While DALL-E 2 has recently been made available to the public, it is not the only AI-powered text to image generation service in the market. Stable Diffusion, an open source project, and Midjourney, which runs on Discord, are also competitors. Each service has its own unique approach to the technology.
DALL-E 2, launched by OpenAI in September, is the easiest to use. Users can sign up on the website and receive 50 free credits per month, with additional credits available for purchase. However, users must confirm their phone number via SMS during the sign-up process.
Stable Diffusion is the most complex but offers the most flexibility. It is an open source project that can be run on a user’s own machine with a powerful GPU. Alternatively, users can use the beta version of DreamStudio, which operates on a credit-based system similar to DALL-E 2. Free trial credits are available, and additional credits can be purchased. Stable Diffusion has a large community, providing users with numerous options for working with the technology.
Midjourney operates on the Discord platform and offers users free credits to start with additional credits available for purchase. Users can access Midjourney by following the appropriate channel and sending slash commands. The manual is available on their website.
To compare the three services, a video was created that sent the same five requests to each service.