Verdict
A headless content-and-commerce platform with a bundled DAM module, for retail/ecommerce teams that want a marketer-friendly UI and can tolerate slower publish times.
An image and video CDN with an API-first asset library, built for fast developer integration, billed on flat monthly tiers with per-GB overage once bandwidth or storage limits are exceeded.
An enterprise DAM module within Adobe Experience Manager, for large organizations managing thousands to millions of brand assets across marketing channels.
An open-source, community-governed digital repository platform on Drupal, for libraries, archives, and museums to manage digital collections.
Price published
No
Yes
No
No
Billed on
Content volume, storage and depth of automation
Bandwidth, storage and user seats, with published per-unit rates above the limits
No public price list; sales quote required for both packages (Prime and Ultimate). Adobe's own on-premise product description sheet lists separate license metrics per component — AEM Assets itself is licensed 'Per Instance', 'Users' are licensed 'Per User', Brand Portal is licensed 'Per Brand Portal User', and Dynamic Media/Personalized Media are licensed by 'Page Views per month' — so billing is multi-metric and only available via custom quote, not a single flat per-user or per-GB rate.
No published price on islandora.ca — the core software is free open source ("free to use and always will be"). Paid options are hosting/installation/migration/support/training contracts sold by independent third-party service providers listed on islandora.ca/service-providers (e.g. Born-Digital, discoverygarden); islandora.ca itself does not publish their rates or billing units.
Deployment
Cloud
Cloud
Cloud, On-premise
On-premise, Cloud
Free plan
No
Yes
No
No
Free trial
No
Yes
No
No
Transparency index
10%
70%
Not checked
Not checked
Most common complaint
Neither tiers nor ranges
Several units are metered at once: bandwidth, storage, video units and seats
Not checked
Not checked