However, this does not necessarily mean that the tool is the best choice for everyone.
There are image generators that can do certain things better, offer more or different functions, are cheaper or easier to use.
In this article, I’ll introduce you to the five best Midjourney alternatives. Four of them are even free to use (with some restrictions).
What Speaks Against Midjourney?
The image quality of Midjourney is impressive and far better than many other AI image generators. However, there are some arguments against using it. First and foremost, the usability:
Midjourney can be very confusing for beginners because it is integrated into the chat service “Discord” and can only be used within the Discord interface.
To generate an image, you have to log into Discord, join the Midjourney server and select one of the almost 200 newbie rooms. Then enter /imagine your prompt in the chat and your image will be generated in your chat message:
Since a lot of people are doing this at the same time, it quickly gets hectic. In addition, everyone can see the images you generate and, in theory, use them. You can prevent this by using stealth mode and also generating images in a private message or on a private server, but that is unnecessarily complicated.
In addition, an alternative to Midjourney could be of interest to you if you…
- also want to create other types of AI art, such as music, texts or videos
- does not have a Discord account or does not want to communicate via Discord
- do not want to take out a subscription
- Midjourney’s prices are too high for you
- is not satisfied with the style of Midjourney’s images (not everyone likes the “Midjourney style”)
Midjourney and Alternatives in Comparison
| tool | image quality | time per image | AI model | Price | Free (trial) version? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | Very high | 35 – 40 s | Midjourney, Niji | from $8 / month |  |
| Artsmart.ai | High to very high | 12 s | Stable Diffusion | from $19 / month |  (50 images) |
| Supermachine | High | 6 s | Stable Diffusion | $79 Lifetime | |
| Stability.ai DreamStudio | High to very high | 6 – 7 s | Stable Diffusion | $10 / 1,000 credits | (25 credits/125 images) |
| Dall·E 2 | High to very high | 11 – 13 s | DALL·E 2 | $15 / 115 credits | (15 pictures per month) |
| Canva | Medium to high | 10 s | Stable Diffusion | 109.99 € / year | |
5 Best Midjourney Alternatives In Detail
ArtSmart.ai
ArtSmart is the tool that comes closest to matching the quality of Midjourney in our image generator test.
The tool also offers a wide range of functions:
On the one hand, it offers many advanced setting options for the prompts and various modes, such as the “Hyper Realistic” mode to create photorealistic images.
On the other hand, it offers various editing functions to adjust or improve your images directly in the app after generation, e.g.:
- Inpaint (a function to remove or change parts of an image).
- Face Enhance (to improve facial distortions)
- upscaling
- cutting
- Add text
It offers a huge advantage over Midjourney:
It offers a clean user interface and is easy to use. Unlike Midjourney, which leaves you alone to write prompts, ArtSmart.ai gives you the option to compose your prompts with different modes, presets, camera angles, art styles, artists via dropdown menus:
Of course, you also have the option to write your prompts without help if you prefer.
The image quality is very good. Although it doesn’t quite match the quality of Midjourney, it is mostly convincing due to good exposure, a homogeneous color image and a high level of detail.
At around 12 seconds, Artsmart generated AI images in the test about three times faster than Midjourney.
Supermachine
Supermachine offers slightly worse image quality than ArtSmart, but offers excellent value for money:
It currently offers a lifetime version on AppSumo for $79, which allows you to generate 1,000 images per month, which is unbeatable value for money.
Supermachine does not have as many features as Midjourney or ArtSmart.ai, but it has a clear user interface and is easy to use:
I really like that there are 39 predefined models that you can use to generate images in certain styles. There are models for anime, LinkedIn portraits, logos & icons, coloring books, photorealistic images or 3D art. There are even two models that you can use to imitate the “Midjourney style”.
You can specify not only text but also your own images as prompts. There are also various setting options for aspect ratio, sampler, image size or the number of generation steps.
With the default settings, you will receive your AI image within about 6 seconds, making Supermachine one of the fastest image generators.
Supermachine uses Stable Diffusion 1.4 to 2.1 to generate images. The image quality is high, although it doesn’t quite match that of ArtSmart.ai or Midjourney.
The tool has a distinctive feature that sets it apart from other AI image generators: it allows the creation of FSK18 content. So you can also create erotic images with it if that’s interesting to you.
Stability.ai DreamStudio
DreamStudio is an AI image generation platform from Stability.ai. It allows you to try out the latest stable diffusion models live.
For $10 you can buy 1,000 credits, which will allow you to generate about 5,000 images, which is very cheap.
Unlike the other Midjourney alternatives, DreamStudio offers few predefined styles or other prompt assistance, making it less suitable for beginners.
There are also few built-in functions for editing AI images afterwards.
However, it offers the most important setting options, such as negative prompts, aspect ratio, number of images, generation steps, the selection of the stable diffusion model and the possibility to upload your own image as a template (image-to-image).
The user interface is clear and minimalistic:
The big advantage of DreamStudio is that it always contains the latest stable diffusion models:
Since April 14, for example, it has been possible to test the new Stable Diffusion XL (SDXL) in DreamStudio, which is also what we used to generate the sample images.
The image quality of SDXL is very good. The AI images are colorful, high-resolution and contain fewer image errors than with Stability 2.1 and older. All in all, however, SDXL does not quite match the quality of Midjourney.
DALL·E 2 (OpenAI Labs)
DALL·E 2 is an AI model from OpenAI. In addition to image generation, it offers outpainting, inpainting and the creation of variations of an image. It is a further development of DALL·E and has been available since September 2022.
You can use DALL·E 2 not only as an API, but also directly via the OpenAI Labs platform :
The platform is easy to use. You can either enter text or upload an image. Unfortunately, unlike most other AI image generators, you cannot make any further settings, such as specifying the aspect ratio or a negative prompt.
Unfortunately, using DALL·E 2 via OpenAI Labs is quite expensive. 115 credits for the platform cost $15, which is about $0.13 per image. In this case, it makes more sense to use the API, which lets you pay $0.02 or less for an image.
The quality of the AI images is very good. DALL·E 2 represents a huge improvement on DALL·E. All in all, however, it cannot quite keep up with the quality of Midjourney or SDXL.
Canva
In March 2023, Canva introduced a number of AI features:
In addition to a drawing function, an AI text generator and a translator, it also includes a text-to-image generator:
The text-to-image generator is easy to use and offers an intuitive user interface.
Not only can you enter a prompt, but you can also choose from 19 predefined styles, such as colored pencil, retrowave, concept art, anime, colored pencil or watercolor. You can also choose between square, landscape and portrait for the aspect ratio.
The big advantage of Canva over Midjourney lies in the other functions of Canva. You can continue working with the image you have created and use it to create a book cover, a flyer, a cover image for a blog article or a social media image, for example.
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