HitPaw VikPea vs Real-CUGAN
HitPaw VikPea
hitpaw.comReal-CUGAN
github.comSide by side
| Figure | HitPaw VikPea | Real-CUGAN |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Video Upscaling Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.0 (#17) |
| Spec score · AI Video Upscalers | 9.1 (#3) | 8.1 (#12) |
| Purpose | VikPea enhances video with AI, including 4K/8K upscaling, noise removal, blur repair, and restoration of damaged videos. | Real-CUGAN is an AI super-resolution model trained on a million-scale anime dataset and designed for anime images. |
| Upscaling | The product converts 480p, 720p and 1080p footage to 4K or 8K while attempting to preserve detail. | It supports 2×, 3×, and 4× upscaling; the 1× model is described as still in training. |
| Windows requirements | Minimum Windows requirements are Windows 10/11, an Intel i3 or AMD RX 580-class processor, 4 GB disk space and 8 GB RAM; DirectX 12 and 1366×768 display are listed. | The package was tested on Windows 10 64-bit; Nvidia use requires 1.5 GB of video memory, with different CUDA minimums for light and heavy versions. |
Plans
HitPaw VikPea
- Free trialFree
- 1 Month License$43.19 a month
- 1 Year License$99.99 a year
- Perpetual License$350.39, paid once
- Annual Team Plan$459.95 a year
- Annual Business PlanPriced on request
In their own words
HitPaw VikPea
HitPaw VikPea enhances video with AI tools for upscaling to 4K or 8K, reducing noise, repairing blur, and restoring damaged footage. Its listed models cover sharpening, portraits, video quality repair, UHD restoration, frame interpolation, and stabilization. Color tools include colorization, color enhancement, low-light enhancement, and SDR-to-HDR conversion. The product supports formats such as MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV, and WMV, and says it can generate videos from text or images using models including Kling, Pixverse, VEO, and Seedance. HitPaw also offers a video and image enhancement API with MCP integration; its API free plan provides 5,000 credits and access to all AI models for testing. The software is listed for Windows, macOS, web, iOS, and Android. The free license is preview-only, while paid licenses unlock features and video export. Listed plans include $43.19 a month, $99.99 a year, $350.39, paid once, and $459.95 a year for a team plan.
Real-CUGAN
Real-CUGAN is a free AI super-resolution model designed for anime images. It enlarges images by 2×, 3×, or 4× and offers denoising strengths, a conservative mode, and adjustable alpha. The 1× model is still in training. The English README describes five model weights for 2× and three each for 3× and 4×, covering different enhancement strengths. The Windows configuration processes both images and video, and the repository includes a video inference script. A linked NCNN implementation provides Windows, Linux, and macOS executables for Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and Apple-Silicon GPUs using Vulkan; its portable package includes binaries and models and states that it needs no CUDA or PyTorch runtime. Browser options include a demo and a Web-CPU version, though the README says the CPU demo is slow and recommends smaller images. Windows cache and tile settings can trade speed for lower GPU-memory use, including modes intended for very large images. The project also lists PyTorch and VapourSynth use paths and describes its architecture as compatible with Waifu2x-CUNet. The maker invites suggestions and requests through repository issues.