PicaJet
Search Build shortlist

OpenAsset, digiKam, Akeneo, Pics.io

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 · Runs on your own servers

If the files genuinely cannot leave your infrastructure, this is not a close race — the platforms marked No below should not be on the call at all.

OpenAsset

No

digiKam

Yes

Akeneo

Yes

Pics.io

No

Everything else

OpenAsset
digiKam
Akeneo
Pics.io
Verdict
A project-based DAM for AEC design and architecture firms that syncs with Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint and places tagged project photos directly into InDesign proposals and RFPs.
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 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.
A digital asset management platform layered on Google Drive (or S3/Dropbox), for marketing, creative, and e-commerce teams organizing and sharing brand assets in place.
Price published
No
Yes
No
Yes
Billed on
Quoted per customer
Free software, no licence fee
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.
Flat monthly/annual subscription per plan tier (tiers differ by included user count and storage cap), plus per-additional-teammate add-on fee ($15-25/mo depending on plan) and optional paid feature add-ons (custom fields, watermarking, branding, API, CSV import, Okta SSO, etc.)
Deployment
Cloud
On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Cloud
Free plan
No
Yes
No
No
Free trial
No
No
No
No
Transparency index
0%
100%
Not checked
Not checked
Most common complaint
A page titled pricing that contains a benefit calculator instead of prices
It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design
Not checked
Not checked

“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.

OpenAsset A page titled pricing that contains a benefit calculator instead of prices — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
digiKam It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.

No email required — the page prints as it stands.