FLUX (Black Forest Labs)
Open-weight image models from the original Stable Diffusion team
FLUX is the model family behind many of the best photorealistic generators, built by the researchers who created Stable Diffusion. Developers use it…
Stable Diffusion (Stability AI)
The open-source image model you can run and fine-tune yourself
Stable Diffusion is the model that made local image generation possible. Stability AI releases the weights under a community licence that is free for small businesses, and the ecosystem (ComfyUI, LoRAs, ControlNet) is unmatched for control. Brand Studio is their hosted, credit-based product.
Best for: hobbyists who want full control
What works
- Runs offline on your own GPU
- Endless community models and extensions
- Free for most users
What to know
- Setup takes real effort
- Base quality trails FLUX and Midjourney
Alternatives
Leonardo.ai
Image platform with fine control, models and daily free tokens
Leonardo (now owned by Canva) gives you more knobs than most generators: custom models, element presets, character reference and an upscaler. Its…
Krea
Real-time canvas that runs many image and video models
Krea's trick is real-time generation: sketch or move shapes and the image updates as you go. It also aggregates third-party models (FLUX, Kling, Veo…