When Quora launched a huge corporation ruled the Q&A market.

Quora defeated it within a few years.

Nowadays it’s still one of the leading Q&A sites.

Is it still worth it though in the AI age?

Did Reddit steal the show from Quora?

How Quora beat the market leader

Yahoo Answers dominated the Q&A space around 2010 when the Quora hype started and I originally wrote this article.

Quora was barely visible at the start.

Yet there was a huge hype around it.

Influencers from the SEO industry like Rand Fishkin relied heavily on it.

The answers were usually in-depth and expert-driven.

Yahoo Answers in contrast looked clumsy with average Janes and Joes asking and answering questions with questionable grammar.

The site looked largely unmoderated and often useless answers surfaced.

Quora in contrast led by quality not quantity. Yet it grew steadily.

In 2017 Quora finally overtook Yahoo Answers.

Now Quora still leads the market even though Reddit does something similar on a larger scale.

Many people ask questions on the Web, especially on search engines like Google, chatbots and also on social media.

Even when they don’t ask a literal question containing a question mark!

Most search queries are questions nonetheless.

It’s just that people don’t enter the whole sentence in the Google search or chatbot box.

By 2021 Yahoo Answers – the formerly dominating Q&A site – went offline completely.

Is Quora still the market leader?

Is Quora still worth it as of 2026?

Is Reddit the best place for questions and answers now?

From hype to market leader

When you search for [best smartphone] you are most probably asking yourself “what is the best smartphone”.

Even a search for the term [smartphone] itself implies that you are looking for the best or at least most popular smartphone.

We witnessed a frenzy on social media about Quora in its early days. Pundits proclaimed Quora to be the next Twitter etc.

Still Quora is not for everybody.

I tried it a few times over the years and was disappointed despite high engagement on my side and lots of views onsite.

To this day I get around 200 views per week on answers I have written many years ago.

Yet I could never register any significant Quora traffic or other positive outcomes.

Nowadays Reddit gets much more attention and Quora is the less loved stepchild of the Web in this space.

Yet Quora is still important.

AI search engines still rely on it to some extent, not just Reddit for authentic UGC voices.

It’s very difficult to use without a lot of effort:

thus I ask you to consider whether it’s a good venue for popularizing your online presence.

Especially business users struggle with Quora as the site does not allow self-promotion. Is it actually worth it?

You have to be an expert on Quora

I’ve been on Quora for a few years by now and have tested it for some of my projects as well.

To make it short: it did not work for me. Why?

It took me a lot of time to create content specifically for Quora.

It even got featured on their newsletters yet the traffic outcome was basically non-existent.

Any outgoing links were either hidden from view or ignored by Quora users.

People do not click through from Quora unless you focus very much on clickbait!

Yet such type of cliff hanger posts get deleted by the Quora staff.

They sometimes even remove content after years of being online just because someone else wrote a similar answer.

Reddit vs Quora

Now Reddit and Quora dominate the Q&A market.

Even though Reddit is leading now you still have to consider it.

It’s still of the main sites when you are looking for answers on most topics.

There are specialized communities and forums for all kinds of niches, and Reddit has those as well.

Yet Quora covers them all. Plus AI summaries on top make it easier to consume than often messy Reddit user content.

I’m not a Quora expert and I have advised small business owners to be cautious of it in the past. Why?

Let me point out the reasons why using Quora might still not work for you.

As Reddit is so popular now I’d like to compare it to Quora.

Does Quora have the same benefits or offer other advantages?

Who uses the site?

Q: Tech-savvy users.: entrepreneurs, startup founders, business owners, bloggers, marketers, social media managers.

Reddit: Everybody. John Doe and his wife and even kids. Reddit is popular among younger demographics!

“44% of US Redditors are aged 18 to 29 years old.”

Fabio Duarte on Exploding Topics

Who is your audience?

Are you selling high quality services and goods for professionals and other businesses? Use Quora.

Are you selling large numbers of products or local services to average people? Use Reddit.

As Reddit is by now often ranking well on Google you also may get some traffic that is routed via search.

It’s hard to spread the word on Reddit though.

Until they see your link people are in most cases satisfied with the answer given on the site itself.

Yet self-promotion is frowned upon Reddit.

You can’t just drop links.

On Quora it’s easier to share your website URL.

Who are you?

Are you an accomplished expert with lots of time? Use Quora.

Otherwise you don’t have a chance to stand out.

For instance it seems almost every question about SEO gets answered by a renowned online marketing expert.

In other areas there are sometimes dozens or even hundreds of answers provided by highly skilled professionals.

There is often no room for you in case you aren’t a leader already.

Although I’m pretty known in SEO circles I can’t compete with those who have a whole team of people working for him.

They the time to answer questions for free while others do the paid work. I don’t. Do you?

Are you the average business owner or freelancer like I am? Use Reddit.

Many answers written by people like us are mostly too short or low quality so you can easily stand out.

Yet don’t just spend your whole time creating content for Reddit or Quora!

Invest in onsite content and use other social media tools to drive traffic to it.

Make real people aka potential clients read your advice and click your links. I do on Reddit every day!

Of course you have to say more than “my company is the best”. Offer actual solutions. Be helpful!

Yet there are even some people who get away with that low quality approach.

There are also some ways to trick Reddit or Quora when you’re unethical. You can perform better than that though.

Are you after a good rep, authority and trust?

Use both Q&A sites ethically with enough time and effort spent on it.

On Reddit you can build a reputation for yourself without competing with the best of the best.

You have to spend a few hours per week on it but it’s a long term investment.

Or you pay someone for it! I can help you with Reddit.

Then one day you can show that most people consider your answers and expertise to be worth it.

Then you can earn money with it.

Are you after traffic, leads or even sales? Do you need to earn money right now?

Don’t have the time to compete for days, weeks or months without getting something in return?

Don’t waste your time with Quora. Yet I got leads and sales from Reddit already!

Can you keep up with all the questions?

I could ask questions like these for a while.

Yet I don’t have the time. Also my impression is that I can’t cope with Quora. I prefer Reddit!

The pace questions get asked, answered, liked, merged, deleted etc. is too fast on Quora. Reddit is more human.

I’m spending most of my social media time on Reddit, LinkedIn nowadays and I won’t build a new power profile on Quora.

You have to invest a lot to get something out of Quora.

It can easily become an unpaid full-time gig just like Instagram.

Also there are other community and social media sites to consider joining which actually don’t cost so much time investment. 

Heck, even good old forums often are a viable alternative.

I have been testing Stack Exchange for some time and I was pretty fond of it.

Yet AI and other issues almost killed it off!

It started as a tool for programming questions but for a few years now they have lots other topics covered as well.

You can still follow me on Quora if you like.

Yet as I said I’m mainly on Reddit, LinkedIn and still on X/Twitter despite Elon.

Also on Quora I mostly dealt with parkour related questions not search, social media and blogging.