As YouTube, Facebook, and liberal tech giants crack down on gun content (and conservative channels) many are seeking alternatives where they can enjoy wholesome gun content without feeling like criminals or fascists.
Creators are also looking for a stable platform to produce gun content without fear that their hard worked video productions will get deleted without warning.
5. Full30.com
Full30 was one of the first alternative platforms I heard about. They were promoting themselves (or someone on their behalf was) at VidCon this year, and we got a chance to take a peek at their website.
The reason it is last on this list is for a few reasons:Â
- The website UI leaves a LOT to be desired. Navigation is utterly atrocious.Â
- They intentionally do not display view counts on thumbail pages because they are embarrassingly low. Even videos from Hickok45Â Â are ranging below 4,000 views and 6 comments!Â
- Their support team doesn’t appear to respond to inquiries (we tried several times to reach them.)Â
- How do you upload videos on this website???Â
While we do commend Full30 for at least trying and offering a firearms alternative to YouTube, I would never use the site for the lack of views and horrid navigation and UI.
This website was clearly designed by “gun guys” and not technology people. We’ve included it on this list because some big YouTubers do upload here and it may be a good way to pierce through the noise on YouTube (for those who haven’t had their channels banned yet!).
4. GunTube.org
Similar to Full30, GunTube suffers from a poor UI design as it looks like a 2004 rip off of YouTube.
I will admit that the navigation of this website is a little better than Full30.
Again, like other alternatives to YouTube, you will notice that view counts are low and the content definitely reflects the low view counts.
Serious content creators probably aren’t going to be flocking to this site anytime soon for that 26 view high.
There is a section on their website called “Most Watched” and the highest view count is a video titled “What is GunTube?” with an impressive 451 views. Just incredible folks!
3. D.Tube
DTube, otherwise known as Decentralized Tube, is practically a YouTube clone on the blockchain. (If you don’t know anything about blockchain, it isn’t really necessary to enjoy the platform, but you have a lot of homework to do.)
Yes, the UI looks very much like YouTube, and that’s a good thing, as we are looking for well built websites that can truly compete with the likes of YouTube for firearms content. This was a website clearly designed by tech people and it surely shows.
Downfalls of this platform: It is not Gun-Centric, there is a variety of content on this platform so Gun channels haven’t broken in yet. This may either be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it, since it means the door is still open for an influencer to dominate the platform.
The benefit of the platform is the blockchain backbone. Once a video is uploaded, it will remain there forever! Even if you try to delete it, you can’t! (This could be a bad thing as well!)
However, I don’t see this as a good option for gun specific channels yet. Unless we start seeing a gun community building up on this platform, it has yet to prove itself as a viable alternative, but the technology and design definitely is great!
2. UGE Tube
UGETube might be my favorite on this list. One of our favorite radio talkshow hosts has content on this platform, so we have to love it!
Just like the rest of the platforms however, it seems that the viewer count is low for recently uploaded videos (in the past 3 months).
The content seems to be all over the place, while still having some focus on gun content and political content.
Guns, Politics, they go hand in hand!
This is just my opinion, but I personally believe that a platform just dedicated to guns will not be able to survive on its own. You need to integrate it with the broader fan base, politics, outdoor life, etc to keep a bigger audience interested. I do like the mix in content, though there seems to be a lot more (arguably unrelated) videos on this platform that have embarrassingly low views.
Some gun content has thousands of views on here, so it does seem possible to break into the platform easily!
1. GunStreamer.com
GunStreamer is one of the sites on this list that combine pure gun focused content with a good design!
As like the rest of the platforms, after the website design itself, the most important thing we are looking for here is: does this website have an active user base?
As you can tell from the above screenshot, some videos have 300 views, while others have 9,000 views! This is certainly a step up from Full30 and GunTube for sure!
The website is well designed and easy for new users to create and account and start uploading video content.
One of my favorite features about this website is the “Import from YouTube” option, which makes it pretty easy for Gun channels to import their content from YouTube with a few clicks! No need to wait for your videos to upload on a slow internet connection.
We even imported our own content easily!
I have been fiddling with this website for a while, while advertisements do appear next to our uploaded video content, I can NOT figure out how or where we (as content creators) will get paid for monetized views?
This is obviously one HUGE aspect for content creators, it is either non-existent on this platform or invite only, as I can not find any settings on my profile to indicate payments. We have reached out to GunStreamer for clarification. At the time of writing this article, we have not received any reply.
Conclusion
None of these alternatives have really “broken in” yet as a leading competitor. The internet is still flush with new firearms and free speech alternatives to YouTube, so any one of these websites could become THE GUN SITE for content creators, but until then, I’d say GunStreamer and UGETube are the two best options for right now.
