Image generation on a Mac: Draw Things vs ComfyUI
Short answer
Start with Draw Things, a free Mac App Store app that is optimized for Apple Silicon and downloads models for you. Move to ComfyUI when you want node-based workflows and the widest model and plugin support. FLUX.1 Schnell is a good first model; 16 GB of memory is enough for SDXL and quantized FLUX, and 32 GB or more makes FLUX comfortable.
Image models such as Stable Diffusion and FLUX run well on Apple Silicon. Two apps cover almost everyone.
Draw Things: the easy way
Draw Things is a free app on the Mac App Store, built natively for Apple Silicon with Metal. It is one of the fastest ways to generate images on a Mac.
- Install Draw Things from the Mac App Store.
- Open the model menu and pick a model. Draw Things downloads it for you.
- Type a prompt and press Generate.
It supports Stable Diffusion 1.5 and SDXL, FLUX and newer models, plus LoRAs, inpainting and upscaling, all from one window.
ComfyUI: the powerful way
ComfyUI builds images from a graph of nodes: load a model, add a prompt, sample, upscale, and so on. It has the widest model support and a huge library of community plugins.
- Download ComfyUI Desktop for macOS (Apple Silicon) from comfy.org.
- During setup, choose the MPS (Apple GPU) option.
- Install ComfyUI Manager if it isn't included, then use it to add plugins such as ComfyUI-GGUF for quantized models.
- Load a starter workflow from the templates menu and download the model it asks for.
ComfyUI runs on PyTorch rather than native Metal code, so it is usually a bit slower than Draw Things for the same model.
Which model to start with
| Model | Strengths | Memory guide |
|---|---|---|
| SD 1.5 | Tiny and fast, huge community library | 8 GB |
| SDXL | Good quality, fast, many styles | 16 GB |
| FLUX.1 Schnell | High quality in just 4 steps; permissive license | 16 GB with 8-bit or GGUF quantization, 32 GB+ at full size |
| FLUX.1 Dev | Best detail and text in images; slower, and its license restricts commercial use of the model | 24 GB+ quantized, 48 GB+ at full size |
Newer models such as FLUX.2 and Qwen-Image are arriving in both apps; check each model's license before using images commercially.
Draw Things or ComfyUI?
| Draw Things | ComfyUI | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | App Store, a few clicks | Download plus some configuration |
| Speed on Apple Silicon | Faster (native Metal) | Slower (PyTorch) |
| Learning curve | Gentle | Steep |
| Flexibility | High | Highest, with plugins |
Our suggestion: start with Draw Things. Switch to ComfyUI when you find yourself wanting a workflow Draw Things can't do.
Memory matters for images just as it does for text models; see which Mac to buy for local AI.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to generate an image on a Mac?
It depends on the model and chip. SDXL takes seconds to tens of seconds on recent Macs. FLUX.1 Dev, a larger model, can take around a minute per 1024 by 1024 image on a Pro-class chip, while FLUX.1 Schnell needs only a few steps and is much faster.
Is DiffusionBee still a good choice?
It was a popular beginner app, but it has not been updated in a long time and does not support many newer models. Draw Things is the better beginner choice today.