The best Frontify alternatives for your growing business

Frontify describes itself as a “collaborative single source of brand truth.” 

It’s a tool for brand managers to organise brand assets, create templates and build brand guidelines. It can be a worthwhile investment if you’re looking for a better way to manage your brand (although, how much that investment would be is a mystery 🤔). 

But if you work in a marketing team, you’ll need a place to store and manage other types of content too. Think product images, videos, audio files—you name it. In this case, you need a digital asset management (DAM) like Dash. 

We'll delve into why you might want a tool like Frontify and how much it's likely to cost. We'll also cover alternative DAM tools (like Dash) that you should consider before making the final call.

Frontify’s pros and cons 

First, let's see what people love (and don't love) about Frontify.

Frontify pros

Here’s why Frontify stands out for some users. 

• Editable brand guidelines: Frontify lets you manage your brand from one central place. It offers lots of brand asset management features, including brand guidelines that are easily editable and accessible by your team.  
  
  Dash (that’s our DAM tool) measures up to Frontify nicely in this aspect. Our customers can create online brand guidelines using our Corebook° integration. Drop brand graphics and fonts from Dash into Corebook, then share with your team members. You can edit it anytime and it looks beautiful too. 
  
  Check out how Kinetics uses Dash and Corebook to maintain its visual identity across resellers, team members, and external collaborators. 

• Brand templates: You can create digital, print, and video templates. These help team members create and use on-brand assets. For example, you can set up templates for social media posts. Your team members will have strict guidelines to make sure finished content aligns with your brand. 

• Integrations: Frontify has an extensive integration library that lets you connect third-party apps to the platform for additional features and capabilities. 
  
  For example, you can link Frontify to Segment to get real-time data about your brand platform. You can also sync with Salesforce to share assets with your marketing and sales teams. 

Frontify cons 

Here’s what users dislike about Frontify. 

• Too much focus on brand management: Frontify is intended to be an all-in-one brand solution, perfect for brand managers who want more control over their assets. But if you just want their DAM function, you'll have to pay for extra brand management features you don't need — as this customer discovered. 
  
  ‍“The brand management features are over-built for our needs; we pay for those features but don't use them at all. We would love to pay only for what we need/use.”

• ‍Limited DAM features: Frontify’s digital asset management features feel like an “add-on” and not the core of the platform. For example, it doesn't let you create shareable links for assets and you need to enable specific permissions to create folders. 
  
  On top of that, its search filters don't always work and the tagging feature is very basic. All of this makes it difficult to organise and find digital marketing assets on the platform, which is why you need a DAM tool in the first place.
  
  Dash, on the other hand, makes it really easy to organise and search for your images and videos. When you add an asset to Dash, it automatically scans the objects that appear in the image and adds a relevant tag. This lets you search for the actual content of your image.

The best Frontify alternatives 

If you're looking for a digital asset management tool for your brand, here are a few options worth checking out. 

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1. Dash: For small and growing ecommerce brands 

Let's start with Dash (that's us 👋). It's a super affordable digital asset management system that costs only £79/$109 per month. 

For this price, you get access to all of Dash’s cool features for unlimited users, including custom tags, Portals for sharing assets with external collaborators, an extensive integration library, and so much more! 

But it's not just about organising images and videos; Dash lets you deploy these assets easily too. You can drop images directly from Dash to Shopify for use in your product pages and blog posts. You can also share digital assets to your social media accounts using our Hootsuite integration. 

Learn more about the features of ecommerce digital asset management to see how Dash can help your brand grow. 

2. Canto: For mid-sized businesses

If you're a mid-market business looking for an easy way to manage digital assets, Canto might be worth exploring. 

It has lots of great features like media cloud delivery and AI visual search. One downside, however, is its clunky interface, which makes the platform difficult to use. It costs about $600 per month, making it pricey for smaller businesses with limited budgets. 

Read about Canto alternatives to see how this DAM compares to Dash. 

3. Air: For content operations

Think of Air as a project management tool for creatives. Air makes it easy for your team to collaborate as they work on creative assets. You get Kanban workflows, boards instead of folders, and a pretty user interface that makes your content shine. 

However, Air drops the ball when it comes to deploying content. It has limited integrations, and you'll likely have to download and re-upload assets to move them from Air to another platform. Also, many of its features, like the Zapier integration, are price-locked, so you'll need to pay more to access them — unlike what you get with Dash. 

Check out how Air digital asset management compares with Dash. 

4. Bynder: For large businesses 

Bynder is a digital asset management system that caters to enterprise-level businesses. It offers a wide range of features, including creative workflow management, brand templates, and analytics. 

Bynder's interface is easy to use and provides a central hub for managing all of your digital assets. However, it's pretty expensive, with pricing starting at $450 per month, making it unaffordable for small businesses. 

If you want to learn more about Bynder, look at some Bynder alternatives to see how it stacks up against other DAM tools.

5. Brandfolder: Also for enterprise businesses 

Like Bynder, Brandfolder helps enterprise businesses maintain consistent visuals across all channels so that everyone has access to the latest versions of their brand assets.

Brandfolder isn't transparent with its pricing. But a little birdie says it costs as much as $1,600 per feature. That might not be a substantial investment for a large business, but it's definitely heavy on the budget for smaller ecommerce brands. 

Find Brandfolder alternatives to see how its features stack up against other DAMs.  

6. Image Relay: Alternative to Canto for mid-sized businesses 

Image Relay combines product information management with core digital asset management features like a searchable library, custom branding, metadata editing, automatic file conversion, and version control. It also offers integrations with popular tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Dropbox, and Slack. 

However, Image Relay's pricing can be quite high, with plans starting at $300 per month for basic features. To access more advanced features, you'll need to pay more and even book a demo with the team for its Market Delivery Platform. 

That said, it may be worth exploring if you have a large ecommerce marketplace with thousands of products. 

Discover Image Relay alternatives for more information about how this platform works. 

Dash vs Frontify: Features

Here are some more ways Dash and Frontify features compare to each other. 

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A digital asset management tool should give you all you need to organise, search and share your brand’s digital assets and marketing materials. As you can see from the table above, Frontify lacks many of these core features. Let’s take a look in more detail. 

‍Cropping and resizing images

A DAM should let you crop and resize images for your marketing channels. This can be tricky to do in Frontify. You only get the option to crop the image at a certain size, which isn’t always what you need. As this customer explains: 

“It is not possible to crop an image at a specific size (i.e., web banner) and choose the exact crop area. This means that images are output from Frontify with crops that may miss parts of the image we wanted. To remedy that, we have had to direct users to a third-party website to resize their assets for the crops they need, which is not really ideal.”

Dash, on the other hand, lets you create custom sizes for image and video assets. You can adjust the crop really easily so your images never get cut off.

You can create custom sizes and your own preset crops —ideal for using on your website. And your team members can then use these crops next time they download an image. The quicker you can crop assets and get them ready for your channels - the quicker you can launch your marketing campaigns. 

‍Sharing content with your resellers 

Frontify also drops the ball when you’re trying to easily share visual content with external partners. Say you’re an ecommerce brand working with lots of retailers and resellers. These partners might need access to things like product images, social media assets and brand guidelines. 

In Frontify, you can share content with external partners by creating invite links to specific folders, projects or libraries. You can choose to share these publicly or only share to specific people. This is a good way to share with partners, but it can get tricky to manage if you’ve got loads of retailers that need access. 

Instead, use Dash portals. ✨ You can set up multiple portals for each of your retailers and give them access to the folders you want them to see. Each portal will automatically update when you add new images or videos into the folder. And you can personalise each portal with a personal message to make your resellers feel like true VIPs. 

🥰 Read how ecommerce brands, Haws, use portals to help 100+ retailers sell their products. 

‍Interactive brand guidelines 

As we’ve mentioned, brand asset management is Frontify’s bread and butter. Not only can you create interactive brand guidelines, you can create templates for team members to drag and drop content into. It’s ideal for brand managers who want to invest in a more complex brand asset management system. 

Whilst you can’t create slide decks or documents within Dash, you can instead connect with Corebook°. This tool lets you build a beautiful, interactive brand book that seamlessly integrates with Dash. This way you get a brand book to share with your team and external agencies (as well as all the core digital asset management features you need) .

You can read how beauty brand Kinetics uses Dash and Corebook° to build a brand hub.

Dash vs Frontify: Pricing

Cost is one of the most important considerations for choosing a DAM, especially when you're a growing brand with a limited budget. 

How much does Frontify cost? 

Frontify isn't transparent about its pricing, which is a pretty common issue in the DAM space (unless you’re talking to us, of course 😇). You'll need to contact the sales team for a quote to know how much you'll be paying. 

However, you can try the platform for free for 30 days to see if it works for you before making any financial commitment. While this is supposed to help you make a decision quickly, it can be counterproductive. Imagine spending so much time setting up and loving Frontify only to discover you can't afford it at the end of the day — that's a lot of time wasted! 

Also, G2 reviews suggest that the platform is expensive. They say the price is based on the number of monthly active users, which can be complex. 

‍“The complexity of the product makes it hard to get an overview of the price model. And it is hard to divide it by the size of the company since other aspects will come into consideration as well.” 

How much does Dash cost?

We know how important cost is for small and growing businesses, so we’re very upfront about Dash’s pricing. We want you to know how much you’ll be spending with Dash so you can make an informed decision for your business. 

Dash offers four pricing plans starting at £79/$109 per month. Each plan gives you access to all of Dash's features for unlimited users. That way, you don't have to upgrade to a higher tier to access new features. You only pay more if you need more storage or want to increase your monthly downloads. 

This pricing structure works well for our customers. They say: “Dash’s pricing model is very clear and much more flexible and competitive than other options available.”

🤑 Check out our article to see how much DAM return on investment you’ll get with Dash. 

Dash vs Frontify: User experience 

A good DAM can be the difference between quickly uploading new product images to your Shopify store and spending hours searching for the latest campaign assets on the morning of an important product launch. 

Frontify user experience

As a growing ecommerce business, the last thing you want is to be stuck with a digital asset management tool that's hard to use. Unfortunately, that could be what you'll experience if you choose Frontify. 

Reviews suggest that the user experience is clunky and gets more complicated as you explore additional features. For example, this user struggled to search for stored digital assets because Frontify counts empty folders as items. And this one couldn’t set up permissions to restrict content access. 

Frontify can have a steep learning curve, especially for users who aren’t tech-savvy. It takes time to get the hang of the platform, so you might not reap the benefits of a new DAM for a while. This user’s experience explains it best. 

‍“There was a learning curve in using Frontify, but it worked well after some trial and error. We did have training initially for the team, plus there were articles and some videos on how to use the platform that helped. People with less technical capabilities should get their platform customised by an external party.”

Dash user experience

Let’s see how Dash compares. 

Growing ecommerce businesses can't afford to waste time with a complex digital asset management tool. That's why we made Dash really easy to set up and use.

The quick onboarding process means you’ll be up and running quickly. You can search for the content of your images which makes assets easier to find. You also get beautiful image previews — like the one below —instead of boring folder thumbnails.

Take a look at what one of our customers, Forthglade, has to say about using our DAM software: 

‍“For the cost, Dash is really competitive. We’ve got people in the business who haven’t used a DAM system before, so Dash’s simple usability and UX were major selling points. It meant it was really easy to get everyone using the system quickly and effectively.”

How to pick the right digital asset management software for your brand

There are a couple of things to consider as you choose a DAM for your ecommerce business. 

• Your needs: Whether you pick Frontify or Dash will depend on your needs. If you need a way to manage your brand assets and build templates from a central location, Frontify could be the winner. But, if you need a DAM system that lets you search for assets, share with retailers and deploy to your marketing channels, you’re better off with Dash. 

• Feature set: Look for features that cater to the unique needs of your ecommerce business. Our DTC customers find these Dash features really valuable:  

• Portals: For sharing up-to-date product images and other digital assets with people outside your team. 

• Guest uploads: Where freelance videographers, designers, and photographers can submit visual assets directly to your DAM for approval — without having a Dash account. 

• Online brand guidelines: No more PDFs. Create editable brand guidelines with our Corebook integration and share them with your team in one click. 

• Your budget: Large brands with generous budgets can splurge thousands of dollars on a DAM tool. But if you have a limited budget, you'll need to choose a digital asset management software solution that gives you the best value for money. Starting from  £79/$109 per month, Dash is an affordable option.

• Learning curve: The last thing you want is to spend weeks learning how a DAM tool works instead of doing things that make money for your business. That's why you need a plug-and-play digital asset management platform that's up and running quickly. 

• Expertise: You can choose a complex DAM if you have a tech-savvy team. If not, choose a plug-and-play DAM software tool that everyone on your team can understand and use easily. 

If you're looking for a brand management tool, Frontify might be worth exploring. But if you need affordable DAM software that just works, you should definitely check out Dash 😍. Don’t just take our word for it — here’s a glowing review from one of our customers: 

‍“If you just want to store, organize, and quickly retrieve your assets, Dash does that quite nicely. Once deployed, onboarding is incredibly easy. You know how the iOS on your phone is intuitive? That's very much the case with Dash. Getting up and running takes very little time. The system is flexible, so it grows with you as your asset library grows. Finding and retrieving assets is about as easy and seamless as it gets.”

That sums it up. Try Dash for free , and let us know what you think.