Black Forest Labs vs Midjourney
Black Forest Labs scores 7.2 to Midjourney's 6.0 among the AI image generators we rate, and is the better pick for 3 of the 4 kinds of buyer below.
Black Forest Labs wins, 7.2 to 6.0
Black Forest Labs runs on pay-as-you-go credits with no monthly plan, while Midjourney's cheapest tier is a flat $10 a month; neither offers a free plan. Black Forest Labs publishes open weights under a named license, lets you self-host, and takes pose, sketch or depth map input, none of which Midjourney has. Midjourney answers with negative prompts to say what to leave out, a feature missing from Black Forest Labs' API.
Pick Black Forest Labs if you want open weights, self-hosting or pose and depth control.
Pick Midjourney if you want negative prompts and a flat monthly price instead of credits.
Best for
Who each one suits, decided on the criteria that matter to that buyer and the checked facts where the two differ.
- Controlled by a pose, sketch or depth map: Black Forest Labs yes, Midjourney no
- Public API: Black Forest Labs yes, Midjourney no
- Can run on your own hardware: Black Forest Labs yes, Midjourney no
- Rewrites the prompt for you: Black Forest Labs yes, Midjourney does not say
- But Midjourney leads on says what to leave out: Midjourney yes, Black Forest Labs no
- Does not train on what you make: Unless you opt out against No
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly: Black Forest Labs not published, Midjourney $10
How they score
Both are scored the same way, against the other AI image generators we rate, from facts on each vendor's own pages. Black Forest Labs leads on 4 of 5 criteria.
Where they differ
Every point where the two vendors' published facts disagree, with a link to where each fact was read. "Not published" means the vendor does not say either way.
Published by only one of them
Where they match (16)
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Black Forest Labs
Black Forest Labs does not publish a plan list we could read.
Midjourney
Pros and cons
From each tool's full review, written from the same checked facts.
Black Forest Labs
- Credits cost $0.01 each with no subscription, for example 4 credits, $0.04, per image on FLUX.1 Kontext [pro].
- Every generation through the API comes with full commercial rights and output ownership, with no separate license.
- Open-weights models can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure, including the Apache 2.0 licensed FLUX.2 [klein] 4B.
- There is no free tier and no free trial.
- Your data is used for training by default; opting out requires emailing privacy@blackforestlabs.ai.
- Most FLUX models do not support a negative prompt.
Midjourney
- Every subscriber owns what they create and may use it commercially from the cheapest paid plan.
- Midjourney turns a still image into a 5-second video as well as generating stills, alongside style reference, seed and negative prompt controls.
- There is no free plan and no free trial, so there is no way to try Midjourney before paying.
- Midjourney trains on user prompts and interactions with no opt-out offered.
- There is no public API, so generation cannot be built into another product.
- A company with more than $1,000,000 a year in gross revenue must be on the Pro or Mega plan to use its images commercially.
Black Forest Labs vs Midjourney: common questions
Which is better, Black Forest Labs or Midjourney?
Black Forest Labs scores 7.2 and Midjourney 6.0 out of 10 among the AI image generators we rate. Black Forest Labs is ahead on what it makes, control and automation, rights and privacy and openness and support. Midjourney is ahead on pricing.
Is Black Forest Labs or Midjourney cheaper?
Black Forest Labs's cheapest paid plan is From $0.04 an image (pay as you go) and Midjourney's is $10/mo (Basic). Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
Do Black Forest Labs and Midjourney have a free plan?
Neither has a free plan.
What can Black Forest Labs do that Midjourney cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: controlled by a pose, sketch or depth map, public API, can run on your own hardware and weights published under a named licence.
What can Midjourney do that Black Forest Labs cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: says what to leave out.
