Best AI image generator for startups

There are roughly 40-60 viable AI image generators competing for startup attention right now, with major players like Midjourney, DALL-E 3, and Stable Diffusion dominating mindshare. The common failure modes are brutal: most tools either have laughable free tiers (3-5 images then paywall), overly complex pricing that scales unpredictably, or clunky interfaces that require 10 clicks to generate a simple product shot. The real gap isn't in image quality anymore—that's table stakes—but in startup-specific workflows: batch processing, white-label APIs, team collaboration without breaking the budget, and transparent per-image pricing that scales with actual usage. New entrants need to stop competing on generation quality and start winning on business model clarity. Offer something like usage-based pricing capped at $50/month, built-in batch processing for 100+ images, and a dead-simple API so founders can plug it directly into their workflows. The startups currently winning in this space (like Replicate) aren't necessarily better at generation—they're better at not making you think about costs or licensing.