MangaDex is a nonprofit website that aggregates translations of

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

manhwa Manhwa () is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to Korean comics. Modern Manhwa has extended its reach to many other countries. These comics have branched outside of Korea by acce ...

, and

manhua () are Chinese-language comics produced in Greater China. Chinese comics and narrated illustrations have existed in China throughout its history. They are usually graphic and can be written for a myriad of genres, including romance, fanta ...

. Content on the website is usually unofficial, uploaded by "

scanlation Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made image scanner, scanning, translation, and Image editing, editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done w ...

" groups, but links to official services like

Manga Plus ''Manga Plus'' (stylized as ''MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA'') is an online manga platform and smartphone app owned by Shueisha that was launched on January 28, 2019. It is available worldwide except in Japan, China, and South Korea which already hav ...

and Bilibili Comics are also provided on the website. MangaDex was started in 2018 by developer Hologfx, and is funded through user donations and

affiliate programs Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of per ...

. The website is blocked in several countries, including Italy, Russia, and Indonesia.

Content

MangaDex primarily hosts unofficial fan translations (

s) of

, and

uploaded by users, with content on the website often being liable for copyright takedowns. Outgoing links to chapters from official services like

and Bilibili Comics are also available, however. MangaDex provides advanced search filtering for series based on demographic (e.g. '' Shōjo'', '' Shōnen''), themes, genres, format and publication status, and allows users to organize titles into personalized libraries. A forum is also hosted on the website. Funding for the website's servers is provided through user donations and

. It is run by unpaid

volunteer Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

s. The interface of the website is available in English, Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese, with chapters also being available in other languages.See dropdown menus in the language section of the settings page:

History

MangaDex was created by developer Hologfx in January 2018 as part of "Project AniDex". An official forum for the website was made public in March.

DMCA subpoena

On December 20, 2019, attorney Evan Stone requested a

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

on behalf of

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

against

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

to give up identifying information on MangaDex's operator. Stone alleged that the website was infringing the copyright of Viz Media by hosting the manga '' Boruto: Naruto Next Generations''. The subpoena was filed in the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in ...

. On January 1, 2020, MangaDex announced on Twitter that they had shut the site down, and would be moving their content to a new

web hosting service A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web h ...

. They expected to be down for approximately 72 hours. Writing for , Amedeo Sebastiano speculated that the intention of Viz Media, who are owned by

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

, may have been to eliminate competition to their new platform Manga Plus. Shueisha had previously requested a subpoena of manga-hosting website Mangastream in March, and sued another website, Hoshinoromi, in September. The website was back up on January 5 under another hosting service with a different temporary

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

, .cc; they had previously used .org. The DMCA subpoena was allegedly caused by a user uploading colored edits of official English translations of Boruto, which was prohibited on the website. Due to legal issues, the new host would not accept site donations, leaving funding for the site an issue. The offending chapters were removed, and the website asked users not to upload official released chapters. They also urged users to report any violations.

2020 bandwidth issues and MangaDex@Home

In 2020, MangaDex started experiencing bandwidth issues from increased traffic during the

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

, compounded by manga-pirating website MangaRock shutting down. Both events led to 15 percent increases in traffic. The operators of the website were also informed that one of its providers would no longer host

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Science and technology * Cache (computing), a technique used in computer storage for easier data access * Cache (biology) or hoarding, a food storing behavior of animals * Cache (archaeology), artifacts p ...

d images on their servers. They consequently described "dismal loading times for old chapters", and announced in June that they would launch MangaDex@Home, an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

distributed computing Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

project that would allow users to volunteer their PCs or servers to host cached images, alleviating bandwidth costs. They described the user participation to be "greater than

hey Hey, HEY, or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the ...

could have imagined", and all visitors of the website were set to receive images from other users through MangaDex@Home rather than MangaDex's servers. Requirements for hosting on the service were described by PC Professionale writer Alfonso Maruccia as stringent, asking users to have at least 80 megabytes per second of both upload and download speed, 40 gigabytes of dedicated space, and 24/7 upkeep. In August, MangaDex reported that their servers were under heavy strain due to new registrations after the websites KissAnime and KissManga were shut down.

Data breach and codebase rewrite

On March 17, 2021, MangaDex operators stated that a hacker had gained access to an administrator's account through a

session token In computer science, a session identifier, session ID or session token is a piece of data that is used in network communications (often over HTTPS) to identify a session, a series of related message exchanges. Session identifiers become necessary ...

from an old database leak. The developers found the vulnerabilities that caused this, but three days later, the hacker gained additional access to another administrator account. They claimed to have gained access to user data, and sent a ransom notice to the developers for $10 thousand in

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

. Two hours later, they posted a

source code leak An internet leak is the unauthorized release of information over the internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, a ...

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

, where they claimed that the site still had a vulnerability despite earlier patches from the developers. The site's operators had no evidence that there had been a

data breach A data breach, also known as data leakage, is "the unauthorized exposure, disclosure, or loss of personal information". Attackers have a variety of motives, from financial gain to political activism, political repression, and espionage. There ...

, but they still assumed that it had happened for security reasons, and shut down the website in addition to warning users to reset their password. The hacker's source code leak was removed from Github following a takedown notice by MangaDex later that month. Following the attack, MangaDex announced a

bug bounty program A bug bounty program is a deal offered by many websites, organizations, and software developers by which individuals can receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially those pertaining to security vulnerabilities. If no fin ...

to further improve security. By mid-April, MangaDex had confirmed that they had identified a data breach containing users' email addresses, IP addresses, and

hashed The Hashid (; Musnad: 𐩢𐩦𐩵𐩣) is a tribal confederation in Yemen. It is the second or third largest – after Bakil and, depending on sources, Madh'hij

passwords. They consequently worked with security website

Have I Been Pwned? Have I Been Pwned? (HIBP; stylized in all lowercase as "‘;--have i been pwned?") is a website that allows Internet users to check whether their personal data has been compromised by data breaches. The site has been widely touted as a valuabl ...

to inform users of the breach, and encouraged people to change their passwords. By this point, the leak had been circulating privately on the internet, but not widely so according to Have I Been Pwned? operator

Troy Hunt Troy Adam Hunt is an Australian web security consultant known for public education and outreach on security topics. He created and operates Have I Been Pwned?, a data breach search website that allows users to see if their personal informati ...

. After the hack, the developers stated that the website's

codebase In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code system files; thu ...

would be completely rewritten for a more secure v5 version of the website, which they estimated would take between one and three weeks. They also stated that it was difficult to give an accurate estimate of the downtime because of the site being run by volunteers. The

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

of the v5 codebase rewrite was released into closed beta on April 12, with an open release on May 11. On June 6, the frontend for the rework was released into early access.

Blocks

In June 2021, customers of the

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

(ISP)

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

started reporting that they had become unable to access MangaDex and other websites hosted by

DDoS-Guard DDoS-Guard is a Russian Internet infrastructure company which provides DDoS protection and web hosting services. Researchers and journalists have alleged that many of DDoS-Guard's clients are engaged in criminal activity, and investigative repo ...

TorrentFreak __NOTOC__ TorrentFreak (TF) is a blog dedicated to reporting the latest news and trends on the BitTorrent protocol and file sharing, as well as on copyright infringement and digital rights. The website was started in November 2005 by a Dutchma ...

journalist Ernesto van der Sar speculated that the block may not have been on purpose, but rather collateral damage of Verizon blocking IP addresses that are similar to MangaDex's. In November, MangaDex's developers managed to create a work-around to allow Verizon customers to access the website, but they were uncertain if it would work permanently. They suggested that users should "consider switching to an ISP that doesn't censor

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

internet access". They did not provide an explanation to the workaround. Similarly, Indonesian ISPs owned by

Telkom Indonesia PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk () officially shortened into PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, also simply known as Telkom, is an Indonesian multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

, including

IndiHome IndiHome (abbreviated from Indonesia Digital Home) is a home telephone, internet, and Internet Protocol television services owned by Telkomsel since July 1, 2023. Prior to Telkomsel's takeover, it was owned by Telkomsel's majority shareholder ...

and

Telkomsel PT Telekomunikasi Selular, trading as Telkomsel, is an Indonesian telecommunications company founded in 1995. Its ownership is divided between Telkom Indonesia (69.9%) and Singtel (30.1%), which serves as Telkom's consumer services arm startin ...

, blocked users from accessing the website in November 2021. A MangaDex administrator claimed on their official

Discord Discord is an instant messaging and Voice over IP, VoIP social platform which allows communication through Voice over IP, voice calls, Videotelephony, video calls, text messaging, and digital media, media. Communication can be private or take ...

server that Telkom had been extorting them for money, alleging that Telkom customers would not be able to access the website unless MangaDex paid them. On December 23, 2021, the Italian government agency

Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (; AGCOM) is the national regulatory agency for the communication industries in Italy. Administrative leadership The 4 members of Agcom board are elected by the Parliament (2 by the Senate, 2 by th ...

stopped MangaDex from operating in Italy after a complaint from the Italian Publishers' Association. This also affected other websites hosting manga. In August 2022, users in Russia similarly lost access to the website.

2025 DMCA takedown

In May 2025, hundreds of series were removed from MangaDex after a coordinated

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

takedown request from Japanese and Korean publishers, including

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

and

Naver Naver (; stylized as NAVER) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment. History Naver was the first Korean web provide ...

. According to a moderator, it is the largest takedown in the website's history.

References

External links

* * * * {{GitHub, mangadex-pub, MangaDex Manga hosting services Aggregation websites Internet properties established in 2018