Want to jump straight to the answer? The best digital asset management software for most people is CoSchedule Asset Organizer.
Digital asset management (DAM) software is a tool to organize, share, track, and distribute a company’s digital assets. This includes documents, images, videos, audio files, animations, or any other piece of media content saved in electronic format.
DAM software allows you to assign metadata to each asset with a unique description, making it easier to search and filter files at scale.
The Top 10 Best Digital Asset Management Software
- CoSchedule Asset Organizer – Best for marketing teams
- Wedia – Best license and copyright management for large organizations
- Canto – Best for large organizations
- Brandfolder – Best easy-to-use asset management
- Adobe Experience Manager Assets – Best for advanced users
- IntelligenceBank – Best DAM software for creative collaboration
- Cloudinary – Best free digital asset management software
- Extensis Portfolio – Best DAM software for content creators
- Widen – Best DAM software for midsize organizations
- MediaValet – Best for organizing gigantic asset libraries
There are 10 digital asset management tools that we can confidently recommend. Use this guide to find more information about the features, benefits, prices, use cases, and potential drawbacks of each one.
CoSchedule Asset Organizer — Best For Marketing Teams
CoSchedule Asset Organizer is part of the CoSchedule Marketing Suite. In addition to DAM software, you’ll also get tools for organizing content, managing your marketing calendar, and more.
The platform makes it easy for marketing teams to store, index, and share digital content.
With CoSchedule, marketers can quickly find the files they need for various campaigns. It’s also easy to see how and where different assets are being used for different projects.
The Asset Organizer even helps teams save time by avoiding duplicate content. It’s easy to see if a particular file already exists before you attempt to create something new from scratch. With built-in version controls, every on the team can rest easy knowing that they’re using the most up-to-date versions of each file.
Other highlights of this software include:
- File storage with custom taxonomies
- Cross-department file sharing
- Built-in version controls
- Universal content library
- Secure file sharing
Just be aware the CoSchedule Asset Organizer can’t be purchased on its own. You’ll need to get the entire CoSchedule Marketing Suite to access this DAM software. The upside of this is that you’ll have lots of other tools at your disposal—including Mia, CoSchedule’s newest AI-powered marketing assistant. But the drawback is that you might be paying extra for tools you don’t need.
So we only recommend this software to marketing teams. You can sign up for free to get started.
Wedia — Best License and Copyright Management for Large Organizations
Wedia is an enterprise-grade digital asset management tool built for larger organizations. It’s versatile enough to support the needs of both sales and marketing across a wide range of different industries.
The platform helps streamline everything from ideation and production to delivery and control of all rich media assets. This includes all brand photos, videos, 3D files, banners, and more. It even helps brands manage marketing assets for advertisements, flyers, and POS materials.
You get complete control on Wedia. Manage issues related to third-party licenses and compliance with regulations. Share assets individually or as a collection with anyone you’re working with or for using a simple link. Manage role-based permissions so only the right people can view, edit, or download assets.
Wedia lets you attach copyright and licensing information to each individual asset in your library, and even add watermarks to your pictures and videos. This prevents the unauthorized use of your assets. Anyone who tries to access any asset will see detailed information about its usage restrictions, including where it can be distributed and when copyrights expire.
This granular level of control helps organizations deliver a consistent and unified brand message, even when managing hundreds or thousands of brand assets across multiple channels.
Wedia’s DAM software also comes with robust AI features, like AI-powered meta-tagging, facial recognition, sentiment analysis, and more. Wedia can even be trained to understand your brand and its assets, making it easier for you to know which assets work best for specific campaigns.
In addition to asset management, Wedia has generative AI integrated into its DAM software. So if your team can’t find the right image or asset for a particular use case, Wedia makes it possible to create images from simple text prompts.
Book a demo to find out how Wedia can help your organization simplify digital asset management at scale.
Canto — Best for Large Organizations
Canto is our top pick for large organizations. Founded 25+ years ago, Canto is a pioneer in the digital asset management industry. Over the years, they’ve quickly adapted to the times and changing needs of their customers.
They have deep integrations with a stunning variety of software, which means it can work across a large org where different departments are using different tools.
It’s no surprise that Canto is used by more than 2,500 organizations, including Honda, Bank of America, Best Western, LinkedIn, Columbia University, and more.
Add digital assets to folders, albums, or smart albums that automatically organize files by asset type, such as image, video, document, presentation, and other types of file formats.
Some of the top features and benefits of Canto include:
- Simple default search
- Advanced search tools
- Filters
- Facial recognition
- Custom shared libraries
- Sharing links
- Expiring share links (for time-sensitive content)
- Advanced download options
- Visual previews
- Branding tools
- User permissions
- Collaboration tools
- Security features
- Reporting
The list goes on and on. Overall, Canto has everything you could possibly need in software for digital asset management.
Canto integrates with a wide range of tools and platforms that you’re already using, like Slack LinkedIn, WordPress, Google Drive, MailChimp, and more.
This DAM software is highly secure. It runs on AWS, one of the fastest and most flexible cloud systems on the market today. You can set custom permissions and easily apply digital rights management to protect your assets.
Pricing is not available online. Request a custom quote and start your free trial.
Brandfolder — Best Easy-to-Use Digital Asset Management
Brandfolder is another top-rated DAM software. It’s used by startups, Fortune 500s, and everything in between.
For such a feature-rich software, Brandfolder stands out from the crowd due to its simplicity. You don’t need to be tech-savvy to navigate this enterprise-grade tool.
The software has a feature called Brand Intelligence, which uses AI and machine learning to identify your top-performing content, tell you who is using your assets, and how they’re being used.
With Brandfolder, you can easily distribute assets, collections of assets, and even an entire folder of assets using privacy controls, CDN embed links, and user-specific permissions.
We like Brandfolder because the software offers specific solutions for various use cases. They offer DAM software for different industries, including retail, agency, food and beverage, manufacturing, franchises, sports, and technology.
All Brandfolder packages come with the basics you need in a DAM solution.
- Centralized content repository
- Customizable branding
- Access controls and permissions
- Developer resources with open API documentation and SDKs
- Full version history for all edits and uploads
Higher-tired plans come with more advanced features like asset analytics, document intelligence, SAML and SSO, asset availability controls, and enterprise creative tooling. At the highest tier, Brandfolder comes with digital rights management to ensure you have all the appropriate legal information associated with certain assets.
You can also get a role-based version of Brandfolder, for categories like marketers, CMOs, creatives, brand managers, and creative operations.
If you’re using Brandfolder, rest assured knowing your files are safe and secure in this cloud-based central source of truth for your digital assets.
Request a custom quote and schedule a demo to get started.
Adobe Experience Manager Assets — Best For Advanced Users
Any time you’re getting software from Adobe, you know that you’re in good hands. Adobe Experience Manager Assets is no exception; the software is robust and feature-rich.
This cloud-native DAM software helps organizations manage thousands of digital assets at scale.
The asset automation here is second to none. You’ll benefit AI that automatically tags files, crops images, distributes assets, and more. Adobe’s automated tools for asset management perform tasks in minutes that would normally take hours.
Top features of Adobe Experience Manager Assets include:
- Asset check-out
- Asset collections
- Asset insights
- Brand portal tools
- Advanced file type support, including 3D, panoramic, VR, and AR
- File version history
- Multilingual asset management
It’s great that Adobe Experience Manager Assets lets you edit directly within the platform, as other solutions require editing through a third party. You can even locate similar assets automatically and let Adobe resize them for your desired format.
Adobe Experience Manager Assets is not for beginners. Some of the advanced features require some technical knowledge to use and understand. So if you’re just looking for basic file storage and sharing capabilities, you’ll probably find this software confusing.
With that said, Adobe Experience Manager Assets is a tech lover’s dream. You’ll be able to manage the complete lifecycle of your assets and benefit from advanced insights on asset performance.
Plus, this gives you the opportunity to leverage an asset management tool within a suite of other enterprise-grade cloud services from Adobe. From content management to digital enrollment, learning management, and digital guides, you deploy a custom solution that grows with your business and digital assets.
Request a quote to learn more and get started.
IntelligenceBank — Best DAM Software For Creative Collaboration
IntelligenceBank is a digital asset management solution for content marketing. The software helps businesses create, manage, share, and distribute digital assets.
In addition to providing creative professionals with a central location for digital files, you’ll also benefit from metadata tagging with AI technology from the same platform.
Log in with SSO and access the platform directly from platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Adobe Creative Cloud, and hundreds more. Leverage pre-configured workflow integrations with technology like Slack, Asana, Facebook, Dropbox, Shopify, and anything else you’re using.
With IntelligenceBank, you can upload any type of file from any source. The software makes it easy to manage the usage and talent rights of your assets. It supports bulk uploads, comments, version controls, multiple image views, previews, alerts, watermarks, and much more.
Top features of IntelligenceBank include:
- Public link tracking and analytics
- Image conversion
- Creative collaboration tools with internal and external teams
- Auto keyword tagging
- Advanced search and global filters
- Video transformation
- Custom branding
- Secure hosting and daily backups
- Custom storage configuration
It’s worth noting that all features don’t come standard out of the box. IntelligenceBank has optional services and add-ons for things like SSO, two-factor authentication, creative templates, and more.
Unlike other DAM tools on the market, IntelligenceBank has a plan that’s specifically designed for small teams. So if you fall into this category, you can check out the DAM Essentials plan—starting at $438 per month billed annually. This comes with basic asset management features and AI tagging capabilities.
The DAM Pro package from IntelligenceBank is an enterprise-grade solution and starts at $1,050 per month, billed annually. At this tier, you’re getting proofing and markup tools, approval management, and the option to add-on creative templates (for a fee).
In addition to DAM software, IntelligenceBank has plans and packages for branding and marketing operations. Request a custom quote to get started.
Cloudinary — Best Free Digital Asset Management Software
Cloudinary is trusted by 9,000+ businesses and 1.5+ million developers. Petco, Whole Foods, Peloton, Under Armor, Lyft, and Sony are just a handful of well-known brands that use this software.
While most DAM software is built for enterprises out of the box, Cloudinary has plans for individual users, developers, small businesses, and small teams.
Cloudinary comes standard with basic DAM features like file storage, image manipulation, image optimization, video APIs, collaboration tools, integrations, and more.
Here’s a quick look at the Cloudinary plans and pricing:
- Free — $0
- Plus — $89 per month
- Advanced — $224 per month
- Custom — Request a quote
The Free and Plus plans both have a three-user limit. So it’s not ideal for managing assets at scale. The Advanced plan supports up to five users. For larger teams, you’ll need a custom solution.
Cloudinary’s plans are a bit confusing. Depending on your tier, you’ll get a certain number of monthly credits, which go towards things like file transformations, storage, or net viewing bandwidth. So there will be some limitations, but the trade-off is cheap pricing.
Extensis Portfolio — Best DAM Software For Content Creators
Extensis Portfolio is a single tool for digital asset management and brand asset management. It’s a central source for your images, videos, audio files, documents, and more.
The software is perfect for managing content across multiple brands, projects, or clients, which is why it’s such a popular choice for content creators. Ultimately, Extensis Portfolio will help you save time and make your life easier in terms of organizing and sharing media assets at scale.
Some of the top features and benefits of Extensis Portfolio include:
- Automatic keyword tagging
- Fast and easy uploads
- Robust search tools
- Automated workflows
- Drag and drop files
- Share assets with web builder
- Flexible deployment
- Supports multiple files including large satellite and aerial images
Overall, Extensis has variety of solutions to fit the needs of individuals, small teams, businesses, and enterprises.
Pricing for Extensis Portfolio is only available through a custom quote. It can be deployed -on-premises or as a self-hosted version.
Alternatively, you can get a cloud-based version called Extensis Connect Assets, starting at $25 per user per month with an annual contract. Sign up for a 15-day free trial of the cloud version—no credit card required.
Widen — Best DAM Software For Midsize Organizations
Widen DAM is a cloud-based software for SMEs. The solution is ideal for managing assets at scale.
For an enterprise-grade solution, the software is actually fairly easy to use. Widen has been around for 70+ years. But you wouldn’t know it by using this solution. The interface has a clean and modern dashboard that allows you to manage the complete lifecycle for all assets.
Some of the top features and benefits of the Widen DAM include:
- Enterprise-grade security
- Asset rights management
- File conversions
- Embed codes and sharing links
- Asset analytics
- Full previews
- Automatic tagging
- Version controls
- Full previews
- Faceted search
- User roles and permissions
- Global CDN
- Custom notifications
In addition to DAM software, Widen offers solutions for brand management, market resource management, and product information management.
For larger organizations with hundreds or thousands of complex digital assets, Widen DAM will be a top choice to consider.
Request a demo to get started.
MediaValet — Best for Organizing Gigantic Asset Libraries
If your organization has been around for a while, you’ve likely built up a library of media assets. Between sales collateral, marketing material, company branding, and internal-use files, finding what you need in the moment can be a headache.
No more trudging through folder after folder of old assets—with MediaValet you get incredible capability to store, organize, search through, and distribute your documents, images, videos, and more.
The software uses a cloud-based, centralized interface. Uploading and downloading are simple, even if with terabytes worth of assets. MediaValet allows unlimited users, so no matter how large or spread out your team is, they’ll be able to add newly created assets to your library or access them for sales presentations, marketing projects, or anything else in a snap.
Plus, MediaValet helps you intelligently tag your new assets. The smart AI built into the software can auto-tag images and videos by recognizing details like color, objects shown, people (including their age, gender, and even facial expression), text, and more. Smart transcription helps with videos and can even be translated into other languages.
This bolsters the search functionality in MediaValet. Old assets without detailed tags can be meticulously filtered. You can combine filters through Boolean operators and filter by status to create complex searches.
Searches can be saved for routine needs and shared with other users.
So, with all this power, you’ll never again have to worry about spending half an hour to find one asset out of thousands.
MediaValet isn’t just for organizing your internal library, though. Easily send items of any size to clients, partners, or anyone else outside your organization. You can also create a branded portal for requesting assets. That allows visitors to choose their preferred format, size, and even color scheme. And the software will automatically add watermarks if you need it to.
That’s the tip of the iceberg. MediaValet is made for serious operations that both need to keep their assets well-sorted and to update, edit, share, publish, track, and analyze everything you’re creating and putting out into the world.
This is powerful digital asset management software that can elevate every aspect of your team’s operations. Appropriately, pricing is customized to each MediaValet client, but you can start with a free demo today.
How to Find the Best Digital Asset Management Software For You
Finding the best digital asset management software for your business can be difficult if you don’t know what to look for. Everyone has unique needs when it comes to managing digital assets.
To make things easier, we’ve identified the top factors that need to be taken into consideration while you’re shopping around. This is the methodology that we used to choose the top DAM software on the market today.
DAM Category
What exactly are you planning to do with the assets you’re looking to manage? There are different types of asset management software that accommodate varying needs and use cases. Here are some DAM categories:
- Asset management for marketing and sales material (logos, product images, etc.)
- Store and retrieve large quantities of media assets that don’t change
- Store and organize assets that are changing frequently
- Distribute digital assets to clients, third-parties, or digital retailers
Within each category, there are certain features that you’d need. For example, if you just want a place to store your files, a feature for content rights management isn’t really necessary for you. But this will be a top feature for businesses distributing digital assets to third-parties.
If you’re going to change assets and collaborate with team members, look for DAM software that allows you to edit, convert, and change what you need within the platform.
Asset Types
Not every DAM software supports every single file type.
For the most part, image files, video files, audio files, and basic documents are easy to accommodate on every platform. But some businesses have complex files, such as augmented reality files, virtual reality files, 3D files, panoramic files, and more.
Make sure the solution you choose can support the assets you currently have as well as the assets you plan to create moving forward.
User Type
Certain digital asset management software is designed for use-case specific solutions.
For example, there is DAM software for marketing teams. There are other DAM solutions for content creators and others for creative collaboration. There are solutions for individual users, developers, small business owners, and more.
It’s always in your best interest to find digital asset management software that appeals to the ultimate end-user. While many solutions on our list can be customized to fit your needs, it should be fairly obvious who the target market for each platform is. If you’re unsure, just refer to the reviews in this guide.
Team Size
A small team of content creators or a solo developer won’t have the same needs as a mid-sized enterprise.
Most DAM software is considered to be enterprise-grade. However, there are many solutions for smaller teams, and you can even find free DAM software for single users.
Smaller teams will usually benefit more from cloud-based versions of DAM software. But larger organizations may rely on an on-premises version or self-hosted DAM solution. The latter typically requires in-house IT resources.
So in addition to the size of your team, you should also consider the team skills required to power and use your DAM software.
Best Digital Asset Management Software: Your Top Questions Answered
The Top Digital Asset Management Software in Summary
DAM software streamlines access to your digital assets, keeps them secure, and allows you to manage the complete lifecycle of your digital assets—from creation to archiving.
Without digital asset management software, organizations must use multiple platforms to manage their digital assets. This approach might be fine for a few dozen assets. But when your digital asset collection reaches the hundreds and thousands, this way of managing them quickly becomes inefficient.