Compare AI tools

	Ideogram S	Runway S	Perplexity S	Adobe Firefly A
Tagline	The one that actually gets text in images right.	The pro's AI video tool. Gen-4 is the current bar.	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Commercially safe image gen, deeply integrated with Photoshop.
Category	Image	Video	Research	Image
Pricing	Free + $8/mo + $20/mo + $60/mo	Free + $15-$95/mo	Free + $20/mo Pro	Free + included with Creative Cloud
Best for	Anything with text — posters, ads, album covers, slide decks.	Marketing video, pitch decks, b-roll, creative shorts.	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Anyone in Creative Cloud. Brands that need copyright clarity.
Strengths	Best text rendering in the game Strong free tier Good for logos, posters, thumbnails	Most mature video workflow Character consistency via Act-One Gen-4 quality is production-grade	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Trained on licensed content — commercially safe Generative Fill in Photoshop is incredible Native to Adobe ecosystem
Weaknesses	Aesthetic ceiling below Midjourney Less style variety	Expensive at scale Still needs post-editing	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	Aesthetic ceiling below Midjourney Tied to Adobe subscription
Kai's verdict	S-tier for text-in-image. Use this for posters, Midjourney for art.	S-tier. Market leader with reason. Start here for serious video.	S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week.	S-tier inside Photoshop (Generative Fill). B-tier standalone.
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