Which AI Image Generator Is the Best?

Prompt: Create an image of a robot weatherman frantically telling viewers about an incoming winter storm.

Ranking (first to last): Dall-E, Meta, Midjourney, Playground

Analysis: Starting off with an easy one, the clear winner here is OpenAI’s Dall-E. We got a photorealistic robot delivering a snowy weather forecast. I found that Dall-E often created the image I was imagining in my brain. Playground AI’s robot seems to miss the tone and doesn’t seem to be much of a weatherman. Midjourney’s is good, definitely frantic, but not what I was looking for. Meta AI is significantly less realistic than the others, but I was satisfied with the tone, details, and overall story of its creation.

Prompt: Make me an image of a televised presidential debate between a reality TV star and an old man, with an audience full of reporters and cheering fans.

Ranking: Midjourney, Dall-E, Playground AI, Meta

Analysis: All of these actually missed the mark. Dall-E gave us “Oldbama” and “Old Trump,” which I suppose is fairly close. Meta gave us a terrifying mix of Joe Biden and Donald Trump that I can’t unsee. Midjourney didn’t give me quite what I was looking for, but won points for creativity.

Prompt: Create an image of a whimsical underwater city, with colorful coral buildings, schools of tropical fish swimming between structures, and a group of merpeople gathering in a central, glowing plaza.

Ranking: Midjourney, Dall-E, Meta, Playground

Analysis: Midjourney often blows me away with how creative and detailed its images are. There’s truly no competition on that front. However, I thought Dall-E’s may have been cleaner. Meta’s kind of looked like a sad fish tank.

Prompt: Make me an image of a tech CEO on Mars driving a pickup truck and fighting for free speech.

Ranking: Midjourney, Playground, Meta, Dall-E

Analysis: I basically asked for Elon Musk, and Midjourney gave me just that. It even looks like he’s driving a Cybertruck. Meta got bonus points for giving me a women tech CEO, the only one to do so.

Prompt: Create an image of an aerial shot of a shark swimming below an unsuspecting kayaker

Ranking: Dall-E, Meta, Midjourney, Playground,

Analysis: I asked Meta AI to do this for me in another article, and it completely fumbled. This time it did slightly better. Midjourney and Playground lost points for adding on extra shark fins and not giving the sharks a head.

Prompt: Make an image for my article testing different AI image generators.

Ranking: Midjourney, Dall-E, Meta, Playground

Analysis: You already knew Midjourney won, because that’s what I used for this article. I was looking for something more like what Dall-E gave me, but Midjourney gave me something unexpected and cooler than what I imagined. Meta’s image proved this query was too “meta” for its image generation, and Playground didn’t seem to understand at all.

Prompt: Create an image of a small, cozy cabin in a snowy forest, with warm light glowing from its windows and smoke rising from the chimney, under a starry night sky.

Ranking: Midjourney, Playground, Meta, Dall-E

Analysis: Midjourney continues to run away as the most detailed, beautiful image generator. However, all the contestants offered some very cozy, warm-looking cabins.

Prompt: Create an image of a mystical forest clearing at night, illuminated by glowing mushrooms and fireflies, with a wise old owl perched on a gnarled tree branch, and a hidden fairy village in the background.

Ranking: Dall-E, Midjourney, Playground, Meta

Analysis: Midjourney missed the glowing mushrooms, and Meta’s was too cartoony for me. All of these were fairly solid as well.

Prompt: Create an image of a vintage-style robot sipping tea in a quaint English garden, surrounded by blooming flowers and a small stone pathway

Ranking: Meta, Dall-E, Midjourney, Playground

Analysis: A rare Meta win on this list, but it gave me the cutest robot so it wins. Playground’s robot was unnerving to me for some reason.

Prompt: Make me an image of a holiday card from a New York City tech publication of goblins and vampires with blue color themes

Ranking: Dall-E, Playground, Midjourney, Meta

Analysis: Dall-E won the holiday card contest by a mile. “New York Tech City” and “Happy Holistmas” are likely flubs, but I found them charming. It also absolutely matched the tone and concepts I was looking for. Midjourney made something cool, but I am terrified of it. Playground got pretty close, and I think Meta confused New York City with the mafia because this holiday card looks strangely intimidating.

Verdict: Midjourney was the most successful AI image generator of the four that Gizmodo tested. The images Midjourney produces are incredibly detailed, shockingly creative, and often prove more interesting than what I would have come up with on my own, which are the main things most people are looking for in an AI image generator. Not to mention, Midjourney is cheaper than Dall-E or Playground, though you are only able to use it through Discord. If you’re unfamiliar with Discord, that can be a hurdle, but I found my experience using Midjourney to be very enjoyable and well worth the $10 a month.

OpenAI’s Dall-E is the runner-up, but I think Dall-E did a better job of matching the tone of my requests. In other words, Dall-E more often gets pretty close to what I’m imagining, while Midjourney often gives me something better. That being said, sometimes I don’t want a creative image, I just want exactly what I ask for. If that’s what you’re looking for, Dall-E is your go-to.

Playground wins third because it made a good amount of flubs, but occasionally surprised me with wonderful images that looked like they could have been from Dall-E or Midjourney. In its current state, I would not pay for the unlimited version of Playground when I could pay $5 more for Dall-E or, better yet, $5 less for Midjourney.

And in the last place, Imagine with Meta AI, the only completely free product on the list. I wanted to like Meta AI, and I actually do enjoy its cartoonish creations. However, it’s not even remotely close to the capabilities of Midjourney. If you do need something quick, easy, and free, I would suggest just using the free trials of Playground, Dall-E, or Midjourney.