The 12 Best Canto Alternatives in 2024

In the digital age, content is the lifeblood of business, driving billions in value and transforming customer experiences. But with the sheer volume of media—now measured in zettabytes—managing these assets can be a daunting task. Inefficient storage and organization of content can cost businesses up to 33.4% of potential profits, leaving employees frustrated as they waste weeks each year searching for files.

This is where Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems come to the rescue, turning chaos into order by organizing, securing, and streamlining content workflows. With so many DAM platforms available, choosing the right one is crucial. If you're considering alternatives to the Canto DAM solution, you're in the right place. In this article, we'll explore the 12 best Canto alternatives in 2024, helping you find the perfect fit for your needs.

A Brief Look at Canto's Evolution

Canto is one of the leading digital asset management (DAM) platforms globally, second only to Adobe's solutions in terms of user base and data handled. Founded in 1990, Canto quickly made a name for itself with its first DAM product for Macintosh, earning Apple’s “Innovative Application of the Year” award in 1992. Over the years, Canto has continued to innovate, adding features like multi-language support, cloud storage, video tools, and seamless integration with other software.

Today, Canto’s online platform boasts over 800,000 accounts, including more than 2,500 major corporations like Gymshark, Columbia University, and Sony. But with all its strengths, some users still seek alternatives. Let’s explore why that might be by diving into Canto’s key features and offerings.

Canto's Key Features

• Smart organization: Canto goes beyond manual sorting, using Smart Albums and Smart Tags to automatically organize files by type, size, date, and popularity, making everything easier to find.
• Advanced search: Whether you’re looking for specific keywords or content within files, Canto’s search function helps you pinpoint exactly what you need, even allowing refined searches within filtered catalogs.
• Seamless distribution: Share files and collections effortlessly within the platform or through custom web portals, enabling external access without account creation.
• Visual previews: Save time by previewing a wide range of file types directly in the platform, from images to 3D models, without needing to open them in separate applications.
• Brand consistency: With a virtual brand book, Canto ensures your logos, color schemes, and marketing materials are consistent across all digital assets, maintaining your brand integrity.
• User management: Define specific user roles and permissions, control access to files, and collaborate securely with both internal teams and external partners.
• Security: Canto is GDPR-certified and supports single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Admins can monitor user activity and get alerts on potential security threats.
• Collaboration tools: Work on files simultaneously with team members, track version history, and set up private workspaces for focused collaboration.
• Insightful reports: Canto provides detailed reports on asset usage, helping you understand what’s working and offering tips to improve your digital asset management.

Beyond the Basics: Canto’s Additional Modules

The developer also offers additional products that extend the features of the digital asset management platform. Among them are:

• Canto Media Delivery Cloud: A content delivery network (CDN) that embeds cloud-hosted files into external platforms, speeding up load times and ensuring stable multimedia delivery.
• Canto Video Enhancements: A platform for creating and managing videos with AI-powered tools for tagging, editing, and automated updates across your digital channels.
• Canto AI Visual Search: AI that can describe visual content in simple terms, making it easy to find specific images or clips based on detailed queries.
• Integrations: Canto connects seamlessly with cloud storage, graphic editors, CMS platforms, and more, with API support for custom workflow automation.

Canto Pros and Cons

Canto Pricing Policy

Like many platforms designed for medium and large businesses, Canto doesn’t openly advertise its subscription prices. Instead, they customize the pricing based on your specific needs, which they discuss during an online demo and consultation.

However, a bit of digging on specialized sites shows that Canto’s subscriptions start at around $1,000 per month. They rarely budge on this price, except in special cases like non-profits, educational institutions, and charities. Because of this, many businesses start exploring alternatives to the Canto DAM solution.

You’ll also find that user account costs typically range from $30 to $80, depending on factors like company size, the number of modules you need, and any specific integrations.

Top 12 Canto Alternatives

Canto has earned its reputation as a top player in the DAM market for good reason. It’s a reliable and secure digital asset management platform with plenty of features. However, it does have some drawbacks, like inflexible pricing and a somewhat old-school development approach. That’s why it’s worth taking a look at the best Canto alternatives before you commit.

Pics.io

Pics.io is a versatile digital asset management (DAM) system that supports a wide range of file types, including images, 3D models, videos, text documents, and spreadsheets. It provides thumbnail previews for most file types, making it easy to visually browse and select materials.

One of the advanced Pics.io's characteristics is its AI features. The platform uses artificial intelligence to generate tags in custom metadata fields, identify faces in photos, create brief descriptions and comments, and recognize and transcribe voice messages and videos.

Pics.io also offers robust metadata management tools. You can easily add new fields, clean up metadata before publishing with just a few clicks, and create controlled vocabularies based on popular keywords. Its advanced search function allows you to use operators like AND, OR, and NOT for precise asset selection. You can also filter by specific metadata fields or attributes, such as finding images with a width greater than 1200 pixels that have custom metadata fields and were created by authors from Japan.

Collaboration is another strong point of Pics.io. The platform supports real-time file access and editing, with features for leaving feedback, sharing comments, and approving changes. Its version control module lets you revert to previous versions of digital assets, compare them with newer ones, and choose the best option. The admin panel provides detailed control over user access rights and roles.

For involving external participants in workflows, Pics.io offers custom-designed inboxes and websites for secure file uploads and downloads, without needing to create guest accounts. This helps manage subscription limits and control costs. You can protect digital assets with passwords and set time limits for access, ensuring secure information exchange.

Pics.io is among Canto alternatives because of the possibility of extending the DAM to other cloud storage. This allows you to use extended Amazon S3 or Google Drive digital asset management. However, Pics.io also offers its own cloud storage, tailored to the user's needs, with migration and onboarding services available for a smooth transition.

Pricing starts at $50 per month for a single user, or $150 per month for a team of 10. Plus, you can take advantage of a 7-day free trial—no billing info required.

Brandfolder

Brandfolder is a digital asset management system designed for marketers and anyone involved in business promotion. At its core is a brand book, which serves as a central hub for all materials that define the company's corporate identity. Another key feature is the ability to distribute files through custom portals, where you can personalize everything—from the structure and color scheme to the logo and even the URL.

The system also supports advanced search and metadata management, making it easy to organize and find your assets. It offers flexible access settings for individual files, folders, and collections. The developers frequently update the list of integrations, and one notable feature is the quick connection to Adobe Creative Cloud apps, which is available even in the basic subscription plans.

Brandfolder doesn’t officially list its pricing, but according to reviews, it starts around $1,600 per month for 20 users. Some features and specific integrations might come with additional costs.

Acquia DAM

The developer makes it clear that this digital asset management system is built for large businesses, offering a wide range of integrations and built-in workflow automation tools. For instance, you can automatically add files with specific tags to collections or upload new images to Adobe Illustrator with a "For vector edit" note.

Large organizations also get access to a separate intelligence module, which tracks which employees are generating and using the most digital assets, which files are most downloaded by customers, and how much time is spent on various tasks. This data can help optimize areas like HR, product development, communications, and marketing.

As for pricing, it’s not openly disclosed, but reviews suggest that the starting plan for 50 users costs around $2,000 per month. The more users you add, the lower the cost per account.

Mediavalet

Don’t let the name fool you—while this digital asset management system is great for multimedia files like images and videos, it’s also capable of handling text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and even 3D models. It even includes a content delivery network for embedding these assets into websites, services, and apps.

One of Mediavalet’s strengths is its user-friendly, minimalist interface, which makes migration and onboarding a breeze. They can even assign you a personal manager to help you through the adaptation phase. For large businesses, they offer custom employee training programs to ensure everyone is on the same page with digital asset management policies.

As for pricing, it’s discussed during the demo, with plans starting at $500 per month for 10 users. The good news? If you’re still unsure after the demo, they offer a trial period of up to 30 days.

Adobe Experience Manager

This digital asset management system feels like a throwback to the early 1990s, offering the straightforward functionality developers envisioned back then. It’s one of the simpler Canto DAM solution alternatives, with easy sorting features and none of the bulky add-ons. But if you need more features, you can extend the platform's capabilities with separately sold modules or by creating your own using the open API.

If you’re already familiar with Adobe products, you’ll be glad to know that Experience Manager integrates seamlessly with Creative Cloud apps. You can easily automate file uploads to Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more, which is especially handy for companies that handle a lot of multimedia content in-house.

Adobe's pricing isn't publicly listed. If you request a consultation, you can expect to be quoted anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 per year, and that’s without any additional modules.

Bynder

It is another specialized digital asset management system for large businesses. In terms of scale and number of features, it is one of the best Canto alternatives, though it comes with benefits and drawbacks.

In addition to standard DAM features, Bynder's basic configuration includes several other modules. These include real-time management of creative projects, creation of a virtual brand book, video editing, development of template marketing materials, and intelligent analytics.

Pricing is customized for each client, with plans starting at $450 per month for 5 users. The cost per user drops significantly once you reach $2,500 and $10,000 per month thresholds.

Cloudinary

This multimedia asset management platform supports various file formats and is designed with creative work in mind. You can edit photos and videos directly in the platform, visualize the lifecycle of media assets, and display multiple file versions side by side.

A standout feature is its support for user-generated content (UGC). You can create short instructions and video guides to help third-party users quickly upload and process their content. Plus, with an open API, you can develop custom modules to suit your needs.

Subscription pricing starts at $89 per month, and there’s a free trial version with basic features and minimal usage limits.

DemoUp Cliplister

This digital asset management system is designed for e-commerce, catering to both individual online stores and the marketing agencies that serve them. It handles various file types, including 3D models for virtual and augmented reality, specification sheets, and PDF certificates.

DemoUp Cliplister includes a content delivery network (CDN) that speeds up the loading of large multimedia files by up to three times compared to standard hosting services. The platform also offers robust metadata management tools, allowing you to quickly add template fields based on product type.

The company doesn’t publicly disclose its pricing, and even reviews provide little specific information. However, one figure suggests that pricing starts at $25 per user per month. A trial period is available, with details provided during the consultation.

Aprimo

This platform is more of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with digital asset management capabilities rather than a traditional DAM. It includes tools for financial planning and productivity, allowing you to optimize workflows and even create long-term development budgets.

One of the key benefits of this Canto alternative is the ability to quickly build automation scripts. Simply activate the function and perform the desired action—the system records the steps and will automatically replicate the process in the future, saving you time and resources.

Pricing is based on the specific needs and scale of your business. Each of the three main modules starts at $10,000 per year. While there’s a free demo available, there isn’t a trial version.

Scaleflex

This software’s main function is to manage multimedia assets in various formats. The cloud-based system can sort and optimize these assets by automatically converting them, adjusting resolution, reducing file size without losing quality, and aligning them with corporate standards.

Scaleflex’s visual AI can generate detailed descriptions for images and videos, as well as fill in metadata with short tags. It can also automatically set the required authorization levels for accessing digital assets and apply NSFW labels where needed.

As with many tools in this category, pricing is tailored to each customer. However, reviews suggest that the cost per user account ranges from $32 to $279 per month, depending on the features and storage capacity you need.

Celum

For professionals with varying levels of technical expertise, this DAM is a breath of fresh air. It’s designed so that managers, marketers, designers, and other professionals can use it with minimal training. The platform offers a smooth onboarding experience with accessible training and 24/7 support.

While Celum is officially a multipurpose digital asset management system, it shines in handling photos and videos. You can easily organize them into albums and playlists, customizing the content and playback order.

Pricing is available upon request, with costs per user ranging from $27 to $55 per month, depending on the features, scope of activities, and cloud storage capacity.

Dash

This digital asset management system is a popular alternative to Bynder or Canto. The developers have taken a different approach by focusing on core features like metadata management, fast distribution, and version control, while simplifying the interface and making deployment easier.

While it may offer fewer features compared to competitors, it makes up for this with transparent, affordable pricing and no separate paid modules. You only pay for user accounts and additional cloud storage.

The cost per user account ranges from $5 to $25 per month, depending on the subscription plan. Additional storage is priced between $0.10 and $2.50 per gigabyte, depending on the total storage capacity. There’s also a 14-day trial period available without needing to link a bank card.

How to Choose the Best Cloud DAM Software?

Digital asset management systems have been around since the late 1980s and early 1990s. With dozens of platforms available today, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. Here’s what to consider when selecting the best DAM software for your needs:

• Key features: Ensure the platform includes essential tools like metadata management, sharing, distribution, version control, and basic editing. Custom portals and collection creation are also valuable features.
• Search tools: Look for systems that support searches by metadata and other attributes like file size and type. Intelligent search functions that understand natural language queries can be a big plus.
• File format support: Choose a DAM that supports the specific file types you need, whether it’s images, videos, 3D models, or legal documents.
• Depth of functionality: Beyond basic support, check if the platform offers advanced features like editing, watermarking, and embedding files into external sites.
• Integrations: A DAM becomes even more powerful when it can integrate with other services and applications, automating tasks like adding photos to a retoucher’s list or loading files into Photoshop.
• Scalability: Make sure the DAM can grow with your business or scale down during slower periods.
• Subscription cost: Align the software’s features with your budget. Consider future needs when evaluating pricing plans.
• Security: The DAM should protect your company’s trade secrets by clearly defining access levels, restricting sensitive information, and allowing secure file sharing without creating new accounts.
• AI support: Beyond advanced search, AI can help with tagging, organizing files, transcribing videos, and more.
• Ease of use: A DAM’s features are only effective if they’re easy to access. Evaluate the platform’s user interface.
• Customer support: Reliable support is crucial, especially during integration. Look for quick, helpful responses even before subscribing.

Conclusion

Canto is a robust DAM with a user-friendly interface, ideal for large businesses, but it can be expensive and less flexible for smaller companies. That’s why exploring Canto DAM solution alternatives is important before committing.

Pics.io is versatile and suits everyone from freelancers to large corporations. It supports a wide range of files, offers media editing, and provides features like version control, custom portals, and document collaboration. Pics.io also includes AI capabilities for analyzing images, tagging, facial recognition, and speech transcription. You can try Pics.io now with a free trial—no contracts or credit card required.

Did you enjoy this article? Give Pics.io a try — or book a demo with us, and we'll be happy to answer any of your questions.