Every tool in the Craft suite is benchmarked honestly — compared against leading commercial services. We don't hide our weaknesses, because we believe honesty builds trust.
Benchmark philosophy
Every benchmark must be honest. Show wins AND losses. No cherry-picking. Link to competitor tools so users can verify for themselves.
1. Upscale — Real-ESRGAN ncnn-vulkan
| Tool | Price | Max Scale | Quality | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERPFit Upscale | Free | 4x | Good (PSNR ~25dB) | Yes |
| Topaz Gigapixel | $199 | 6x | Best | Desktop |
| Let's Enhance | $9/mo | 16x | Very good | Cloud |
| Upscayl (open source) | Free | 4x | Near-commercial | Desktop |
Our strengths: free, self-hosted, fast (GPU Vulkan), no cloud upload, API access.
Room to grow: max quality below Topaz (their proprietary models are more advanced), 4x only (no 8x/16x), no built-in face enhancement.
Best for: quick upscaling where privacy matters, anime content, batch processing via API.
2. Colorize — DDColor + 9 presets
| Tool | Price | Colorization Quality | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERPFit Colorize | Free | Good (DDColor ICCV 2023) | Yes |
| Palette.fm | $6-72/mo | Best (2.8M users) | Cloud |
| Kolorize | $0.30/credit | Very realistic | Cloud |
| MyHeritage InColor | Freemium | Good for portraits | Cloud |
Our strengths: free, self-hosted, privacy, 9 artistic decolorization presets (unique feature), API, bidirectional (colorize + decolorize).
Room to grow: colorization quality below Palette.fm (proprietary model), no guided colorization, no video support.
Unique advantage: the only tool that works both ways — colorize AND decolorize in one tool. No competitor offers 9 artistic decolorization presets.
3. Restore — CodeFormer + GFPGAN
| Tool | Price | Quality | Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERPFit Restore | Free | Good (CodeFormer NeurIPS 2022) | Yes |
| Remini | $9.99/mo | Best mobile (100M+ downloads) | App |
| MyHeritage | $13/mo | Great for portraits | Cloud |
| VanceAI | $9.90/mo | Very good | Cloud |
Our strengths: free, self-hosted, privacy, two AI models (CodeFormer for quality, GFPGAN for speed), non-AI options (sharpen/denoise).
Room to grow: face quality below Remini (more advanced proprietary model), no scratch/crease removal, no "Deep Nostalgia" animation.
Summary: Craft vs Commercial
| Dimension | ERPFit Craft | Commercial Leaders |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, all tools | $6-199/month |
| Privacy | Self-hosted, images never leave your server | Images processed on their servers |
| API | Yes, all tools | Some |
| Max quality | Good (SOTA open-source) | Better (proprietary models) |
| Features | Core function | More features |
We're not trying to beat Topaz or Remini on raw quality — their proprietary models are currently better. Our value is:
- Free — no per-credit pricing, no subscription
- Self-hosted — your images never leave your server
- Honest — we show you exactly which model we use and how it compares
- Open-source engines — you can verify, modify, improve
- Multi-engine — choose the best engine for your specific use case