Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems are no longer just storage tools — they’re brand enablers. In 2025, the top DAM platforms help you manage content, maintain brand consistency, and unlock scalable workflows. Below, we explore the five leading solutions—and why many of the world’s top brands prefer to choose Papirfly.

Why the right DAM makes a difference

Looking for the right DAM? The leading platforms in 2025 combine robust asset management with brand governance, ease of use, AI tools, and cross-functional collaboration. 

When content is scattered, brand consistency suffers. That’s why modern DAM platforms aren’t just about file storage — they’re built to organize, control, and activate your brand across every channel.

Whether you’re scaling into new regions, launching campaigns, or managing a rebrand, the right DAM can reduce time-to-market and align every team behind your brand strategy.

Key elements to consider when choosing a DAM

1. Usability and user experience
   Clarity drives adoption.  If your teams can’t easily find and use the system, they won’t.
2. Search and asset organization
   Findability fuels speed. Without strong organization and search capabilities, a DAM becomes another digital junk drawer.
3. Integration and scalability
   Your DAM should fit into your ecosystem — not fight it. Modern teams rely on a connected tech stack.
4. Features and customization
   One size rarely fits all. A powerful DAM should balance strong standard features with the flexibility to adapt to your needs. 
5. Support, training, and total cost
   Hidden costs and poor support are deal-breakers. To future-proof your investment, look beyond the platform.

Top 5 DAM solutions comparison

1. Papirfly

Papirfly leads the pack with a DAM experience designed to do more than manage assets—it brings your brand to life. With fully customizable portals, brand control at every level, and AI-enhanced workflows, Papirfly is trusted by global enterprises to organize, govern, and showcase digital content at scale.

• Visual-first DAM experience: Custom brand portals make it easy for users to find, understand, and apply assets correctly.
• Organize with intelligence: Tag assets dynamically, group by campaign or region, control access, and set expiry dates for ultimate precision.
• Campaign and sub-brand control: Configure unique portals by region, product line, or business unit.
• AI-powered efficiency: Smart search, automated tagging, and usage analytics.
• Governance embedded: Versioning, approval workflows, and strict permission settings.
• Trusted by the world’s best: PepsiCo, BMW, and Mondelez are just some of the global brands that love using Papirfly.

What users would prefer to be different about Papirfly:

• The pricing isn’t clearly stated in tiers due to how uniquely bespoke the solution is

Find reviews on G2 and Capterra.

Considering Papirfly?

With Papirfly’s DAM as the beating heart of your content engine, see how easy it is to create and manage content, showcase your organized on-brand assets, empower everyone to create and share content, and scale content creation to reach every customer.

2. Bynder

Bynder remains a popular choice for organizations looking to streamline creative processes. It offers a clean interface, strong integrations, and built-in workflow tools for approval and asset control.

What users love about Bynder:

• Intuitive asset management for marketing teams
• Built-in creative workflow automation
• Solid integration ecosystem

What users would prefer to be different about Bynder:

• There is a steep learning curve to using the tool
• There are potentially too many functionalities as a back-end DAM
• Not enough focus on front end users and showcasing assets for teams

Considering Bynder?

See how Papirfly compares to Bynder and discover why leading brands value Papirfly’s advanced brand control, flexible templating, and custom portals built for enterprise scalability.

3. Aprimo

Aprimo is favored by enterprises looking to centralize marketing planning, compliance, and content performance. It offers deep functionality for campaign tracking and content governance.

What users love about Aprimo:

• AI-powered content tagging and smart search
• Strong compliance and rights management
• Integrations with tools like Adobe and Salesforce

What users would prefer to be different about Aprimo:

• The UI and user experience could be improved, with too many clicks needed to accomplish simple tasks
• Requests for greater customization in workflows and asset types are common

Considering Aprimo?

Explore Papirfly vs. Aprimo to see why many enterprises prefer a brand-first DAM experience with customizable delivery and more intuitive UX.

4. Canto

Canto continues to serve small to midsize organizations with a user-friendly interface and quick setup. It’s ideal for teams with basic DAM needs who want to onboard quickly.

What users love about Canto:

• Simple asset organization and search
• Secure file sharing
• Rapid deployment with minimal training

What users would prefer to be different about Canto:

• New users often find Canto challenging to learn, with some teams preferring to delegate asset organization to a few individuals rather than onboarding everyone
• Many users describe the interface as outdated and less visually appealing compared to competitors
• Users often struggle to locate what they need, which slows down daily operations

Considering Canto?

While great for fast-moving teams, Canto may fall short for enterprises with multi-brand needs, campaign-based asset grouping, or advanced approval workflows.

5. Frontify

Frontify merges brand governance and DAM into a unified platform. With live guidelines, style templates, and a central hub for assets, it’s well-suited to design-forward teams.

What users love about Frontify:

• Embedded brand guidelines and design systems
• Collaboration tools for internal and external stakeholders
• Automated asset updates and versioning

What users would prefer to be different about Frontify:

• DAM capabilities feel like an “add-on” rather than the product’s core, lacking power-user features like robust search filtering and granular asset organization tools
• User and permission management is thought to be too complex
• Content creation templates are imported from other tools, not included in-platform

Considering Frontify?

Compare Frontify to Papirfly to learn how Papirfly delivers deeper flexibility, richer portal customization, and better DAM and content scalability for multi-brand and multi-market teams.

What defines a great DAM in 2025 and beyond

• More than storage: Brand portals and experience layers are becoming essential.
• AI-enhanced workflows: Smart tagging, version tracking, and predictive search reduce content friction.
• Portals champion folders: Leading solutions offer brand contextualization and guided asset use.
• Flexible growth paths: Modular, scalable architecture supports brand evolution.
• Content creation: Using design templates alongside the DAM – ideally built in for a complete user experience

Ready to upgrade your DAM?

If you’re navigating brand inconsistency, content chaos, or approval bottlenecks, a next-generation DAM like Papirfly can help you turn disarray into agility. Organize and showcase your brand, create content on-demand, and scale global governance. All from one solution.

FAQs

Today’s customers expect seamless, consistent brand experiences across every channel. In fact, 95% of them use more than one platform to make a purchase. That means your marketing content must perform everywhere – email, print, social media, mobile apps, websites, and beyond.

But the more channels you serve, the more complex your asset libraries become. From localized print to global campaigns, many organizations find themselves drowning in creative files – most of which are scattered, duplicated, or outdated.

Without structure, managing digital assets becomes an almost impossible challenge, slowing campaigns, creating inconsistencies, and damaging brand trust.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. But you can take control.

The true impact of digital asset chaos

Digital asset chaos is more than just an inconvenience – it’s a drain on your resources and a threat to your brand equity. For example:

Marketing budgets take a hit

Teams waste valuable time searching for the right assets or – worse – recreate them from scratch, eating up your budget and slowing speed to market.

Brand consistency breaks down

Brand equity depends on familiarity. But without a system for managing digital assets centrally, outdated files keep resurfacing, undermining your visual identity and leaving your audience confused.

Workflows stall and teams lose momentum

When design files are disorganized, even a simple task like sharing content on social media can become a long and involved process. The confusion causes team members to second-guess themselves. Cue endless back-and-forth with marketing leaders, wasting time and energy that would be much better spent elsewhere.

4 tips for keeping digital assets organization

Here’s how to create a more effective brand ecosystem and get all your digital assets under control.

1. Audit your existing libraries

Start by taking stock. Map every folder, drive, and repository your teams use. Identify what exists, where it lives, and whether it’s up to date.

Yes, it’s time-consuming – but also essential. Without clarity on what you already have, you can’t create a sustainable structure for the future.

2. Create clear taxonomy guidelines

Once you know what you’re working with, standardize how it’s organized. Establish naming conventions, tagging rules, and folder structures that everyone understands – and make sure everyone sticks to them. Without clear rules, the same file might be saved under five different labels, making it harder for people to search for and find the assets they need.

3. Implement a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution

Once you have audited your content and established a uniform naming structure, your next step is to physically organize your digital files – something Digital Asset Management software can really help you with.

So what is Digital Asset Management (DAM)? Put simply, DAM solutions are digital, centralized locations where all your collateral can be stored and shared with teams worldwide. With powerful search functionality, version control, and role-based permissions, they minimize duplication, streamline workflows, and ensure only the right content is used.

For a deeper dive, explore our guide: Digital Asset Management in 2025 – the only guide you need.

4. Layer in brand portals for context

Even the best-managed libraries fall short if users don’t understand how to use what they find.

Brand portals bridge that gap. These user-friendly hubs combine your DAM with brand education, housing brand guidelines, examples, usage rules, and localized content all in one place.

Set up a dedicated brand portal for each region, department, or campaign, so users only see what’s relevant to them – no confusion, no missteps.

A new era for managing digital assets

In today’s multichannel world, content drives everything – from product awareness and employer branding to customer loyalty.

But when assets are scattered, delivery slows, campaigns suffer, and your brand takes a massive hit.

With a clear taxonomy, the right structure, and powerful tools like Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management system and brand portals, you can bring order to digital chaos. Result: faster execution, greater compliance, and consistent brand experiences at scale.

You’ve invested weeks perfecting your latest campaign – refining the message, aligning visuals to brand identity, segmenting audiences. But as launch day approaches, cracks appear. Outdated assets are activated. Mismatched content is sent to the wrong region. Teams scramble, unsure which version is the right one.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t just a workflow hiccup – it’s a brand governance issue. When teams lack clarity or access, brand consistency falters. And with today’s hyper-aware consumers, inconsistencies aren’t just noticed – they’re never forgotten.

To avoid missteps, modern marketing teams need more than storage. They need structure, access, and context across every campaign, region, and channel. That’s where the integration of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution and brand portal makes all the difference.

What is a DAM and brand portal hybrid?

At its core, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is your centralized asset library. It stores, tags, organizes, and distributes every visual your brand relies on – so teams everywhere have fast, secure, and compliant access to the assets they need.

But a DAM is just the foundation.

A brand portal brings essential context: it houses your guidelines, strategies, and campaign direction – all in one place. When combined, the result is a unified brand hub that enables brand governance, empowers autonomy, and brings clarity to every piece of content.

Having a bespoke brand portal for every region, sub-brand and campaign means:

How a DAM and brand portal hybrid powers stronger marketing campaigns

We’ve looked at the theory of DAM and brand portal hybrids. Now let’s see what they do in practice for your marketing campaigns.

Local clarity, global control

Managing global campaigns across markets is challenging. Language, culture, and strategy vary, but brand consistency must be maintained.

By creating a dedicated brand portal for each region, you can ensure teams only see what’s relevant to their audience. No more confusion. No more risk of using the wrong content. Just localized marketing, activated with global confidence.

Campaign-specific pages for streamlined execution

Simultaneous campaigns create overlap. Without structure, the wrong asset in the wrong campaign can dilute your impact or derail your results.

With custom campaign pages in your brand portal, teams access:

• Up-to-the-minute information about campaign progress and workflow
• Latest approved versions of every asset
• Useful details on campaign story, strategy, duration and more

This ensures every team understands the purpose and flow of the campaign they’re supporting – and has the tools to keep it on track.

Smart categorization for smarter content use

Your DAM should do more than store content – it should guide users to the specific assets they need. Best-in-class solutions allow you to categorize every digital file in your library with helpful tags. For example:

Combine this with access permissions and version control, and you’ve got a system that ensures only the right content is seen and used – no manual policing required.

Clear presentation of a rebrand or campaign refresh

When you launch a rebrand or refresh a campaign, clarity matters. With a DAM and brand portal hybrid, you can:

• Update your portals to reflect new branding or visual identity
• Make updated brand guidelines and campaign strategies instantly accessible to all
• Easily categorize and tag assets that have been fully rebranded and approved
• Substitute old assets for their new-look equivalents through version control

In fact, a rebrand is a great opportunity to introduce Digital Asset Management to your marketers and wider employees. It quickly immerses your teams in this new presentation and allows them to handle typical rebrand challenges.

Empower teams to act with speed and confidence

When local teams have the tools and structure they need, they respond faster and with greater precision.

Imagine this: one of your regional teams identifies a local trend and wants to capitalize on it with tailored content. If they have to wait for brand education and approval from central marketing, the opportunity might well be missed.

With a DAM and brad portal hybrid, however, they already have the context they need. Combine it with time-saving content creation tools, and they are empowered to develop their own localized campaign materials – without risk of going-off brand.

DAM & brand portal hybrids in action: BMW NE

BMW Northern Europe faced a familiar challenge – multiple countries, diverse audiences, and distinct campaigns, coupled with a growing need to stay unified.

The team tried to solve the challenge centrally from HQ. But this approach was slow, inefficient and prone to human error. That’s where a DAM and brand portal hybrid proved to be game-changing.

By establishing a regional brand hub for each division, BMW NE made it easy to people to:

• Translate assets into local languages
• Understand their area’s specific brand guidelines
• Follow the progress of ongoing campaigns
• Access all relevant content for their dealership

Papirfly revolutionizes how BMW NE 
manages its marketing campaigns:

No more missed updates. No more manual distribution. Just one connected system that enables every dealer, employee, and agency partner to fully understand the brand vision and identity – and access the campaign materials they need.

Build campaigns with clarity. Execute with control.

Your campaigns are a reflection of your brand – how clearly and consistently they deliver messages shapes how audiences perceive you.

But great campaigns don’t happen by chance. They require structure, agility, and control. Papirfly’s integrated DAM and brand portal solution gives your teams the foundation they need to build trust, reduce inefficiency, and deliver campaigns that connect and convert.