After FurAffinity started doing its FurAffinity thing in 2018 or so -- I signed up for many, many different galleries! I was worried about being permanently banned and did not want to lose all of my friends. I have since developed an appreciation for which galleries are good and which ones aren't. Now that Twitter is sort of doing the whole Twitter thing, maybe people are wondering where to migrate to and gosh, do I have some advice for you!
My short answer is that e621 is the best choice for a gallery (they have absolutely ridiculous features), and InkBunny is the best choice for a community (they are the least restrictive, and offer many features other galleries lack). FurAffinity has issues with heavy-handed moderation and the lack of a keyword blocklist (you will either be mentally scarred by paddington bear vomit art -- or suspended when someone discovers your paddington bear vomit art.) Newgrounds has less traffic but a surprisingly healthy furry/rule34 community.
There are a few other contenders which would be nice if they only had more traffic! I really have nothing negative to say about SoFurry or ArtConomy except that they are not popular. Why aren't they popular? Maybe you should open a SoFurry account so the world can make more sense.
If you'd like to see a more detailed breakdown you can read my notes below.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ e621
++ extraordinary keyword/filtering/sorting abilities, e.g "bowser -female -animation date:month order:random"
++ allows all uploads (nick wilde, zangief, spyro, olimar, etc...)
++ community-driven tags alleviate the burden on submitters
++ strict unambiguous tags makes it easy to filter your art
++ images are linked to other galleries
++ supports localization of dialog (japanese/english translations)
+ friendly moderators and a highly active discord
+ exposes API to automate uploads
- lacking typical community features, no journals, no watchers
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ inkbunny
++ front page of keyword-blacklisted popular images increases discoverability of new artists
+ allows most uploads (except for humans)
+ highly active community
+ robust community-driven keywords; users can suggest keywords which you can accept/reject
+ supports multi-image submissions for comics or alternate versions
+ exposes API to automate uploads
- reputation as a repository for underage material
-- neglectful moderators, often taking 6-12 months to respond to a ticket
⭐⭐⭐⭐ furaffinity
++ incredibly responsive moderation team, i have submitted many trouble tickets which are always resolved within 24 hours
++ extremely active community
+ reliable hosting and infrastructure, seasoned administrators
- front page is dominated by advertisements, reminders, YCHes, commission notices
- no keyword blocklist
-- suspends you for linking to other galleries
⭐⭐⭐⭐ newgrounds
++ you can still play monster mind on newgrounds via the newgrounds player
+ has been around for forever -- so they are unlikely to close soon
+ surprisingly active furry/rule34 community
+ lenient takedown policy; offending art is deleted but there is no further punishment
- their brutally honest five-star rating system is a real blow to morale
⭐⭐⭐ twitter
++ allows all uploads (nick wilde, zangief, spyro, olimar, etc...)
++ extremely active community, especially for images which go viral
- strict character limit on text posts
-- terrible browsing experience; cannot view more than 1-2 images at once
-- no keywords, cannot search images by content
-- cannot block offensive content by keyword/subject matter. god help you if you enjoy a furry artist who also posts RL nudes
-- overall abysmal browsing experience, worst than all other gallery sites including buggy sites still in beta
⭐⭐⭐ furrynetwork
- cannot reupload submissions
- dead community
⭐⭐⭐ pixiv
+ reliable hosting and infrastructure, seasoned administrators
+ responsive moderators
-- terrible keywords; many ambiguous/conflicting keywords and a ten keyword limit
-- lacking standard community features, no journals, no social links
-- all NSFW images must be censored
-- charges a monthly fee for keyword blocklists
-- charges a monthly fee to sort search results
⭐⭐⭐ sofurry
+ exposes API to automate uploads
- dead community
⭐⭐ deviantart
+ has been around for forever -- so they are unlikely to close soon
- no NSFW material
⭐⭐ itaku
++ allows all uploads (nick wilde, zangief, spyro, olimar, etc...)
- cannot reupload submissions
- all submissions default to SFW, making it easy to accidentally leak NSFW material
-- just opened in 2020; future is uncertain
-- completely dead community
⭐⭐ artconomy
++ allows all uploads (nick wilde, zangief, spyro, olimar, etc...)
-- just opened in 2018; future is uncertain
-- completely dead community
⭐ pillowfort
- all submissions default to SFW, making it easy to accidentally leak NSFW material
- other users' NSFW material is blocked by default, but this is not made clear through their UI
-- terrible browsing experience; cannot view more than 1-2 images at once
-- everything is broken; attempting to view notifications or search for art results in long wait times or errors
-- completely dead community
⭐ weasyl
-- bans/suspends users with no reasons given, not even specifying which characters violated a rule
-- absurdly unresponsive moderators who have literally never responded to a single ticket or inquiry
-- completely dead community
