Brandfolder, Optimizely, FotoWare
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”.
Everything else
Verdict
A polished, search-first brand asset DAM sold standalone under Smartsheet ownership, priced for mid-market and enterprise budgets around a $24,700/year median contract.
A DAM module bundled inside the Optimizely CMS/Content Marketing Platform/DXP, for teams already on Optimizely who don't need best-of-breed asset management, bulk operations, or metadata governance.
A modular, metadata-heavy DAM aimed at large organisations with IT capacity to manage taxonomy, sold through quote-based pricing with on-prem and private-cloud options.
Price published
No
No
No
Billed on
Quoted per customer
Quoted per customer
A modular model — you pay for the modules you take
Deployment
Cloud
Cloud
Cloud
Free plan
No
No
No
Free trial
No
No
No
Transparency index
0%
0%
10%
Most common complaint
Two tiers with no figure and no trial offered on the page
Not one tier and not one figure on the pricing page
The pricing page works as a lead form rather than a price list
“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.
Brandfolder
Two tiers with no figure and no trial offered on the page — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Optimizely
Not one tier and not one figure on the pricing page — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
FotoWare
The pricing page works as a lead form rather than a price list — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
No email required — the page prints as it stands.