9 ComfyUI alternatives for running Stable Diffusion locally

ComfyUI is the reference: new models land there first, and you can build anything with its nodes. It's also a lot to maintain if all you want is images. These nine tools run locally too. Cloud services that call themselves "ComfyUI alternatives" are left out on purpose.

At a glance

1. Imference Desktop

A free, open-source app for Windows and Apple Silicon Macs. Pick a model and it downloads and configures itself: eight families including SDXL, FLUX, Z-Image, Anima and Krea 2, each pre-tuned. Add LoRAs in one click, load your own .safetensors, and switch to the cloud when your GPU is too small.

Pick it if you want images in two minutes. Skip it if you need nodes or extensions, or Linux binaries. Download

2. Fooocus

By the author of ControlNet: unzip, run, and get a Midjourney-like prompt box with good defaults. Built around SDXL; development has slowed and newer families aren't its focus.

Pick it if SDXL is enough and you want the least UI possible.

3. SwarmUI

Keeps ComfyUI as the engine and puts a normal generate tab in front, with FLUX and video models. You can still open the graph when you need it. The install pulls in the whole ComfyUI stack.

Pick it if you want ComfyUI's model support without staring at nodes.

4. AUTOMATIC1111 and Forge

The classic WebUI, with thousands of extensions. Forge is the more active fork, with better memory use and FLUX. You install Python and Git yourself, and the interface is a wall of sliders.

Pick it if you need a specific extension.

5. InvokeAI

The most "pro" of the free tools: a canvas for inpainting and outpainting, layers, a model manager. More app than most people need for plain text-to-image.

Pick it if you edit images, not just generate them.

6. Stability Matrix

Not a generator but a launcher: it installs and updates ComfyUI, Forge, Fooocus, SwarmUI and others, with one shared model folder.

Pick it if you already juggle several UIs.

7. DiffusionBee

The original one-click Stable Diffusion app for Mac. Gentle and simple, but fewer controls and slower to add new model families.

Pick it if you're on a Mac and SD 1.5 or SDXL is enough.

8. Draw Things

A free app for Mac, iPhone and iPad with a very wide model list, FLUX included, and active development. The panels are dense.

Pick it if you're all Apple and want every model.

9. Easy Diffusion

A beginner-friendly installer with a browser interface on Windows, macOS and Linux. Model support trails the newer tools.

Pick it if you're on Linux and want something simple.

Also worth a look

• Pinokio: one-click installs for all kinds of AI apps.
• Amuse: AMD's own Windows app, the best route on Radeon GPUs.
• ComfyUI Desktop: if the install is the problem, not the nodes.

Which one should you pick?

• Never run Stable Diffusion before: Imference Desktop, or Easy Diffusion on Linux.
• ComfyUI models, no nodes: SwarmUI.
• Inpainting and layers: InvokeAI.
• A specific extension: Forge.
• Mac: Draw Things for breadth, DiffusionBee or Imference Desktop for simplicity.

Model files are interchangeable, so switching later costs little. Step by step: run Stable Diffusion locally.