Verdict
A team file library billed as a flat monthly fee with unlimited users, aimed at organisations where most people only need to download an approved file a few times a month.
A disk-native photo cataloguer and batch editor sold as a one-off perpetual licence, for photographers with large libraries who don't need Lightroom/Capture One-level RAW editing.
An enterprise DAM module within Adobe Experience Manager, for large organizations managing thousands to millions of brand assets across marketing channels.
An enterprise PIM, DAM and content management platform, for multi-brand retailers, manufacturers and publishers with multilingual product content.
Price published
Yes
Yes
No
No
Billed on
Flat price per account — users are not a billing unit
One-off perpetual licence; a cloud subscription is sold separately
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.
Not published — quote-only (custom enterprise pricing via demo request; no plans, per-user, or per-GB figures disclosed on site)
Deployment
Cloud
On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Free plan
No
No
No
No
Free trial
Yes
Yes
No
No
Transparency index
70%
90%
Not checked
Not checked
Most common complaint
Storage ceilings are modest next to enterprise platforms, so large video libraries outgrow the tiers quickly
The published prices are promotional and dated; list price is roughly double
Not checked
Not checked