Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
Midjourney
Prompt-to-image generator known for its aesthetics, now on V8.2
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Stable Diffusion
Open-weight image models you can run, fine-tune and ship on your own h...
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| RECATOOLS Score | 8 / 10 | 8 / 10 |
| Capability | ||
| Value for money | ||
| Ease of use | ||
| ASEAN readiness | ||
| API quality | ||
| Pricing | Subscription | Freemium |
| Free tier | No free plan; a limited trial exists only in the niji·journey mobile app | Self-hosted weights free under the Community License below US$1M annual revenue; 25 free API credits for new accounts |
| Paid from | $10/month (Basic), or $8/month billed annually | $0.025 per image via the API (SD 3.5 Flash, 2.5 credits at $0.01 each) |
| Has API | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ |
| Free to use | ✗ | ✓ |
| Users | ~20m users (early 2026) | Widely adopted open-source model; no official central user count |
| Founded | 2022 | 2022 |
| Maker | David Holz | Stability AI |
| Verdict | Midjourney is still the tool designers reach for when the look of an image matters most. V8.2 sharpened aesthetics and personalisation, the new edit model handles instructions, references, inpainting and outpainting, and... |
Stable Diffusion is still the image family to pick when you need to run, fine-tune and control the model yourself: SDXL and SD 3.5 run on your own GPUs, the API is cheap per image, and the licence is free for most indivi... |
| Full review → | Full review → |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.