Head to head · Images · updated Oct 15, 2026
Krea vs Real-ESRGAN
Krea scores 29 to Real-ESRGAN's 15 on public evidence for upscale & restore images, and they rank #2 and #3 there. Both are free to start. Numbers below are the same public signals the ranking uses, recomputed nightly — nothing here is sponsored.
Krea
All-in-one creative suite offering real-time generation, enhancement/upscaling and access to many third-party image and video models.
+ One subscription gives access to Flux, Veo, Kling, Wan and others plus a strong enhancer, so you rarely need another tool.
− It is an aggregator, so model availability and pricing shift often and credits drain quickly on video.
Real-ESRGAN
Open-source super-resolution models and CLI for general images and anime, widely embedded in other tools.
+ Lightweight, scriptable and the de facto upscaler inside ComfyUI, A1111 and Upscayl.
− Command-line only with no official GUI, and the models have not been updated in years.
Side by side
public evidence| Krea | Real-ESRGAN | |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence score / 100 | 29 | 15 |
| GitHub stars | closed source | 0 |
| Hacker News stories, 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Release-feed mentions, 30d | 4 | 0 |
| Last activity | 0 days ago | – |
| Pricing | Free tier · from $10/mo | Open source · free |
| Platforms | web | cli, windows, mac, linux |
| Maker | Krea AI | Xintao Wang et al. |
Which one?
Pick Krea if
- you want the stronger public evidence (29 vs 15)
- you need it on web
Best for trying every model in one place.
Pick Real-ESRGAN if
- you want open source — self-host it, read it, fork it
- you need it on cli, linux, mac
Best for scripted upscaling in pipelines.