Verdict
An on-premise DAM known for deep metadata and search, for existing Portfolio users who size and maintain their own server, now under Axle AI ownership after a March 2026 acquisition.
An enterprise DAM module within Adobe Experience Manager, for large organizations managing thousands to millions of brand assets across marketing channels.
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.
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
Yes
No
Billed on
Quoted per customer; the licensing model was preserved through the change of owner
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.
No licence fee; implementation and support services may be paid
Self-hosted: no licence fee. Hosted: a user ceiling per tier
Deployment
On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
On-premise
Cloud, On-premise
Free plan
No
No
Yes
Yes
Free trial
No
No
No
No
Transparency index
25%
Not checked
90%
60%
Most common complaint
It changed hands in March 2026, so anything written before that date describes it as an Extensis product
Not checked
The product is mid-generation: Phrasea is announced to replace Phraseanet in 2026
The free route is genuinely free of licence fees but moves hosting, upgrades and support onto you