22 Best Digital Asset Management Software (DAM) For 2025
10 Best Digital Asset Management Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 22 tools reviewed.
Get free help from our project management software advisors to find your match.
Organizing, storing, and retrieving your digital assets—whether it’s photos, videos, documents, or audio files—should make your workflows easier, not more chaotic. Yet, with so many digital asset management (DAM) tools on the market, finding the right one can be a discouraging and time-consuming task instead of the streamlined process it promises to be.
Leveraging my experience as a project manager and software expert who has worked with dozens of DAM tools, I’ve curated the top digital asset management software in this list. I highlight their standout features, best use cases, and pricing options to help you select the perfect solution for your team’s needs.
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The Best Digital Asset Management Software Comparison Chart
Here’s a summary chart with all the tools we just discussed. Perfect for comparing these options and making a decision. If, however, you want to expand your research, we have more tools below.
| Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Brandfolder Centrally store, manage and distribute assets to maximize brand impact. | Best for enterprise usability and adoption | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 2 |  MediaValet Centralize your digital assets: marketing material, video, content and media with MediaValet. | Best for enterprises wanting unlimited users | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 3 |  Air Air allows you to manage your visual creative assets and collaborate in one place. | Best for agile, collaborative enterprise teams | Free plan available | From $250/month (billed annually) | Website |
| 4 |  Bynder Store all your files in one place and find any item in seconds. | Best for enterprise brand consistency | Demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 5 |  Scaleflex The media library displays relevant file information on each preview card and a wide range of filters to help you search through your content. | Best for being MACH-certified | 14-day free trial | From $213/month | Website |
| 6 |  Acquia DAM (Widen) You can use Acquia DAM to build unlimited custom brand portals to share photos, logos, fonts, colors, and templates. | Best for configuration and customization | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website |
| 7 |  Stockpress Stockpress provides a centralized view of digital assets, allowing you to find what you need and collaborate easily. | Best for organizing without duplication | Free plan available | From $39/month (billed annually) | Website |
| 8 |  Pics.io Pics.io allows users to group related assets into collections, making it easier to manage and access them. | Best for organizing digital content | 7-day free trial | From $50/month (no users included) | Website |
| 9 |  Filecamp Filecamps interface is easy to customize so it looks a part of your brand. | Best for online proofing | 30-day free trial | From $29/user/month | Website |
| 10 |  4ALLPORTAL You can centrally manage, locate, and share any of your digital assets with 4ALLPORTAL's features. | Best for integrated DAM and PIM | 30-day free trial | From $575/month | Website |
How To Choose Digital Asset Management Software
With so many different digital asset management software solutions available, it can be challenging to make decisions on what digital asset management software is going to be the best fit for your needs. You may even want to consider creating a digital asset management RFP to help you compare your options.
As you're shortlisting, trialing, and selecting digital asset management software consider the following:
- What problem are you trying to solve - Start by identifying the digital asset management software feature gap you're trying to fill to clarify the features and functionality the digital asset management software needs to provide.
- Who will need to use it - To evaluate cost and requirements, consider who'll be using the software and how many licenses you'll need. You'll need to evaluate if it'll just be the project team, or the whole organization that will require access. When that's clear, it's worth considering if you're prioritizing ease of use for all, or speed for your digital asset management software power users.
- What other tools it needs to work with - Clarify what tools you're replacing, what tools are staying, and the tools you'll need to integrate with, such as accounting, CRM or HR software. You'll need to decide if the tools will need to integrate together, or alternatively, if you can replace multiple tools with one consolidated digital asset management software.
- What outcomes are important - Consider the result that implementing DAM software needs to deliver to be considered a success. Consider what capability you want to gain, or what you want to improve, and how you will be measuring success. For example, an outcome could be the ability to get greater visibility into performance. You could compare digital asset management software features until you’re blue in the face but if you aren’t thinking about the outcomes you want to drive, you could be wasting a lot of valuable time.
- How it would work within your organization - Consider the software selection alongside your workflows and delivery methodology. Evaluate what's working well, and the areas that are causing issues that need to be addressed. Remember every business is different — don’t assume that because a tool is popular that it'll work in your organization. Digital asset management demos are a great way to get a feel for this.
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Smartsheet
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.4 -
Wrike
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.2 -
monday.com
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6
Best Digital Asset Management Software Reviews
Below are the detailed overviews containing what each software is best for, why I’ve selected them to be a part of this list and their standout features.
Founded in 2012 and acquired by Smartsheet in 2020, Brandfolder is an industry leader in Digital Asset Management software.
Why I picked Brandfolder: It delivers a DAM software that is as intuitive for users as it is powerful for admins. You can easily store, manage, share, manipulate, and analyze assets across hundreds of formats, including 8K videos, documents, images, and 3D renderings. In addition to core DAM functionality, Brandfolder provides features to empower key stakeholders such as marketers, salespeople, franchise partners, agencies, and retailers with SmartCDN, collaborative workspaces, and self-serve asset templates.
These features free up already stretched-thin creative teams by giving users the ability to resize and reformat asset downloads on-demand, quickly create or customize content using pre-approved templates, and embed digital assets across the web that automatically update. Brandfolder’s proprietary AI/ML and analytics technology, Brand IntelligenceⓇ , can detect duplicate assets, extract brand-specific metadata, and auto-tag images for more powerful search capabilities and asset usage analytics.
Brandfolder Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include AI-powered tagging and analytics, which automatically categorize assets and provide insights into their usage and performance, enhancing searchability and decision-making. Another feature is its guest upload that allows external partners to upload files without accessing the system.
Integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, Highspot, Google Suite, Sitecore, Shopify, Hubspot, Contentful, Salesforce, Workfront, OKTA, WordPress, Seismic, Drupal 8, Hootsuite, Jira, Trello, Templafy, Wrike, SSO/SAML, and many more, accessible via Zapier.
With best-in-class time-to-value, services, support, security, and scalability Brandfolder enables brands around the world like Slack, TripAdvisor, Lyft, and P.F. Changs to create compelling brand experiences with unparalleled efficiency and speed.
MediaValet is a digital asset management solution that helps organizations easily manage, find, and share their high-value digital assets (source, WIP, and final). It helps teams improve their productivity, increase asset ROI and drive revenue growth.
Why I picked MediaValet: This tool has a massive global footprint which makes it available in 140 countries. On top of that, advanced search and tagging features enable users to pinpoint what they need in seconds. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence automatically tags photos and documents. This AI is able to recognize and tag spoken word, topics, location, people, objects and generate transcripts and subtitles in 60+ languages.
With unlimited users and administrators included in enterprise subscriptions, MediaValet allows teams worldwide to scale quickly and cost-effectively. Plus, unlimited training and support ensures that all users are confident using the system and can maximize its value.
MediaValet Standout Features & Integrations
Features include unlimited categories and multi-categorization. This allows you to arrange the content in the way that is most convenient for your operation. Additionally, it has top-grade security features to keep your information secure. For example, you can select the geographical region where you want to store your assets and a primary server keeps three copies of your data to protect it from deletion.
Integrations include Wrike, Workfront, Slack, OKTA, Active Directory, WordPress. Drupal 8, Adobe Creative Cloud, Sharepoint, Office 365, Hootsuite, and more. You can also access an open API that will help you build custom integrations with your current tech stack.
Air is a digital asset management software that centralizes comments, feedback, and approval around assets, making it easier to organize, automate, and share creative work. With custom ways to organize your workflows, you can tailor the creative process to your team's unique needs.
Why I picked Air: This tool is ideal for enterprise creative teams collaborating on visual assets, like images, infographics, videos, and more. Instead of tracking down different file versions or spending time filtering through feedback across multiple platforms, Air consolidates everything you need in one place.
Team members can leave notes, feedback, and approval directly on assets for more visible communication and agile creative processes. The platform also provides advanced cross-functional sharing capabilities, offers enterprise-grade security, and integrates with over 1,000 tools.
Air Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include a visually oriented interface that simplifies the management of digital assets through intuitive visual boards and sub-boards. Additionally, Air's smart search capabilities leverage metadata, image recognition, and color recognition to enable quick and precise asset retrieval.
Integrations include Shopify, Slack, Canva, Google Drive, Dropbox, Figma, Adobe Premier Pro, Zapier, Airtable, and many more.
Bynder is a digital asset management platform that lets you store your creative files and prevent content chaos from happening.
Why I picked Bynder: It provides cloud digital asset management delivered through a slick, clean interface. Bynder helps you create, find and use digital assets with streamlined collaboration and a focus on brand consistency across all markets and channels. Additionally, its Digital Asset Transformation (DAT) connects your current tech stack with the DAM so you can alter assets with features like resizing, focus, cropping, and removing asset backgrounds.
Just like DAT, many add-on modules complement this asset management platform. These include a brand guidelines module, creative workflow, analytics, content workflow and a video editing studio.
Bynder Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include digital asset modification capabilities that allow users to adjust elements such as size, focus, cropping, and background removal. Another feature worth highlighting is its built-in security controls such as two-factor authentication, user rights and access settings to protect your content, and digital asset transformation.
Integrations include Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, Sitefinity, BloomReach, Drupal 7, Drupal 8, WordPress, Okta, Google, Hootsuite, Microsoft Active Directory, Collect.io, Shutterstock, SDL Tridion, Templafy, and TYPO3.
If you think Bynder is a good fit for your brand, you can access its free trial and find out first hand if it helps your operation.
Scaleflex’s Filerobot is a GDPR-compliant Digital Asset Management platform that is software-agnostic and helps teams store, manage, optimize, share, and accelerate all digital and media assets.
Why I picked Scaleflex: If you handle a remote team, you'll be happy to know it offers a user interface in over 8 different languages! Also, custom permissions and user roles let everyone on the team enjoy a personalized solution.
This platform has management features that allow you to set rules and prevent duplicated assets in the media library. Additionally, you can rollback to previous versions if someone uploaded the wrong item. Finally, I like that they have compression methods built into the software that allow your media to be lighter and faster to publish without compromising too much quality.
Note: They have comprehensive documentation and in-house DAM experts who provide training to help you deploy faster.
Scaleflex Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include being MACH-certified, which ensures the platform is Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless, providing flexibility and scalability. On the innovation front, their AI and machine learning allows bulk background removal, video transcoding and adaptive streaming, and auto-tagging for enriched search capabilities.
Integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, WordPress, Magento, Canva, Opencart, Kontent, Pabbly Connect, Sylius, Akeneo, Prismic, Zapier and they are always looking to expand their libraries. Your developers will be happy to know it offers headless APIs for custom integrations.
Scaleflex offers a free demo and customized pricing plans, allowing companies to scale as they grow.
Acquia DAM (Widen) is a really useful tool to that serves as a central foundation to organize, share, and distribute your brand assets and product content across the web.
Why I picked Acquia DAM: Something notable about this tool is its powerful search functionality and flexible metadata models. In this sense, Acquia DAM stands out in our features and functionality evaluation, where searchability and flexibility reign supreme. And in addition to using metadata to classify your assets, you can also assign different roles and permissions to different user groups to control access levels.
It's worth mentioning that you can use this tool as a standalone digital asset management tool or build it out into a larger management system. In addition to the core DAM offering, several add-on applications are available to construct your brand management, marketing resource management, or product information management system that works for your use case. For example, you can use Entries to assemble product content for e-commerce distribution, or Portals to share curated collections within branded webpages. You could also leverage Templates to build localized ads and brochures or use their Workflow add-on to manage work-in-process review and approval.
Acquia DAM Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include a highly configurable metadata schema that supports powerful, business-specific search and workflow capabilities, enabling brands to manage and distribute assets across teams, tools, and channels effectively. Another feature I like is its watermarking for previews to prevent screen capture reuse. It even gives you the option to add invisible watermarks on downloads by user group.
Integrations include Airtable, Clarifai, Asana, Box, Salesforce, OneDrive, Slack, Wrike, and Shutterstock. You can also find partner integrations from Adobe Creative Cloud, Enwove, Hootsuite, Modus, and Mediafly.
Acquia DAM has plans for standard and enterprise DAM solutions and a DAM+PIM offering.
Stockpress is a digital asset management (DAM) platform aimed at enhancing the organization, searchability, collaboration, and sharing of digital files for teams of any size.
Why I picked Stockpress: Its collections capability lets you organize files in a way that avoids duplication, making it easier to manage your digital assets. You can create collections based on projects, campaigns, or any other criteria, ensuring your files are neatly categorized without taking up extra storage space.
With AI-powered and custom tagging, you can enhance the searchability of your assets, ensuring files can be found quickly using keywords and filters. This is beneficial for teams dealing with a vast array of digital assets, as it cuts down the time spent searching for specific files. AI tagging automates the categorization process, speeding up your workflow and minimizing human error in file organization.
Stockpress Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include smart search which lets you type a keyword and immediately receive visual suggestions of images that match your search term. Another feature that is useful for agencies is guest upload. This allows your vendors to upload their work directly to your workspace.
Integrations include Webflow, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Box, Canva, Dropbox, Google Drive, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Slack, and Okta.
Pics.io is a digital asset management (DAM) platform that provides solutions for organizing, managing, and distributing digital assets in multiple formats. It allows users to store assets in a centralized cloud library, where where users can easily search and retrieve files.
Why I picked Pics.io: This software integrates easily with Google Drive and Amazon S3 so that you don't need to migrate your files elsewhere, while also offering its own storage space. Pics.io is designed to support a range of industries and professionals who work with digital content, providing them with a system to manage their assets effectively. As such, the tool supports a wide range of file formats, including images, videos, audio files, and documents. Users can also create collections to group related digital assets, use metadata for easy search and organization, and compare different versions of files.
The tool's version control feature allows you to both track changes and revert to previous file versions. Collaboration features such as commenting, tagging users, and approving assets are also available and facilitate teamwork on digital projects. Other features allow users to share assets with team members or external parties, customize the interface with branding, and analyze asset usage with built-in reporting tools.
Pics.io Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include AI-generated asset descriptions which can help you speed up upload times. The tool also allows you to choose from three different AI models when generating keywords for digital assets for more relevant and efficient tagging. Another special feature is AI photo recognition. This lets you manually tag people in photos and then the tool takes over so that next time you are looking for someone's work, it can be using their name.
Integrations include Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Shopify, Slack, Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Hootsuite, HubSpot, Salesforce, Trello, and ZohoCRM.
Filecamp is a digital asset management platform that helps marketing professionals get more value from their creative assets.
Why I picked Filecamp: It lets you store all your images, videos, creative files, and presentations and easily find them, thanks to its powerful tagging functionality. You can upload files and folders, tag them manually or use the auto-tagging feature. Then, filter, sort, search, and download files in the original resolution or the one of your choosing.
If you are interested in your team collaborating on creative assets, Filecamp includes a proofing module where your team can engage in conversations around deliverables, suggest changes and go through approval workflows in a single place. Plus, you can do all this in a white-label product that you can make your own in a way only a few tools let you.
Filecamp Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include customizable branding portals, enabling organizations to tailor the interface to reflect their brand identity. Filecamp also facilitates efficient collaboration among marketing teams with its file sharing, custom branding, and media library management features.
Integrations are not a part of the platform at the moment.
Filecamp is great if you need a white-label platform that can store all your files and requires little training. You can try out their professional plan from the website.
4ALLPORTAL’s digital asset management software is designed to help businesses of all sizes simplify the management of their digital assets, from archiving to searching to sharing.
Why I picked 4ALLPORTAL: I like 4ALLPORTAL's integrated DAM and PIM features that utilize a unique data model. Digital assets, such as product images, and product information, such as descriptions, can be linked to products within the 4ALLPORTAL, so when you edit the product image or text, the related products are automatically updated across all integrated channels such as the online store, website or marketplaces.
This software also offers a powerful search function to ensure faster file searches, and users can use tagging to attach keywords and descriptions to individual assets, helping targeted searches.
Furthermore, 4ALLPORTAL features full-text search and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to help users locate files and documents faster. They can use the full-text search function to search their stock of documents for specific phrases, text modules, or records, while the OCR text recognition feature is useful for making image files with text content easily searchable for whatever information they need.
4ALLPORTAL Standout Features & Integrations
Standout features include its automation capabilities. These let you streamline import, metadata management, versioning, rights and license management and asset distribution - allowing you to work on more strategic tasks. Another feature is usage history which lets you analyze user behavior related to assets. You can keep track of who downloaded, shared, or converted your file to another output format.
Integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Active Directory, Chili Publisher, Dropbox, Hootsuite, Jira, Magento, and Slack. Additionally, it has a RestfulAPI that you can use to manually connect third-party systems.
This platform is flexible in the way its deployed. It has on-premise and on-cloud options for you to acquire.
Other Digital Asset Management Software
Here are some asset management system examples that didn’t make the list, but are great options to expand your research.
- Canto
For external file sharing
- Brightspot
For smart search and filters
- Amplifi.io
For product manufacturers
- MarcomCentral
For AI-assisted asset tagging
- Artwork Flow by Bizongo
For packaging design
- Sesimi
For creative automation
- Swivle DAM
For small businesses
- MediaBeacon
For large organizations
- Eagle App
For design project organization
- Libris
For custom solutions
- ClickUp
For file storage integrations
- monday.com
For collaborative workflows
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Selection Criteria For Digital Asset Management Software
Selecting a digital asset management (DAM) system requires a careful evaluation of functionality and the ability to meet specific use cases that align with your organizational needs, pain points, and the objectives of quick delivery of project assets, efficient organization of collateral, and rapid retrieval of information.
Drawing from personal trials and extensive research into the capabilities of various digital asset management solutions, I've developed criteria to guide the selection process. These criteria are designed to highlight the features most crucial to effective media asset management.
Core Digital Asset Management Software Functionality (25% of final scoring):
Common features for digital asset management systems typically include asset storage, version control, metadata management, search and retrieval capabilities, access controls, integration with other tools, real-time collaboration, reporting and analytics, customizable workflows, and scalability.
To be considered for inclusion on my list of the best digital asset management system software, the solution had to support the ability to fulfill common use cases:
- Storing assets from multiple formats, including rich media files, video, image, documents, and source files.
- Quick search and retrieval of assets using metadata and tags
- Seamless collaboration across different teams and departments
- Secure sharing of assets with external stakeholders
- Integration with other key business tools and platforms
Additional Standout Features (25% of final scoring): I looked at any features that incorporate new technologies or move the needle in terms of innovation in this space. Examples include unique AI-driven tagging and metadata management capabilities, enhancing searchability and organization of assets.
Usability (10% of final scoring): Creative asset management software should be easy to use. I considered intuitive user interfaces that simplify navigation and asset management, including easy filtering or tagging interfaces. I also analyzed the balance between powerful functionality and ease of use to accommodate users with varying levels of technical expertise.
Onboarding (10% of final scoring): I look at the availability of comprehensive training materials such as videos, templates, and interactive product tours. Also, support availability for easy data migration to facilitate a smooth transition from existing systems to the DAM platform, and initial setup assistance, including customizable settings and preferences to match organizational workflows.
Customer Support (10% of final scoring): Responsive and knowledgeable customer service teams should be available through multiple channels (e.g., live chat, email, phone). I also look at knowledge bases or community forums for self-service support.
Value For Money (10% of final scoring): I believe that an asset management system should always give you more value than its cost. Therefore, I considered:
- Competitive pricing that reflects the asset management program's feature set and scalability.
- Transparent pricing models that accommodate businesses of different sizes and needs.
- Long-term ROI through efficiency gains and improved asset management.
Customer Reviews (10% of final scoring): The users can paint a picture of what marketing asset management software can do in different use cases. Therefore, I research user feedback across various metrics, including usability, customer support, and overall satisfaction, positive reports of the asset management technology's impact on project delivery times and collaboration efficiency, and testimonials highlighting specific benefits realized by organizations in relevant industries or with similar use cases.
Overall, it's essential to consider how these features and capabilities align with your specific organizational needs when evaluating digital asset management platforms. Effective online digital asset management is foundational to streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, and securing digital assets, ultimately supporting the quick delivery and efficient organization of project assets.
Trends In Digital Asset Management Software For 2025
In 2025, digital asset manager software has seen significant evolution, driven by digital asset management software companies recognizing the need for teams to organize information efficiently and leverage a centralized database to speed up design and delivery times. The developments from digital asset management vendors in this field are crucial for project managers, especially in creative and marketing domains, where managing a vast array of digital assets is a daily challenge.
Here's a summary of the current trends and features in the DAM software SAAS market:
- AI-Driven Efficiency: AI technologies like auto-tagging and metadata extraction are rapidly evolving, enhancing searchability and organization of assets. Tools like Wedia and MediaValet incorporate advanced indexing, editable metadata, and AI-driven recognition features to streamline sorting and search processes.
- Integration and Workflow Automation: Digital content management software solutions are increasingly focusing on integrating with other tools and automating workflows. For example, several tools have begun integrating with creative suites like Adobe to allow designers to work from their favorite tools and save and retrieve their work directly from the digital asset manager.
- Enhanced Security and Granular Permissions: With the rise of cybersecurity threats, data asset management software now offers advanced security protocols. Amplifi, for instance, provides granular permission settings and audit trails to give users greater control over their digital assets.
Most Rapidly Evolving Features
- Dynamic Asset Distribution: Tools like DemoUp Cliplister provide dynamic imaging technology and product content syndication services, enabling brands to share content directly with online retailers.
Most Important and In-Demand Features
- Real-Time Collaboration and Automated Tagging: The ability to collaborate in real-time and use automated tagging for quick asset classification is highly sought after. Box and MediaValet exemplify these functionalities, emphasizing user-friendly interfaces.
Declining Trends
- Conventional Folder-Based Searches: With the advent of tag-based and AI-enhanced searches, the traditional method of organizing files in folders is becoming less crucial.
The emphasis in the coming years will be on making digital assets more accessible, secure, and seamlessly integrated into broader work processes, highlighting the importance of these solutions in modern project management practices.
What Is Digital Asset Management Software?
Digital asset management software is a tool for digital asset storage that helps businesses organize, store, and retrieve their digital content like images, videos, audio files, and documents. These types of asset management products act as a centralized library where all digital assets are organized and often includes features for tagging, categorizing, and searching content, making it easy to find and access specific files.
Digital asset library software streamline the process of managing large volumes of digital content, saving time and reducing the likelihood of misplacing important files. Cloud-based digital asset management can be particularly useful for digital asset marketing teams, creative professionals, and media companies that regularly work with high volumes of digital media. By ensuring that all team members have easy access to the latest, most relevant assets, digital media management software improves collaboration and efficiency. Additionally, it helps in maintaining brand consistency across various platforms by providing a single source for all brand-related digital assets.
Features of Digital Asset Management Software
When managing projects that require the creation and dissemination of audiovisual assets, selecting the best asset management system is crucial. The best digital asset management systems aid in the quick delivery of project assets, efficient organization of collateral, and rapid retrieval of information, which are essential for maintaining project timelines and ensuring team collaboration.
Here are the most important features to look for in digital media asset management software:
- AI-Driven Tagging and Metadata Management: Automatically tags and manages metadata for digital assets. This feature streamlines the organization of assets, making it easier for team members to find and use them when needed.
- Robust Search Capabilities: Allows users to search for assets using various criteria. Quick and efficient search functionality ensures that team members can find the right assets at the right time, reducing delays in project delivery.
- Version Control: Keeps track of different versions of each asset. Version control is essential for managing updates and revisions to assets, ensuring that everyone is working with the most current versions.
- Access Control and Permissions: Manages who can view, edit, or download assets. This feature helps in safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to specific assets.
- Workflow Automation: Automates repetitive tasks and workflows related to asset management, like approval workflows. Workflow automation increases efficiency by reducing manual effort and streamlining processes for quicker project delivery.
- Real-Time Collaboration Tools: Facilitates collaboration among team members within the DAM platform. Collaboration tools are crucial for coordinating efforts, providing feedback, and making decisions quickly.
- Customizable Metadata Fields: Allows users to customize metadata according to project needs. Customizable metadata fields enable more precise organization and categorization of assets, making them easier to retrieve.
- Multi-Platform Support: Ensures compatibility across different devices and operating systems. Support for multiple platforms allows team members to access and work with assets regardless of their preferred device or location.
Choosing a DAM system with these features ensures that teams can efficiently manage, share, and use digital assets, leading to faster project delivery and improved collaboration.
Benefits Of Digital Asset Management Software
Digital Asset Management (DAM) software plays a critical role in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of project management, especially in fields requiring extensive use of digital assets. Here are five significant benefits that a digital content management app can provide to its users and organizations:
- Centralized Asset Repository: Provides a single source of truth for all digital assets. Having a centralized location for storing and accessing digital assets eliminates redundancies, reduces the risk of using outdated assets, and saves time otherwise spent searching for assets across multiple platforms.
- Enhanced Security and Control: Offers advanced permissions and access controls. This benefit ensures that sensitive assets are protected and only accessible by authorized users, thereby enhancing the security of digital content and reducing the risk of unauthorized access or distribution.
- Streamlined Collaboration and Sharing: Facilitates easy sharing and collaboration on digital assets among team members. By simplifying the process of sharing and collaborating on assets, and approvals, asset management apps can help speed up project timelines and improve communication among project stakeholders.
- Improved Asset Discoverability: Using metadata, tags, and advanced search capabilities drastically reduces the time needed to find the right assets, improving productivity and ensuring that projects move forward more smoothly without unnecessary delays.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Adapts to the growing needs of the organization. As projects and asset volumes grow, asset management software tools can scale to accommodate increased demand, ensuring that organizations can manage their digital assets efficiently, regardless of size or complexity.
Embracing DAM solutions is a strategic move for organizations looking to implement digital asset optimization and foster a more collaborative, efficient, and secure project management environment.
When Should You Get Digital Asset Management Software?
If your organization deals with a growing number of digital assets, investing in asset management software solutions may be necessary to stay efficient. Here, I have listed some key indicators that suggest it's time to adopt an asset manager program:
- Resource-Intensive Asset Management: If managing your digital assets starts to consume too much time and effort, a simple asset management software can streamline organizing, storing, and retrieving assets.
- Accessibility Issues: Struggling to find and share assets across teams is a common issue. If asset accessibility is becoming an issue for your team, asset management platform technologies can provide secure, centralized access, ensuring your team can find and use the assets they need.
- Collaboration Bottlenecks: If your projects are being delayed due to poor asset sharing and version control, DAM integration can resolve these issues by providing real-time access and collaborative tools within the assets management system.
- Security Concerns: Protecting valuable digital assets is vital to maintaining your organization's integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information. An asset protection software can help safeguard against unauthorized access or data loss, ensuring that your assets are safe within the best asset tracking software platforms.
Cost & Pricing For Digital Asset Management Software
For many, digital asset management pricing is one of the most important factors to consider when making your choice. These tools typically offer a range of plans to accommodate the diverse needs and budgets of different organizations. However, most plans also fall into similar categories, with providers offering tiered plans that include comparable features and price points at each level.
Given the variety of options available, it is important to understand the different plan and pricing structures in order to make informed decisions. By staying aware of common pricing trends, you can ensure you're not overpaying for common features or features you won't use.
Here's a breakdown of common plan options and their pricing for DAM software:
Comparison Table For Digital Asset Management Software
| Plan Type | Average Price | Common Features Included |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 - $20 per user/month | - Basic asset storage and organization - Basic search functionality - Limited file sharing capabilities |
| Professional | $25 - $100 per user/month | - Advanced search capabilities - Greater storage capacity - Version control - Basic integration options |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | - Customizable workflows - Unlimited storage - Comprehensive integration options - Advanced security features |
| Free Option | $0 | - Limited asset storage - Basic search and filter capabilities - File sharing with some restrictions |
When choosing a plan, it is important to consider your organization's size, the volume of assets to be managed, and the level of collaboration required. Moreover, the best media asset management software should not only fit your current needs, but also scale with your organization's growth. As such, understanding both the exact plan you want and your options for scaling the software is essential for making the right decision.
For example, basic or free plans are perfect for individuals or small teams with web-based digital asset management needs. Standard plans suit businesses requiring detailed reporting and software integration. Professional plans offer extensive features for larger teams managing complex projects. Premium or enterprise plans cater to large organizations needing advanced security and compliance features.
Common stages where your company may want to upgrade its pricing plan include:
- Increased Volume of Digital Assets: As digital content grows, advanced organization and storage features become critical for effective management.
- Advanced Workflow and Collaboration Needs: As projects become more complex, teams might seek more sophisticated workflow automation, version control, and collaboration tools.
- Expansion of User Base: As the DAM user base expands, teams may need more user licenses and granular permissions.
- Enhanced Security and Compliance Requirements: Robust security features and compliance certifications are crucial for companies facing stricter standards as they scale.
- Integration with Other Enterprise Systems: As the company's tech stack grows, integrating the DAM tool with other systems becomes necessary for streamlined operations.
Ultimately, the right plan depends on your specific business requirements and budget. With careful consideration and research, you should be able to find the right plan to balance functionality and cost.
New & Noteworthy Product Updates
Below you’ll find our release notes and take on the latest and greatest digital asset management software product updates. Discover what’s now possible through feature releases, improvements, and updates on web, desktop and mobile apps. Learn what’s new, if it’s hot - or not - and why it matters for managing projects.
July 2024: Digital Asset Management Software Updates
Filecamp Update Notes
In July, Filecamp introduced several enhancements to its platform, notably the automatic generation of thumbnails for video files. This feature streamlines the process of managing video assets by providing visual previews, facilitating quicker identification and selection of videos within the digital asset management system.
Additionally, Filecamp expanded its CSV export functionality to include all user, admin, and folder permissions. This improvement offers administrators a comprehensive overview of user access rights, simplifying the management and auditing of permissions across the platform.
These updates are particularly beneficial for marketing and creative teams, project managers, and content creators who handle extensive video libraries and require detailed oversight of user permissions. By enhancing video asset management and permission tracking, Filecamp aims to improve workflow efficiency and security for its users.
Verdict: Not. While we all want work to be easier, these features are not particularly innovative.
Check out Filecamp's most recent pricing information.
MediaBeacon Update Notes
MediaBeacon's 24.07 release in July introduces several enhancements aimed at improving user experience and system functionality. A notable feature is the ability for administrators to customize menus by replacing them with Places Components, allowing for personalized menu names and icons, and flexible menu composition. This update enables users to tailor their navigation experience to better suit their workflow needs.
Additional enhancements include a one-click 'Download Original' option, facilitating quicker access to original assets, and the capability to publish original assets such as videos and PDFs without conversion. The release also provides access to S3 Rendition URLs via Smartnames, supporting downstream asset processes, and prevents accidental de-selection of assets by blocking empty selection boxes. These improvements streamline asset management and reduce potential user errors.
This update is particularly beneficial for digital asset managers, marketing and creative teams, and IT administrators who seek greater control over their asset management system. By offering customizable navigation, simplified asset access, and enhanced workflow integration, MediaBeacon 24.07 aims to boost efficiency and user satisfaction within organizations managing extensive digital assets.
Verdict: Not. Incremental change is important, but not very trendy.
August 2024: Digital Asset Management Software Updates
Pics.io Update Notes
In August, Pics.io introduced an AI-powered visual search feature to enhance its Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. This advancement allows users to locate images using natural language descriptions, such as "capybara among alligators," without relying solely on metadata or tags. The AI analyzes visual elements to deliver precise search results, improving the efficiency of asset retrieval.
This feature is particularly beneficial for marketing and creative professionals, project managers, and content creators who manage extensive digital asset libraries. By integrating advanced search functionalities, Pics.io aims to enhance workflow efficiency, collaboration, and the overall user experience in digital asset management.
The AI visual search considers user-defined metadata, image content, technical file details, search intent, and language nuances like synonyms. This comprehensive approach ensures that users can find the exact assets they need, even without detailed tagging or descriptions, streamlining the search process and reducing the time spent managing digital assets.
Verdict: Hot! This is a perfect example of how AI can make doing your job easier.
Check out Pics.io's most recent pricing information.
September 2024: Digital Asset Management Software Updates
MediaValet Update Notes
On September 18, MediaValet launched MediaValet Proofing, a powerful proofing solution that integrates directly into their Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform. Powered by PageProof, this new tool aims to streamline the review and approval process for digital assets by offering real-time commenting, markup capabilities, and version control within a centralized, secure environment. By simplifying the feedback loop, MediaValet Proofing is designed to improve collaboration and communication among team members, making it easier to keep all stakeholders aligned and informed.
Key features of MediaValet Proofing include centralized feedback management, which allows users to initiate proofs directly from MediaValet and consolidate all feedback in one location. The tool enables effortless collaboration by allowing internal and external team members to provide feedback on assets, even if they don’t use MediaValet or PageProof. Additional functionalities, such as side-by-side version comparisons, make it easy to identify changes across different versions of a file, and real-time visibility features help users monitor each asset's progress, eliminating bottlenecks and ensuring smooth workflow progression.
Marketing and creative teams, project managers, and content creators working with digital assets are likely to benefit most from this release. With proofing capabilities embedded within the DAM, MediaValet Proofing offers a solution to traditional delays and challenges in content collaboration, review, and approval processes. By enabling a streamlined workflow, MediaValet helps teams work more efficiently and deliver exceptional content on time.
Verdict: Hot! While proofing software is not a new concept, this is a great opportunity for MediaValet’s users to collaborate more effectively.
Find out more about MediaValet's pricing here.
Bynder Update Notes
In September, Bynder introduced a face recognition feature that automatically tags image assets by identifying faces, eliminating the need for manual tagging. Once a person is manually tagged in an image, the system will automatically tag them in new and existing assets, ensuring consistent tagging across the library. This functionality simplifies the management of employee headshots, event attendees, guest speakers, and VIPs, and aids in compliance by managing images with expiration dates.
To enable this feature, users should contact their Customer Success Contact to learn about activation and any associated costs. After activation, a new metaproperty named "Recognized_Face" is created, which is read-only and multi-select. Users with the appropriate permissions can edit or remove names if the system incorrectly identifies a face. Creating a new smart filter is recommended to facilitate easier searches for identified individuals.
This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations that manage large volumes of images featuring people, such as marketing and creative teams, event organizers, and compliance officers. By automating the tagging process, it enhances efficiency, ensures consistency, and simplifies the retrieval of specific assets, thereby improving overall digital asset management workflows.
Verdict: Hot! Between the AI and the biometrics, this is a futuristic new feature.
Stockpress Update Notes
Stockpress has introduced several new features in its September 2024 update to enhance user experience and streamline digital asset management. Notably, the platform now offers pinned searches, allowing users to save frequently used search queries and access them directly from the filters sidebar. This functionality simplifies the retrieval of specific assets, improving workflow efficiency.
Additionally, Stockpress has implemented share templates and branded links, enabling users to customize share links with alternate logos and colors. Users can create reusable templates for consistent sharing settings across their workspace, facilitating a more cohesive brand presentation. The update also includes the ability to add custom thumbnails to various file types, ensuring visual previews align with user preferences.
These enhancements are particularly beneficial for marketing and creative professionals, project managers, and content creators who manage extensive digital asset libraries. By introducing features like pinned searches and customizable share templates, Stockpress aims to improve asset organization, sharing efficiency, and overall user experience within its platform.
Verdict: Hot! You know what they say—branding is everything.
Canto Update Notes
Canto's September 27 update enhances its AI Visual Search feature by integrating metadata management directly into the search process. Users can now combine visual prompts with metadata elements like facial recognition data or video transcript quotes, streamlining asset discovery and improving workflow efficiency.
The update also ensures seamless compatibility between AI Visual Search and custom metadata, allowing users to leverage specific identifiers such as SKU numbers, locations, or product names to refine search accuracy. Additionally, the system now prioritizes exact metadata matches—including dates, locations, and keywords—displaying them prominently in search results to enhance relevance.
This enhancement is particularly beneficial for marketing and creative professionals, digital asset managers, and content creators who manage extensive media libraries. By integrating AI-driven search capabilities with metadata management, Canto aims to simplify the asset retrieval process, enabling users to locate specific images, videos, or documents more efficiently.
Verdict: Hot! In case you couldn’t already tell, AI visual search features are trending.
Find out more about Canto's pricing here.
October 2024: Digital Asset Management Software Updates
Scaleflex Update Notes
Scaleflex's new Visual Experience Platform (VXP) consolidates DAM, AI-enhancement, and media optimization into a single solution.
In October, Scaleflex launched its Visual Experience Platform (VXP), aiming to revolutionize the Digital Asset Management (DAM) market. This comprehensive solution integrates Digital Asset Management, Visual AI-enhancement, Web Portals, and Dynamic Media Optimization, providing a unified platform for managing and optimizing visual content.
The VXP is designed to meet the needs of marketing, digital, and IT teams by offering features such as automated content moderation, enrichment, tagging, and visual search. Its cloud-agnostic architecture ensures scalability and seamless integration with existing systems, enhancing agility and performance for businesses managing large volumes of visual assets.
This platform is particularly beneficial for enterprises and mid-market companies seeking to optimize their visual content operations. By consolidating multiple functionalities into a single platform, Scaleflex's VXP enables organizations to streamline workflows, reduce costs, and improve web performance, making it a valuable tool for those aiming to enhance their digital presence and operational efficiency.
Verdict: Hot! With this many features in one place, we welcome the VXP DAM revolution.
Acquia DAM Update Notes
In October, Acquia DAM (Digital Asset Management) introduced a feature that enables users to generate and store transcripts for video assets directly within the platform. This functionality leverages an integration with OpenAI Whisper to transcribe speech from videos into text, making the content more accessible and searchable. To utilize this feature, administrators must enable it in the Global Settings under the AI Video Transcripts option.
Once activated, users with appropriate permissions can generate transcripts by navigating to a video's Asset Digest page and selecting the 'Transcribe with AI' option. The system processes the video, converting spoken words into text, which is then displayed in the Transcript section. The time required to generate a transcript depends on the video's length. These transcripts are divided into timestamped sections, facilitating easy navigation and reference.
This feature is particularly beneficial for marketing and creative teams, content creators, and project managers who handle extensive video libraries. By making video content searchable through transcripts, it enhances accessibility and efficiency in managing digital assets. Additionally, the integration with OpenAI Whisper ensures accurate transcription, supporting teams in repurposing video content and improving overall workflow productivity.
Verdict: Hot! Accessibility is always in fashion.
Find out more about Acquia DAM's pricing here.
Brightspot Update Notes
Brightspot's 4.8.0 beta release in October introduces significant enhancements aimed at improving user experience and system capabilities. A key feature is the redesigned content edit page, which offers a modern interface with adjustable edit and preview pane widths, a streamlined rich-text toolbar, and a collapsible right-rail for better screen utilization. This update provides users with a cleaner and more efficient content creation environment.
Another major advancement is the overhauled GraphQL plugin, now known as the GraphQL Content API (GCA). This redevelopment enhances performance and reliability for managing large-scale, dynamic schemas, benefiting users who leverage Brightspot for headless or hybrid applications. The GCA merges the functionalities of the Content Delivery API (CDA) and Content Management API (CMA) into a unified API, offering a more streamlined and efficient approach to data management.
Additionally, the introduction of the My Activity widget allows users to easily access content they have created, published, updated, viewed, or are watching, directly from their dashboard. This feature enhances workflow efficiency by providing quick access to relevant assets.
These updates are particularly beneficial for content creators, developers, and administrators seeking to optimize their content management processes and improve overall system performance.
Verdict: Not. While this updates are important, they’re more technical and less innovative.
Find pricing information for Brightspot here.
Digital Asset Management Software Frequently Asked Questions
Start here to cover the basics of digital media asset management software, like what it is and what you can use it for.
How does DAM relate to project management?
As a project manager in a content generating business, you are likely be exposed to a DAM system as the central tool for collaboration and communication among the different teams in the company. Here are five categories to describe the relationship between these two:
- Resource Organization: DAM helps you organize and manage all the digital assets involved in a project. This means that you and your team will have quick and easy access to any necessary resources such as images, documents, videos, etc. This will save time and decrease chances of misplacing or losing any assets.
- Collaboration: DAM systems allow multiple members of a project team to access, share, and edit digital assets from one central location. This helps streamline content creation workflows, but also increases collaboration between the team and client for feedback. It avoids duplication of work and ensures everyone is working with the most up-to-date versions.
- Efficiency: By keeping all assets in one place, you can avoid the inefficiency of searching through various locations trying to find files. This increases the efficiency of project workflows and reduces the chance of delays.
- Control and Security: DAM allows you to control who has access to what resources, protecting sensitive information and maintaining security. Version control ensures that any changes made to assets are tracked and can be rolled back if necessary.
- Cost Management: From a project management perspective, through the use of DAM, organizations can avoid unnecessary re-creation of assets, thereby saving costs.
Can I use Google Drive, Dropbox, and Sharepoint as a DAM?
No. While Google Drive, Dropbox, and Sharepoint share similarities with DAM software, they are not the same. The added functionality that you can find in DAM software is:
- The ability to proof and approve content
- Resizing images in a few clicks and changing video formats for different exporting needs
- File sharing through integrations (including sending files to your designers directly in Photoshop or their preferred software)
- Advanced metadata tagging
Is there free digital asset management software?
Several DAM software companies offer a version of their software for free digital asset management with some features restricted. Here’s a brief list of free DAM software.
- ResourceSpace: Free plan includes 100GB of storage and unlimited users
- Pimcore: Open-source tool
- Wrike: Free plan includes 2GB of storage per user and unlimited users
Who uses digital asset management software?
Advertising agencies, creative teams, non-profits, and ecommerce companies are just some examples of organizations that would use a DAM. Freelance creatives such as photographers and designers often use personal digital asset management for storing, sharing, and organizing their files. Anything that’s digital and has metadata is a digital asset. So anyone whose job or project involves frequent use of digital media or files will likely use a DAM.
What is the difference between a CMS and a DAM?
The difference between a CMS and a DAM is the scope of what they store. While they both serve as file repositories, a CMS will store the information that relates to your website. On the other hand, a DAM software can store everything related to your website, PLUS any other digital asset used in the company like marketing collateral, proposals and other project documentation, images for email signatures, videos from Youtube ads, audio files from a business podcast, and anything else you can think of.
What are the best practices for organizing assets in DAM?
Organizing assets in a DAM system can really streamline your project workflows. Here are a few best practices:
- Consistent Naming Conventions: Stick to a clear, descriptive naming convention for your files. This makes it easier to search and identify assets quickly.
- Use Metadata: Metadata is your best friend. Tagging assets with relevant information—like keywords, creator, usage rights, and project names—enhances searchability and helps keep everything organized.
- Folder Structures: Develop a logical folder structure that reflects your team’s workflow or project phases. This helps in maintaining order and simplifying navigation.
- Version Control: Always manage versions meticulously. Keep track of revisions and updates to avoid confusion over which version is the most current.
- Regular Audits: Schedule periodic reviews of your DAM content. This helps in removing outdated assets and reorganizing folders as needed.
Following these guidelines will help maintain a tidy, efficient digital asset library that supports your team’s needs effectively.
How does DAM contribute to brand consistency?
Maintaining brand consistency is a crucial aspect of a solid marketing plan, and DAM can play a big part in keeping your brand consistent across multiple channels while also saving valuable time. Here’s how:
- Centralized Repository: DAM systems store all brand assets in one place. This means everyone on the team accesses the same, most recent versions of logos, templates, and brand guidelines, reducing discrepancies.
- Controlled Access: You can control who accesses what. This ensures that only approved, on-brand materials are used across all platforms and communications.
- Consistent Messaging: By providing access to approved brand assets and messaging documents, DAM helps ensure that all marketing and communication efforts align with your brand’s voice and style.
- Efficiency and Speed: Quick access to the right assets reduces turnaround times and helps your team produce consistent, on-brand content faster.
How does DAM software handle metadata management?
Metadata management is a core feature of any DAM software. Here’s a brief summary of how it works:
- Automatic Metadata Capture: When you upload an asset, DAM software can automatically extract metadata like file size, creation date, and format. This saves a ton of manual entry time.
- Custom Metadata Fields: You can customize metadata fields to suit your project’s specific needs. For example, you can add fields for campaign names, asset rights, or project codes, which helps in sorting and searching assets efficiently.
- Bulk Editing: Updating metadata across multiple assets can be a huge time-saver. DAM systems allow you to apply changes in bulk, ensuring consistency without the repetitive individual updates.
- Searchability: By organizing and utilizing metadata effectively, DAM software makes finding the right asset quick and easy, which is crucial when you’re juggling multiple projects.
In essence, DAM turns metadata into a powerful tool for organizing and retrieving assets efficiently, which can save you time and make your life a whole lot easier.
What other tools can I use?
If digital asset management software isn’t the right fit for your needs, there are plenty of other tools out there that might suit you better. Check out some of our other software reviews:
- Document Management Systems
- Enterprise Document Management Systems
- Marketing Resource Management Software
- Enterprise Digital Asset Management Software
What is the difference between SaaS and on-premise digital asset management software?
The main difference between SaaS (Software as a Service) and on-premise digital asset management software is how they are deployed, scaled, secured, and their overall cost efficiency. Both models offer unique benefits and are good options depending on your organization’s needs.
- Deployment: SaaS-based asset management systems are cloud-based and hosted by a provider, making them accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. On-premise asset management programs, however, require installation on your own servers, which gives you complete control over the system.
- Scalability: SaaS solutions allow for easy scaling as your digital marketing asset management needs grow, without the need for additional infrastructure. On the other hand, on-premise asset management softwares require physical server upgrades, which can be more complex and costly.
- Security: On-premise asset manager software offers tighter security control since it’s hosted internally, making it a good option for organizations with strict data regulations. SaaS web-based asset management solutions also offer security features, including strong encryption and established security protocols; however, they are more vulnerable to external threats.
- Cost Efficiency: SaaS asset management system software operates on a subscription model, which lowers upfront costs and includes updates and maintenance. By contrast, on-premise software for asset management comes with higher initial costs for hardware and setup, along with ongoing maintenance expenses.
What's Next?
DAM platforms ultimately make our lives easier. If you want to increase your knowledge about this topic, we have a great article on what is DAM that will give you all the basic information. Also, I recommend you read our 5 useful tips on how to tag your content.
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