As we head into San Diego Comic Con we’d like to highlight what most people don’t realize is the fastest growing format in comics – the webtoon. Many in the comic community have read up on Scott McCloud’s infinite canvas and webtoon apps have been growing in Asia for about 15 years now. While the format may seem niche in Europe and the Americas, the numbers say otherwise. If you haven’t tried any out, here are 10 of the best webtoon apps out there.
The granddaddy of the webtoon. Unfortunately though if you don’t read Korean you’re out of luck with Daum for the most part. If you do, this is the place to start as they’re the first webtoon company in the world and the innovator of the format. You won’t run out of series to binge through but if you’re like us, and can’t read the Daum titles, you can find some of them on…
Tapas is the first webtoon company in the United States and boast over 70,000 titles on their platform. Through a partnership with Daum Webtoon they have many of the top Korean titles but are better known for their user-uploaded content. They’re also starting to explore partnerships with traditional comics publishers and recently announced a partnership with Boom! Studios to produce new webtoon series based off of previous Boom graphic novels starting with Heavy Vinyl and are moving into the Hollywood space faster than their competitors by signing with the APA talent agency.
One of the more recent entrants to the webtoon space, Webtoon Factory is a French company that launched in 2019. While the number of titles on the service is limited at the moment there’s some of the best slice of life webtoons that we’ve seen yet and they made some noise this year at Angouleme. They accept user generated series and seem to be gearing up towards a launch of their own UGC portal much like Tapas and WEBTOON. Another bonus: titles are available in French and English. Downside – there’s no app of yet, but the mobile site works perfectly well enough to enjoy.
Without a doubt the largest webtoon company on the globe, WEBTOON (not to be confused with the noun “webtoon”) which changed their name from LINE Webtoon this year is a part of Naver Corp and, along with Daum, dominates the South Korean webtoon market. WEBTOON was also the 2nd webtoon company to launch in the United States and has quickly eclipsed most of the competition. Much like Tapas, WEBTOON boasts some 100,000 series or so on their platform. They have a robust mix of titles that are translated from their Korean app, Naver Webtoon, along with originals produced in the U.S. While still very heavy romance and manga-style series, WEBTOON serves a strong variety of western styles as well and is a great place for new readers to start. We’d recommend readers start with one of their Eisner-nominated series, Let’s Play, Lavender Jack, or Lore Olympus.
Another French app that offers content in both French and English, Izneo launched in 2018 and is home to several hundred webtoons, but unlike most of the apps on this list are heavy on comedies and thrillers. They’re a forward-thinking company, being the only on this list to launch on the Nintendo Switch. Izneo is one of only 2 apps on the list that support both webtoons and traditional comics and graphic novels with content from many of the big comic publishers. So if you’re into both, Izneo is a great option.
Stela launched in 2016 to much fanfare featuring several established comics creators in an all-you-can-eat subscription model. They’ve since pivoted away from that but the quality of the webtoons on Stela Unlimited are impressive. The only downside to trying Stela as your first webtoon app is that there was nothing that we could find that was in front of the pay wall, so you’d be dropping cash without really knowing if the titles are right for you.
Graphite launched just last month and currently has a limited number of webtoon series, albeit a solid mix of genres and styles, but all are free and they boast the highest image quality of any app on this list (which we’ve tested and can verify). They’re planning a big promotion at San Diego Comic Con this year and have announced that their upload portal for creators will be launching this summer. If you’re into traditional comics this is a great app that serves all formats of comics with multiple reading experiences depending on the comic format as well as A.I. driven discovery. Like Izneo, many top tier publishers have large catalogs on Graphite, and in this case, it’s all free.
Webcomics (that’s the name of the app and also not to be confused with actual webcomics) is strictly manga-style webtoons but they have creators from all over the world and this app is DEEP. They accept submissions but do not have a portal for creators that we could find. They company is a bit mysterious but if you’re looking for manga-style webtoons this app is a must and claim to be the most popular webtoon app in North America, which judging by their app store ratings looks to be accurate. Many of the titles here are from China and not available in English anywhere else, and we have to say the art is top notch. And the catalog is quickly growing with creators from Tapas and WEBTOON mirroring their webtoons here.
A South Korean startup who have had a presence at North American comic cons for several years now, Tappytoon has a great selection of Korean webtoons that are translated to English. While not as deep a catalog as their competitors they make up for quantity with quality and are venture backed by Korean VC BonAngels. For those fans who are looking for an app that specializes in Korean content Tappytoon presents a clean and easy to use interface where you can quickly browse and dive in.
Spottoon launched in 2014 out of Rolling Story, a South Korean company. Much like Tappytoon they specialize in translating Korean webtoons into English and have exhibited in the U.S. at conventions such as New York Comic Con. In 2015 they announced a heavily promoted partnership with Huffington Post, which appears to be defunct as the webtoons are broken links on HuffPo. But their app works beautifully and puts you one click away from diving into some great webtoons.