artbase vs DeviantArt: An Honest Head-to-Head
DeviantArt has 25 years of history and hundreds of millions of artworks. artbase is the new kid. Here's our honest take on how the two compare in 2026, including the parts where DeviantArt still wins.
Let’s get the awkward part out of the way: we build artbase, so obviously we’d love you to join. But plenty of us grew up on DeviantArt. It’s where a lot of people posted their first drawing, joined their first group, and got their first comment from a stranger on the internet. So we think it deserves a fair comparison.
So this is the write-up we’d want to read ourselves. Where DeviantArt is still the better pick, where we reckon artbase wins, and how to decide.
The short version
| artbase | DeviantArt | |
|---|---|---|
| Around since | 2026 | 2000 |
| Community size | Small and growing | One of the largest art communities on the internet |
| Cost | Free, no ads | Free with ads; Core membership removes them |
| Discovery | Tags and categories, no ranking algorithm | Search, tags and recommendation feeds across a huge archive |
| AI art | Allowed with labels; one setting hides it all | Allowed with labels; browse settings dial it down |
| AI training on your art | Never | Opted out of third-party datasets by default, but runs its own generator (DreamUp) |
| Written work | Short stories, poetry, serialised fiction, fanfiction | Long-standing literature category |
| Best for | Getting seen in a smaller, feedback-driven community | Reach, history and an established audience |
Community: 25 years vs the ground floor
There’s no way around it: DeviantArt is enormous. It’s been running since 2000, it holds hundreds of millions of artworks, and whatever niche you’re in (pixel art, fan art, photography, literature) there’s a corner of DeviantArt for it, with groups older than some of their members.
But scale cuts both ways. Post something new there without an established following and it can vanish into the archive within hours. That’s not a dig at DeviantArt. It’s just what happens when that many uploads land every single day.
artbase is the opposite trade. We’re small, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But small is the whole point right now: when you upload, actual people see it. New members get noticed instead of buried. If you’ve read our guide to your first 100 followers, you already know how much that early visibility matters.
If you want reach today, DeviantArt has it. If you want to be seen while you grow, that’s the thing we built artbase for.
Discovery: feeds vs tags
On DeviantArt, discovery is a mix of search, tags and recommendation feeds, and popularity tends to snowball. The front pages mostly belong to artists who already have a following.
Discovery on artbase runs on tags and categories. If someone searches for what you make, they can find you, whether you joined yesterday or on launch day. Your reach comes down to how well you describe your work.
To be fair, more total eyeballs exist on DeviantArt. That’s just maths. But we’d rather you understand exactly how people find your work than hope a feed smiles on you.
Profiles and portfolios
Both platforms give you a profile gallery. DeviantArt’s galleries and folders have had 25 years to mature, and Core members get extra customisation on top.
We designed artbase profiles to work as a portfolio from day one. Your username is your portfolio link, and Collections let you keep the polished work separate from sketches, studies and experiments. Our portfolio guide covers how to curate it well.
Call this one a draw. DeviantArt gives you more knobs to fiddle with; artbase takes less work to look presentable.
The AI question
This is where the two philosophies really split, and it’s worth being precise, because DeviantArt’s policy is better than its reputation suggests.
Both platforms allow AI-generated work and require labels. DeviantArt backs that up with automated detection, opted everyone’s work out of third-party training datasets by default, and came up with the noai directives that tell scrapers to stay away. Fair’s fair: that’s real work on artists’ behalf.
Here’s where we differ:
- Viewing. DeviantArt lets you dial AI art down in your browse settings. On artbase, one setting hides it completely. Your feed, your call.
- Training. DeviantArt also runs DreamUp, its own AI image generator, and plenty of artists are uncomfortable with that. Our position is shorter: member artwork is never used to train AI models. There’s no opt-out to hunt for, because there’s nothing to opt out of.
We’ve written up where every major platform stands on AI if you want the full landscape.
Writers are welcome on both
DeviantArt has hosted literature for decades, and that community is real. We added written work to artbase in mid-2026: short stories, poetry, serialised fiction posted chapter by chapter, and fanfiction, all with the same tags, categories and feedback culture as visual art. If you draw and write (a very common combination), everything finally lives in one profile.
Cost
DeviantArt is free with ads. Core membership (paid, tiered) removes them and unlocks customisation and selling tools.
artbase is free with no ads. There’s a Pro plan coming, but right now new members will become Founding Members and keep every Pro feature free for life, plus a permanent badge. When those spots are gone, they’re gone.
So which one?
Honestly? Maybe both. Most artists spread their work across a few platforms anyway.
Stick with DeviantArt if you want the biggest audience available today, your niche community lives there, or your existing gallery and watchers are too valuable to walk away from. Those are all good reasons.
Try artbase if you’re tired of posting into the void, you’d rather be found through tags than ranked by an algorithm, you want a hard guarantee your art never trains an AI model, or you like the idea of joining somewhere early enough to help shape it (with permanent perks for doing so).
And if you’re weighing up more than these two, our round-up of DeviantArt alternatives covers the whole field.
Final thoughts
DeviantArt is a giant, and giants have real advantages: audience, history, infrastructure. We’re not going to out-scale 25 years of internet history any time soon, and we’re not trying to.
What we are trying to do is build the thing scale can’t buy: a community where your work gets seen, the feedback is genuine, and you always know where you stand. If that sounds like your kind of place, artbase is open to everyone. Free, no invite code, and the ground floor is still the ground floor.
Frequently asked questions
Is artbase a good alternative to DeviantArt?
It depends on what you want. If you want the biggest possible audience and a 25-year archive, DeviantArt is still the larger platform. If you want a smaller community where new work actually gets seen, discovery runs on tags instead of an algorithm, and your art is never used to train AI models, that is exactly what artbase was built for.
Is artbase free like DeviantArt?
Yes. artbase is free to join, and unlike DeviantArt's free tier it has no ads. A paid Pro plan is coming, but the first 100 members become Founding Members and keep every Pro feature free for life.
Does artbase allow AI art like DeviantArt does?
Both platforms allow AI-generated work and require it to be labelled. The differences: artbase gives every viewer a single setting that hides AI work completely, and never uses member artwork to train AI models. DeviantArt opts your work out of third-party training datasets by default, but it also runs its own AI generator, DreamUp.
Can I use both artbase and DeviantArt?
Absolutely, and plenty of artists do. A common setup is keeping an established DeviantArt gallery for its audience and back-catalogue while building a community home on artbase, where being early means your work gets noticed.