AllSides, ProCon.org and Fifty Fifty Politics are three of the most useful nonpartisan resources online, and they answer three genuinely different questions. Here is what each one is built to do, so you can go straight to the one that fits.
If you want to know how a news story is being covered across the political spectrum, use AllSides. If you want a structured list of arguments for and against a policy, use ProCon.org. If you want to understand what the left and the right each actually argue, and why, use Fifty Fifty Politics.
| AllSides | ProCon.org | Fifty Fifty Politics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | How is this story being covered? | What are the arguments for and against? | What does each side believe, and why? |
| Organised by | Outlet and media bias rating | Pro and con | Left and right |
| Scale | 2,400+ media bias ratings across news outlets | Around 100 issues, researched by staff | 70+ important political topics |
| Depth per topic | Headlines and article roundups from across the spectrum | Curated quotes and sourced arguments on each side | Ten arguments, each expandable, plus four sources, and a full blog for each topic |
| Cost | Free, with paid tools for schools | Free, supported by Britannica | Free, no account, currently no ads |
Figures from each organisation's own published material, July 2026.
AllSides rates news outlets on a left to right scale and places coverage of the same story side by side, so you can see how a single event is framed differently depending on where it is reported. Their bias ratings are the most widely cited in the field and have been running since 2012.
It is the right tool when your question is about the media. It is less suited to understanding a policy debate itself, because it shows you coverage rather than argument.
ProCon.org, now part of Britannica, has been publishing sourced pro and con breakdowns since 2004. Each issue is researched by professional staff and presented as a balanced list of arguments supporting and opposing a position, with citations throughout.
It is the right tool when your question is should this policy exist. Its structure sorts arguments by direction rather than by who holds them, which is a different lens from partisan positioning.
Fifty Fifty Politics takes 70+ of the most important political debates and lays out five arguments from the left and five from the right on each, in equal length and equal detail. Every argument expands into a full paragraph explaining the reasoning behind it, and every debate carries four sources plus a companion article with original charts.
It is the right tool when you want to get across a whole issue quickly: both positions, the reasoning behind each, and where the real disagreement sits. That makes it useful whether you are forming your own view, pressure testing one you already hold, or trying to understand someone else. It covers current fights as well as long running ones, from gun control to prescription drug pricing.
This is the distinction that decides which site you want, and it is easy to miss.
A pro and con list sorts arguments by direction: everything supporting a policy on one side, everything opposing it on the other. A left and right breakdown sorts them by who holds them and why.
The difference matters because the same position is often held by both sides for opposite reasons. Opposition to a given trade rule might come from the left on labour grounds and from the right on sovereignty grounds. A pro and con list puts those two arguments in the same column and loses the reason they exist. A left and right breakdown keeps them apart, which is usually what someone means when they say they want to understand the other side.
It depends what you are asking. AllSides for media coverage, ProCon.org for structured arguments for and against, Fifty Fifty Politics for understanding what the left and the right each argue on a specific debate and the reasoning behind it.
Pro and con sorts arguments by whether they support or oppose a policy. Left and right sorts them by who makes them and why. The same policy is often opposed by both sides for completely different reasons, which a pro and con list tends to flatten.
No. Each debate gives both positions equal length and equal detail, and links the sources behind each. The aim is for a reader on either side to recognise their own view stated fairly rather than as a strawman.
Yes. No paywall, no account, no advertising and no signup wall. Every debate and every source is open to read.
No. AllSides rates and compares news coverage. ProCon.org publishes researched pro and con breakdowns of issues. They are often mentioned together because both are nonpartisan, but they answer different questions.
See both sides of every debate: ten arguments, five from each side, with sources.
Browse All Debates