Civitai
Still the largest public library of open image checkpoints and LoRAs, and the reproduction metadata attached to sample images is what makes it more useful than a file host. But the last two years have been about payment processors and content policy rather than models: card payments came back only for the safe-for-work Green side, and unrestricted content now lives on a separate domain, so anyone depending on it should check which side a model and a membership actually sit on.
Pros
- Sample images carry prompts and generation settings, so results can actually be reproduced
- The on-site generator removes the local-hardware barrier entirely
- A documented developer API exists for pulling model metadata and files
- Membership Buzz allowances scale linearly, so the tiers are easy to reason about
Cons
- Card-billed Green memberships and Blue Buzz cover safe-for-work generation only; anything else runs on a separate domain and currency
- Model licences are set per upload by uploaders, so commercial terms vary file by file
- Repeated policy purges have removed categories of content and, with them, some users' libraries
- Two domains now exist, which splits the catalogue and the community