Is HeliosGen really free?

Yes. HeliosGen is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. OpenArt, on the other hand, costs €12 a month.

Do I need to code to install HeliosGen?

No. The level is intermediate and the install takes about 25 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.

How is it different from OpenArt?

HeliosGen does most of what OpenArt does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.

Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

Free alternative

Free alternative to OpenArt

OpenArt costs €12 a month. HeliosGen does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.

Public entry price, taken from OpenArt’s website (openart.ai). Over a year, that is €144 that stays in your pocket.

What replaces OpenArt

The main alternative

HeliosGen

🟡 Intermediate⏱️ ~25 min to installSave €19/mo

HeliosGen is the visual generation workshop: an infinite canvas where you drop nodes (a prompt, a model, a reference image, an automation) and wire them into real reusable pipelines. You get the big models of the moment, for images and video alike: Veo, Kling, Seedream, Nano Banana, Grok Imagine. The difference with Higgsfield, OpenArt or Freepik is the economics: the app is free and runs at home, and your generations are paid with credits bought on your own account, at cost, with no subscription. No monthly credits expiring at month's end: what you buy stays yours until you use it.

Loucash’s verdict on HeliosGen

8/10

I know what it replaces well: Higgsfield is part of my toolkit on UGC content projects, and the economics of these platforms are always the same, a subscription with credits expiring at month's end whether you used them or not. HeliosGen flips that: the app is yours, and the credits you buy stay yours. For someone who generates in waves, one intense month then two quiet ones, that is exactly the right model. Three things to know before you start. Free does not mean costless: every generation burns Kie.ai credits, the raw cost of the models, but watch it early on. The project depends entirely on that Kie.ai hub: if it changes its terms, the tool follows. And the repository has no licence file yet, meaning the code is public but its open source status is not formalised; to self-host and use it, no problem in practice, but I mention it because that is the kind of detail this library owes you.

Who it is for: You generate AI images or videos for your content and pay a subscription whose credits expire before you finish them.

See the full page →See the tool ↗

The prompt that installs HeliosGen

Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.

Installe HeliosGen sur ma machine (la plateforme open source de génération d'images et vidéos IA, repo GitHub SegFault42/HeliosGen) : clone github.com/SegFault42/HeliosGen, installe les dépendances avec npm, copie le fichier d'environnement d'exemple et guide-moi pour y mettre ma clé API Kie.ai et les réglages demandés. Lance ensuite l'application et vérifie que l'interface répond en local. Fais-moi générer une première image de test pour valider que la chaîne fonctionne. Explique chaque étape simplement, je débute.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

Frequently asked questions

Is HeliosGen really free?: Yes. HeliosGen is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. OpenArt, on the other hand, costs €12 a month.
Do I need to code to install HeliosGen?: No. The level is intermediate and the install takes about 25 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
How is it different from OpenArt?: HeliosGen does most of what OpenArt does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
Do I own my data?: Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.