Curating a list of File Hosts and Asset Sites [UPDATED 09-28-2024]

TomCom1995

Hello, I've been using this site for a while and had to switch file hosting providers several times, and each time has been a little bit of a nuisance since there's very little info good hosts, and with the recent TOS Update to my main upload service I figured I'd make a tiny post to give people some very boilerplate advice on some hosts and also some info on some of the other sites that exist

Recent Updates:
Google Drive, VRChive, AXFC

File Hosts:

MAIN: Pixeldrain:

Previously one of the best temporary file hosts in my opinion, but with the recent TOS update they will start banning accounts and issuing IP Bans, it's a shame honestly, you might actually want to back up everything from here sooner rather than later.
EDIT: Despite the TOS Changes the website is still very good to this day, and as most alternatives I find have so many drawbacks I think I will never be able to fully clear this service from my repertoire.

NEW: AXFC:

AXFC is a rather old filehost, dating back to the mid-2000s, it offers 0-2GB file size, release time scheduling, download limits, deletion passwords, and tagging, my gripe is the complete lack of english language options, the extremely obtuse interface that makes uploading nigh impossible for me, and the fact every file is listed publicly on the front page for a time, could not vet the quality as I don't speak japanese.

NEW: UploadNow.io:

Yet another free and robust filehosting service, 14-day file hosting time, no file size or upload limit, accounts sadly do cost money to create but uploading accountless is completely free, so it's great in a pinch for hosting big files whenever you need it, but there are (obviously) better options in this list currently.

NEW: GoFile:

GoFile appears to be another extremely good filehost from what little I've seen, upload size limits, account-less uploads, completely free, not seen a storage limit yet either, seems very promising as an alternative.

NEW: MixDrop:

Insane website actually, seems designed for power-users actually, UNLIMITED FILE SIZES, Seemingly no storage limit as far as I can tell, no file expiration, a folder system, also doubles as a movie server with subdomains, it has an API for handling automatic uploading and downloading, file subtitles, file info, and more, it's also got revenue share using it's ads and you can even set how many ads you want to be served, and also a checkmark for adult content uploading, all of this is free too.

NEW: wdho.ru:

Seems very promising, but I cannot register as my emails refuse to receive the registration email, 5 GB File Size Limit, 250 GB Storage Limit for accounts (WOW), 1 year file lifetime, and for the unregistered user, 5 GB File Size Limit, 8 months lifetime, and apparently no download or upload throttling though, the catch is the server location is in Russia, but we've all used VRModels before, we can deal with that for a genuinely good file service.

NEW: KrakenFiles:

KrakenFiles is kind of like an alternative to things like workupload and Pixeldrain, Registered Users get 2GB Max File Size, Unlimited bandwith and storage, but the only issue is 3 Month Upload Lifetime, if you upgrade that increases to 5GB Size and 5 Months but that pricing is kind of horrendous, Unregistered users get 1 GB Max File Size and 1 Month File Lifetime, so registering is a must.

NEW: SwissTransfer:

SwissTransfer is more or less an alternative to workupload, the company is located in Switzerland and has a similar model to both Pixeldrain (pre TOS update) and workupload, files up to 50GB can be uploaded without need of an account and downloads will stay active for around a Month.

NEW: UploadHaven:

UploadHaven is pretty alright, THOUGH I RECOMMEND BRINGING AN ADBLOCKER, It is entirely free and is run off of advertisements, there is no file restrictions, no bandwidth restrictions, the only thing they do is throttling unregistered users, the only way to register is to pay, but the pricing isn't as atrocious as others on this list so weigh in on if you want to do that or not, it's perfectly usable free though.

NEW: ZippyShare:

Zippyshare is alright, but there are some real big tradeoffs for using this service, nonmembers get 500MB file size limit, registered users get 3GB file size limit, both get unlimited uploads, the catch is YOU NEED A PHONE NUMBER, registration requires a phone number, It doesn't send a text though as far as I could tell, if you have a burner number you could use that.

NEW: files.fm:

Why would anyone use this, this is literally just a bootleg version of dropbox with more hoops to jump through to make an account, it's genuinely awful, 2GB storage limit as well, they aren't at all interested in being file storage, why I found someone using this for avatar uploads is beyond me.

NEW: terminal.lc:

Sadly I did not get a chance to make an account when registrations were open, so I cannot give you any insight as to how this specific website is or how it works, but keep it in mind for later, they may open registrations again, and this website seems more grassroots, like bunkrr and might be worth looking at.

app.bunkrr.su:

Very guerrila website, this is homebrew as hell but in a good way, has album sorting/folders and so forth, no passwords though, no easily accessible section for sending DMCA requests and I have not tested enough to see what happens if someone complains, FAQ is empty too, but the 2gb file upload limit is a bit tight, no storage limit as far as I can see though.
EDIT: Inactive Files get deleted after a month, keep this in mind, this is currently my main right now!
EDIT2: If you plan on using this service I must STRONGLY URGE that you NEVER Bulk Upload, I did a bulk upload and it only managed to successfully upload 4 of 38 files in an album, that is quite bad.

Cyberfile:

This is my go to service right now, it's quite good, no ads, password protection for files, a folder/album system, you get 1TB of free storage on a free account, and accountless upload as well (temporary accounts), and it supports up to 10GB per file, only issue I have is uploading sometimes is slow or doesn't work some days, a plus is I've never had a DMCA takedown here, even from the most trigger-happy creators.
Edit: Cyberfile has been unable to process uploads for several days and with this the website is practically defunct.
Edit2: Cyberfile still cannot process file uploads of ANY size, as it's been down more or less for a whole month I can't recommend this platform anymore.
Edit3: Uploading SEEMS to be stable once again, but I will continue to use pixeldrain.

Workupload:

Workupload has been a pretty good service for me, no ads, very lightweight user interface, and also supports both permanent and temporary hosting of files and password protection of files, it's almost perfect aside from issues with the site going down or losing service randomly for me, and of course this site does honor DMCA quite frequently so expect files to disappear.

Mega:

Mega is kind of similar to google drive in terms of storage space, but there's a big difference, you have to actively log in every day or they can, and will delete your account for inactivity, I have lost 2 Mega accounts, files and all, on top of that they honor DMCA requests extremely aggressively, look into the history of megaupload for more info why.

Mediafire:

Mediafire is kinda meh, 50GB~ of storage, they let you upload large file sizes (couldn't find info on how much), but the deal breaker is they actually have a content ID system, some files I would try to host have been blacklisted and it could tell I uploaded them, even zipped up, and not to mention the absolute torrent of advertising, and also of course they take DMCA very seriously, so downloads disappear quickly.

Google Drive:

Google Drive is honestly not too great, 15gb of storage before you need to pay and they are extremely aggressive when it comes to DMCA claims, files do not last at all on here, you're really better off using dedicated filehost services where they allocate more to storage honestly.
WARNING: Google has actually started running out of space as of recently and has now resorted to deleting old Emails, this sets a rather dangerous precedent, as it is within the realms of possibility for Google to extend this to inactive Google Drive Accounts, I would recommend moving files from drive to a more stable platform.

Dropbox:

Don't, just don't, dropbox is unreliable as hell, they constantly make api changes that inevitably break sharing links and recently they cut down free storage to 2GB, yes, only 2GB, garbage, this isn't meant for you, it's meant for businesses and they want you to screw off.

OneDrive:

A trash tier uploading service again, much like dropbox it doesn't want YOU using it, it wants big business buying terabytes of data for storage centers and so forth, only 5GB of free storage available, unknown how well it supports DMCA as microsoft is sluggish with that but the lack of storage defeats the whole purpose.

YandDisk:

Yandex's filehosting/drive service, you get only 10GB for free, once again like with Dropbox, Google Drive, and Onedrive, you are NOT the intended customer, they are wanting to sell to big businesses, though they may actually not respect DMCA as much, unknown though as I have yet to receive one.

FileTransfer:

It's... Ehhh, 100GB of Free Storage, No Ads as far as I can tell, Very Simple Interface, but the downside is files can only be up to 6GB, be downloaded 50 times, and be stored 21 Days, I have no idea how this service handles DMCA Takedowns.

WeTransfer:

This is another Pay2Use file upload service with next to no storage for non paying users, files can be up to 2GB For free users and you can store 20GB, I haven't tested this platform yet so I have very little info on how it works really, but I would honestly just stay with the providers towards the top of the list.

AnonFile:

While at first someone would be forgiven for thinking this IS anonfiles proper returned from the grave, It's not that great, I have never successfully uploaded a single file here, I recently generated 50kb of dummy data and the website didn't even have space for it.
EDIT: Still no improvement, a month goes by but still cannot upload files to this site.
EDIT2: Still no functioning uploads, quite obvious this website is defunct.

Asset Websites

NEW: VRCPirate:

I haven't looked into this site too much, but there's not too much activity here, and its more of a older style ripping site, though they do also have databases containing mostly Booth.pm models, not sure If this site is okay or no, as It's relatively new and member count is low (1500) so I don't know, listing it here for completeness though.

VRModels:

VRModels is a very popular website for acquiring assets, and while yes, it is useful and I do use it a ton, I do have some gripes about the website personally and would prefer to use ANYTHING else.

1. The Staff is Toxic: No, I don't mean they're edgy and trigger me, I mean that they're not at all qualified for what they do sometimes, I've seen avatars uploaded completely broken in ridiculous ways, once I saw an avatar that wasn't just broken, the model had 90% of it's shapekeys missing and had missing bones, and the staff kept bashing people in the comments how they were doing it wrong, I ended up paying 50 USD and sharing it here, unbroken.
1. False Positives: You've all seen it, you upload a file as a Zip or 7z or RAR to a service, then Chromium based browsers throw a fit when people download the file, mostly because safety settings, saying it COULD have a virus or IT HASNT BEEN DOWNLOADED MUCH, well, that can actually get you BANNED on VRModels.store, I attempted to upload the entire gumroad "Nico Mantled Beast" in one zip to VRM as a first upload, and I ended up getting perma-banned for spreading malware due to a False Positive, and I found out that if you get Perma'd you can't log out so you have to reset your cookies to force log out and make a new account, I am NEVER uploading to VRM again since that happened.
1. VRModels_Unitypackage Syndrome: I don't exactly know how this happens but this has shown up multiple times, like with the Katress Avatar fiasco, several avatars I've gotten from VRM Have... strange issues, missing files for no reasons, broken and missing shapekeys, things just not working and so on, yet when I find the source file on RipperStore the unitypackage works fine, It's really strange.
1. The Substance Painter Issue: If you ever find a download including a SPP file on VRM, you're very lucky, most the time VRM Downloads are stripped down to JUST a unitypackage, it's really frustrating, even if the SPP is readily available it wont be there most of the time.
1. Booth.pm Models: For some reason models from booth.pm are locked behind a premium subscription plan, and that's very annoying, it's also kind of stupid.
1. Site Stability: The website is agonizingly slow and prone to going down much too often, and navigating only to see a cloudflare error when you click something compounds this.

VRChive: DEFUNCT (DB Dump By @don)

VRChive is a somewhat barebones website, but it's honestly great, though the list of files doesn't update often it's still good, The single caviat is that the tags seem to not be working very well and it can be slow to work sometimes, there are a lot of Booth models here and assets as well, i always make sure to browse it every once in a while.
UPDATE: VRChive is gone, it was recently demolished by a DMCA, There is some links left over in this database dump but the website itself is gone now.

Kemono Party:

Kemono Party or Kemono.su is a pretty awesome website, it is a backup service that backs up posts from paysites, so you can find exact downloads from Gumroad, Patreon, Discord, etc, around April 2024 as well a mass download event happened where several people started backing up avatars from gumroad to kemono, so check out the site and see if you can find things there!

VRCMods:

VRCMods is genuinely terrible, like, very very bad, bad avatars and assets, ads everywhere, its barely worth talking about, except for one thing, there is next to no moderation, you CAN find leaked models here every now and then, but it's mostly garbage "custom avatar" level stuff.

BlackSpigot: ???????????

Though this is actually a Minecraft plugin piracy website, there is SOME vrchat avatars here for some reason, I would advise caution as BlackSpigot has been breached before so use a burner mail and password if it's even worth it for you.

Feel free to mention other sites and file hosts you'd recommend, cheers!

Potato Pirate

Very informative honestly. is good to let ppl know and such about these things. everyone just hop in websites and grab stuff without knowing etc. and i agree with the IP ban on pixel website. i got one instantly after uploading 1 item to it.

bluebunny

Thank you so much for making this post! If I ever decide to change file hosts I'll refer to this

eiron

sorta related, i noticed recently that when you try download an entire workupload archive that it downloads each file individually now (at least for me). This can be a nuisance as not only does it take up more space uncompressed (unless you take the time zip/compress it, again which is a extra pin in itself), it also a good way to lose track of files that aren't similarly named ( again unless you rename them yourself). Before you just had to rename the archive zip (eg Item_Fullset) and you'd be done.

Kakemiru

wow

Renski007

Very nice of you to post this and very well-written. I have no idea why some of you are this nice sometimes but I'm not complaining one bit lol.

rppszz

I recently tried to upload assets using Cyberfile but I got an error
What internet browser do you use when using Cyberfile?

TomCom1995

Updated this just now

ShinraEnthusiast

It pains me to say, but you should update the listing now that VRChive is shutting down.
Rest in piece; Many thanks to NomNom, & the VRChive Team.

Important Announcement: VRChive Server Shutdown

Hello @everyone,

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the permanent shutdown of the VRChive server. Recently, we received a DMCA complaint regarding the website, and we have been instructed to remove anything related to VRChive. While it’s been an amazing experience for everyone involved, it’s time to say goodbye. We will not be reopening VRChive.

*Some individuals who were unrelated to the core of VRChive have unfortunately gotten into legal **DMCA *trouble just for lending a hand. To prevent any further complications for anyone, we’ve made the difficult decision to end operations permanently.

But that’s not the only reason. Many of you know NomNom, who has been the sole developer and creator behind the website. Over time, the pressure of managing everything alone has taken a serious toll on his mental health. Those close to him have noticed this decline, and we’ve all encouraged him to prioritize his well-being over maintaining a website. After discussing it for over multiple weeks (it started in Early August), NomNom has finally agreed to step away from VRChive SERVER and WEBSITE altogether and will put focus on his mental health.

If you want to know more about the situation, feel free to reach out to NomNom directly, and he can share the full story.

Thank you all for being part of the VRChive journey. It’s been fun while it lasted.

Take care,
The VRChive Team

In 24 Hours the server will be Permanently Shutdown. And we will not be opening it again.

Airi

RIP, it's going to be infinitely harder to find assets without VRChive, but I fully understand why it is that they're shutting down, especially when DMCA is involved

RollThatRick

I didn't get to see this message. I went to bed and woke up with the server only having a locked general chat. RIP VRChive. You were a good website.

oMeow6

Does anyone have the links to everything that was on the Discord? T

Kur0m1S4N

@oMeow6 The VRChive DB Dump thread has a DL containing most of the discord channel items, including premium assets. Hope this helps!

TomCom1995

I made sure to link it actually.