Search engines and AI chatbots are quick, but they are not always right, and they rarely tell you what real people who have been there think. Question-and-answer websites fill that gap. On most of them, people with first-hand experience or real expertise answer, and many let the best answers be voted to the top.
The list of Q&A sites has changed a lot in the last few years. Yahoo Answers and ASKfm have closed, and others have turned into something else entirely. We checked every site on this list in September 2026, so all 13 below are live and still answer questions, whether from a community, from experts or from a team of writers.
Quick facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many sites are on this list? | 13, all checked and working in September 2026 |
| Best for general questions | Quora, Reddit and Answers.com |
| Best for expert answers | Stack Overflow for code, Avvo for US legal questions |
| Best for homework | eNotes Homework Help and Brainly |
| Best for live events | AhaSlides Q&A, for questions from an audience in the room |
Question-and-answer websites for general knowledge
1. Quora
Founded in 2009 and launched in 2010, Quora is one of the best-known Q&A sites. Anyone can ask a question, and answers often come from people with real experience of the topic, whether that is a doctor, a pilot or someone who has just moved abroad. You can follow topics, people and Spaces (communities around a shared interest) to build a feed of questions you care about.
Good for: opinions and first-hand experience on almost any subject. Account needed: yes, to ask or answer.
2. Reddit
Reddit is not a Q&A site as such, but several of its communities are some of the busiest places on the internet to get a question answered. r/NoStupidQuestions is for questions you are embarrassed to ask elsewhere, r/explainlikeimfive asks for simple explanations of complicated ideas, and r/askscience is for science questions.
Good for: quick, plain-English answers and lots of different viewpoints. Account needed: to post, yes; to read, no.
3. Answers.com
Answers.com is one of the oldest Q&A sites around, with millions of user-generated questions and answers across school subjects, entertainment, hobbies and everyday life. It has been owned by the advertising technology company System1 since 2022.
Good for: finding a quick answer to a question someone has probably asked before.
4. Wikipedia Reference Desk
The Wikipedia Reference Desk works like a library help desk: you post a question and volunteer editors try to answer it, usually pointing you to sources. It has sections for computing, entertainment, humanities, language, mathematics, science and miscellaneous questions. Volunteers are not allowed to give legal or medical advice.
Good for: research questions where you want sources, not just opinions. Account needed: no.
5. HowStuffWorks
HowStuffWorks was started in 1998 by Marshall Brain, then an instructor at North Carolina State University, to explain how things work. It is not a place to post your own question: its writers answer common questions in explainer articles on science, technology, health and everyday life.
Good for: clear explanations of science, technology and everyday things. Account needed: no.
Question-and-answer websites for expert and specialist topics
6. Stack Overflow
Created in 2008 by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky, Stack Overflow is the best-known Q&A site for programmers. Answers are voted up or down, the person who asked can accept the one that solved their problem, and duplicate questions are closed and linked to the original, so its huge archive usually has a tested answer to a coding problem.
Good for: programming errors and code questions. Account needed: yes, to ask or answer.
7. Super User
Super User is Stack Overflow's sister site for computer enthusiasts and power users. Launched in 2009 on the same Stack Exchange model, it covers hardware, operating systems, software settings and troubleshooting rather than programming.
Good for: "why is my computer doing this?" questions. Account needed: yes, to ask or answer.
8. Avvo
Avvo lets you ask a legal question for free and anonymously, and answers come from lawyers who take part in its forum. It also has a large archive of questions that have already been answered. Avvo covers US law, and an answer on a forum is general information, not a replacement for advice from a lawyer on your own case.
Good for: understanding a US legal situation before you speak to a lawyer.
9. GotQuestions.org
Launched in 2002, GotQuestions.org answers questions about the Bible, theology and Christian life. It describes itself as a Christian, evangelical, theologically conservative and nondenominational ministry, so its answers come from that perspective.
Good for: Bible and faith questions from an evangelical Christian point of view.
Question-and-answer websites for study and homework
10. English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
English Language & Usage is a Stack Exchange site for linguists, etymologists and serious English enthusiasts, covering grammar, word origins and usage. If you are learning English as a second language, its sister site English Language Learners is a better fit for beginner questions.
Good for: grammar, meaning and word-origin questions. Account needed: yes, to ask or answer.
11. Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange is for maths questions at any level, from school algebra to university proofs. Showing what you have already tried gets a much better response than posting the question on its own.
Good for: working through a maths problem step by step. Account needed: yes, to ask or answer.
12. eNotes Homework Help
In the eNotes Homework Help section, answers come from certified educators such as teachers and professors, alongside AI-generated instant answers that an educator can fact-check. It is strongest on literature and history, which fits eNotes' study guides, and some features need a paid subscription.
Good for: literature and humanities homework.
13. Brainly
Founded in Poland in 2009 as a place for students to ask and answer each other's homework questions, Brainly now combines its community answers with AI-generated explanations. The free version has limits, and a paid plan unlocks unlimited answers.
Good for: school homework across a wide range of subjects.
Q&A sites that have closed or changed
If you have used Q&A sites for a while, you may be looking for a few old favourites. Here is what happened to them:
- Yahoo Answers closed on 4 May 2021 after Yahoo said it had become less popular. Only the separate Japanese version, Yahoo! Chiebukuro, is still online.
- ASKfm, the anonymous question app, shut down on 1 December 2024.
- BlikBook, a Q&A platform for university courses, was bought by Civitas Learning in 2015 and its website no longer loads.
- FunAdvice has turned into a directory of local businesses.
- eHow now publishes DIY, recipe and craft articles rather than answering questions.
- Chegg still sells homework help, but cut about 45% of its staff in October 2025 as students moved to free AI tools.
How to run live Q&A at your own event
The websites above are great for questions to strangers online. When the questions come from people in the same room, such as students in a lecture, staff at a town hall or guests at a conference, you need a live Q&A tool instead.
With a Q&A slide on AhaSlides, your audience sends questions from their phones while you present. Everyone can upvote the questions they want answered, so the most popular ones rise to the top, and you can let people ask anonymously so the quieter ones speak up too. On the Pro, Enterprise and Edu Large plans you can also moderate questions before they appear on screen.
Need inspiration for what to ask? Try our list of ask me anything questions or these open-ended questions.
Frequently asked questions
Which website is best for asking questions?
It depends on the question. Quora and Reddit are best for opinions and experience, Stack Overflow for programming, Avvo for US legal questions and eNotes or Brainly for homework. For a question in a live session, use an audience Q&A tool such as AhaSlides.
Is Yahoo Answers still available?
No. Yahoo Answers closed on 4 May 2021 and its questions and answers were deleted. Some of the content was saved by the Internet Archive.
Are answers on Q&A websites reliable?
Not always. Check who is answering, look for answers that cite sources, and treat anything medical, legal or financial as a starting point rather than final advice. Sites with voting, such as Stack Exchange, and sites where experts answer, such as Avvo and eNotes, tend to be more reliable than open forums.
What is a question-and-answer website?
A question-and-answer website is a site where users post questions and other people answer them, usually with voting so the most useful answers rise to the top. Some are open to anyone, while others rely on verified experts.
