An independent directory of the services an adult site runs on, from adult-friendly hosting and video delivery to payment processors, tube and paysite scripts, ad networks, traffic, SEO, design, domains and legal help.

What an adult site runs on

Start a Porn Site lists 238 businesses that sell something to the people who build and run adult sites: hosting, billing, scripts, ad sales, traffic, design and legal help. Each one has a single entry, based on the vendor's own pages, and that entry says what it sells a site owner, what its terms say about adult content, and what it charges or pays where the pages print a figure. A business that fits several categories, such as a cam program that also runs a white label site, appears in each of them and is written up once.

The 19 categories follow the order in which a new site meets its problems: where it lives, how it takes money, what software runs it, how it earns and finds visitors, and who keeps it on the right side of the law.

Hosting and delivery

Adult hosting holds web hosts and server providers whose own terms accept legal adult sites, from hosts built for the trade such as Host4Porn to general providers such as InterServer and NovoServe that publish an adult policy. A host without a published acceptance is not listed. Adult CDN and video hosting covers the networks that carry the streams, among them bunny.net and pushr.

Taking payments

Adult payment processors lists the billing companies and gateways that charge subscribers' cards on a site's behalf, such as CCBill, Verotel, Vendo and Centrobill. High-risk merchant accounts is the largest page: ISOs and brokers such as PAYCLY, MyntPay and SensaPay that place an adult business with an acquiring bank rather than billing for it. Many of them process nothing themselves, and their entries say which role they play. Adult payouts and banking covers e-wallets, mass payout services and bank account brokers, among them Paxum, which paysites, partner programs and cam studios use to pay webmasters and performers.

Software

Tube and cam site scripts covers the software behind free sites: tube CMSs such as KVS, Mechbunny and AVSCMS, and the scripts and engines behind sites built on a cam program. Paysite and fansite software covers membership, VOD and creator platforms, from BunnyCMS to Too Much Media. White label adult sites gathers turnkey cam, fan and store sites that run under your own domain, such as the white label programs of Chaturbate and Stripcash.

Earning and buying traffic

Adult ad networks lists the publisher programs that pay a site owner for ad slots and visitors. ExoClick, TrafficJunky, JuicyAds and TrafficStars buy ad space on adult sites, and CrakRevenue pays commissions on sign-ups a site sends to its offers. Buy adult traffic is the other side of the same market: the advertiser accounts of those networks, traffic sources such as Zeropark, and spy tools such as Adplexity that show which ads run where.

Adult SEO and marketing covers agencies with a stated adult practice in search, PR, email and social, such as Reboot Online and AdultScale. Adult web design lists studios, freelancers and theme makers who build adult sites to order, among them Altgirlmedia and Zuzana Designs.

Domains, content and stock

Adult domain registrars covers registrars that sell .adult, .porn, .sex and .xxx names, such as EuroDNS and Netim, next to ICM Registry, which runs those extensions, and brokers such as Brokers.xxx. Licensed content and copywriting lists sources of licensed footage, writers and translators, such as Webmaster Central and AdultLabs. Adult store dropshipping covers sex toy and lingerie wholesalers that ship orders for online adult stores, such as Honey's Place, Nalpac and Williams Trading Co.

Staying legal

Age verification for adult sites lists the age checks that UK, EU and US state laws now ask of adult sites, from Ondato and AgeChecked to Go.cam. Adult lawyers and 2257 compliance covers law firms that work for the industry, such as Walters Law Group and ChaseLawyers, and 2257 custodians of records such as Easy2257. DMCA protection and content moderation lists takedown services such as DMCA.com and Traqeer, and moderation vendors for platforms that take uploads.

The trade itself

Adult webmaster forums and news gathers the forums, trade press, shows and associations where site owners meet: XBIZ, AVN and YNOT for news and events, and the Free Speech Coalition as the trade association.

Before you sign up

Read four things before you move a site: what a host's acceptable use policy allows, what a processor holds back as a reserve, what a network pays and when, and who answers a takedown notice. A price or rate carries the month it was read, in the currency the page showed. Terms change, so confirm the figure with the vendor before you commit. Every business listed here serves legal adult sites made by and for adults aged 18 or over.