Preface

Currently, the two most powerful software in the AIGC field,MidjourneyWhat is the difference between MJ and stable diffusion? How should we choose? This is a question that many novice friends often ask. This article specifically explains this question.

Position in the AIGC community

Midjourney and stable diffusion are both considered the "top stream" in the AIGC industry. Basically, there are no other mainstream products that can compete with them.

Four threshold questions

Before understanding the functions of the two, let's first look at four threshold issues: how to charge, equipment requirements, installation and deployment, and learning costs.

Midjourney charges membership fees on an annual or monthly basis. The lowest is $10 per month and the highest is $120 per month. There are 4 different levels, corresponding to different packages. The lowest package is about 70 yuan per month, and the price is lower for carpooling. Stable diffusion is completely open source and free, which is very conscientious.

Secondly, there are requirements for devices. Midjourney does not have any requirements for devices, because it is essentially a website, or an APP. All devices that can open the website can use MJ, including computers, pads and even mobile phones, without any restrictions. Stable diffusion can only be used on computers, and has certain requirements for computer performance, especially for graphics cards, which are relatively high. The minimum is 6GB, and as you use it more deeply, the requirements for graphics cards will gradually increase.

Third, installation and deployment. As mentioned above, Midjourney does not require any installation, you can just open Discord and use it. However, stable diffusion needs to be manually installed and deployed before you can start using it, and there is a certain threshold for use.

Finally, there is the learning cost. Midjourney is a mature commercial product with a high fee. Its UI interface and interactive operation are all above a certain level. It is easy to get started and friendly to newcomers. Stable diffusion is open source and free, with a more geeky style, a complex interface, and many parameter plug-ins. In terms of usage, it is indeed not as good as MJ, but after all, it is open source and free, so we can't expect too much.

The advantages of the two are different

Now that we know the entry level of the two tools, let's look at their advantages. First of all, Midjourney is more flexible and can easily handle various painting styles, and the image aesthetics are mature and stable. Stable diffusion is at a disadvantage in terms of aesthetics, but it is very suitable for fine control of local details, which is the shortcoming of MJ.

Midjourney's flexibility is reflected in its ability to master various painting styles. With the continuous updates and iterations of versions, Midjourney's style library is becoming more and more abundant, and its learning ability is visibly improving.

At the same time, Midjourney's output efficiency is also very high. When the turbo mode is turned on, it can output about 12-16 pictures per minute. The efficiency is amazing.

Although Midjourney has poor controllability, it can also be used to improve efficiency in e-commerce design, such as generating various types of scene graphs to efficiently change the visual style of products.

Of course, Midjourney is still the most suitable for creative inspiration pictures. From the overall expression and aesthetics of the picture, there are no shortcomings.

The strength of stable diffusion is control. It is very suitable for coloring line drawings, converting line drawings into three-dimensional effects, etc. Stable diffusion can ensure that the elements of the line drawings remain consistent and are not distorted, which is something that Midjourney cannot fully achieve.

Including the Chinese character effects above, they can only be achieved with stable diffusion. In essence, stable diffusion can extend on the basis of a certain "skeleton", while Midjourney has randomness that is difficult to avoid, which will cause a certain degree of damage to the "skeleton". However, Midjourney should continue to improve controllability in the future. The "--sref (style reference)" and "--cref (character reference)" launched by Midjourney a while ago show the goal direction of Midjourney for improving "controllability".

Summarize

Charges: MJ costs money, SD is free.

Operation: Midjourney is easy to use, while stable diffusion is complex to operate.

Advantages: Midjourney is flexible and efficient with many styles, and stable diffusion is finely controllable.

Midjourney essentially charges membership fees, provides cloud computing power, and frees users from device limitations. It also provides a better user experience and a more user-friendly interface.

We can choose which product to use according to different actual needs.