Verdict
A peer-to-device photo sync and library tool for individuals and families with photos spread across computers, phones and tablets who want them synced without uploading to a public cloud.
An enterprise DAM module within Adobe Experience Manager, for large organizations managing thousands to millions of brand assets across marketing channels.
An enterprise brand-asset DAM built for controlled distribution to many consumers of assets, that needs a permanently staffed administrator and slows down on large files.
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
No
No
No
No
Billed on
Personal, Family and Business plans; no amounts on the page
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.
Modular packages, quoted per customer
Self-hosted: no licence fee. Hosted: a user ceiling per tier
Deployment
On-premise, Cloud
Cloud, On-premise
Cloud
Cloud, On-premise
Free plan
No
No
No
Yes
Free trial
Yes
No
No
No
Transparency index
50%
Not checked
0%
60%
Most common complaint
Three plans are named and none is priced on the pricing page
Not checked
No figure anywhere on the pricing page, so the order of magnitude is unknowable before a call
The free route is genuinely free of licence fees but moves hosting, upgrades and support onto you