ACDSee, OpenAsset, imgix, HyperCMS

Side by side on what we have verified on each vendor’s own pages. Where a fact was not checked, the table says so rather than leaving a blank that reads as “no”.

What decides it · Runs on your own servers

If the files genuinely cannot leave your infrastructure, this is not a close race — the platforms marked No below should not be on the call at all.

ACDSee

Yes

OpenAsset

imgix

HyperCMS

Yes

Everything else

ACDSee

OpenAsset

imgix

HyperCMS

Verdict

A disk-native photo cataloguer and batch editor sold as a one-off perpetual licence, for photographers with large libraries who don't need Lightroom/Capture One-level RAW editing.

A project-based DAM for AEC design and architecture firms that syncs with Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint and places tagged project photos directly into InDesign proposals and RFPs.

An image and video API for real-time resizing, compression, and format conversion via URL parameters, built for developers at ecommerce, media, and agency teams.

An open-source DAM, CMS, and PIM platform combining asset, content, and product management for mid-to-large enterprises in banking, insurance, and retail.

Price published

Yes

Billed on

One-off perpetual licence; a cloud subscription is sold separately

Quoted per customer

Consumption-based credits, sold in monthly tiers ($25–$500/mo self-serve, custom above that). Credits are spent on Management (2 credits/GB/month for stored assets), Delivery (1 credit/GB bandwidth), and Transformation (variable by operation). Per-credit rate drops as plan tier rises ($0.25 down to $0.12, monthly billing; slightly cheaper on annual commitment). Each plan also states an implied storage/bandwidth cap in GB.

Cloud service: billed by storage capacity (GB) plus which optional modules you select; user accounts are unlimited/uncapped. No public price list — pricing is obtained via a configurator/calculator or by requesting a quote. On-premise/hosted deployments use Free, Standard, and Enterprise license editions (feature-gated), also quote-only. A non-commercial Free Edition exists with no disclosed price.

Deployment

On-premise

Cloud

Cloud, On-premise

Free plan

Free trial

Yes

Transparency index

90%

Not checked

Most common complaint

The published prices are promotional and dated; list price is roughly double

A page titled pricing that contains a benefit calculator instead of prices

Not checked

“Not checked” means exactly that: we have not verified it, not that the platform lacks it. Every other value was read off the vendor’s own pages on the date shown on each platform page.

What to ask on the demo

One question per platform, drawn from what actually goes wrong with it — not a generic checklist. Vendors run the demo; this hands the agenda back to you.

ACDSee The published prices are promotional and dated; list price is roughly double — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.

OpenAsset A page titled pricing that contains a benefit calculator instead of prices — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.

No email required — the page prints as it stands.