looking for a free and good one.

I'm working on a project where I need to have images at a minimum of 72 dpi approximately 8 feet or so wide. The images I'm working with are around 30" wide at 72 dpi. These will be window graphics right on a sidewalk so viewing distance is probably 2-4 feet, so hiding low resolution with distance isn't an option.

I've heard of Topaz's upscaling features but wondered what other options are out there and what everyone thinks of them.

because most of them that already exist are about like this:

you have to navigate through 5 different extremly slow loading pages to sign up (so that they can spam your email). Once you finally submitted your image to be upscaled, they will ask you to pay monthly to download the image. and many do not even support large images.

So I created this free alternative. It is slow because it is free. But the results are great! And you do not need to sign up, no hidden newsletter & no subscriptions.

I launched it today on producthunt - it would be nice if you leave a review & upvote if you like it: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/free-ai-image-upscaling

I used Topaz before and it works really well, but my needs have dropped a lot recently so I don’t feel like paying for it anymore.

I mostly upscale e-commerce images and some web stuff, occasionally photos with faces. Just need something that looks clean, doesn’t have to be perfect.

So far I’ve been testing a few:

• Zoviz Image Upscaler → pretty solid for product photos and faces, results look sharp without that “AI plastic” effect. Runs right in the browser too, which is convenient.

• Upscayl → free and open-source, does a decent job for natural textures.

• Nero AI Image Upscaler → nice balance of detail, and has some free options online.

Haven’t fully replaced Topaz yet, but for lighter use these three have been working well enough.

Let me know if you have used any of these or have more suggestions?