serve identical content, or are alternate domains of one project. This is deliberate: separate entries would imply a choice that does not actually exist. Use the mirrors list instead.

The NSFW tag#

Some readers and aggregators carry unlabelled adult content into ordinary search results. Those entries are tagged NSFW so you can filter them out before you click, not after. Filtering by tag on a section page hides every matching entry at once.

Disagreeing with a rank#

Reasonable people rank differently, and this is a community list rather than an official one. If a rank looks wrong to you, tell us why. The most useful reports name the site, give a specific reason, and say where the entry should sit.