Bynder is a digital asset management (DAM) vendor that helps enterprise and mid-market companies manage and organize their digital content and assets. Bynder offers a number of features, which help companies manage their brand files, including:
- Digital asset management
- Digital brand guidelines
- Content and creative workflows
- Pre-built templates for digital and print assets
- Analytics around asset usage and guideline access
Companies look to Bynder when they need a way to better organize their digital assets — such as when their team grows rapidly or they need to manage media files for multiple sub-brands. When it becomes too difficult to manage their assets in Google Drive or OneDrive, they realize they need a centralized content repository with more sophisticated organization, access, and security functionality.
But Bynder isn’t the only — or best — digital asset management system for brands. Let’s take a closer look at Bynder’s offering, and some of the top-rated alternative DAM providers you should consider.
Where Bynder falls short as a digital asset management solution
Basic guidelines functionality
While Bynder excels at DAM, its guideline capabilities lack the depth needed for true brand governance. This makes it difficult for companies focused on maintaining consistent brand standards across global teams.
Complex user experience
The interface creates a significant barrier to company-wide usage. As one customer noted, teams often become "split between those who use it and those who don't," limiting ROI and effectiveness. High adoption is the number one success metric companies care about, yet Bynder's layout can actively work against this goal.
Resource-heavy setup
Customers frequently report that Bynder requires significant time and resources to implement properly. The platform's complexity demands extensive configuration and often reliance on support or developers for customization.
Librarian-focused instead of user-focused
Bynder was built for DAM specialists rather than the everyday content creators and consumers who make up the majority of users. While it offers powerful functionality for dedicated DAM administrators, this specialist focus makes it inaccessible to designers, marketers, and general employees who need quick, intuitive access to brand assets.
Best Bynder alternatives for digital asset management
If you’re not satisfied with Bynder as your choice of DAM, or you’re looking at digital asset management software for the first time, here are six alternative providers to consider.
1. Frontify
Frontify is a brand-building platform that combines a user-friendly DAM with customizable brand portals. Frontify provides enterprise and mid-market companies with a holistic brand-building environment built on a foundation of robust asset management. It’s used by thousands of big-name brands worldwide, such as Uber, Kia, and Telefónica.
Top features
Frontify offers a wealth of features to help companies manage and organize their brand assets, including:
- Centralized digital asset management
- Digital brand guidelines
- Digital and print templates
- Advanced search functionality, tags, and filtering
- Support for multiple brands
- Enterprise-grade security
- Native integrations with dozens of other brand-building tools
- Analytics around asset and guideline usage
Pros and cons
Like Bynder, Frontify has a large number of favorable reviews on G2. There are several common features that reviewers love:
- Ease of use and intuitive user interface
- Quality of customer service
- Time-saving management of brands and assets
- Centralized storage for brand materials
“I’ve used many asset management systems over the years, and Frontify’s platform is far and away the best tool I’ve worked with to date.” — Creative Director, Caribou Coffee
However, there are also a few drawbacks mentioned by users in their reviews:
- Some users don’t need everything the software offers and would prefer a lighter-weight plan.
Benefits for enterprise and global brands
Frontify helps businesses create, maintain, and scale a consistent brand identity across all digital and physical touchpoints. It combines digital asset organization, design collaboration, and brand management in one central, online platform, making it easier for teams to align on brand matters.
The main benefits for enterprise businesses include:
- Compliance & governance: Frontify helps global enterprise brands manage complex compliance and governance needs all in one platform
- Centralized brand management: Frontify provides a central source of truth for all brand elements, ensuring brand consistency across logos, colors, typography, tone of voice, and messaging
- Robust and granular access controls: Frontify streamlines the process of granting, updating, and revoking access to your DAM system so you can easily share files internally and externally
- Interactive & dynamic brand guidelines: Unlike static PDFs, Frontify offers interactive, real-time brand guidelines that are easy for enterprise companies to update, share, and enforce across teams
- Seamless asset management: Companies can organize and manage large volumes of assets like logos, images, videos, and documents in a structured, searchable cloud-based library.
- AI-powered auto-tagging and metadata creation: Innovative AI and machine learning technology makes uploading assets quick and easy, helping enterprise teams work more efficiently.
2. Brandfolder
Brandfolder is a DAM solution that helps marketers and creatives manage and distribute their creative assets. In 2020, Brandfolder was acquired by Smartsheet, an enterprise work management platform, and since the acquisition has expanded its collaboration and DAM functionality. It's used by companies of all sizes, from startups to global enterprises.
Top features
Brandfolder offers a number of features and integrations that help companies manage and organize their creative files:
- Digital asset management
- Digital brand guidelines
- Creative templates for digital and print assets
- Native integrations with Smartsheet and other tools
- Analytics data around asset usage
Pros and cons
Brandfolder has a lot of positive reviews on G2, and there are several common themes that reviewers love about the platform:
- Its ease of use
- How easy it is to share brand assets with colleagues
- The ability to customize the way assets are organized
However, there are also several areas that users mention as the negative aspects of the tool:
- Some users feel the platform has a steep learning curve
- Some users feel they are missing features or functionality they’d expect from a DAM platform
- Some users find the integrations aren’t as robust as other providers, or that Brandfolder doesn’t integrate with key parts of their tech stack
Benefits for enterprise and global brands
Brandfolder is a popular DAM used by SMBs and enterprises alike. For enterprise and global-scale businesses specifically, it offers several core benefits:
- Cloud-based security: Brand assets are securely stored in the DAM so that files are only accessible to the relevant people
- Expert support and guidance: Brandfolder’s award-winning customer support team provides dedicated support throughout the onboarding and setup process
- Content production at scale: Brandfolder automates some repetitive content production tasks, so teams can focus on getting content to market.
3. Acquia DAM (Widen)
Acquia DAM is an enterprise DAM solution that helps companies manage and distribute digital assets across teams, tools, and channels. Previously known as Widen, Acquia acquired Widen in 2021 and rebranded as Acquia DAM. Acquia DAM is available standalone or as part of the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP).
Top Features
Acquia DAM provides many features to help companies with their digital asset management, including:
- Digital asset management
- Search and tagging functionality
- Integrations with creative, communication, and project management tools
- Asset sharing functionality
- Enterprise-level security
Pros & Cons
Acquia DAM has lots of positive reviews on G2. There are several common features that reviews love about the platform:
- Ability to organize brand assets
- Easy to set up and manage different user groups and permissions
- Ability to share files and assets internally and externally
However, there are also some common features that customers feel are weaknesses in the platform:
- Some users feel the interface looks dated compared to other tools
- Some users feel the platform lacks core features and integrations they’d get from other tools
- Some customers feel the quality of the product and service has declined over time
Benefits for enterprise and global brands
Acquia DAM is a popular choice for enterprise businesses that use other tools in the Acquia ecosystem. Some of the main benefits it offers enterprise and global brands include:
- Connectivity: Works alongside other products in the Acquia DXP, such as the Drupal content management system
- Security: Enterprise-level security built on SOC 2-compliant Amazon infrastructure
- Artificial Intelligence: Acquia’s AI capabilities help automate some of the repetitive tasks associated with uploading new assets to your DAM, helping marketing teams work more efficiently.
4. Canto
Canto is a dedicated DAM platform that was started more than 30 years ago. It’s an established vendor in the DAM space and provides a central platform for organizing, storing, and distributing digital assets. It’s used by thousands of companies worldwide, from small teams to enterprise-level solutions.
Top Features
Canto offers many features to help companies manage their brand assets, including:
- Digital asset management
- Search functionality and filtering
- Integrations with creative and collaborative tools
- Enterprise-level security
- Analytics to track and measure asset usage
Pros & Cons
As an established vendor, Canto has a large number of reviews on G2. There are several common areas that customers love about using the tool for digital asset management:
- Its ease of use
- Search capabilities make it easy to find brand materials
- Ability to organize large volumes of images and other assets
But there are also several drawbacks that are frequently mentioned by reviewers:
- Some customers find user permissions limiting
- Some users find the UI feels dated compared to other tools
- Some users feel the search and tagging functionality doesn’t work as well as expected
Benefits for enterprise and global brands
Canto is a popular choice for DAM for businesses of all sizes. For enterprise and global brands specifically, it offers several key benefits:
- Established, trusted vendor: With more than 30 years’ experience, Canto is a traditional, established player in the DAM space
- Security & compliance: Canto offers compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2 and other essential security standards
- Connected integrations: Canto integrates with many other tools in your company’s tech stack, helping you build a connected content toolkit.
5. MediaValet
MediaValet is an enterprise DAM that makes it easy for companies to store and organize their digital assets. It’s built on Microsoft Azure and has a strong global customer base.
Top Features
MediaValet has a number of features that help companies manage their brand assets and files:
- Digital asset management
- Search functionality and filtering
- Approvals process within the DAM
- Enterprise-level security
- Analytics features to help you track asset usage
Pros & Cons
MediaValet has a lot of positive reviews on G2. There are several things customers love about using MediaValet as their DAM:
- Its ease of use, particularly when searching for assets
- The user-friendly interface
- The high quality of customer service provided by the MediaValet team.
However, there are also a few things reviewers are less positive about:
- Some users experience bugs and other issues when uploading new assets
- Some users feel the user interface is a bit dated
- Some users feel there is a steep learning curve which makes it hard to start using the tool.
Benefits for enterprise and global brands
MediaValet is a popular DAM solution for enterprise and global organizations. It provides several benefits for enterprise-level businesses:
- Scalability: MediaValet provides unlimited users, categories and tags, so companies can manage large volumes of assets and have lots of team members using the platform
- Security & compliance: MediaValet is built exclusively on Microsoft Azure and built on the Well-Architected Framework
- Unlimited support and training: Customers have 24/7 access to the MediaValet support team, who offer unlimited training, onboarding and enterprise deployment programs.
Level up your DAM with Frontify
Bynder is a popular digital asset management platform, but it may not be the best option for your organization. The Frontify DAM connects directly with the rest of our brand-building platform, and your other creative and collaborative tools, helping you build a strong, connected digital ecosystem.