Breaking the mold: 5 innovative alternatives to Dall-E and Midjourney for AI image generation

Aditi Nair

• 6 min read
Breaking the mold: 5 innovative alternatives to Dall-E and Midjourney for AI image generation


Table of Contents

The Pope was having the time of his life.

Last month, Twitter got flooded with images showing the Vatican Supremo in a variety of extracurricular activities.

He was enjoying a pint of beer, digging into fast food, and having a laugh or two.

Then why did these images not send shockwaves around the world?

One simple answer: none of these images were real. Midjourney and Dall-E - AI tools that transform text prompts into hyper realistic graphics- created them.

The Pope is not alone in this endeavour.

Search the web and you can find millions of such extraordinary images.

One major caveat to these two popular AI tools is pricing.

To have Dall-E generate images from your text prompts, you need to buy Dall-E credits (for each request, you need to spend one credit).

For Midjourney, the free tier is quite handicapped, and the subscription plan costs a minimum of $10/month.

If you are a digital artist and get put off by Dall-E and Midjourney pricing, you need not worry.

We have compiled a list of the five best substitutes for AI text-to-image tools.

What is an AI image generator?

In simplest terms, an AI Image Generator is a software, app, tool, or cloud-based service that outputs images based on textual inputs - often dubbed as prompts.

These tools run on powerful artificial intelligence models. These are often trained on a vast collection of publicly available images.

Users can tweak their text inputs to further customize the output from these tools.

The AI models behind these learn from the correlations between user prompts and images and get better.

Tools like Dall-E and Midjourney use sophisticated AI models that continue to get trained on billions of images to provide near-realistic images.

Since their training corpus is vast, users can put in almost any combination of prompts and get a relevant output.

5 alternatives to Dall-E and Midjourney

Cohesive AI

Cohesive AI is another great tool to create realistic images tailor-made for your specific needs.

The best thing about Cohesive is that it is an all-rounder - you can create images and generate texts, all in one go.

Choose from a variety of available templates and create blog posts, LinkedIn entries, and even Facebook or Twitter updates.

Cohesive can either get the relevant images from its exhaustive library via the unsplash option or generate contextual images on the fly.

It can do so with either the content of the text or your input.

Cohesive is free to use, and requires a simple sign-up.

It has a modern, simple interface that is devoid of complexities that users may experience while using AI tools like Dall-E or Midjourney.

If you are starting your AI prompts generation journey - whether as a digital artist or as a technology aficionado - Cohesive is a top option for you to explore.

Stable Diffusion

Perhaps the closest contender for the AI text-to-image generator crown - behind Dall-E and Midjourney- is Stable Diffusion.

Developed by Stability.AI, Stable Diffusion uses a deep-learning, text-to-image AI model that has trained on billions of photos.

This enables it to create images that are similar in quality to Dall-E and Midjourney.

Stable Diffusion is 100% free to use, and you can even install it on your computer to use it locally.

It can generate images from text inputs, modify existing pictures based on text prompts, and even fill in details in images (akin to digital restoration).

Stability.AI has added many features to Stable Diffusion since its release.

It includes faster image generation, more accurate results, and compatibility with more devices, chipsets, and operating systems.

Stable Diffusion represents a departure from other AI tools that operate in the cloud. Instead, it opts to run from consumer hardware.

Bing Image Creator

Microsoft has been the driving force behind the recent AI revolution.

As a part of its partnership with OpenAI, it is now integrating AI in all its product stack.

Fresh out of the oven is Bing Image Creator, a site built on the most advanced version of Dall-E.

It is free to use and one can access it via the web or Bing Chat - Microsoft’s AI Chatbot.

To use Bing Image Creator, you need to visit the website and log in via your Microsoft account.

Microsoft is also including the AI Image Generator with their browser, Edge.

If you have access to Bing Chat, accessing this AI Image Generator is even quicker.

Put your Bing Chat in creative mode, and start away with your text-to-image prompts to generate best-in-class quality graphics.

Though Bing Image Creator is free, users must adhere to the same restrictions as Dall-E.

Right now, you can create 25 images/day before the speed of image generation decreases.

Starryai

Creating images in AI image generators and tweaking them with text inputs can often be a daunting task for newcomers, and may need some technical know-how.

Starryai aims to make that process simpler, with its simpler and intuitive interface. It is currently available for a variety of mobile devices, including Android and iOS.

Many have touted this free tool as one of the best Dall-E/Midjourney alternatives, and it is not hard to see why.

Starryai uses Orion and Altair - two state-of-the-art AI models - to create lifelike art. It is free (though you need to pay for art credits), and you keep 100% ownership of the images you create.

The free tier lets you create 5 images per day, without any watermarks.

Select from a laundry list of different models, styles, aspect ratios, and initial images to customize your images.

Craiyon

Originally dubbed Dall-E mini (though it does not have any association with Dall-E), Craiyon is a free AI Image Generator.

It has gained significant popularity this year.

The Dall-E mini nickname, however, is very accurate.

This tool has similar capabilities to Dall-E, albeit with lower precision.

With Craiyon, you can render images with a few text prompts. While the initial results may lack the finesse of Dall-E or Midjourney, you have unlimited prompts to play with.

This allows you to fine-tune your prompts (take as much time as you need - it is free!) to create the exact image you want.

Craiyon’s simple UI means the learning curve is almost nil.

This further adds to this site’s overall appeal and makes it a strong contender as a top alternative for tools like Dall-E and Midjourney.

Conclusion

AI tools are changing the world.

Without getting into the debate around the definition of art, we can admire how far we have come in developing artificial intelligence-based tools.

And with increased competition around AI, more accessible tools have taken flight.

Digital creators who want to harness the powers of AI text-to-image-generating tools no longer are dependent on Dall-E or Midjourney.

Tools like Craiyon, Fotor AI, and Stable Diffusion are increasingly creating an open-source ecosystem.

Here artists can share their work, collaborate to create stunning art, and even provide constructive feedback to train the AI model better.

For many AI pundits, these community-based AI tools represent the best of both worlds: an AI-driven future that is sustainable, ethical, and limitless.

Ever wondered how a Shiba Inu dog with a beret and black turtleneck might look?

Well, not only do you know now, you can create something similar too!