InvokeAI vs Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge
InvokeAI
invoke.ai
Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge
github.comSide by side
| Figure | InvokeAI | Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · AI image generators | 8.6 (#26) | 8.9 (#12) |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | Yes | Yes |
| License | Invoke is free and open-source under the Apache 2.0 license. | The repository identifies its license as AGPL-3.0. |
| Output formats | PNG | PNG,JPG,JPEG,WebP,AVIF,GIF |
| Purpose | Invoke is a creative engine for AI-powered image generation. | Forge is a platform built on Stable Diffusion WebUI and Gradio to ease development, optimize resource management, speed up inference, and study experimental features. |
| Reference images | Yes | Yes |
| Security | The administrator guide says the software has not undergone a rigorous security audit or intrusion testing. | The repository's Security page is titled Overview and provides no security or compliance details in the opened page. |
| Support | The project points users to its FAQ, Discord community, documentation, and GitHub Issues for help. | The maintainer invites users to open issues for problems and says they will check them every several days. |
| Text-to-image | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
InvokeAI
InvokeAI is a free, open-source creative engine for AI image generation. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, or through self-hosted and API setups. A layer-based canvas supports drawing, painting, sketching, and image editing, while a visual node editor builds repeatable workflows. Listed model support includes Flux, SDXL, and SD 1.5, with Model Manager handling checkpoints, LoRAs, Textual Inversions, and ControlNets. Tools include ControlNet guidance, batch generation, prompt wildcards, and high-resolution upscaling. InvokeAI supports text-to-image generation, reference images, API access, and PNG output. External integrations include Google Gemini, OpenAI, BytePlus Seedream, and Alibaba Cloud DashScope; those providers bill usage separately. Local operation keeps data, prompts, and creations under the user's control. The former hosted Invoke.ai platform has shut down.
Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge
Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge is a free, open-source platform built on Stable Diffusion WebUI for image generation and editing. It supports text-to-image creation, reference images, and image editing, with PNG, JPG, JPEG, WebP, AVIF, and GIF listed as output formats. The project aims to ease development, manage resources, speed inference, and explore experimental features. Its interface is based on Gradio, and the README offers a one-click installation package that includes Git and Python. Windows launch scripts, shell scripts, a macOS environment script, and source installation instructions are listed. Forge includes GPU memory management and components such as LoRAs, ControlNets, IP-Adapters, Instant-IDs, reference-only methods, and extensions. Several Flux BitsandBytes and GGUF variants are natively supported, with GPU weight and swap controls; some variants support LoRA. The README lists txt2img and img2img API endpoints as normal, while improved Flux support is pending. The project is described as under construction, so its documentation, interface, and functionality may change. Its license is AGPL-3.0.