ESRGAN AlternativesImage Upscaling Apps like ESRGAN

ESRGAN is described as '(Description from https://www.resetera.com/threads/ai-neural-networks-being-used-to-generate-hq-textures-for-older-games-you-can-do-it-yourself.88272/)' and is a Image Upscaling app in the photos & graphics category. There are more than 25 alternatives to ESRGAN, not only websites but also apps for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac and Flathub apps. The best ESRGAN alternative is Upscayl, which is both free and Open Source. Other great sites and apps similar to ESRGAN are waifu2x, REAL Video Enhancer, chaiNNer and Magnific AI.

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ESRGAN alternatives page was last updated Aug 4, 2025

Upscayl
147 likes
Open source desktop tool using advanced AI to enlarge and enhance images without loss of quality, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Linux-first development gives early access to Linux users. Requires Vulkan compatible GPU for upscaling.
69 Upscayl alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium (Pay once or Subscription)
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
International
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
AppImageHub
Snapcraft
Flathub
Online
Is Upscayl a good alternative to ESRGAN?
Upscayl is the most popular Web-based, Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to ESRGAN.
Upscayl is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to ESRGAN.
Upscayl is Freemium and Open SourceESRGAN is Free and Open Source
Upscayl is LightweightESRGAN is not according to our users
waifu2x
55 likes
Image Super-Resolution [upscaling] for Anime-style [low detail] art or images using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks.
67 waifu2x alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
Japan
Platforms
Online
Is waifu2x a good alternative to ESRGAN?
REAL Video Enhancer
18 likes
REAL Video Enhancer is a redesigned and enhanced version of the original Rife ESRGAN App for Linux. This program offers convenient access to frame interpolation and upscaling functionalities on Linux, comparable to Flowframes or enhancr on Windows.
60 REAL Video Enhancer alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Flathub
Is REAL Video Enhancer a good alternative to ESRGAN?
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chaiNNer
8 likes
A flowchart/node-based image processing GUI aimed at making chaining image processing tasks (especially upscaling done by neural networks) easy, intuitive, and customizable.
53 chaiNNer alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Is chaiNNer a good alternative to ESRGAN?
Magnific AI
8 likes
The most advanced AI upscaler & enhancer. Magnific can hallucinate and reimagine as many details as you wish guided by your own prompt and parameters!.
80 Magnific AI alternatives
Cost / License
Subscription
Proprietary
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Platforms
Online
Adobe Photoshop
+5
Is Magnific AI a good alternative to ESRGAN?
Magnific AI is the most popular commercial alternative to ESRGAN.
Magnific AI is Paid and ProprietaryESRGAN is Free and Open Source
RealScaler
6 likes
RealScaler is a Windows app based on Real-ESRGAN AI to enhance, enlarge and reduce noise in photographs and videos.
Cost / License
Pay once
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
Italy
EU
Platforms
Windows
+2
Is RealScaler a good alternative to ESRGAN?
RealSR-NCNN-Android
3 likes
An Android application for super-resolution & interpolation. Contains RealSR-NCNN, SRMD-NCNN, RealCUGAN-NCNN, Real-ESRGAN-NCNN, Waifu2x-NCNN, Anime4kcpp, nearest, bilinear, bicubic, AVIR...
11 RealSR-NCNN-Android alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
China
Platforms
Android
Is RealSR-NCNN-Android a good alternative to ESRGAN?
RealSR-NCNN-Android is the most popular Android alternative to ESRGAN.
RealSR-NCNN-Android is Free and Open SourceESRGAN is also Free and Open Source
RealSR-NCNN-Android is Privacy focusedESRGAN is not according to our users
final2x
4 likes
2^x Image Super-Resolution ??.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Is final2x a good alternative to ESRGAN?
Anime4K
7 likes
Anime4K is a set of open-source, high-quality real-time anime upscaling/denoising algorithms that can be implemented in any programming language.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Origin
Japan
Platforms
Windows
Linux
+1
Is Anime4K a good alternative to ESRGAN?
jdPixelUpscaler
2 likes
jdPixelUpscaler upscales images by simply replacing one pixel with several of the same color. For example, if you set the scaling factor to 2, one pixel becomes 2x2 pixels of the same color. No attention is paid to the surrounding pixels or to transitions.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Platforms
Flathub
Flatpak
Linux
Is jdPixelUpscaler a good alternative to ESRGAN?
RealSR
5 likes
Recent state-of-the-art super-resolution methods have achieved impressive performance on ideal datasets regardless of blur and noise. However, these methods always fail in real-world image super-resolution, since most of them adopt simple bicubic downsampling from high-quality...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Vulkan
PyTorch
Is RealSR a good alternative to ESRGAN?
magickimg
4 likes
Elevate your images with cutting-edge AI technology and a suite of tools for restoration, upscaling, and more.
Cost / License
Freemium (Pay once or Subscription)
Proprietary
Application type
Image Upscaling App
Platforms
Online
Is magickimg a good alternative to ESRGAN?