Model Mayhem has been the default place for American models and photographers to find each other for about as long as there's been a web to find each other on. Most people reading this have an account. Most of those accounts are Basic, and Basic has been trimmed over the years until the thing you actually want, messaging someone you haven't worked with yet, is behind a subscription. This is a look at SaltBrite as a Model Mayhem alternative, written by the people who run SaltBrite, so weigh it accordingly.
What a Basic account gets you
The membership page and the FAQ on modelmayhem.com spell it out. These are the numbers as of October 2026, so check the site if you're reading this much later.
- 50 portfolio images and 4 photo albums.
- Unlimited messages to friends, and none to anyone else. The FAQ says Basic members can't send general private messages, and points you at tags, picture comments and the forums instead.
- One casting call a week, with 10 casting messages a day.
- Ads on your profile page. An ad-free page is a VIP perk.
Premium is $6 a month or $60 a year, for 150 images and 100 messages a month to people outside your network. VIP is $10 a month or $100 a year, for 1,000 images, unlimited messages, top placement in search and the ad-free page. New members get 30 days of VIP free, which is how most people discover what Basic is missing.
There's a second limit that gets less attention. Each image you upload can be no bigger than 4 million pixels or 1 MB, which works out at about 2,000 by 2,000. A frame from any camera made in the last fifteen years has to be shrunk to fit, and on a modern screen the result looks soft.
What SaltBrite is
SaltBrite is a portfolio site for models, photographers, studios, stylists and makeup artists. It opened in October 2026 and the profile is free: up to 50 photos, a page for each one with loves and comments, messages between members, and a review system where one member says whether they'd recommend another and why. There's no paid tier and no ads. Everything a member can do, every member can do.
The photo handling is the part that took longest to build. You can upload a JPEG, PNG or WebP of up to 20 MB, and the site keeps a copy up to 4,000 pixels on the long edge for big screens, a 2,400 pixel one for ordinary monitors and smaller ones for grids and phones, sending whichever the screen in front of you needs. It keeps your original file too, untouched, so a crop can always start from the real thing. The photo page is a dark stage with the picture whole and centered, never cropped and never stretched past its own pixels, with the title, caption and comments beside it.
The profile has a few layouts to pick from. One wide photo across the top with a crop you drag into place, or a portrait photo beside your details, or three photos side by side on one line. Under that the portfolio is either natural shapes or squares, your choice.
It's a British site, and it knows that's a problem for an American reader, so it doesn't make you put up with it. If your browser is set to US English you get US spelling, dates with the month first, distances in miles and a model's stats in feet, inches and pounds, and there's a switch in the footer if it guesses wrong. The town picker finds Austin and Tulsa as readily as Leeds.
Model Mayhem, Basic
- 50 portfolio images, 4 albums
- Messages to friends only
- One casting call a week
- Ads on your profile page
- Images capped at 4 million pixels or 1 MB
- Premium $6 a month, VIP $10 a month
SaltBrite
- 50 photos, every one on your page
- Messages to any member
- Yes or no recommendations with a few lines, and a reply
- No ads, no paid tier
- Uploads up to 20 MB, kept up to 4,000 pixels wide
- Five photos and a human review before you go live
What SaltBrite doesn't have yet
It's new, and new means quiet. Model Mayhem has twenty years of members, castings and forum threads behind it, and SaltBrite has a few weeks and, so far, more members in Brighton than in Brooklyn. If you need a photographer in Phoenix this weekend, Model Mayhem is still where you'll find one this weekend.
Castings are next on the list and don't exist yet. Search is built (by type, town, distance, and for models their height, age and the rest) but it's held back until there are enough public profiles to be worth searching, so for now a new profile is found through its own address, through shares and through the home page. There's no forum and no app.
So you don't have to choose, and most people shouldn't. Keep the Model Mayhem account for the castings and the forums. Put the portfolio where it costs nothing, carries no ads and shows every photo at full size, and put the link in your Model Mayhem profile.
Keep the account you use for castings. Put the portfolio where it costs nothing.
Moving your portfolio over
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Join
Say whether you're a model, photographer, studio, stylist or makeup artist, pick a username (it becomes your address, saltbrite.com/yourname), and verify your email with the code it sends. You can join with Google instead if you'd rather not have another password.
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Fill in the profile
Your town (type it and pick from the list), a bio, and the details for your type. Models get the full stats grid, in feet and inches or centimeters, and a list of the work they want. Photographers say what they shoot, where, and whether they pay, trade or decide per job.
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Upload five photos
Up to five at a time, dropped onto the page. Each gets an optional title and caption and a checkbox if it contains nudity. The first one becomes your main photo, and you can change that from any photo's edit page.
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Wait for a person
Once you have five photos a person looks at the profile before it goes public, much as Model Mayhem's moderators do with their four-photo minimum. The page goes public once they have, and until then you can see and edit it yourself.
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Keep adding
Up to 50. Newest photos go to the front of the portfolio, and you can put a landscape photo across the top of the page and crop it yourself so the frame doesn't cut through a face.
The rules
Short list. The photos are your own work or you have the right to use them. Everyone shown is 18 or over. Artistic nudity is allowed as long as the photo is marked, and a marked photo sits behind a cover until a visitor chooses to see it and is never used as your main photo. Nothing pornographic or explicit. The person who reviews your profile checks those, which is slower than a bot and a lot better at it.
If you try it and something you need is missing, say so on the contact page. The site is small enough that the answer comes from the person who can change it.
Questions people ask
Is SaltBrite free?
Yes. A profile with up to 50 photos, messages to any member, recommendations and bookmarks cost nothing, there are no ads, and there's no paid tier holding anything back.
Do I have to leave Model Mayhem?
No. Most members will keep a Model Mayhem account for its castings and forums and put their portfolio on SaltBrite, where it costs nothing and every photo is shown at full size.
Does SaltBrite work for US members?
Yes. With a browser set to US English the site shows US spelling, month-first dates, miles, and a model's stats in feet, inches and pounds, and the town picker finds US towns. Most members so far are in the UK, which is the honest caveat.
Does SaltBrite have casting calls?
Not yet. Castings are next on the list. Search by type, town, distance and a model's stats is built and switches on once there are enough public profiles.
Join SaltBrite
Put your book where it can be seen
Join as a model, add five photos and a person reviews your profile before it goes live.
Join as a model
