How To Build An App Like OnlyFans

10 min readMar 7, 2022

Social media websites based on subscriptions are becoming more popular. Perhaps one of these subscription service’s most popular is OnlyFans. But, what exactly is OnlyFans?

In this article, we are going to share what OnlyFans is, how the application works, who uses the app, and how much they can earn on the platform.

So, What Is OnlyFans?

OnlyFans is a subscription website that allows content creators to make a difference. Creators can lock their contents behind a paywall and allow fans to access them with a monthly fee or an exclusive tip. The website was established in 2016 by Timothy Stokely, a British technical contractor, and investor. It now has more than 30 million registered users and over 450 thousand creators of content.

The site has paid more than $600 million for the creators since OnlyFans launched it in 2016. Creators can allow their fans to pay for the content through a $4.99–$49.99 monthly subscription (OnlyFans retains a 20 percent fee). Free pages can also be made available to charge fans with pay-per-view access to content. Other creators are able to diversify and optimize their income through a free page and subscription page. OnlyFans implemented transaction limits, which capped PPV prices by $50 per post and tips from new fans by $100 per tip after actor Bella Thorne joined OnlyFans and racked up millions of dollars in just a few days.

OnlyFans is a website rather than an application. This should be noted since Apple does not allow “overtly sexual content” applications in the App Store. But, wait, wait, wait… What does sexual content mean to them?

Not just Pornography, but it indeed is a huge part of it.

OnlyFans creators can post themselves doing some things — which would not fly on other social media sites, but was not created solely for this purpose. In fact, the site is created by artists, physical fitness instructors, chefs and others who want to use the site to make a difference. Due to the lack of restrictions on the site, however, OnlyFans quickly became a home to adults, sex workers, and models that share NSFW (not safe for work) content.

Uncensored, X-rated images and video files, as well as live host streams where creators can engage in real-time, can be posted by creators. OnlyFans also has a message feature that allows creators to market their email advertising viewers, letting them know about new or exclusive content, polls, and more. The performances are much more likely to increase the engagement of the audience, brand affinity, and visual optimization.

OnlyFans’ Growth Timeline

1M+ Creators On The Platform

It can be a challenge to find out the number of content creators on OnlyFans without any official figures. The numbers suggested on the net will vary according to the freshness of the article, in general. You can, however, see a clear growth pattern.

It is reported that OnlyFans in 2019 had 60,000 creators of content.

Mashable reported that a representative of OnlyFans told them that, in March 2020, the total number of users and creators “almost doubled,” with 350,000 creators at this stage. However, Variety stated by the end of August 2020 that onlyFans now had 700,000 content creators.

OnlyFans should have over 1 million creators on the platform by December 2020!

50M Registered Users

Apparently, OnlyFans reached 7 million users in 2019. An article from the Economist, published in January 2020 (profiling by British OnlyFans star Lucy-Anne Brooks), says OnlyFans claimed to have 12 million registered users by that point.

Only 26 million registered users were reported to Mashable in March 2020.

However, Variety reported by the end of August 2020 that OnlyFans now has over 50 million registered users. Clearly, many people went to OnlyFans when they have locked in COVID while away.

15 Million New Users Every Month

The Western Australian quoted Tim Stockley, the founder of Fans, in 2019, saying OnlyFans has 1,000 registered users every hour.

That might sound like a lot at that time. But users still flocked to the platform. As we have already mentioned, Mashable quotes a representative from OnlyFans, who claimed that in March 2020 alone new users and content creators almost doubled.

Tim Stokely quotes multiple reports from December 2020 that OnlyFans average 500,000 new users a day.

Who Uses OnlyFans?

OnlyFans is the home to trainers, writers, artists and chefs. But this is only the unexplained side of the matter. Since OnlyFans allows people to post content that would be prohibited on other social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, sex workers and amateur pornographers also frequently use this content, who upload videos and images and interact with fans via direct messages.

The objective of OnlyFans is to create and distribute content, build a sequence and earn money on a platform for designers. Caroline Calloway, for instance, is setting up a page for OnlyFans, where she dresses as literary characters in costumes. This gives her more than $220,000 in her projected annual salary. Other influencers such as Belle Delphine’s e-girl influencer may charge fans $35 a month in membership fees for adult content.

Real TV stars such as Chad Johnson, Blac Chyna, Safaree Samuels, and Erica Mena are also on the platform. And, again, not every creator sells explicit content using the platform. The-Dream created his new album, SXTP4, for OnlyFans. He uses the platform to connect to his fan base and urges them to publish a sensual choreography of their own on his songs.

How Does OnlyFans App Work?

It’s easy to use OnlyFans. Creators can just upload their material on the site (videos, articles, pictures). Creators can set up a free or paid page, and then fans can pay to access the exclusive content. While creators are able to create accounts for free, OnlyFans pay 80% of the income when they make money from the platform, with a 20% charge.

Since much of the content of OnlyFans is explicit, users must have a minimum of 18 and need an ID issued by the government to register. In addition, the contents are protected by OnlyFans, which ensures that it cannot be shared externally. Actually, the content is darkened when a user tries to take a screenshot on the website. Users will also be banned if they are caught screenshotting and recording what is happening.

OnlyFans take confidentiality seriously and it shows how the content creators’ trust on the platform is protected. Onlyfans indicated in a statement that they have an “appointed DMCA team that issues formal notifications against any copyright violation reported.” The DMCA team issues notifications on all illegal hosting, target websites, and domain registrars and reports copyright violations to all key search engines.

OnlyFans’s Business Model

The business model of OnlyFans is simple. They offer a paywall content platform. Creators produce and post exclusive content that their subscribers are paying for. OnlyFans take the payments off.

In fact, OnlyFans keep 20% of all payments that subscribers make. The more money you charge and the more people that you have, the more money OnlyFans make. And all payments on OnlyFans are covered, not just adult content.

OnlyFans have a better model than Uber or Airbnb, XSRUS notes. An Uber car owner or an Airbnb property can only meet a group of customers simultaneously. However, an OnlyFans channel doesn’t have this limit. You can add additional subscribers and all can view content at the same time, with OnlyFans receiving a 20 percent fee from everybody. “It’s multiplicative on OnlyFans — 10 loving fans or 1000 can serve the same selfie.”

The Referral Program

OnlyFans offers a referral programme that allows a designer to earn 5% of their earnings for the first 12 months to the first $1 million earned by the creator concerned. The number of referred creators or total referral earnings is not restricted. The referrals shall be paid on the first working day of the month.

The reference scheme paid for 5% of the creator’s lifetime earnings, but now with the popularity of the platform, references to the first $1 million earned by the creator in question are limited to the year following their subscription.

Some creators have taken a request to push OnlyFans to reinstall the old system and to support that as many sex workers rely on their income from the OnlyFans platform. When you consider that 20 percent of creator revenues are already taken off by OnlyFans, it is not an unfair expectation.

Features List of an App like OnlyFans

User’s App

User Profile Sign in
Discover creator profiles
Chat
Purchase Content
Suggestions
Notifications
Payment

Content Creator App

Creator Profile
Subscription Plans
Share Content
Receive Payment
Interaction
Request Status

Admin App

Manage Users Profile
Manage Creator Profiles
Set Commission Percentage
View Payments
Manage Advertisement
Manage Alerts

Required Team Structure to Build An App Like Onlyfans

Front End and Back end Developers
Android and iOS Developers
Project Head
UI/UX Designers
Graphic Designers
Quality Assurance Expert

Technology Stack for An App Like OnlyFans

Programming Language

Kotlin
Node.JS
Swift

Frameworks

Flutter
jQuery
SocketCluster

Database

MySQL

Cloud Solutions

Amazon Web Services
Google Cloud Platform

Tips To Make Your OnlyFans-Like App A Success

Identify Your Audience

First stuff to make it successful you need to know who will use your app. It will help you to monitor your idea of the market and how to contact your target users (marketing message) and where to communicate with your target audience (channels).

How do you do that?

Search for statistics and insights, check trends, put questions on forums, carry out a survey, or create your mobile app’s MVP-version and gather user feedback.

All demographic information, including sex, age, location or any of the behaviours and motivations of your users can be collected (pains and gains). Then talk to the people you think would be your target audience about your idea.

2. Define Your Business Model

App developers around the world are mainly using a number of advertising-based business models to pay for their applications. One of the most popular income streams is video ads. Business owners also buy in the very popular app. However, you can choose from many other business models.

The advantages and disadvantages of any mobile app business model. It is good first to analyze what your competitors do to select the one that suits your needs. It can work again if it worked once.

Note that the profit must not be generated in every successful mobile app. There are categories of apps, such as business applications, which have various advantages. Sometimes you create an application to save money, not to create streams of direct revenue to optimize a business process.

3. Be Clear With The Features You Want To Offer

You probably have been thinking about the idea for your application for some time. All the wonderful things it can do, all the capabilities it can do, have already been visualised. Social sharing, notifications, payments and integrations all appear essential.

It may well be that they are all useful, but if you forget them for now it may be better. Each will prevent your core feature from developing. You’re either losing time or quality if you focus on the wrong end of the mobile app development process.

It may seem like a wealth of features is a good idea, but usually, it is not. It works only for contractors who want to increase their project’s value. The simplest way to solve your problems is what users need.

Only try to bring it to the fore when you decide what the core feature of your application is. Each additional option, each personalization, and integration make understanding the value that you provide harder for your users. This also involves a genuine cost.

4. Maintain High Performance

If you want your app to be successful, good is not good enough.

In accordance with Connecthings’ Mobile Usage Trends report for 2019, two-thirds of mobile users at least once a month clean up their phones. It means they get rid of applications they no longer need.

One of the principal reasons why an app was abandoned in 2019 was not heard. App users that listen to their data tend to continue launching an app as Localytics research shows. However, performance is key to your app’s success. Qualitest research says that 88 percent of the app users leave a mobile app if it has bugs and flaws.

5. Work On User Retention

There is one important reason for analyzing all the data you collect and continuously updating your app: retention of users. Note that after only one application 25% of users abandon an app. So make sure you do all you can to satisfy your users.

If the app isn’t attractive enough, your user retention rate will drop. Some mechanisms are available to involve your users. The most commonly used are all platform push notifications. For example, you can use notifications to remind users of the existence and fun of the app that has been downloaded but is not being used.

Cost Breakdown To Build Your Own App Like OnlyFans

The cost of building any app may vary depending upon the complexity and features of the app. Here is an estimated cost to build an app like Onlyfans:

This cost may also vary depending upon the region of development.

See Also:

Frequently Asked Questions For Building An App Like OnlyFans

Q1) What would be the estimated cost to build an app like OnlyFans?
A1) An MVP for an app like OnlyFans would cost around 20,000$ — 30,000$ and a full fledged app would cost around 50,000$.
Q2) Does the owner get to retain the code after development ?
A2) Yes, the owner gets to retain the code after development however you will require a team at the backend to ensure the smooth running of the app.
Q3) What is the monetization strategy for such apps?
A3) The monetization strategy for apps like OnlyFans are as follows:
1) Premium Subscription
2) Live Streaming
3) Premium Messaging
4) Referral Program

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