PicaJet
Search Build shortlist

Contentstack, Piwigo, Pixelboxx, Portfolio

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.

Contentstack

No

Piwigo

Yes

Pixelboxx

Yes

Portfolio

Yes

Everything else

Contentstack
Piwigo
Pixelboxx
Portfolio
Verdict
An enterprise headless CMS and composable DXP for developer-led teams needing multi-channel content delivery, with a native asset-management module that's newer and thinly reviewed.
A self-hosted, permission-based photo/video catalog with album hierarchies, tagging and a large plugin ecosystem, for archives and small orgs willing to maintain their own server as the library grows.
An on-prem, cloud or hybrid DAM aimed at likely DACH-region enterprise manufacturers who need to keep data in-house, with a public review record too thin to lean on without running your own trial.
An on-premise DAM known for deep metadata and search, for existing Portfolio users who size and maintain their own server, now under Axle AI ownership after a March 2026 acquisition.
Price published
No
Yes
No
No
Billed on
Quoted per customer
Flat price per account by storage; users are unlimited
Quoted per customer
Quoted per customer; the licensing model was preserved through the change of owner
Deployment
Cloud
On-premise, Cloud
On-premise, Cloud, Hybrid
On-premise
Free plan
Yes
Yes
No
No
Free trial
No
Yes
No
No
Transparency index
30%
100%
20%
25%
Most common complaint
A free start exists, but the terms for moving to a paid tier are not on the page
A ten per cent price rise is announced for 1 September 2026
No prices, though it does name three deployment models including fully managed on-premise
It changed hands in March 2026, so anything written before that date describes it as an Extensis product

“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.

Contentstack A free start exists, but the terms for moving to a paid tier are not on the page — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Piwigo A ten per cent price rise is announced for 1 September 2026 — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Pixelboxx No prices, though it does name three deployment models including fully managed on-premise — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Portfolio It changed hands in March 2026, so anything written before that date describes it as an Extensis product — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.

No email required — the page prints as it stands.