Let’s be super clear: There’s nothing wrong with enjoying porn. It’s as natural as watching TV. Honestly, even more natural, because (depending on your kinks) porn can often come with the added benefit of an orgasm. However, despite the fact that romance novels are more popular than ever and that people have been creating and enjoying erotica since cave drawings existed, we still don’t really recommend porn to one another the same way you might recommend a new movie or a sexy book. “We all watch porn, but we don’t talk about it. That’s a huge problem because the landscape of porn needs navigation, especially by young people,” says Cindy Gallop, founder of Make Love Not Porn. The truth is, whether you enjoy watching, reading, or listening to pornography, you’re participating in a very normal and human act that results in sexual pleasure that’s ultimately and legitimately good for you!
But sadly, the mainstream porn industry can be pretty corrupt, leading to unpaid labor, consent violations, or just gross experiences in too much of the free porn out there. That’s why, for both those involved in the production and yourself, it’s best to opt for ethical and safe porn sites.
“Ethical porn prioritizes consent, pleasure, diversity, and safety in production and distribution,” explains Rachel Needle, PsyD, co-director of Modern Sex Therapy Institutes. “For porn to be ethical, you want to ensure that the creation, production, and distribution is regulated and done ethically. It is also important to ensure those taking part are supported, fairly compensated, safe, their boundaries are protected, and that everything they are doing is consensual.”
Ethical porn prioritizes real orgasms, offers diversity, pays everyone fairly, and yeah, that means you might have to pay for it. But it’s worth it for a safe, healthy, happy sex life, whether you’re getting off alone or with a partner. To help you find the best and most ethical smut out there, we put together a list of 23 safe porn sites. Whether you like it kinky, romantic, or queer, trust there’s something for you here.
1. Sssh.com
Female-led, female-focused, ethically produced, and recommended by Rashida Jones? It’s clear Sssh.com checks off all the boxes. The site’s sex-positive films, photos, and stories have been winning awards since 1999 thanks to its feminist-centered content. “Sssh.com is and always has been a very collaborative studio,” founder Angie Rowntree says. “We not only discuss and negotiate the sex to everyone’s comfort, but we also listen to our performers’ input as far as the creative direction of their characters, which greatly enhances the storylines and how the sex is portrayed in our films.”
Plus, all of the materials are geared toward women and couples (and the site isn’t at all spammy), so you can watch/read stress-free knowing you won’t get viruses and you’re supporting the creators of the content.
Cost: $4.95/two days, $19.95/one-month membership, $54.95/three-month membership, $99.95/one-year membership
2. TROUBLEFilms
Created in 2002 by Courtney Trouble, a “queer fat non-binary sex worker working on the West Coast,” this inclusive platform is dedicated to challenging adult entertainment norms through a feminist lens, and it’s impossible to glance at the site without getting so turned on that you subscribe immediately. Also, all the filmmakers are porn performers themselves, so you can trust that they’re familiar with all sides of the biz and know how to keep things safe and sexy for everyone involved.
Cost: $30 for a one-month pass to visit the archive, or pay per film, $5.99 to $70
3. GoodNovel
If ultra-steamy romance novels are your thing, then GoodNovel should absolutely be on your radar. This handy app has everything from werewolf smut, to billionaire porn, to queer erotica right on your phone. It features tons of free content, plus you can enjoy more by purchasing or earning coins (the more you use the app, the more rewards you get—as if you need incentive to have more orgasms).
Cost: Free to join, earn or purchase additional “coins” through the app.
4. Audio Desires by Bloom Stories
In case you’re new to audio porn, this is a great option if you’re not a fan of visuals or if you want to listen to something sexy while you’re like, going for a jog or washing the dishes. AudioDesires provides stories—some are read and some are narrated situations—for women and couples. The best part is that the library is huuuuge and it’s full of different voice actors and different scenarios so you can easily mix things up.
One of the best features, though, is the “guided masturbation” option. There is where you’re literally told where to touch yourself and what to do until you’re brought to orgasm. It’s hella erotic, and is a great tool if you want to learn more about your body or simply try something new!
Cost: 12 months for $10.95, 3 months for $19.95, and 1 month for $29.95
5. Quinn
Launched in 2019, Quinn is an audio porn site that aims to bring more arousal, pleasure, and sex into the mainstream porn culture by proving there’s more to it than meets the eye—hence the audio aspect. The site has hundreds of audio stories from 50+ creators with content that’ll scratch whatever your itch is. From accents to age differences to “safe for work” options, it’d be hard not to find something that’ll turn you on.
Cost: Free one-week trial, $4.99/per month (annual) or $7.99/per month (monthly)
6. Emjoy
Perfect for newbies, Emjoy’s goal is to help women reach their sexual peaks by learning all about arousal, self esteem, and sex. You can go on “journeys” that’ll help you harness your own eroticism, you can listen to their vast selection of audio porn, or you can double dip and do a bit of both. Regardless of what you use the app for, this female-focused pleasure center can help anyone achieve their sexual goals—you guessed it, safely.
Cost: $10.99/month or $99.99/year
7. FrolicMe
If you’re a fan of a variety of erotic materials, FrolicMe is about to become your go-to source. The female-founded site offers a diverse range of content including videos, erotic stories, erotic audio, photos, and even articles. The goal is for everything on the site to “play on erotic passion and desire,” and trust me, it delivers. Fresh content drops weekly, so there’s always something new to explore. Also, the quality of the videos is extremely top-notch, so if you want your films to be more than just some shaky handheld footage, this is your place.
Cost: $6.95 for a one-week trial, $15.95 for a monthly subscription, $30.95 for a single month, $79.95 for a one-year subscription
8. Make Love Not Porn
In the words of Make Love Not Porn’s founder Cindy Gallop, MLNP is “pro-sex, pro-porn, and pro-knowing the difference.” This site’s main selling point? It features real-life couples having actual sex. This means the performers are paid a lot more ethically too, because the site operates on a video rental model—aka they see a more direct share of the profit per view. If you’re turned on by seeing people get it on without the acting, this one’s for you.
Cost: $7 for 3 videos Welcome Bundle, or $10/month for 5 videos, $30/month for 30 videos, or $50/month for 50 videos
9. Aorta Films
An award-winning porn studio, Aorta Films specializes in, as the studio itself puts it, “Lusty, opulent, glorious fuckery.” Their films feature a diverse range of sexual identities, genders, and body types in all kinds of arousing situations. Non-members can pay to stream or download videos, but a paid membership will grant you free streaming and a 50 percent discount on all downloads.
Cost: $18.99 for a one-month membership, $15.99/mo for a three-month membership, or $8/mo for a year-long membership (Individual films available to rent or purchase for non-members.)
10. Bellesa.co
There’s a lot to love about Bellesa. Not only do they showcase real, unscripted sex, but they also never include fake orgasms in their vids (yes, groundbreaking). Per Bellesa’s website, they believe “sexuality on the internet should depict women as we truly are—as subjects of pleasure, not objects of conquest.” All of their content (including porn videos, erotic stories, and articles) is ethically created, and there’s a wide variety of free materials for anyone who doesn’t want to pay. That said, paying is totally the move since it gives you access to the giant library of content and exclusive videos.
Cost: $3/2-day trial; $19.99/month for 30 days or $10/per month with a yearly subscription.
11. PinkLabel.tv
PinkLabel.tv is like Netflix for indie porn, and this ethical, queer-owned, inclusive hub truly has something for everyone. The website describes it as a platform where “open-minded viewers will discover films spanning softcore to hardcore, plot to no plot, and depictions of many different kinds of sexual orientations and desires.” Plus, the site helps up-and-coming adult filmmakers with everything from production to testing to learning how to run a biz. You can either rent movies à la carte or subscribe as a PinkLabel PLUS member to get access to all the films and live stream events.
Cost: Monthly $29.00, or $119.88 for a year
12. XConfessions/Lust Cinema by Erika Lust
Erika Lust is an erotic filmmaker known for her films that are ultra spicy but also female-pleasure focused, while maintaining a signature level of intensity. And now, all her art is in one place. That includes XConfessions, which takes anonymous submissions of your sex confessions and recreates them into erotic films. It’s truly some of the best adult content you’ll find that plays on all your sexual fantasies and remains realistic. The best part? If one of your submissions gets picked, you get some perks—like free video access. It also includes Lust Cinema, orgasmically steamy content without impossible body standards, focusing on realistic, inclusive, hot sex, no matter what you’re into. Lust’s HD films re-center tired porn narratives through a sex-positive, feminist lens. Not only are downloads from the site totally reliable and ad-free, but they also adhere to ethical standards. Every performer is fairly compensated for their work and receives the benefits that any other full-time employee would.
Cost: $1.00 for a 3-day trial, $23.95 for one month, $10.95/monthly for 12 months
13. Netflix
I know, I know, but seriously: Netflix is full of sexy scenes that are way more realistic and sometimes even better than porn. If you’re like me and love a good plot and character love story, Netflix is filled with them. Pair the scenes with some seriously sexy hookups, and you’ve got a crossover of character porn you’re actually interested in. Plus, you probs already have Netflix downloaded on all your streaming devices anyway.
A few of my favorite shows that really capitalize on the whole porn-y thing: Outlander, The Witcher (good luck watching Henry Cavill and not feeling the urge to touch yourself), Sex/Life, Élite, and of course, Bridgerton.
Cost: $7.99 for standard with ads, $17.99/month for standard streaming, and $24.99/month for premium
14. Pornhub Premium
The internet’s hottest club is Pornhub—it has everything. Still, when it comes to free porn, especially from tube sites that aggregate everything from cam sites to big-name studios, you’re right to be a little wary before clicking anything. Pornhub Premium, the biggest adult site’s paid option, gives you access to every sort of video you could possibly imagine for a pretty reasonable monthly fee. The benefit to paying for your porn is twofold: You’re free to stream ad-free video and download whatever you’d like without effectively busting your laptop, and you’re paying for your product to fairly compensate sex workers and other industry professionals. Win-win.
Cost: Free one-week trial membership, then $14.99/month or $143.88/year
15. Dipsea
Okay, another W for all of you audio erotica fans: Dipsea.
You’ve probably noticed how free forums like Reddit are overwhelmingly filled with male-centric stories and scripts with low-quality audio. But Dipsea is a women-founded app that serves “sexy audio stories that set the mood and spark your imagination.” The stories are high-quality, inclusive, and cut to fit your schedule—options vary from three-minute clips to whole hour-long stories to settle in with (or draw inspo from with a partner).
You can choose from stories with varying degrees of explicitness, from fairly tame tales of casual voyeurism, to hot and heavy threesomes, to guided solo-sex sessions. Some stories are available for free before you subscribe, but an annual subscription gives you access to hundreds of existing audio stories and three new ones every week.
Cost: 7-day free trial, annual subscription of $69.99
16. Literotica
If you’ve ever been into dirty fanfiction or Fifty Shades, or flipped through a mostly tame novel to find all the scandalous parts, you might be a Literotica fan. Literotica has a huge selection of categories, from erotic couplings, first-time stories, and masturbation, to erotic horror and fetish. And if you’re feeling particularly *inspired* after reading a few, the site accepts submissions and regularly holds erotic story contests.
Cost: Free
17. CrashPad Series
The CrashPad Series has been praised for its ethical treatment of performers and representation of queer sexuality. Queer filmmaker Shine Louise Houston of Pink & White Productions casts IRL people and couples who identify as dykes and lesbians; femme, masculine, cis or trans women; trans men, people of color; people of all sizes; older queer folks; and people with disabilities. What makes the site stand out is the fact that performers are doing exactly what they want on camera. This makes for a video series that features real, consensual sex, BDSM and kink, a lot of orgasms, and a lot of communication. It’s not only refreshing and necessary but also super hot.
Cost: $29.00 a month, or $119.88 a year
18. Bright Desire
A subscription to the ad-free, spyware-free, cliché-free site Bright Desire guarantees you access to “smart, sensual sex” that’s made to “engage your mind as well as your heart and libido.” That means real individuals, couples, and groups who get it on just as they might in real life, if real life were always nicely lit and artistically shot. There are tons of sex-positive videos to choose from, including lesbian scenes, solo-sex quickies, partner role-playing, phone-sex scenes, and threesomes.
Cost: $37.95 for 90 days, $22.95 for the first 30 days then $9.95 recurring every month
19. OnlyFans
While OnlyFans is technically not a porn site, it is swimming in the stuff—and a lot of it may actually be safer than traditional porn tube sites. On OnlyFans, you can interact with porn performers and adult content creators directly, subscribing to their original work instead of seeing it secondhand on sketchy tube sites. This means the pay is often more equitable and creators have more control over what content is available to the public. Come here for great content of all kinds, especially amateur.
Cost: Varies by subscription.
20. OMGYes
OMGYes was created specifically with women and vulva-having people’s pleasure in mind. On the site, you’ll find videos, diagrams, animations, and infographics of women explaining and demonstrating to viewers exactly how they get themselves off using a bunch of different methods. The techniques they use (like “withholding,” “shallowing,” or “layering”) are popular with women everywhere, per research that OMGYes conducted in partnership with Indiana University, the Kinsey Institute, and Yale University. So basically, you’re bound to learn new movements that’ll make you cum and you get to watch some sexy videos of women getting off. (Plus, if you pay for the premium membership, there’s the option to watch partnered sex content, too.)
Cost: $49 one-time payment for access to 62 OMGYes essential videos, or $75 one-time payment for access to 300+ OMGYes essential videos plus couple-specific content.
21. JoyBear
We have to look across the pond to find JoyBear, a British porn site known for its passionate, complicated, and in other words, real female characters (character being the important word—not just a male gaze-centered collection of body parts). As anyone who’s read a romance novel knows, the most erotic part often isn’t the penetration—it’s the buildup, which is why JoyBear goes out of their way to include scenes with its characters making out. Keeping in line with their ethos, they make sure to fairly pay all performers.
Cost $2.95 for a 3-day trial, $29.95 for a 1-month membership, $16.65 for a 3-month membership, $99.95 for one year, $299.00 for a lifetime membership
22. A Four Chambered Heart
A Four Chambered Heart is a life-altering erotic collection of images, films, and writing. It’s by founders who have a “background in analog photography and art school bullshit,” and it shows in the least-pretentious but most beautiful way possible. Simply browsing some of their erotic still images will be enough to make you want to pay the twelve bucks a month that lets you watch “Fucked,” “Idolotry,” “Secretions,” and more, all of which you can watch previews of.
Cost: Free to look at some images, $12/month for membership
23. Afterglow
TBH, watching Afterglow’s home screen is probably enough to make you want to cum. Pleasure is the focus, and you can tell. The couples are talking, kissing, and having consensual, passionate sex. Because all the videos are made by women, female pleasure is the focus, and you can tell.
Cost: 1 day, $2.99, $9.99 monthly, $69 annually
