This article is a collection of Tumblr clones and perceived alternatives that have attempted to: appeal to bloggers in general, emulate the website at some point, kickstart a generic social media clone, offer an alternative, offer an adult-oriented alternative, or show up at a convenient time.

However, a large number of projects have failed for one reason or another: cracking under pressure, failing to impress, failing to meet expectations, failing to remain online at numerous pivotal moments, failing to secure their funding, failing to reach enshittification, etc.

Even if ambitious projects have good intentions, it is easier said than done, and people aren't going to be as optimistic if you keep making them start over, only to let their hopes up. The internet may have an short attention span problem, but that patience tends to run thin for a reason.

Inkstand (inkstandapp) was a Ruby on Rails project¹⁾ that emerged on November 29, 2014,²⁾ was boosted by a censorship scare,³⁾⁴⁾ then one developer was outed for racism⁵⁾⁶⁾ which wasn't promising.⁷⁾⁸⁾ Despite this, they held an Indiegogo campaign on August 3, 2015,⁹⁾ raising a measly $435 of their $10,000 goal,¹⁰⁾ then persevered¹¹⁾ with reservations promised.¹²⁾¹³⁾

The project aimed for an 'alpha' launch in January 2016,¹⁴⁾ but nobody was able to code and one had health problems,¹⁵⁾ so they refunded the backers in full.¹⁶⁾ Some time later, they claimed to have 'some news' on June 11, 2016,¹⁷⁾ but nothing had ever came out of it. At the time of the project's death, the Inkstand team had four people remaining on their team: 'Alice', 'Pastry', 'Jen', and 'Holly'.¹⁸⁾

Briar Nexus (briarnexus) was a proposed network, consisting of the 'Briar Haven' social network and the virtual pet site 'Nexus Pets', that emerged on November 30, 2014¹⁹⁾ and sold as an 'online safe space'.²⁰⁾ Their fundraiser began on GoFundMe,²¹⁾ canceled over a conflict of interest,²²⁾ moved to Kickstarter²³⁾ and failed,²⁴⁾ then moved to Indiegogo and barely made $1,028.²⁵⁾

When the fundraising campaign initially concluded on September 15, 2015, the project seemed stagnant and people grew antsy, especially the users who contributed some of their virtual pet designs. The project lead refused to admit defeat until September 19, 2016, where it was revealed that the hired coder dipped with most of the money.²⁶⁾ At the time of death, it was led by 'Canonkiller' (IceOfWaterFlock).

Tanburu was a short-lived PHP project,²⁷⁾ led by “Thellere” (thelltrolls), that emerged around May 2015.²⁸⁾ However, the project lead was outed for racism,²⁹⁾³⁰⁾ people raided it, so it folded on August 2, 2015, then it became 'invite-only'³¹⁾ until it vanished by 2016. The project lead would later manage The Overseer Project,³²⁾ a Homestuck fan game, which was a whole situation.³³⁾

Swarmr was a short-lived project, led by /u/swarmrofficial, which emerged on September 5, 2017 over concerns that Verizon would silence Tumblr on the net neutrality issue.³⁴⁾ The website was bare bones, and didn't even allow account deletion. A few years later, Swarmr announced their shut down on June 8, 2020, but cited the pandemic,³⁵⁾ which raises questions about the hypothetical in-person work.

WritScrib (writscrib) was a short-lived PHP project that emerged on May 26, 2017 with this unusually bold Indiegogo campaign³⁶⁾ raising $16,638, not including the usual fees.³⁷⁾ The closed beta launched September 30, 2017,³⁸⁾ entered public beta on December 31, 2017,³⁹⁾ then a lack of funds and userbase had forced the project to shut down on August 31, 2018.⁴⁰⁾⁴¹⁾

NewTumbl (newtumbl-2019) was a project, led by “Dean”,⁴²⁾ that emerged on December 15, 2018.⁴³⁾⁴⁴⁾ The project had a customizable dashboard and a volunteer-run rating system.⁴⁵⁾⁴⁶⁾ While it advertised free speech^47)48)49) albeit focused on 'adult' content, they refused to allow Tor and VPN use,⁵⁰⁾ and refused to have anonymous inboxes.⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ The project would then shut down around early June 2023.

Cohost (@cohost_org) was a platform from the “Anti Software Software Club” which emerged in 2019, began its closed beta in February 2022,⁵³⁾ went 'invite only' early access on June 28, 2022,⁵⁴⁾⁵⁵⁾ then they switched to 'delayed registration' during the Twitter acquisition in October 2022.⁵⁶⁾ However in 2024, financial troubles surfaced,⁵⁷⁾⁵⁸⁾ then it entered 'read-only' mode until it shut down.⁵⁹⁾

Bdsmlr (@bdsmlr) is an adult-oriented clone that emerged on May 17, 2013, initially as a Pinterest clone, before swapping to a Tumblr clone around May 2014.⁶⁰⁾ It isn't known who owns Bdsmlr, but they started the Twitter in 2019⁶¹⁾⁶²⁾ and eventually set up an official blog in 2021.⁶³⁾ Details aside, it's a very poorly designed project and they, explicitly, want this to be a subscription-backed business.⁶⁴⁾

Pillowfort (pillowfort-social) is a Ruby on Rails project which emerged on November 3, 2015,⁶⁵⁾ held an Indiegogo campaign on May 29, 2016⁶⁶⁾ that raised $5,239,⁶⁷⁾ and launched in beta on February 3, 2017 with its invite codes sent in waves.⁶⁸⁾ After some experience,⁶⁹⁾⁷⁰⁾ they held a Kickstarter campaign on July 25, 2018⁷¹⁾ that raised $57,040 as they switched to a '$5 paywall' model.⁷²⁾

Over the next few years, Pillowfort would *routinely disappoint* at pivotal moments. During the 2018 porn ban, they took the website offline due to a vulnerability.⁷³⁾⁷⁴⁾ When they left beta⁷⁵⁾ with much fanfare,⁷⁶⁾ they let people register for five days in January 2021,⁷⁷⁾⁷⁸⁾ but a new vulnerability⁷⁹⁾ led to the website being frozen in 'read-only' mode⁸⁰⁾ for three whole months.⁸¹⁾⁸²⁾ These are not good first impressions.

Back in 2019, the website notably moved from 'pillowfort.io' to 'pillowfort.social', as it was discovered that the British Indian Ocean Territory-owned .io TLD disallows pornographic content.⁸³⁾ In 2022, the website revamped its look.⁸⁴⁾⁸⁵⁾ Some time after, the website apparently hired a social media manager, but it's mostly been condolences⁸⁶⁾ and reminding people that they still exist.

Viewy (Вьюи) is a Russian-langauge microblogging website that was a Tumblr clone from 2009 to 2019, but later abandoned the format for a new codebase.⁸⁷⁾ Historically, it was a near identical clone, but they weren't very secure (e.g. potential malvertising next to vital payment details) and the bugs piled up. However, the database was preserved and imported to the new Viewy, so the old accounts can still log in.

• There were Chinese-language Tumblr clones: Sina's Qing, NetEase's Lofter, Shanda's Tuita, Renren's Xiaozhan, Diandian (点点), Kuantu (宽途, Kuānto), etc.