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 free, self-hosted GPLv3 DAM used by French public-sector, cultural and broadcast institutions with in-house technical staff, now being sunset by its vendor in favor of a paid successor, Phrasea.
A PIM platform with a built-in DAM module, used by manufacturing and ecommerce companies to manage product data and assets; also available as a free open-source Community Edition.
An open-licence, self-hosted DAM for teams with in-house server admin capability, trading a free licence for the time to run upgrades, tune dependencies and troubleshoot it themselves.
Price published
Yes
Yes
No
No
Billed on
Flat price per account — users are not a billing unit
No licence fee; implementation and support services may be paid
No genuine dollar pricing is published. The vendor's package-comparison page lists four tiers: Community Edition (free, open-source, self-hosted), Growth (SaaS, shown only as "Starting at $0 Annually" with a free-trial CTA — no real recurring price disclosed), Advanced and Premium (both "Call for a quote"). No billing unit (per user, per SKU, per asset, per GB) is stated anywhere on the site for the paid tiers.
Self-hosted: no licence fee. Hosted: a user ceiling per tier
Deployment
Cloud
On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Free plan
No
Yes
No
Yes
Free trial
Yes
No
No
No
Transparency index
70%
90%
Not checked
60%
Most common complaint
Storage ceilings are modest next to enterprise platforms, so large video libraries outgrow the tiers quickly
The product is mid-generation: Phrasea is announced to replace Phraseanet in 2026
Not checked
The free route is genuinely free of licence fees but moves hosting, upgrades and support onto you