u/oddlar1227

SIllytavern is great for many reasons

1. You can fully customize the ui, how text looks, basically anything.

2. if you know html/css (or ai can do it for you ig) you can use regex to style it even more

3. full character control. they have a lorebook system where you can write an entry for everything important thats triggered by keywords so it always remembers what it needs to know. you can also change how important a certain entry is for if its a small thing or something important. also has way better character creation in general than cai

4. you can connect local models including abliterated models so you can use whatever model you want if you have an api key

5. no content filters unless your model has content filters anyways so it wont block anything automatically

6. since you can use your own models you can use one with a larger context window meaning it has great memory

7. nobody can read your chats since they are stored locally on your pc, nobody can just delete your character or chats for breaking any guidelines

8. the community is constantly making extensions character cards and lorebooks. and extensions make the site even better to use

9. no monetization

10. you can make group chats with multiple ais

CONS

1. Setup can be incredibly annoying, especially if you dont know what you are doing

2. the best models cost money (not sillytaverns fault they just cost money to use from whatever site you got the model from)

3. HORRIBLE mobile experience, genuinely would never recommend anyone try this on mobile its clunky and horrible when you first start it up

4. Insane learning curve. formatting and stuff just not easy, its definetely for advanced users

5. no built in character discovery, you need to find your characters online or make your own

6. can take several hours of tinkering before you even decide to send a single message. especially if you are making your own lorebook/character

7. no cloud sync for multiple devices you need to do it manually

8. default ui is very dated and also incredibly cluttered

Overall: sillytavern is great if you are willing to learn it but its not for everyone. if you wanna just talk to a character without doing anything special sillytavern is likely not for you. but if you want a great experience and full control then i would highly recommend sillytavern