[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":640},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-36064639":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":34,"aspects":35,"strip":47,"post_text":50,"what":51,"said":81,"maker_in_thread":266,"shape":276,"grid":280,"attempts":601,"same_week":606,"maker_shows":38,"maker_hidden":632,"reader_version":633,"card":634},"36064639","Pixian","Image background removal without annoying subscriptions","title","Show HN: Image background removal without annoying subscriptions","https:\u002F\u002Fpixian.ai\u002Fremove-image-backgrounds","pixian.ai","jacobn",1684967219,2023,383,115,89,3109,3,"legend","ai","image background removal","web_app",[24,25,26,27],"background removal","image background remover","remove background api","pay as you go","mixed",-0.113,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":33,"critical":32},16,22,6,66,{"idea":36,"privacy":39,"pricing":42,"performance":43,"design":44,"execution":45,"docs":46},{"positive":37,"critical":38},1,7,{"positive":40,"critical":41},0,2,{"positive":18,"critical":33},{"positive":38,"critical":41},{"positive":41,"critical":41},{"positive":37,"critical":18},{"positive":37,"critical":40},[37,40,37,37,18,48,18,48,37,37,18,37,18,40,41,18,41,41,48,48,18,18,37,18,37,37,18,37,49,48,18,18,18,18,18,37,48,18,48,41],5,4,"Hi HN,\n\nRemoving the background from images is a surprisingly common image processing task, and AI has made it really easy. The technology has come a long way since segment leader remove.bg launched here on hn in Dec 2018 [1]. Chasing remove.bg's success, a legion of providers have come on the market offering varying levels of quality & service.\n\nDespite there being a large number of competing services, most still price for very high (~95%?) gross margins. Furthermore, subscriptions make the effective unit price a lot higher than the list price for infrequent users, and requires effort & atten",{"problem":52,"audience":58,"pricing":65,"motivation":72,"time_to_build":76,"stack":77,"openness":78,"stage":79,"team_size":80},{"value":53,"source":54,"evidence":55},"Background removal services charge high subscriptions that are poor value for infrequent users.","maker",[56],{"id":57},"post",{"value":59,"source":54,"evidence":60},"Infrequent professional and hobbyist users, and businesses using background removal via API.",[61,62],{"id":57},{"id":63,"by":11,"text":64},"36072730","We'll likely add complementary AI models (e.g. super-resolution, stable diffusion, etc), with the broad bet being that businesses definitely don't want to run their own service,…",{"value":66,"source":54,"evidence":67},"Pay-as-you-go credits, with a free tier and free use while in beta.",[68,69],{"id":57},{"id":70,"by":11,"text":71},"36072941","We have published our intended pricing ( https:\u002F\u002Fpixian.ai\u002F#pricing ), which is pay-as-you-go \"s3-style\" pricing, not subscription based. Yes, there's a lot more than 20…",{"value":73,"source":54,"evidence":74},"Undercut remove.bg-style subscription pricing with cost-plus pay-as-you-go pricing.",[75],{"id":57},null,[],"paid","beta","team",{"praise":82,"objections":125,"requests":166,"questions":203,"alternatives":222},[83,103,118],{"value":84,"source":85,"evidence":86},"Results are accurate and fast, especially for hair and portraits.","commenter",[87,91,95,99],{"id":88,"by":89,"text":90},"36068061","peyloride","Tried couple of pics, it's way better than other services and pricing of it seems really good! Thanks for the app!",{"id":92,"by":93,"text":94},"36069280","thrdbndndn","I've tried lots of free services of background removal, this is definitely one of the best one and it's fast. Thanks for the tool.",{"id":96,"by":97,"text":98},"36067996","avereveard","Love it. It also provide highres output out of the box. 100% I will be a customer, albeit my yearly needs are in single digit range.",{"id":100,"by":101,"text":102},"36068927","tpowell","I will give this a try, but I’ve been happy to shell out for a few credits on remove.bg when intricate hair strands were involved [in isolating portraits]. Whatever they do just…",{"value":104,"source":85,"evidence":105},"Pay-as-you-go pricing with non-expiring credits is reasonable.",[106,110,114],{"id":107,"by":108,"text":109},"36070079","prepend","Thanks. I appreciate unexpiring credits and think that’s a super reasonable price. Again, thanks for your work. I don’t want to criticize and am glad you built this. I just like…",{"id":111,"by":112,"text":113},"36070868","ghaff","Something like that seems eminently reasonable. Low dollar amount for enough uses that I don't need to think too much every time I press the execute button. Reasonable expiration…",{"id":115,"by":116,"text":117},"36068123","gnicholas","I appreciate the free tier with resolution-limited downloads. And you've priced the middle tier right, because I wouldn't hesitate to drop five bucks even if I didn't know how…",{"value":119,"source":85,"evidence":120},"Honest comparison with competitors.",[121],{"id":122,"by":123,"text":124},"36070226","scotty79","I really like the honest comparison with competitor. At first I was confused because I'm so accustomed to the adverts containing bogus comparisons.",[126,137,152,159],{"value":127,"source":85,"evidence":128},"Free while in beta makes businesses wary of relying on it.",[129,133],{"id":130,"by":131,"text":132},"36081905","sebastiennight","This is interesting. I signed up and will give the API a try. Just so you know, you being \"free while in beta\" is concerning to me as a business customer. I would be much more…",{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"36069843","skilled","Without annoying subscriptions \"yet\". The \"free while in beta\" statement and the title of this submission contradict themselves. I'm also curious what exactly is your goal with…",{"value":138,"source":85,"evidence":139},"Local or on-device tools like macOS Preview and phones already do this for free.",[140,144,148],{"id":141,"by":142,"text":143},"36068729","villgax","macOS does this natively. There's models that can run in the browser literally so any premise on discounting doesn't exactly pan out lol",{"id":145,"by":146,"text":147},"36068894","edu","On iOS you can long tap on a subject and then save it as an image. Mac OS has a similar feature on right click and Preview :)",{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},"36069937","koliber","I recently found out that on MacOS, the Preview app can do image background removal it’s pretty good at it too!",{"value":153,"source":85,"evidence":154},"Retaining image records indefinitely is a privacy concern.",[155],{"id":156,"by":157,"text":158},"36068125","hovering_nox",">Retention >Records not associated with an account are deleted or anonymized within a year of creation. Image processing records associated with an account are retained…",{"value":160,"source":85,"evidence":161},"Hard to buy small amounts of credits; the $5 minimum is high for occasional use.",[162],{"id":163,"by":164,"text":165},"36069889","nathancahill","This falls victim to the inability to do microtransactions online. I love the philosophy and reasoning for starting yet another background removal service, but as someone that…",[167,174,185,196],{"value":168,"source":85,"evidence":169},"Support HEIC images.",[170],{"id":171,"by":172,"text":173},"36068531","markdown","Doesn't seem to accept .heic photos, which is really odd given that the majority of new photos in the US are probably created in that format.",{"value":175,"source":85,"evidence":176},"Offer interactive editing or masking controls.",[177,181],{"id":178,"by":179,"text":180},"36068238","kookamamie","The main challenge and deficiency with this and other services like this is that they assume some content type to be foreground - here it is likely \"portrait\" style people - it's…",{"id":182,"by":183,"text":184},"36071110","jacob019","Which model are you using? There are a bunch of different background removal models, many with configuration options, but most of the services only provide one and without…",{"value":186,"source":85,"evidence":187},"Add a GIMP plugin or Android web app icon.",[188,192],{"id":189,"by":190,"text":191},"36070123","Aardwolf","Is something with this functionality available as a Gimp plugin?",{"id":193,"by":194,"text":195},"36067998","high_priest","Adding it to HomeScreen as a WebApp on Android, creates a link without a logo. Could you make it appear like other WebApps, like Squoosh?",{"value":197,"source":85,"evidence":198},"Resize oversized images instead of rejecting them.",[199],{"id":200,"by":201,"text":202},"36067893","peter-m80","I tried with a random photo from my mobile phone, it complains that the image is too large. This is bad UX to me. The webapp could resize it for me",[204,208,215],{"value":205,"source":85,"evidence":206},"Which model is used?",[207],{"id":182,"by":183,"text":184},{"value":209,"source":85,"evidence":210},"How do the quality percentages above 100% work?",[211],{"id":212,"by":213,"text":214},"36068815","bambax","Ok; two things: 1. For \"objects\" and \"artwork\" it says that quality is above 100% (108% and 119% respectively), which is weird and doesn't inspire confidence? It's also unclear…",{"value":216,"source":85,"evidence":217},"Where and how to pay after signing up?",[218],{"id":219,"by":220,"text":221},"36069183","Udo","Hi, I like this, tried it out and it performed pretty well. I signed up. It says in the pricing section that 2Mpx images are free, although my test image was larger than that. My…",[223,233,240,248,255],{"value":224,"source":85,"evidence":225},"remove.bg",[226,230],{"id":227,"by":228,"text":229},"36070491","Alifatisk","There is also remove.bg",{"id":231,"by":11,"text":232},"36072828","remove.bg is great, and they handle hair really well. But so do we! Give us a shot next time ;)",{"value":234,"source":85,"evidence":235},"Photoroom",[236],{"id":237,"by":238,"text":239},"36069138","matthieurouif","Background removal is becoming a commodity but at the same time being top quality is an essential block of building quality software. We built photoroom and removing background…",{"value":241,"source":85,"evidence":242},"Preview on macOS",[243,247],{"id":244,"by":245,"text":246},"36068069","WizardClickBoy","How does it compare to Command+Shift+K in Preview on Mac OS?",{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},{"value":249,"source":85,"evidence":250},"Adobe Express",[251],{"id":252,"by":253,"text":254},"36070395","lucianfelix","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.adobe.com\u002Fexpress\u002Ffeature\u002Fimage\u002Fremove-background does it for free. You do have to create a free acount in order to download the image though.",{"value":256,"source":85,"evidence":257},"Local open source models like U2NET and rembg",[258,262],{"id":259,"by":260,"text":261},"36067921","seper8","You can do this yourself for free, using the U2NET model... Either client-side or server side. https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fxuebinqin\u002FU-2-Net Pretty trivial thing to implement.",{"id":263,"by":264,"text":265},"36068003","tmikaeld","There's some mention that this can be self-hosted, but it's not that easy. Even a pre-trained model and self-hosted API like RemBG[0] performs a lot worse than this \"pixian\"…",{"comments":267,"answered":48,"key":268},10,[269,272,275],{"id":270,"text":271},"36065096","Thank you!",{"id":273,"text":274},"36073036","Bonjour Matthieu, photoroom is offering precisely the type of pricing we're looking to disrupt ;) Photoroom users: feel free to use https:\u002F\u002Fpixian.ai\u002Fcomparisons to compare 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