If you are an artist, then you know how difficult it can be to share your art and make a name for yourself. Fortunately, there are online resources and communities like DeviantArt that can help you achieve your goals faster.
For the past two decades, DeviantArt has dominated as the number one community for artists to showcase their digital or traditional photographs. Here, artists can create, promote, and share their craftsmanship.
However, a lot has changed over the years, and similar sites like DeviantArt, even better features have emerged.
Best Sites Like DeviantArt
So in this article, check out my top 15 best sites like DeviantArt.
1. Behance
Behance is a platform that allows you to showcase your designs and find inspiration for your own project.
The site is ideal for new users who want to bring their passion to life and also veteran photographers seeking to expose their expertise to a new audience.
One of my favorite things about Behance is its active online community that allows members to post their creative thoughts thereby keeping the industry alive.
The online community allows you to sample the designs of others to see what’s trending and where you can make improvements in your own art.
Getting started with Behance is as easy as it is with DeviantArt. Simply upload your design to the platform, including an explanation of how you created it, and why.
If you are not sure how to properly present your design on the platform, take a hint from how other artists have done theirs and build on that.
When I first landed on Behance, I couldn’t easily find my way around, so I found some designers in my field, followed them, and commented on their work. And it did the trick because not so long after, I began getting follow requests from some of them.
Behance is now part and parcel of Adobe, so you can access your dashboard and feed from your creative cloud account.
Check out more Behance like sites in this article.
2. Dribbble
Dribbble is very popular among graphic designers. It’s a platform where you can find the work of web designers, illustrators, typography artists, branding designers, and many more.
One obvious area where Dribbble is different from DeviantArt is that it is strictly based on invitation. So if you want to create a profile and start posting on the platform, you must first receive an appropriate invite.
This has its pros and cons. On the one side, getting access to the platform can be a herculean task even for a professional designer.
On the other hand, being an invitation-only platform means that it weeds out all nonprofessional posts, so the platform is populated with only awesome content.
Like other DeviantArt alternatives, Dribbble has its own rules of posting. Each designer is entitled to post shots as long as they have a valid Dribbble membership. However, one aspect that sucks for me is the fact that you can only include one shot per project which I find very limiting.
If you are not satisfied with the single-shot per project and want to increase your quota, then you will need to subscribe to the premium plan. This plan lets you publish multiple fullscreen projects and more.
You can also sell your work on the website and unlock access to other exciting features.
The platform also has a job board section if you are looking for a design job. Most of the companies on the listing offer remote working positions, so you can work from the comfort of your home.
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3. CGSociety
CGSociety is a platform that lets you showcase your 2D and 3D designs.
You will also get access to the latest news in the digital space, so you will see the latest design trends and the various technologies that are in vogue.
Compared to DeviantArt, CGSociety is more oriented toward digital arts, so you will hardly find websites and logo projects on the platform.
The website is perfect for you if you are a digital artist that wants to focus solely on that craft. Once you sign up, you can easily connect to other like-minded designers.
Using the platform is easy. If you can open a web page on Chrome, then you can upload and share your designs without stress.
CGSociety is good for a lot of things, especially finding industry-based news and inspiration for your projects, but I also find that it is one of the easiest programs to build your authority and reputation if you are active on the forum.
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4. ArtStation
ArtStation is a website made for artists to showcase their artworks.
It is more similar to CGSociety than DeviantArt. For example, both ArtStation and CGSociety place a lot of focus on 2D and 3D art. So if your focus is more on digital art, then this platform will suit you.
Like DeviantArt, ArtStation allows you to post your projects on the website, receive feedback, and share your work across several social media channels.
It also has a section dedicated to providing information about the happenings in the industry, and in addition to finding the latest news, you can get access to career advice and inspiration from other artists.
ArtStation has a marketplace where you can list and sell your products and a job board to find your next design work.
ArtStation has a couple of plans with variations in their features, but I have used the basic option and I can say that it is sufficient for the majority of artists.
However, if you don’t find the basic plan enough, you can upgrade to the Plus or Pro plan.
These plans give you access to ArtStation’s learning academy where you can learn from some of the top guns in the industry.
The upgraded plans will also qualify you to write blog articles, use 4k images, and receive priority support should you need it.
The more expensive plan gives you access to your analytics so you can track your visitors’ behavior and you will also qualify to keep up to 80-95% of your revenue as opposed to only 70% on the free plan.
If you want to test your skills against other designers, you can participate in challenges on the platform. Each challenge is an opportunity to learn something new, so it is also a good way to build up your knowledge and grow as quickly as possible.
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5. Tumblr
Tumblr is not a niche-specific design website like DeviantArt. Instead, it is a general blogging site where users can share their ideas and grow their audience.
That being said, you can use Tumblr to showcase your art creations, join art communities online, and find breathtaking designs.
What I like most about Tumblr is the customizing freedom which it offers. So you can customize your blog to look however you want it to look.
Tumblr also has a messaging service, so it’s a faster way to reach out to fellow artists and connect.
While Tumblr has all this good stuff going, it is not the best idea for a portfolio site. In fact, I don’t recommend that you use the platform as your primary portfolio site. You will find the free version of some of the other platforms on this list more useful.
You can use Tumblr to supplement your portfolio site and build your reputation in the design community.
6. Pinterest
Like Tumblr, Pinterest is also very different from DeviantArt being that it was not built to be a portfolio site. But because of the aesthetic features of Pinterest, it only makes sense to be on this list.
Again, I advise against using Pinterest as the main design portfolio. Instead, use it as a supplement to other platforms.
Personally, I use Pinterest predominantly to source for design ideas and also to promote my work to reach a larger audience.
What makes Pinterest special is its advanced algorithm that furnishes you with pins based on your interest, so any topic you search for will bring you a good number of designs matching your search.
Since the pins come from multiple sources, you can explore designs from other people on the web tagged to any pin you view.
Aside from getting design inspiration, you can leverage the same pin feature to promote your own designs by pinning your own creation and circulating them across the internet.
7. Drawcrowd
Drawcrowd is one of the most similar sites to DeviantArt on this list, but it has more variety.
Its design tilts towards ArtStation, but it does not have a specific preference for traditional or digital design. It balances both styles and houses so many artists with various skills.
You can use Drawcrowd to document your journey starting out as a rookie designer to when you become a pro artist, but that’s not all you can use the platform for. It can also be used as a portfolio site to showcase all of your polished work.
Drawcrowd serves as its own social media platform. It has the same features that you will find on regular social media platforms such as follower count, likes, and reshare options. This makes Drawcrowd unique from the other platforms.
I consider sites like ArtStation as a clean portfolio page that you keep for job opportunities, whereas Drawcrowd is Instagram where you can share the latest on your plate with your friends and followers to engage with.
Trust me, if you are looking for a site like DeviantArt, then you will be happy with Drawcrowd. However, since it is pretty much a new platform, it has a considerably smaller database, so you won’t find all the top designers there.
8. Pixiv
Normally, I would include a site like Pixiv mainly because it wasn’t built for an English audience, but the site has grown rapidly over the years such that it has become hard to ignore.
The platform works on the same principles as DeviantArt: Create and share your work, receive feedback, and build your following.
The first thing it has that DeviantArt doesn’t is the rating system. With this, visitors can rate your works which can then be sorted during a search by the highest or lowest rated.
Getting started on Pixiv is free and you will find many useful features once you are inside. For example, Pixiv had a Livestream tool that artists can use to schedule live sessions on Twitch.
The platform also allows you to submit an image gallery as single images, so viewers can see your collection as a single page.
The website is originally written in Japanese, but you can change the default language to English, although, you will still find fewer artists on the site.
You may find it difficult to navigate through the tags since most of them are in Japanese characters.
Even though you try to translate these characters, you may not get the exact words, so if you are looking to get any feedback, then you might want to look elsewhere.
However, I still recommend joining Pixiv in spite of the constraints because you can still browse the pages to get some great design ideas, especially if you are into the anime art style.
Plus there’s no harm in publishing your work there.
9. Ello.co
Ello.co is a special platform when it comes to online art communities.
While it is not nearly as sophisticated as DeviantArt, it has a very clean and modern layout that you will easily fall in love with.
The platform houses 37 categories that range from traditional 2D art to more luxurious art forms like skate photography.
Ello.co allows you to repost the work of other artists that you like, and it also allows for others to comment on any of your projects.
You can also buy and sell artwork on this site. Unlike other platforms that have a share per every sale you make, you can link your sale page on Ello.co to your own website so that you don’t have to share your sales with the platform.
Overall, I think Ello.co is a great platform, but I especially like it because having so many eyes on your artwork there not only means that you are building your reputation in the community, but also putting some money in your pocket.
10. Twitch
I know that when you hear of Twitch, your mind places it as a site unlike DeviantArt, but over the past few years, both Twitch and DeviantArt have shared some similarities, especially in the number of people that use the sites and in some of their sections.
Twitch has a creative section that lets you sit in front of the camera while you talk to an audience through your workflow. You can also see what others do when they make their own paintings.
The platform is geared more toward digital arts, but if you dig a little deeper, you will find some traditional artists there too.
If you are also looking for a platform to help you grow, then you will get it right with Twitch as it is a fast-growing platform that accommodates a couple of thousand users.
If you ever want to join the Twitch art community, now is the time to do so, because I reckon that in a few years there will be more viewers for your work than you can respond to.
11. Concept Art World
Aside from DeviantArt, Concept Art World has one of the most robust online art communities. It is a combination of an online art class and an online art forum.
Although you can infer from its name that it tilts toward the digital arts, there are thousands of users on the forum with millions of questions about other subject matter.
Because of the thousands of users on the platform and the number of topics being created at every given point, it is quite easy to get lost inside Concept Art World’s sections from the sketchbook section which is the most popular one to its art critique.
Another similarity Concept Art World has with DeviantArt is its job board that hosts thousands of job opportunities from popular art studios and a lot of these jobs are remote work, so you can get paid a huge amount of money to work from your home.
12. Our Art Corner
I wouldn’t have included this website in the list because it couldn’t be more different than DeviantArt, but I showed it to a friend of mine and he couldn’t stop talking about it.
How’s Our Art Corner so different from DeviantArt? Well, it is entirely a challenge and critique art site.
Most visitors to the site are either focused on the artwork or the challenge, but hardly both.
The art section is the part of it that is remotely close to DeviantArt. It is a great place to share your designs with the world.
The challenge section is the part that makes Our Art Corner completely different from the rest. There, two artists are paired against each other every week, and the rest of the community decides who the winner is.
Aside from the 1 vs 1 challenge, there are other group challenges that pitch groups of people against each other.
You won’t find anything like this in any other place, and it is a great way to see how you stack up against other artists.
13. PaigeeWorld
PaigeeWorld is another art place that focuses on Japanese artwork, but unlike Pixiv, the language on the site is not so much of an issue.
PaigeeWorld is often described as one of the casual alternatives of DeviantArt, and as a disclaimer, you may find a couple of questionable images that may not be suitable for the workplace.
The site is as easy to use as DeviantArt and sifting through the images there is as seamless as it can be. In fact, it looks a lot like Pinterest in the way its images are arranged.
PaigeeWorld has a hashtag feature, plus other social media options that make it a viable option for not just discovering new artists, but also promoting yourself and your work among its massive user base.
If you want to improve your anime style drawing, you can take a couple of tutorials from the site’s store section for free.
14. Newgrounds
Newgrounds is one of the best DeviantArt alternatives for artists that want to explore new things.
It contains massive amounts of movies, arts, games, audio, and more. In fact, there’s no limit to the amount of diverse content you’ll find when it comes to Newground.
On the art section, you will find huge doses of exquisite fine art, 3D art, illustrations, to name a few. And it doesn’t end there.
Newgrounds has a large and bubbling community section where you can engage in rewarding conversations with other artists and get tips for your next anime and cartoon style artwork.
15. Virink
Virink is a social media platform for artists in Russia and Eastern Europe to connect and showcase their artworks.
The website is growing fast, so it is translated to English so that it can be used by people from other countries.
I’ve included Virink to the list because of what I consider as its coolest feature, which is the “what to draw function”.
This function will give you a random drawing idea when you click it and this can come in handy whenever you are experiencing artist’s block.
Surfing through the website is very similar to DeviantArt. It is easy to find what you are looking for and the site does not contain a lot of adverts and this is thanks to the personal investment of the owners and donations from site users.
Final Words
There you have it – 15 best sites like DeviantArt, so if you grow bored of DeviantArt and want to try something new, then you can opt for any one on this list.
You have to keep in mind that while all of these platforms are good, they have their own differences.
These variations are based on styles, layouts, what is convenient for you, and how much time you are willing to give up for a task.
Knowing all these will guide your choice on which platform to pick if the need arises.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing.
Tom has been a full-time internet marketer for two decades now, earning millions of dollars while living life on his own terms. Along the way, he’s also coached thousands of other people to success.