The best Midjourney alternatives (paid and free)

You have to feel for the graphic designers and digital artists. AI may be coming for all of our jobs eventually, but AI image generation already gives everyone with an internet connection fantastic capabilities beyond our imagination a few years ago. Midjourney was one of the first AI image generators and remains a leading player to this day, but the competition is hotting up fast. If you’re wondering what other options you have, we’ve compiled a list of the best Midjourney alternatives out there.

The best Midjourney alternatives

You can use the links below to jump directly to each option in our list. Some of these services require a paid subscription, some are free, and some have both tiers. We’ll make those differences clear in each instance. 

Stable Diffusion is one of the best-known image generators. It’s also completely free and open-source, which is great to see. There are two ways you can use it. If you have a high-spec computer with a powerful GPU, you can download the software and use it offline. For the rest of us, there’s a web browser version that does the job. You simply head to the website and enter a prompt — very simple.

We’ve compared Midjourney and Stable Diffusion ourselves, with the latter very much holding its own. Its attempts to produce photorealistic images still have a bit of a way to go, but if you’re thinking of a fantasy landscape or a product design, it can bring your imagination to life in a visually stunning way. It can also modify existing pictures, such as changing the colors of the walls in a photo of a room.

Created for a coding competition, Craiyon has evolved through contributions from open-source communities. It was originally called DALL-E Mini before OpenAI asked for the name to be changed, and it operates on a smaller database than Dall-E, which can mean it is less precise when it comes to fine details such as generating faces. On the plus side, it’s free to use and imposes no restrictions on the type of content generated, as some of its competitors do. The platform also features a forum where users can share their creations. It’s designed to understand both text and visual cues.

Craiyon is currently available as a browser version with a mobile app for Android users. There’s a limited free tier, with three paid tiers that affect things like the speed of image generation, the number of images you can create, and your privacy.

OpenAI came to the consciousness of most of us with the phenomenal rise of ChatGPT earlier this year, but it launched the original DALL-E back in 2021. DALL-E 2 has been one of the most popular AI image generators in recent months, and DALL-E 3 just launched in the last few days. You can use your OpenAI log-in from ChatGPT to access a free version of DALL-E 2, but ChatGPT Plus subscribers can now generate DALL-E 3 images from within the ChatGPT interface.

Like most of the image generators on this list, Dall-E 3 is exceptional at creating images from many prompts, and each prompt generates four variations of the output for users to choose from. It Photorealism still leaves something to be desired at times, and we’ve found that it isn’t great at slightly tweaking an image that you’re mostly happy with, often straying too far from the original image. Still, it’s a top-tier option and a no-brainer for ChatGPT Plus users.

Wombo was the app that introduced a lot of us to the prospect of turning our real-life photos into singing characters, making it the novelty craze for a while. Wombo now has Dream, which is its AI image generation feature. Users can select from a variety of art styles, ranging from baroque to futuristic landscapes, to match their custom prompts. It also incorporates an element of randomness, ensuring that no two artworks generated with the same prompt will be identical.

The app is user-friendly and free to use, without ads or subscriptions, and monetizes through a print-on-demand service for your artwork. 

Accessible only through Discord, BlueWillow is user-friendly and can generate up to four AI images in just five simple steps. The tool offers 25 free image prompts daily, allowing users to experiment with various creative ideas. For those who exhaust their free credits, BlueWillow offers a monthly subscription ranging from $10 to $60. The platform emphasizes the importance of detailed prompts to get the desired output and provides a ‘getting-started’ channel on Discord to help newcomers. While the image generation speed is fast, the tool’s output isn’t always as consistent as the likes of Midjourney.

In a strategic move to enhance its AI capabilities, Microsoft has integrated a free image generator into its Bing search engine. Known as Bing Image Creator, the service is powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E technology. Users receive 100 “boosts” upon signing in with a Microsoft account, which are weekly-replenishing credits that enable rapid image generation on the user-friendly interface. Although you can’t purchase additional boosts, the service remains free beyond your allocation and allows for an unlimited number of slower image generations.

The Image Creator is accessible not only through its dedicated webpage but also via Bing Chat’s Creative mode, including on mobile devices. 

Being one of the most prominent digital design suites of the 21st century, Adobe was always going to be at the forefront of the AI image generation revolution. Its AI package is called Adobe Firefly and comprises several tools. They include the text-to-image model that we’re all becoming more familiar with, as well as Photo Generative Fill, which can be used to edit objects in and out of a photo or even create extra surroundings that aren’t in the original picture.

Firefly has a free version with 25 monthly generative credits or a premium tier for $4.99 per month, in which you get 100 credits and other extras. Generative credits are also included in many Adobe Creative Cloud plans.

Like Wombo Dream, Starryai gives you a text input box and a selection of styles for the image you want to generate. It’s powered by two AI models, Altair and Orion, and offers both web and mobile app versions. There are over 1,000 art styles to choose from, as well as additional features like Evolve and Upscale to provide further customization. The platform also includes a Prompt Builder that acts as a library for users to save and select multiple art styles for future projects.

Users receive five free daily credits for image generation, with options to upgrade to any of three paid plans for more credits and extensive features.