Midjourney vs DALLE 2: The Battle of Creative AI

Have you ever wanted to create a masterpiece of digital art but found your stick figures just weren't cutting it? Fear not, AI is here to help. 

If you haven’t been living under a rock recently then you will have witnessed the hype surrounding AI art with people posting their own avatars turned into AI portraits (no, your neighbour doesn’t actually have muscles that big!). And with others harnessing these tools to develop incredible artwork that resembles nothing that has been created before.

We are going to take a look at two of the most popular tools in the market right now; Midjourney and DALLE 2 and we will help you make a decision about which one suits your business the best.

What is Midjourney?

MidJourney is an incredibly effective cloud-based image generator tool that enables users to generate captivating graphics and visuals with ease and efficiency. It's packed with a range of options to suit all users such as image recognition, text recognition and even AI-powered filters. 

By utilising MidJourney, users are able to craft eye-catching visuals quickly and conveniently – perfect for those who require a professional-looking graphic for a presentation, a school project, or even just for entertainment purposes. 

MidJourney is also just a really fun opportunity for people, artistic or not, to explore their creative side and experiment with digital art. Trust us, there are some strange images being produced with this tool and the possibilities are really endless!

What is DALLE 2?

DALLE 2 is another AI image generator, created by Open AI which can turn text into images. With DALLE 2 you can also retouch and edit the images it created. Since 2021 there have been improvements to DALLE 2 and it is more capable today than it was before. 

You can also input images that already exist and it will create different styles of that same image, something which Midjourney does not offer. Much like Midjourney, this tool has been developed to allow humans to expand their creativity and open up their minds to a whole world of possibilities when it comes to artwork.

So, Midjourney or DALLE 2?

The battle of the robots commences!

We’re looking at 5 key areas that are crucial to consider when choosing any tool to integrate in your business…

1. Usability

Both tools are similar when it comes to usability and they are fairly self-explanatory. You will need to create an account for both and then you just need to input the phrase that you like and it will generate an image for you. 

How user-friendly is DALLE 2?

DALLE 2 is slightly easier to use at first glance. You just need to sign up and you will be directed to the image generator page immediately. The search bar is clear and easy to navigate. All you need to do is type in your request and it will generate four different images, or you can upload a pre-existing image that you can edit. 

As we can see in the image below, the interface is clear and neutral with nothing distracting about how to use it. 

Is MidJourney easy to use?

• Join their discord thread by signing up and then head to one of the ‘newbies’ channels on the left panel. 
• From there you can type in your request by typing “/imagine” and then inputting what you would like an image of. Make sure the chatbot recognises it. 
• Now, the chatbot will generate your image into four different options and you will have the option of remaking one with a variation. 

The Midjourney interface is slightly more confusing and if you aren’t familiar with discord it can be overwhelming. Another thing we noted is that when you input your request, there are so many other people inputting theirs that yours can get lost amongst the crowd. There is however a way around this, which is to pay for their premium version and that way you can access a private discord thread and you won’t be bothered by everyone else’s creations and messages!

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With both tools you can be as creative as you like with the prompt input, you can choose the artistic style you want, emulate the styles of famous artists, or you can even enter song lyrics and see what the machine generates for you. 

Both of these AI tools will improve over time, so the more people use them the more the machine will gain an understanding of different imagery and styles and the more advanced their output will become. With customer use too, the usability of the platforms will improve and become easier to navigate. 

If we had to pick one that is more user-friendly then we would choose DALLE 2, it’s interface is overall more beginner friendly.

It’s 1-0 to Midjourney.

2. Pricing

Both tools offer different pricing options. 

DALL-E 2 operates on a credit system where the monthly fee starts at $15 for 460 images, with each prompt costing a credit. Credits can be purchased in packs once the free credits have been used up. The first month comes with 50 free credits. 

Midjourney, on the other hand, follows a subscription-based model with three plans: Basic ($10/month), Standard ($30/month), and Corporate ($600/year). During the free trial period, usage is limited to 25 actions including prompts, upscaling, and variations. 

When it comes to investing in these tools, it’s important to consider how helpful and relevant they will be to your day to day business. Could you genuinely see yourself using these tools every day to help you complete certain tasks? Let that help you decide whether you need to invest in these tools.

For price and value, Midjourney wins. 2-0.

3. Top Features

So, the next thing that is important to look into is the features of these tools. What can each tool actually do? Let’s dive in…

Top features of Midjourney

• Upscale an image by selecting four different variations of the prompt you input. You can watch as the bot generates these images for you which adds to the fun of the process. 

• You can also edit the resolution of the images, up to a maximum of 2048x2048 however this is still in beta for now.
• You can upload your own image onto midjourney too and it will generate an AI version of it. You can incorporate your own logo too and create personalised graphics.
• The overall image recognition power of this tool is a feature in itself and the tool’s ability to generate images that can be incredibly lifelike shows how advanced this machine really is. 
• They recently also added the possibility of batch downloading images too.

Top features of DALLE 2

• DALLE 2 has an in-built image editor. This is still in beta but it allows you to erase certain parts of the image and add your own image, it’s a bit like a vision board. 

• You can generate images in 1024x1024 resolution only on DALLE 2.
• Like Midjourney, you can also upload your own image and generate an AI version of it.
• And its main feature would still be its capability to translate text into images.
• You can also integrate DALLE 2 with Adobe Photoshop, making it possible for image editors to go even further with DALLE 2.

When it comes to features, both tools offer very similar services so we call it a draw here. 

4. Customer Reviews 

A tool isn’t a good one without a strong customer base and trust in the product from the public. For both tools it looks like we still need some time before customers fully appreciate the value that they add to their lives.

Midjourney

Midjourney doesn’t have great reviews on Trustpilot, with many people making comments about them stealing other people’s art, not being contactable or providing good customer service, and not refunding people who paid for full subscriptions. Perhaps the team needs more time to build up a better reputation. 

DALLE 2

When researching for reviews of DALLE 2, there was only one available online. This is perhaps a reflection of the number of users who are making use of the platform. 

DALLE 2 have more work to do when it comes to their AI image generator tool, particularly if they want to keep up with the Midjourney tool which, despite their lack of customer reviews, is generating some very impressive artwork already.

Midjourney gets the point here, 3-0.

5. Quality of output

Because the output of these two tools is visual, what better way to compare them than to take a look at the art they generate!

We decided to experiment by comparing the same prompts in each tool and looking at the images side by side.

Example 1

Prompt: a book lying open on a table with sunlight coming through the window and flowers in a vase, painting style, detailed.

We can see the level of detail in the Midjourney image is better and the image is more like how we imagined it would be, however this is entirely subjective and many of you reading this may have pictured the left hand image. 

This is where the concept of machine-generated art becomes interesting to debate. The subjectivity of art is something only humans can interpret and feel, however, there’s no doubt that Midjourney’s output it more detailed.

Example 2

Prompt: a mountain cat climbing Mount Everest, realistic photograph, high quality, detailed

This time we wanted to see if the tools were capable of drawing a lifelike animal.

The image produce by DALLE 2 isn’t great; the cat doesn’t even have a face! 

However, the image created by Midjourney is impressive. It’s very realistic, with incredible detailing in the eyes and fur. Not to mention it even looks more like a mountain cat - perhaps it understood the context too…?

Example 3

For the last comparison we wanted to look at how both tools interpret human faces and emotion. 

The outcomeof one was slightly scary to say the least! 

Prompt: two young boys playing football in a field with happy facial expressions, young soft facial features, clear and detailed, the field is grassy and open with lots of sunlight and trees, the football is also visible 

The difference in output between these tools is interesting. In the image generated by DALLE 2, the children do not not have any facial features and their faces are actually quite distorted. It interpreted the grass and outdoor element reasonably well but the image isn’t sharp and detailed. 

The image from Midjourney is of higher quality and the grass is clear and detailed. The children’s bodies are more formed and their facial expressions, although not perfect, are much clearer and they do resemble a real human face.

Many people have reported that Midjourney is much better at creating artistic style images than it is at creating photograph style images. So this is perhaps something that will improve over time as more people input photographs. With Midjourney you can also select a certain variation of an image, but keep adding different wording and changing the descriptions so this will allow you a maximum amount of customisation. 

It’s safe to say that when it comes to the quality of the images generated, the accuracy of them when compared against the prompt and the overall feel of the image, Midjourney wins by miles. 4-0.

Which AI image generator is best for your business?

The main difference between both of these tools is quality of the artwork that is generated.

When is Midjourney right for my business?

If you need to create digital art which is detailed and elaborate, then Midjourney is more reliable for this. 

If you can learn how to tailor your prompts and make them extremely detailed then you are also guaranteed to see a better outcome from Midjourney. The more detail and accuracy you add to your description, the better the output will be from the AI tool. 

When is DALLE 2 right for my business? 

DALLE 2 is less expensive, therefore if your budget is lower then this can certainly be the right choice, however overall the features are not as advanced as Midjourney and as we have seen in our experiment.

Rounding off on AI art

Art is incredibly personal and the output of the artwork may never be exactly what you want, because the only way you’ll create this is to do it yourself. 

If you work closely with AI and keep tweaking your prompts, you’ll likely get close to what you’re after but it’s important to keep in mind that any AI-powered tool is only as good as the human driving the prompts!