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 REAL Video Enhancer, waifu2x, chaiNNer and RealScaler.

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Get a badge for your siteESRGAN alternatives page was last updated Aug 4, 2025

Upscayl
167 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.
82 Upscayl alternatives
Cost / License
Freemium
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
International
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
AppImageHub
Snapcraft
Flathub
Online
Global
Good alternative?Is Upscayl a good alternative to ESRGAN?
REAL Video Enhancer
30 likes
Cross-platform tool offering advanced video upscaling and frame interpolation using RIFE, RealESRGAN, Waifu2x, and IFRNET, with scene change detection, instant preview, Discord integration, and ability to enhance local files or YouTube videos on major operating systems.
64 REAL Video Enhancer alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (AGPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Flathub
United States
Good alternative?Is REAL Video Enhancer a good alternative to ESRGAN?
waifu2x
59 likes
Image Super-Resolution [upscaling] for Anime-style [low detail] art or images using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks.
73 waifu2x alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
Japan
Platforms
Online
Japan
Good alternative?Is waifu2x a good alternative to ESRGAN?
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chaiNNer
9 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.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Germany
EU
Good alternative?Is chaiNNer a good alternative to ESRGAN?
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
Paid
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
Italy
EU
Platforms
Windows
Italy
EU
+2
Good alternative?Is RealScaler a good alternative to ESRGAN?
final2x
5 likes
2^x Image Super-Resolution ??.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (BSD-3-Clause)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Platforms
Windows
Mac
Linux
Good alternative?Is final2x 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...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
China
Platforms
Android
China
Good alternative?Is RealSR-NCNN-Android a good alternative to ESRGAN?
R
R
RealSR
6 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 (MIT)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Vulkan
PyTorch
R
Good alternative?Is RealSR a good alternative to ESRGAN?
A
A
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 (MIT)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
Japan
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Japan
+1
A
Good alternative?Is Anime4K a good alternative to ESRGAN?
FreeScaler
4 likes
Simple free and open source tool used to upscale your low resolution images using advanced AI models
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Upscaling
Origin
Italy
EU
Platforms
Mac
Italy
EU
Good alternative?Is FreeScaler a good alternative to ESRGAN?
Upscaler
4 likes
Upscaler is a GTK4+libadwaita application that allows you to upscale and enhance a given image. It is a front-end for Real-ESRGAN ncnn Vulkan.
72 Upscaler alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Upscaling
Platforms
Linux
Flathub
GNOME
Linux Mobile
Good alternative?Is Upscaler 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
Proprietary
Application type
Image Upscaling
Platforms
Online
Good alternative?Is magickimg a good alternative to ESRGAN?