# ArtCraft vs Melius

> Melius scores 54.1 (C) to ArtCraft's 22.8 (F) for image generation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-19

Melius scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against ArtCraft's 22.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ArtCraft leads on payments & pricing. Both do image generation.

- ArtCraft: grade F, 22.8/100, rank #1118 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/artcraft.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/artcraft.json
- Melius: grade C, 54.1/100, rank #785 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/melius.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/melius.json
- Best design workspace and canvas APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/design/index.md
- All 66 design comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/design/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ArtCraft (F)

Good for: ArtCraft is a visual workspace for AI images and video.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: No external-agent API verified

### Melius (C)

Good for: An agent producing batches of ad creative, product images or short videos on a shared canvas that people then review, with many models behind one key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 25
- Agent ergonomics, 51 against 15
- Security & auth, 43 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 55 against 25

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: API keys have no scopes. A key works with its creator's role in every team the creator belongs to


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ArtCraft | Melius | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 69 | Melius +39 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 25 | 70 | Melius +45 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 15 | 51 | Melius +36 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 10 | 43 | Melius +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | ArtCraft +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 30 | 66 | Melius +36 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 25 | 55 | Melius +30 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **22.8 · F** | **54.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ArtCraft | Melius |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Storyteller | Melius AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.melius.com/api/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT OR Apache-2.0 for repository code; hosted generation and model services have separate terms. | Proprietary service under Melius's terms of service. The mel CLI on npm is MIT, with no public source repository found |
| Tools exposed | none | 75 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-10 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 33k stars | 9 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (4) | none |

## Verdicts

**ArtCraft.** Public source under permissive licences. No external-agent API verified.

**Melius.** One backend serves a 59-operation REST API with a public OpenAPI spec, a hosted MCP server with OAuth sign-in and a JSON-only CLI, and the status page shows no incidents since July 2026. API keys carry no scopes and work with their creator's role, and no rate-limit numbers, changelog or per-model credit prices are published.

## Before you call either

### ArtCraft

1. Use the interactive application unless an official automation interface is confirmed.
2. Check the model service terms before sending private reference media.

### Melius

1. Generate by creating a node on a canvas, starting a run with POST /nodes/{nodeId}/runs, then polling GET /node-runs/{nodeRunId} until `status` is finished or failed
2. Over MCP, call `get_guide` first, `show_presence` before node changes and `canvas_plan_layout` before `bulk_create_nodes`
3. On 429 wait `Retry-After` seconds. After a timeout or 5xx on a write, read the canvas or run state before resubmitting, because there are no idempotency keys
4. Read credit costs from GET /generation/models?category=image before a bulk run. A 400 can mean the team is out of credits
5. Downloads arrive as a ZIP from a signed URL. Fetch that URL without the `Authorization` header

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ArtCraft or Melius?

Melius scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against ArtCraft's 22.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ArtCraft leads on payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call ArtCraft and Melius without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for ArtCraft. Melius has a hosted endpoint at https://api.melius.com/api/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-melius.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "artcraft", "b": "melius"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare artcraft melius`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/artcraft.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/melius.json

## Other comparisons with ArtCraft or Melius

- [Adobe Firefly API vs ArtCraft](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-firefly-vs-artcraft.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Black Forest Labs FLUX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-black-forest-labs.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Bria API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-bria.md)
- [ArtCraft vs fal image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-fal-image.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Google Imagen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-google-imagen.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Ideogram API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-ideogram.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Iris-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-iris-3b.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Leonardo.Ai API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-leonardo-ai.md)
- [ArtCraft vs OpenAI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-openai-image-api.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Qwen-Image 2.1 (Model Studio)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-qwen-image-2-1.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Recraft API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-recraft.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Replicate image models](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-replicate-image.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Seedream on BytePlus ModelArk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-seedream-on-byteplus-modelark.md)
- [ArtCraft vs Stability AI Image API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/artcraft-vs-stability-ai-image.md)
- [Figma API + MCP vs Melius](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/figma-mcp-vs-melius.md)
- [Framer Server API vs Melius](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/framer-vs-melius.md)
- [Melius vs Zeplin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-zeplin.md)
- [Melius vs Miro API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-miro.md)
- [Melius vs pen.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-pen-dev.md)
- [Melius vs Penpot API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-penpot.md)
- [Melius vs Sketch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-sketch.md)
- [Melius vs Subframe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/melius-vs-subframe.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp