Midjourney V7 dominates photorealism with its latest personalization features. Skin textures, lighting, and environmental detail are nearly indistinguishable from photography. DALL-E 4 comes close but occasionally produces uncanny-valley faces. SDXL 2 requires significant prompt engineering to match.
Midjourney's artistic range remains unmatched — from watercolor to anime, the style control is superb. DALL-E 4 excels at following complex composition instructions. SDXL 2 with community LoRAs can achieve specialized styles that the other two can't.
DALL-E 4 wins for text rendering and clean vector-style outputs. Midjourney's logos are artistic but sometimes misspelled. SDXL 2 with ControlNet gives the most precise control over layout.
Midjourney for photorealism and art. DALL-E 4 for design work with text. SDXL 2 for specialized workflows and local/private generation.