Text-to-image vs. photo-to-photo: why this list mixes categories

Six of the seven tools below work the same way: you describe what you want, and the model creates a new image from that description. Sometimes you can add a reference image for style. Hoty works differently. The starting point is always an uploaded photo, and the model reworks part of it while keeping the pose and face. That's an image-to-image process, not text-to-image.

Start here when choosing a tool. For generating original art, marketing images, or concept sketches, use the text-to-image tools below. For editing a specific person's photo while keeping them recognizable, that's different work, and Hoty is designed for it.

Midjourney

Midjourney generates images from text prompts using a fast model that updates regularly (currently version 8.1). You can animate a generated or uploaded image into a short video and extend it in stages up to around 21 seconds. It's popular for illustration and concept art, and the output has its own recognizable visual style.

Four subscription tiers, priced by GPU hours per month instead of image count. Higher tiers include unlimited slower "relax mode" generation. There is no free tier; you need a paid plan to generate anything.

Adobe Firefly

Firefly is built into Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, not just a standalone tool. It does text-to-image, generative fill, text-to-video, and other content types. Adobe trains it on Adobe Stock and licensed or public-domain content, which makes commercial use clearer legally than some competing models.

Free tier with a small monthly credit allowance. Three paid tiers above it, priced by monthly credits. Demanding tasks like video burn through credits faster. Since Firefly is part of Creative Cloud, the real cost depends on whether you already pay for other Adobe apps.

Leonardo.Ai

Leonardo.Ai combines text-to-image with a canvas editor for inpainting and outpainting. It updates in real time as you type your prompt. There are tools for game development, like texture map generation. It's grown from just an image generator into a broader creative suite that includes video.

Free tier with daily credits. Three paid tiers with bigger monthly budgets. Cost depends on how complex the task is, not per image. Credits work the same across images, video, and other generation types.

Ideogram

Ideogram is best known for text rendering inside images. Readable words, logos, and posters come out more accurate than most other models. That makes it popular for designs that need real text, not decorative lettering. It also has a style-reference system to lock a visual style across multiple generations, and a canvas editor for edits.

Free daily prompt allowance. Three paid tiers priced by monthly credits. Free-tier images are public by default. To keep generations private, you need a paid plan. All paid tiers include a commercial usage license.

ChatGPT's image tool

OpenAI's image generation uses the same model as ChatGPT, not a separate DALL-E. This means you can give multi-part conversational prompts and refine an image through back-and-forth chat instead of one prompt. OpenAI removed the standalone DALL-E models from its API in 2026.

You get it through a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which also covers general chat use. There's a more expensive Pro tier for higher generation limits. Developers can use the image model directly through OpenAI's API, paying per image based on resolution and quality.

Stable Diffusion (Stability AI)

Stable Diffusion is different from the others: its models are open source. You can download and run them on your own hardware for free under Stability AI's community license. No per-image charge, no data sent anywhere. No other tool here does that. It's also available as a hosted API and web product if you don't want to run it yourself.

The hosted version bills per image through a credit system. Cost scales by model version and resolution. There's also a monthly membership plan with API credits included. Running the open-source models locally needs a capable GPU and technical setup, which can be a barrier for non-technical users even without paying a license fee.

Hoty (that's us)

Hoty is our own product. Keep that in mind. It doesn't compete with the text-to-image tools above. It's built to transform an uploaded photo, or a photo of someone who gave clear consent, through Hoty's photo generator. Not to generate images from text.

Every upload goes through automated moderation for consent and age before anything is generated or charged. The platform is fail-closed: unclear uploads get blocked, not processed. No subscription. Results cost coins from Hoty's pricing page. Failed generations refund coins automatically.

Hoty runs in the browser at hoty-ai.com, no software to install. It supports photo effects and photo-to-video animation in English, Russian, and Hindi.

Which type of tool actually fits your use case

For generating original images, illustrations, or marketing visuals from text, compare Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Leonardo.Ai, Ideogram, ChatGPT's image tool, and Stable Diffusion. The real differences are text rendering accuracy (Ideogram's strength), ecosystem integration (Firefly in Creative Cloud), open-source flexibility (Stable Diffusion), and pricing: flat subscription tiers versus consumable credits.

For editing a photo while keeping the subject recognizable, none of those six tools is built for that. Some can technically use an image as a reference, but that's different. Check whether a tool actually preserves the face and pose from a source photo, or just uses it as loose style inspiration. For details on how face-preserving actually works, see our guide to AI photo generation.

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