SHSelfHostIndex

InvokeAI vs Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted ai image generation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
IN InvokeAI Professional creative engine for Stable Diffusion VS ST Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge Optimized fork of the Stable Diffusion WebUI
FeatureInvokeAIStable Diffusion WebUI Forge
CategoryAI Image GenerationAI Image Generation
LicenseApache-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM8,192 MB8,192 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 27,783★ 12,939
First released20222024
ReplacesMidjourney, Adobe FireflyMidjourney

Why pick each one

Choose InvokeAI if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 27.8k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
InvokeAI details

Choose Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 12.9k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge details

Frequently asked questions

Is InvokeAI or Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge better?

Neither is universally better. InvokeAI has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are InvokeAI and Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge free and open-source?

Yes. InvokeAI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run InvokeAI and Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge with Docker?

InvokeAI: yes. Stable Diffusion WebUI Forge: check the project docs for container support.

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