Midjourney. Gemini. Hugging Face.
Everyone’s throwing these AI tools around like they’re on first-name terms. But real talk?
Not every generative AI tool deserves a spot in your stack.
So we at Syndie decided to cut through the fluff, test what matters, and break it down like your smartest friend who also roasts you for still using Comic Sans in 2025.
MidJourney — Looks like Van Gogh, works like Photoshop on espresso
This one’s the poster child of AI art, and for good reason. Every prompt feels like you just hired an Oscar-winning visual director for five bucks. From Pixar-style mascots to abstract moodboards, MidJourney nails it.
Pricing starts at $10/month, but for features like fast generation and high-res upscales, you’ll realistically need to be on the $30 to $60/month plans.
Syndie’s Take:
Aesthetic gold for your LinkedIn carousels or pitch deck glow-ups. But don’t expect it to book your meetings (you’ve got us for that).
🧠 Use it for: Branding, mascots and visual storytelling
🚫 Don’t use it for: Productivity workflows
⭐ Rating: 4/5 — it’s eye candy, not sales candy.
Hugging Face — The silent builder behind half the LLM world
Imagine a giant AI hardware store except it’s digital, open-source, and nerds are actually welcome.
Hugging Face is where the real dev magic happens. Need a chatbot? Sentiment model? Fine-tuned LLM trained on startup memes? It’s all here.
Pricing starts at $0.03/hour for CPU instances and $0.50/hour for GPU instances. For advanced features, the Pro plan is available at $9/month.
Syndie’s Take:
Not for no-code dreamers. But if you’re building serious AI workflows, this is your power core.
🧠 Use it for: Building custom automations, fine-tuning models
🚫 Don’t use it for: Pretty UIs or instant results
⭐ Rating: 5/5 MVPs are born here.
Gemini — The well-behaved cousin of ChatGPT
Gemini walks in with a clean haircut, good grammar, and perfect integration with Google Docs. It’s like the kid in class who always had fresh notebooks and color-coded tabs.
Gemini is free to use for basic tasks, but if you want access to Gemini Advanced with premium features, you’ll need the Google One AI Premium plan at $19.99/month.
Syndie’s Take:
Fine for quick summaries. But if you need sass, persuasion or flair, it folds faster than a paper umbrella in Mumbai rains.
🧠 Use it for: Quick answers, light research
🚫 Don’t use it for: Writing sales copy or roasting competitors
⭐ Rating: 3/5 helpful, but not a closer.
NovelAI — The Shakespeare of Silicon Valley
If you’ve ever wanted AI to write you a romance novel, sci-fi saga, or cyberpunk dream — NovelAI is your muse. It remembers characters, builds arcs and writes like it’s auditioning for a Netflix original.
Pricing begins at $10/month, but if you want perks like extended memory and access to unlimited image generation, the sweet spot is really at the $15 to $25/month plans.
Syndie’s Take:
Massive potential for personal storytelling or brand lore. Not built for sales funnels unless you’re roleplaying your ICP into conversion.
🧠 Use it for: Storytelling, long-form creativity
🚫 Don’t use it for: Snappy, high-conviction B2B messaging
⭐ Rating: 4/5 niche brilliance.
Civitai — The underground art club of Stable Diffusion
You haven’t truly explored AI visuals until you’ve fallen down the Civitai rabbit hole.
This is where Stable Diffusion turns into a playground with anime styles, fantasy characters, hyperreal portraits… whatever vibe you’re on, it has a model for it.
Civitai is free to use, but for extras like more image generations and priority support, you’ll need a paid plan starting at $10/month.
Syndie’s Take:
Amazing for designers or anyone needing personality in their visuals. Plug it into your workflow and look instantly 10x more creative than you actually are.
🧠 Use it for: Custom image generation, hyper-specific visuals
🚫 Don’t use it for: Business logic or strategy
⭐ Rating: 4/5 visual dopamine hit.
Janitor AI — The chatbot equivalent of late night Reddit
Janitor AI is wild. Think ChatGPT, but dressed in cosplay and deep into roleplay. Sometimes NSFW. Sometimes hilarious. Always on the edge of “why am I still here?”
Janitor AI is free with its basic model, but advanced features unlock with a Pro plan starting at $9.99/month.
Syndie’s Take:
Zero productivity value. But if you want to understand where conversational AI is heading in weird corners of the internet, this is the trip.
🧠 Use it for: Vibes, chaos, unfiltered character convos
🚫 Don’t use it for: Anything serious
⭐ Rating: 2/5 fun at 2am, useless at 10am.
TL;DR — Who Actually Deserves Your Time?
| Tool | Best For | Syndie Score |
|---|---|---|
| MidJourney | Visual content & mascots | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| Hugging Face | Custom AI dev & automation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Bard | Google-style chat & quick lookups | ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ |
| NovelAI | Creative writing & stories | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| Civitai | Wild visuals, Stable Diffusion | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ |
| Janitor AI | Unfiltered roleplay chats | ⭐⭐☆☆☆ |
Real AI power = smart automation + personalization
And that’s exactly what we’re building at Syndie.io — not just flashy AI, but useful AI that actually gets you replies, meetings, and momentum.
✅ Personalized messages
✅ Automated follow-ups
✅ CRM-integrated workflows
✅ Zero manual spam
Just clean, clever, human-sounding outreach.
