PicaJet
Search Build shortlist

digiKam, Nextcloud, Pixelboxx

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 · Publishes a price

One of these tells you the order of magnitude before you speak to anyone, and the others do not. That difference sets how long your evaluation takes, whatever the software does.

digiKam

Yes

Nextcloud

Yes

Pixelboxx

No

Everything else

digiKam
Nextcloud
Pixelboxx
Verdict
Free, open-source, cross-platform photo cataloging software for large RAW libraries, with tagging, geotagging and duplicate detection, meant to pair with a separate RAW editor.
A self-hosted file-sync and collaboration platform some organisations stretch into asset-library duty; tagging, batch metadata editing and dynamic tag-based collections are still limited or missing.
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.
Price published
Yes
Yes
No
Billed on
Free software, no licence fee
Subscription per user per year, cheaper at volume
Quoted per customer
Deployment
On-premise
On-premise, Cloud
On-premise, Cloud, Hybrid
Free plan
Yes
Yes
No
Free trial
No
No
No
Transparency index
100%
80%
20%
Most common complaint
It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design
It is a file platform with DAM features rather than a DAM: asset-level metadata and rights are thinner
No prices, though it does name three deployment models including fully managed on-premise

“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.

digiKam It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Nextcloud It is a file platform with DAM features rather than a DAM: asset-level metadata and rights are thinner — 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.

No email required — the page prints as it stands.