Digital Asset Management pricing and free demos

The Digital Asset Management industry is notoriously secretive, with the vast majority of products not having a “try it yourself” option, and pricing pages that can best be summed up as “set a meeting with our salespeople”. 

If you’re doing market research and preparing a shortlist of products, we’re here to help - here’s everything we know about the leading Digital Asset Management platforms such as Bynder, Brandfolder and Canto, including pricing and demo environments we found on the web (at least until they close them too…).

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Why transparency matters

The lack of pricing transparency, together with the high costs, makes Digital Asset Management out of reach for most organizations.

For other organizations, it makes implementing a DAM a long and pricy process, requiring an investment of at least  $50k, plus the 6 months it takes to implement, locking you into the solution whether it’s working for you or not.

The lack of transparency is enhanced by the lack of an option to try before you buy - so that you’re not really able to appreciate what you’re purchasing until it’s too late. Is the platform slow and clunky? You’ll only know after it’s fully implemented. Does the AI actually work with your assets, or only with those the salesperson used in their demo? 

We believe Digital Asset Management should be as accessible as Google Drive is for folder-based file storage. See our simple, transparent pricing here (including a free version), and take it for a spin to see how it works with your own assets.

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How we compared pricing

Since prices are calculated differently between vendors, we’ve tried to unify the numbers by offering an estimation for an organization with 20 editors, 2TB of storage, and common feature requirements.

Costs are estimated and are based on conversation with past and current customers, as well as reviews and posts on social media, and as such might not be exact figures.

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Anyway, enough chit-chat - let’s get to it:

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Canto

Est. package price: $20k-$30k per year.

Pricing factors:

Bynder takes into account the amount of required storage, and number of editing users. Unlike most DAMs, Canto also charges for guest viewers, meaning that if you need to share your work externally, either as an open resource or by working with external partners, prices can increase substantially.

Self-service trial: No

Links: Demo links to Canto.

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Bynder

Est. package price: $15k-$20k per year.

Pricing factors:

Bynder takes into account storage (est. $2k / TB /year), and number of users (est. $500 / user / year).

Self-service trial: No

Links: Demo links to Bynder.

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Brandfolder

Est. package price: $15k-$20k per year.

Pricing factors:

While Brandfolder’s pricing also takes into account storage, and number of users, they specialize in charge-by-feature - meaning their basic plan will be exactly that - basic, and you’ll need to pay thousands of dollars extra for each additional feature (improved permissions, auto-tagging, sharing options etc.).

Self-service trial: No

Links: Demo link to Brandfolder.

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Tagbox

Est. package price: $2k-$3k per year.

Pricing factors:

Unlike others on the list, Tagbox’s pricing is transparent on its homepage. Pricing is straight-forward, with basic storage at 2TB (as opposed to 0.5TB for most other platforms), and no limitations on users - admins or guests.

Self-service trial: Yes

Links: Demo link to Tagbox.

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Things to note on DAM Pricing

While pricing for some platforms officially starts at around $500 month, here are some things you should pay special attention to:

• Additional storage: While some platforms (Tagbox.io included) charge $30-$50 per TB a month, it’s not uncommon for other platforms to charge hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month for the same amount. This means you might start off paying $1,000 / month, and find yourself paying north of $5,000 within a couple of years.
• Pay-by-feature:  this is especially common for the larger, more established vendors. What starts at $500 quickly grows throughout the sales process. Require auto-tagging? That’s extra. Need version history? Pay an additional fee. Just like some airlines charge a fee for choosing your seat - some DAMs will charge separately for basic functionality.
• Onboarding and setup costs: paying $1,000s a month, It’s easy to forget about setup costs, but since many of the DAM platforms are annoyingly complex, it can cost an additional $30k-$50k to set the system up - either as a service by the vendor, through external consultants, or paid to an employee who might take 4-6 months to transfer and organize all of the organization’s assets. These costs can be saved by choosing a vendor that takes care of setup and data migration for you.

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We hope this list helps increase transparency in the DAM industry. We welcome you to try each product yourself, and make an informed decision driven by experience, not sales pitches. And of course - make sure you try Tagbox.io - the only DAM with transparent pricing, a self-serve option, and really, really cool AI assistance. 

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