Artlist vs Flux vs Ideogram vs Leonardo.ai
A side-by-side look at Artlist, Flux, Ideogram and Leonardo.ai for filmmakers: what each one can do, what it costs, and where they actually differ.
-
Stock music, SFX and footage plus an AI generation toolkit under one subscription
- Price
- AI plans from €11.99/mo (AI Starter, annual)
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Editors who need one licence for music, SFX and b-roll across many client projects
-
Image model family for accurate text and photoreal stills, plus FLUX 3 video with native audio
- Price
- Pay per image on the API, from $0.014 (FLUX.2 klein 4B). Open weights are free for non-commercial use; commercial open-weights licences are quoted by sales.
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Key art and concept frames where legible text in the image matters
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Text-accurate AI images for title cards, posters, key art and on-screen type
- Price
- Free plan; API pay-per-image from $0.03 (4.0 Turbo)
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Title cards and text plates that must be spelled exactly, composited over footage in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve
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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
Feature by feature
Artlist vs Flux vs Ideogram vs Leonardo.ai: capabilities
| Artlist | Flux | Ideogram | Leonardo.ai | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | AI plans from €11.99/mo (AI Starter, annual) | Pay per image on the API, from $0.014 (FLUX.2 klein 4B). Open weights are free for non-commercial use; commercial open-weights licences are quoted by sales. | Free plan; API pay-per-image from $0.03 (4.0 Turbo) | See the vendor's pricing page |
| Infinite canvas | Not confirmed | No | Partial | Yes |
| Node / flow builder | Partial | No | Not confirmed | Partial |
| Team collaboration | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial |
| Text to image | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text to video | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Image to video | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Video to video | Not confirmed | Partial | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Native audio in video | Not confirmed | Yes | No | Partial |
| Lip-sync | Not confirmed | Yes | No | Not confirmed |
| Voice / TTS | Yes | Partial | No | Not confirmed |
| Music & SFX | Yes | Partial | No | Not confirmed |
| Upscaling | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Character consistency | Partial | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial |
| Camera control | Partial | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial |
| Custom training | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Third-party models | Yes | No | Partial | Yes |
| Public API | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Mobile app | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Desktop / local | No | Yes | Partial | No |
| Open source | No | Partial | Partial | No |
| Free tier | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Commercial use | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes |
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page. "Not confirmed" means the vendor doesn't say.
Plans
Pricing compared
Artlist
| AI Starter | €11.99monthly, billed annually (€19.99 monthly) |
|---|---|
| AI Core | €23.99monthly, billed annually (€39.99 monthly) |
| AI Creator | €41.67monthly, billed annually (€69.99 monthly) |
| Custom Business | Contact salescustom |
Flux
| Open weights, non-commercial | Freeone-time download |
|---|---|
| API pay-as-you-go | From $0.014 per imagepay-per-image |
| Builder (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Platform (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Professional (open-weights licence) | Contact saleslicence |
| Enterprise | Contact salescustom |
Ideogram
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|
Leonardo.ai
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| API | Pay as you gousage |
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
Artlist
Pick it for
- Editors who need one licence for music, SFX and b-roll across many client projects
- YouTube creators and content studios that publish often and want unlimited audio
- Agencies and production companies using team seats with centralized licensing
Stands out
- One subscription covers stock music, 90,000+ SFX, stock footage and templates, plus an AI toolkit, under one commercial licence
- Unlimited stock downloads on paid plans with no per-track or per-clip licensing negotiation
Watch out
- AI allowances change often: included AI video counts were halved on lower tiers in October 2026
- Music selection is broad rather than specialist; limited high-end orchestral and foley depth
Flux
Pick it for
- Key art and concept frames where legible text in the image matters
- Environment plates and set-design variations at 2K or 4K, priced per megapixel
- Studios that want open weights and custom LoRAs running locally in ComfyUI
Stands out
- Open weights: FLUX.2 [dev] and the klein models can be downloaded, self-hosted and fine-tuned, with LoRA rights on the licensed tiers. Midjourney is closed.
- Pay per image with no subscription: FLUX.2 [klein] 4B from $0.014 per image, FLUX.2 [pro] from $0.03. Midjourney and Adobe Firefly sell monthly plans.
Watch out
- Video is new. FLUX 3 Video availability and FLUX 3 Image early access have been described differently across sources, and video pricing is not published
- Open-weights models are non-commercial by default, and commercial use needs a licence quoted by sales
Ideogram
Pick it for
- Title cards and text plates that must be spelled exactly, composited over footage in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve
- Movie poster and key-art concepts with a title treatment
- Festival, screening and social thumbnails with readable copy
Stands out
- Typography is the product: text inside the image is the main claim, and 4.0 coverage stresses small type, multilingual copy and signage over general aesthetics.
- Cheapest hosted route to exact-text stills: 4.0 API at $0.03 to $0.10 per image, and a free tier for testing.
Watch out
- Video is only offered through partner models in the API; there is no native Ideogram video model
- Credit costs and plan allowances changed several times in 2026, so budgets drift
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
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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