digiKam, Nextcloud, Razuna
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
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.
A flat-fee-per-account DAM and MAM with a free 500GB/5-user tier and unlimited paid users, for teams willing to pilot without much recent independent review evidence.
Price published
Yes
Yes
Yes
Billed on
Free software, no licence fee
Subscription per user per year, cheaper at volume
Flat price per account by volume; the vendor states there are no per-user fees
Deployment
On-premise
On-premise, Cloud
Cloud, On-premise
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free trial
No
No
Yes
Transparency index
100%
80%
90%
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
On-premise is available only in the enterprise tier, whose price is not published
“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.
Razuna
On-premise is available only in the enterprise tier, whose price is not published — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
No email required — the page prints as it stands.