JanitorAI vs SillyTavern: Which Roleplay Frontend Should You Use?
JanitorAI and SillyTavern are both frontends: the part of an AI roleplay setup you type into. Neither one is the model. Both can send your chat to an outside API, which is where a proxy like Composite comes in. The real difference is where each one runs and how much it asks you to manage.
The short answer
Use JanitorAI if you want to open a browser tab, pick a character someone already made, and start. Use SillyTavern if you want your chats on your own device and are willing to spend an evening learning its settings in exchange for control over every part of the prompt.
Plenty of people use both: JanitorAI to find and try characters, SillyTavern for the long campaigns they care about. A character card exported from one place can usually be imported into SillyTavern.
Side by side
| JanitorAI | SillyTavern | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A website with a large library of user-made characters | A free, open-source app you install and run yourself |
| Install | None. Open it in any browser, including on a phone | Node.js on Windows, macOS or Linux, or Termux on Android |
| Finding characters | Browse and chat with public bots on the site | Import character cards (PNG or JSON) from wherever you find them |
| Models | Its own free model, or a proxy / OpenAI-compatible key you add | Only what you connect: cloud APIs, proxies, or a model on your own machine |
| Where chats are stored | On JanitorAI's servers, tied to your account | On the device running SillyTavern |
| Settings | Generation settings and a custom prompt per proxy | Presets, samplers, World Info, regex, Quick Replies, extensions |
| Learning curve | Low | Higher; many panels and options |
Where JanitorAI is better
- Nothing to install. It works on a school laptop, a work computer or a phone browser, and your chats follow your account between devices.
- The character library. Discovery is the main reason people use it. You do not need to know where to find cards.
- Fewer ways to break it. A proxy connection is three fields: URL, key and model name.
Where SillyTavern is better
- Your data stays with you. Chats, characters and settings are files on your machine. Nothing depends on a site staying up or keeping its rules the same.
- Prompt control. You can see and reorder every piece of the prompt, save presets, and set up World Info (lorebooks) that insert lore only when a keyword comes up.
- Group chats and extensions. Several characters in one scene, image generation, text-to-speech, and community extensions.
- Any backend. Cloud APIs, proxies, or a model running on your own GPU, switched from one dropdown.
Using Composite with either one
One Composite key works in both, with one difference in the URL. JanitorAI posts to the exact address you give it, so it needs the full https://composite.lucidity.sh/v1/chat/completions. SillyTavern adds the path itself, so it takes the base URL https://composite.lucidity.sh/v1. Mixing the two up is the most common cause of a 404 error.
Because Composite applies presets, prompts, lorebooks and plugins on the server, anything you attach to the key behaves the same in both apps. A lorebook attached to the key works in JanitorAI without depending on JanitorAI's own lore features, and the same key moved into SillyTavern brings it along. If you already have SillyTavern presets or lorebooks, Composite can import them, and public lorebooks and presets on Discovery can be exported back to SillyTavern's format.
- Set up Composite in JanitorAI
- Set up Composite in SillyTavern
- Run SillyTavern on an Android phone
- Compare JanitorAI proxies and SillyTavern proxies
Which models to start with
The frontend matters less than the model behind it. Synth is free on every Composite account and works in both apps under lucidityai/synth-2.5-flash; its guide covers how to fit a story into its window. For paid models, Best LLMs for Roleplay in 2026 compares them by prose, character voice and cost, and the rankings show what Composite users pick.