Adobe Creative Cloud vs Adobe Firefly vs Leonardo.ai vs Midjourney
A side-by-side look at Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Firefly, Leonardo.ai and Midjourney for filmmakers: what each one can do, what it costs, and where they actually differ.
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Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop and Firefly AI in one subscription
- Price
- From $9.99/mo (Firefly Standard); Creative Cloud Pro $69.99/mo list ($34.99/mo first 3 months for new subscribers)
- Learning
- Steep
- Best for
- Editors who finish in Premiere and After Effects and want generative fill, extends and title or motion work in the same app
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Adobe's generative studio for images, video and audio, with commercially cleared models and partner models
- Price
- Free daily generations, or Standard from $9.99/mo (2,000 credits); Pro Plus and Premium have a 30% first-year promo ending Oct 21
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Generative fill and object removal on plates, stills and reference frames in Photoshop
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Image and video generation with a canvas, Motion animation and third-party video models
- Price
- See the vendor's pricing page
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Concept art and key-art stills that later become motion tests
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AI image generator for concept art, previs, boards and client-safe stills, with private Stealth mode
- Price
- From $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually); 20% off on annual plans
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Concept art, key art and look development for features and series
The short version
Where they differ
- Midjourney is the only one without third-party models.
- Midjourney is the only one without public API.
- Midjourney is the only one without free tier.
All 4 offer: text to image, image editing, image to video, commercial use.
Feature by feature
Adobe Creative Cloud vs Adobe Firefly vs Leonardo.ai vs Midjourney: capabilities
| Adobe Creative Cloud | Adobe Firefly | Leonardo.ai | Midjourney | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | From $9.99/mo (Firefly Standard); Creative Cloud Pro $69.99/mo list ($34.99/mo first 3 months for new subscribers) | Free daily generations, or Standard from $9.99/mo (2,000 credits); Pro Plus and Premium have a 30% first-year promo ending Oct 21 | See the vendor's pricing page | From $10/mo ($8/mo billed annually); 20% off on annual plans |
| Infinite canvas | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Node / flow builder | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Partial | No |
| AI agent | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| Chat assistant | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| Team collaboration | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Text to image | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text to video | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Image to video | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Video to video | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| Native audio in video | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Partial | Not confirmed |
| Voice / TTS | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| Music & SFX | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | No |
| Upscaling | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Character consistency | Not confirmed | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Camera control | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial | Not confirmed |
| Custom training | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Third-party models | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MCP server | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Desktop / local | Yes | Partial | No | No |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Commercial use | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page. "Not confirmed" means the vendor doesn't say.
Plans
Pricing compared
Adobe Creative Cloud
| Creative Cloud Pro | $69.99monthly (annual plan billed monthly) |
|---|---|
| Creative Cloud Standard | $54.99monthly (annual plan billed monthly) |
| Single app (Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator) | $22.99monthly (annual plan billed monthly) |
| Photography | $19.99monthly (annual plan billed monthly) |
| Firefly Standard | $9.99monthly |
| Firefly Pro | $19.99monthly |
| Firefly Pro Plus | $49.99monthly |
| Firefly Premium | $199.99monthly |
Adobe Firefly
| Free | Freemonthly |
|---|---|
| Standard | $9.99monthly |
| Pro | $19.99monthly |
| Pro Plus | $49.99 ($34.97 first year, promo ends Oct 21)monthly |
| Premium | $199.99 ($139.91 first year, promo ends Oct 21)monthly |
| Pro for teams | $19.99 per licensemonthly, annual |
| Pro Plus for teams | $49.99 per licensemonthly, annual |
| Premium for teams | $199.99 per licensemonthly, annual |
Leonardo.ai
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| API | Pay as you gousage |
Midjourney
| Basic | $10monthly ($8/mo billed annually) |
|---|---|
| Standard | $30monthly ($24/mo billed annually) |
| Pro | $60monthly ($48/mo billed annually) |
| Mega | $120monthly ($96/mo billed annually) |
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
Adobe Creative Cloud
Pick it for
- Editors who finish in Premiere and After Effects and want generative fill, extends and title or motion work in the same app
- Agencies and brands that need commercially cleared generative assets for client delivery
- Motion designers who build mograph in After Effects and generate stills or plates in Firefly
Stands out
- Only suite where editing, motion graphics, grading, audio and stock sit in one subscription with Firefly generation layered on top
- Adobe's own Firefly models are marketed as commercially safe (licensed and public-domain training data), and paid plans carry commercial rights
Watch out
- Full suite is expensive: Creative Cloud Pro is $69.99/mo list, and generation is metered on top
- The AI layer is split across Firefly credits, beta agents and partner models, so costs and availability differ per feature
Adobe Firefly
Pick it for
- Generative fill and object removal on plates, stills and reference frames in Photoshop
- Storyboard and mood-board work in Boards, with partner models for each shot
- Filmmakers already paying for Creative Cloud who want AI inside Premiere and After Effects
Stands out
- Commercial-clearance story: Adobe's own models are trained on Adobe Stock and licensed or public-domain content, and Adobe says outputs are safe for commercial use. Partner-model outputs carry their own terms.
- Native Creative Cloud integration: generative fill, removal and expansion run inside Photoshop, and Premiere Pro and After Effects get Firefly features. Midjourney, Flux, Leonardo and Stable Diffusion have no equivalent in an NLE.
Watch out
- Image quality for photoreal hero art still trails Midjourney and Flux in most side-by-side comparisons
- Credits are consumed at different rates by model, so one plan's allowance is hard to predict across partner models
Leonardo.ai
Pick it for
- Concept art and key-art stills that later become motion tests
- Animatic and previz stills turned into 5-second motion clips
- Custom-trained visual styles for a short film or music video look
Stands out
- Canvas-first editing (AI Canvas for inpainting and outpainting, plus a realtime mode) in the same tool as image and video generation
- Several model families under one account, including Leonardo's own Lucid and Motion 2.0 alongside third-party video models such as Kling 3.0 and Veo 3.1
Watch out
- Video is short (about 5 seconds on Motion 2.0) and not built for sequences or dialogue scenes
- Hosted third-party models are removed on short notice, so a workflow that depends on one can break mid-project
Midjourney
Pick it for
- Concept art, key art and look development for features and series
- Storyboard frames and mood boards where the look matters more than shot control
- Client-confidential previs on Pro or Mega using Stealth mode
Stands out
- Stealth mode on Pro and Mega keeps confidential client and NDA work out of the public gallery, which the tools above do not offer on an equal basis.
- Consistent, art-directed default look across prompts with the V8.2 personalization profile, which is trained on your ratings rather than a LoRA you build.
Watch out
- No free trial
- Video is still the 2025 V1 image-to-video model, with no text-to-video or audio
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page, checked against vendor pricing and changelog pages (oldest check: ). Sources are listed on each tool's page.
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