Canto

Pros

easy to use for managing assets, configuring the library and portals

Cons

Thesaurus (list) management and DRM management

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

It's hard for me to even pick! We are coming from a very limited system, so the tagging and search capabilities have been a huge time save for my team. I also love the ability to have photos in multiple albums, the upload links are great, and the system is really easy to navigate.

Cons

The portals landing pages are a little limited in design capabilities, but nothing that would make me not want to use the system.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

It’s easy to use and fairly intuitive. The filter system is very powerful. Love the portals.

Cons

The choice of ‘views’ you get is limited. Some of our products are pens and rulers and the ‘list view’ thumbnails are too small to see what the product looks like. The other views show only cropped images of the product if it is beyond a certain size, making it impossible to see what the product actually is. It also has numerous bugs, such as not being able to display a greyscale image if it is saved as a .psd. Also, another wonderful fact of Canto is its portals, and we have a need to set up a great deal for our distributors. However, each one has to be created manually even though 95% of them are all the same. There should be a template facility to copy.

Pros

CANTO is very easy to set up and customise. The upload functions are logical and my users manage to find content after minimal training. As an admin, I have access to a lot of reporting and fine-tuning, without it being overwhelming. The customer service is also exceptionally well organised and friendly.

Cons

There are very few locations worldwide where CANTO is not available. Unfortunately one of the countries my organisation works in is one of those locations.
Also, when we first started to use CANTO, price development was not always clear to us.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

It has been a useful tool to use as a team that all work remotely and share assets. It has meant we have been able to have better oversight over the content that we work with, and be able to share and collaborate on them.

Cons

We have raised this a few times, but the lack of working plug-in for our Wordpress system has been a point of discussion since we've joined. It also occasionally crashes at the same place of the process (e.g. during upload) and would be ideal to be worked out of the user experience.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

It's been really simple to use, and the onboarding service was great!

Cons

Sometimes it can be unresponsive when uploading. I've not been particularly impressed by the adobe connector too, its not been useful at all. The portal customization user interface could also do with some work - it is really not very clear on how to change colours, move titles, get rid of unwanted buttons, etc. I love the feature and its what helped initially sell the product, but it could really do with UI improvements. It would also be great to not have the chequered background on album covers for vector images - we use them as covers and I don't want to clog up the album with a custom made icon in the album.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Advanced search tools, easy to use, good interface.

Cons

I'd like to be able to add extra margin to the images in the download options: a crop tool with the possibility to add space, not just cut.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

I appreciate the ability to tag objects, store related information, and recognize faces. [sensitive content hidden] has been very helpful, and checking in with him to find out what's happening with Canto never feels like work. The fact that there appears to be an answer to every query I could possibly have impresses me greatly; such materials must have been painstakingly compiled.

Cons

Working with a single sign-on login can be perplexing for those who are only visiting your site and not contributing or consuming content. Less technically competent users may be confused by the steps required to clear cookies and restart the browser.

Pros

The easy way for us to keep everything organized as a company

Cons

Sometimes create links can be a little challenging

Pros

Very easy to use and very easy to setup.

Cons

Performance can be slow when accessing larger files or when using limited connectivity, which can hinder productivity on the go.

Pros

1. Canto team was very supportive during the onboarding process
2. Endless possibilities with tagging images
3. Ability to use directly in Adobe products with plug-in

Cons

1. No uncheck all feature
2. Issues with uploading large batch of files

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Easy to set up and intuitive to ease. It was incredibly easy to implement across the organisation for internal and external stakeholders. Canto delivered on its promise.

Cons

Very little to dislike, perhaps if it was more focused on the hospitality industry it could build integrations with other elements of the Martech stack.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Canto helps organize our thousands of digital assets. We especially like that we can upload photos, videos, music, and Adobe files. It is helpful as a photo library but also in project collaboration.

Cons

Canto is not terribly user friendly. Customer service is great and is eager to help you, but some features are buried and if not in frequent use you'll find yourself asking for help for the same tasks.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Does the job as a digital asset management tool, even if it's not the most pleasant to use

Cons

Not very user-friendly. Search is not great, it's very difficult to find what you need

Pros

Ease of single uploads, tagging to enable search, multi-folder assignment, deduplication, portal creation

Cons

Difficulty in bulk upload, downloading buggy, no mobile app version

Pros

I like that Canto is on top of their game, always improving the software and releasing updates. When a feature isn't particularly user-friendly, you can put in a ticket for a suggested improvement and they will consider it in a future release.

Cons

It's a little hard to use for the general user, those who aren't power users. I had to draft up instructions on our to use the software for our general employee base.

Pros

Canto's user-friendly interface allows for an easy, intuitive platform to host, organize, and share all of our digital assets. Having something that is so intuitive puts all team members at ease, and increases their implementation of the platform in their day-to-day work.

Cons

Canto divides its users between three levels: Admin, Collaborator, and Consumer. There is very little that you can't do in Canto. A fully customizable experience for Administrative and Collaborator level users means a great deal of your DAM needs are met.

I do feel that the Consumer-level experience can be expanded further, for example: with regards to facial recognition, a Consumer-level user is more than capable of identifying faces within a photograph, but the current constraints of the consumer level does not allow for this level of data input. Overall, this dynamic spark of the Canto platform is sometimes lost at the Consumer-level.

Pros

It is very user-friendly. It's visual and easy to navigate. It has great search and filter features. You can send people directly to an asset without giving them access to everything.

Cons

You can upload a separate cover image; you have to use one that is already in your library; it has to be an actual asset. This is difficult if your fold of assets only contains font or color libraries, the thumbnails have no visual.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

We use Canto for campus-wide digital asset management. Our Marketing and PR team manages the application, which helps us distribute photos and videos to our campus departments and news media. We find it especially helpful for organizing and distributing athletics-related content. It is also helpful for organizing photos and videos for easy retrieval.

Cons

The application is sometimes laggy, but the Canto team is super responsive.

Pros

Portals - We have customers and distributors all over the world this portal aspect will help us manage their content they are receiving and eliminate the bottleneck of people across the world having to wait a whole day to hear from us with assets.

Cons

The option to make a single file downloadable or not. We have some highly sensitive files and some we don't want people to be able to download but be able to look at. So it would be nice if we could make a single file not downloadable. They do have other options like terms of use or watermarks but it be nice if that was a feature. You could do this but only in bulk, so you'd have to make all files not downloadable.

Pros

The flexibility of deployment and implementation was paramount for our organization, as we ended up hosting the solution on premise due to our large file sizes. We love how the metadata is written back to the asset. Additionally, the various ways to access the assets through the web, through apps or through a desktop client made the user adoption go very smoothly.

Cons

Customizing the software during the installation and implementation phase was more time consuming than we had anticipated and with the new releases of software and portals we have encountered some delays and hiccups (we are working through them). Out of the "box" reporting is significantly lacking compared to the other options, but you can buy a 3rd party addin for that.

Pros

The three major items that drove us to choose Canto as our DAM were the friendly and effective customer service, their ease of setup and customization, and their constant drive to update and make their software better. Both our account manager and the Canto IT team are quick to respond and always willing to do what is needed to help us achieve what we need.

Cons

We had some issues early on in the setup/implementation phase as we didn't feel like we were provided with adiquate information as to what was needed for our trainings. However, once we got into the process things became more clear and everything went smoothly.

Pros

Overall, Canto is easy to use. The tagging and categorisation options are extensive and have made the whole process to manage content much more efficient for our organization. The portal functionality is also a nice way for us to be able to share content with external partners.

Cons

Some of the interfaces are not so intuitive, particularly when it comes to sharing video and PDF files with external partners. It was not obvious how files could be downloaded

Pros

The part that I like the most about Canto was the ease of getting started. After watching a webinar and an initial training session for the admin area, I was able to set up and customize our DAM immediately. The additional training for users was great as well. But the software is very user friendly and easy to use overall. Customer service is outstanding also.

Cons

Some of the more advanced features (portal creation and integrations with design programs) aren't as clearly explained or touched on in initial trainings.

Pros

the search for images by themes is very important

Cons

The quality (resolutions) of images and the thumbnails

Pros

Easy to use and with latest technology, like AI tagging

Pros

The first thing I should mention is its organizational functions. I can easily categorize, tag, and search all my images, videos, and documents with just a few clicks. No more wasting time searching through endless folders! But that's not all, the ability to share and collaborate in real time with my team is just amazing.

Cons

The first thing I should mention is the price. Oh my gosh, that's a bit excessive! I understand that quality comes at a cost, but I think Canto could consider more affordable options for small businesses or start-ups.

Pros

Very easy to setup. Canto's tagging images feature is impressed me. Also i can assessable from anywhere.

Cons

Canto's delivery system and speed need to improve to keep our workflow smooth.

Pros

There are many things that I like best about Canto, but I will definitely say I love that our ability to store and access so much more data and information and be able to access it easier is a huge plus! I love the Canto has the ability to upload and view any type of file you may throw at it, CAD/DWG was a big surprise to me but super exciting! I like that Canto has fantastic security behind it and that our information is safe. I like that you are able to give permissions and restrict certain or specific files and information. I also love that you have the ability to enter in so many different tags for one document, file or photo. It makes it much easier to search for because we all know that different people will describe something a little different each time!

Cons

I wish that Canto was a little brighter when it came to the "smart tags" that it automatically gives when you upload a document or photo. I think there are alot more "common" words or descriptions that could be added to its vocabulary. It would be very helpful for the unexperienced uploader or the person who just isn't good at describing things. It certainly takes some training to navigate and use properly, and you have to get used to how they refer to things differently.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

I love the visual layout of the product—another competitor we were considering had a terrible UI / UX and that is really important to my marketing team who is very visual! Also we loved the search feature and the tagging.

Cons

The way the app loads on a MacBook Retina makes it look a little low quality / not the highly resolution of software design. That part makes it feel a little cheap to be honest? Also I don't like that Canto will reload on you at random times (automatically refresh your browser page), even if you were in the middle of a long scrolled search for specific imagery. It will lose your place and have you start over.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Easily upload images directly or lock down to contributors so that any uploads need to be approved. Being able to sort projects by files and create specific jobs within those makes organization easy.

Cons

This needs an app - this is difficult to use from a mobile device and an app would put it over the edge.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

I really enjoy having the shareable links that can direct outside parties to folders that have their content in them. This way I don't have to use another third-party tool like Google Drive or Dropbox to share documents with clients. Downloading content is easy as well. The My Collections function is great in that it allows me select save files to the My Collections folder. This can help make it easier to find images and documents that I use most often.

I also like being able to filter by keywords and tags. It is important that your team utilize these correctly and have unified definitions in place before using this, though. However, this can make it much easier to find what you're looking for.

Cons

The search function does leave something to be desired. I have found it hard to find past documents, images, graphics, etc. But honestly part of that could be just how our team names those folders and files.

While the My Collections function is great, the Following and My Selections functions seem redundant. Another downside is that the shareable links that we use to share the content with outside clients does expire. I know this is for security, but if the client does not access the content in a timely fashion, which happens often, then we have to resend it.

Pros

This product helps us to deliver video in high-resolution images rapidly. In the past, this was a very time-consuming process but Canto has allowed us to create an amazing solution. As a result, we're able to deploy web and social media solutions dynamically as needed. This product helps us to deliver video and high-resolution images rapidly. In the past, this was a very time-consuming process but Canto has allowed us to create an amazing solution. As a result, we're able to deploy web and social media solutions dynamically as needed.

Cons

It took a little bit of time to understand the structure of the software, but after going through the deployment and using it I had a better understanding of it. Some of the features related to users and permissions within subdirectories were a little challenging to understand.

Pros

We decided to use Canto because of many features including the design, customizability, customer service, large thumbnails, organizational structure, tagging feature, and portal for outside consumers.

Cons

You really need an organized person to keep this DAM working for everyone in your company/business so that the organizational structure makes sense. The less cooks in the kitchen, the better - one person should really spearhead the overall design, tags and org. Overall it works for High-Ed. Must pay attention to the little things (like expiring links to photos or albums) - can get tedious and redundant where you need to fix links if you don't pay attention to these things in the beginning.

Pros

First of all, having a single source of truth is truly a game changer. Having that one file that is mirrored in other places makes having to edit it so much simpler. Additionally, the Portals are such a nice feature so that we can "share" our assets, specific ones, to different vendors or departments within our organization takes a lot of the mundane aspects of our previous requests off our plates. There are truly so many things I love about Canto and these are just a small taste of them.

Cons

We are using Canto in the hopes that it can serve us in several ways. One area that we would like to see is more of a desktop app that functions similar to Dropbox in that we can access our files in our Finder vs. the Canto Connector for Adobe. Also, the ability to be more granular with our user permissions and rights management. And more customization with the Presets as well as the ability to designate the Focal Spot on an image. (We have lots of ideas to help improve and add to Canto but these are the top ones)

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

I like having one space for all our photos and being able to share those photos with partners by inviting them to create an account on our platform. It's significantly easier than needing to communicate with 10+ marketing managers every time they need something.

Cons

Our information changes relatively often so needing to reupload documents all the time is time consuming and exhausting. I wish edits in real time were possible in a format similar to Nuclino. Also frustrating that the content of documents can't be searched for. Additionally, the Geotag feature is amazing, but only if you have your location preset into the camera's metadata - you can't add in locations later which is extremely frustrating and wouldn't be a difficult feature for Canto to add since they already have the infrastructure.

Pros

- Folder organization
- Smart albums - very quick option for finding assets by their file type
- Unlimited tagging of assets and Smart tags
- Portals are very good for controlled sharing with other teams
- Direct upload to social media sites and file storage services is very helpful
- Advanced Download Options - you can crop, zoom, and adjust the image quality before download

Cons

* The system starts to lag when loading multiple images
* Sometimes, settings can be a little confusing
* It would be great if portals could be more customizable.

Pros

Several features have really simplified my photo management role. Metadata is customizable to your needs - and while it takes careful thought initially, when set up is easy to apply. 'Upload links' allow outside people to add photography directly to the system in a controlled manner - this has significantly helped with timeliness and ease of receiving photography. I love the branding portal, and the versioning capabilities. I also love the Facial Recognition feature - no more tagging the same people over and over. The company consistently improves the software and innovates - releasing frequent feature updates.

Cons

While it is fairly intuitive, there are aspects (of the portals for example) that need to be explained to a new user - this can be time consuming. I have been frustrated that new features are sometimes expensive paid add-ons, even when they were discussed as 'coming' during the research process (features I thought would be included with upcoming releases). As much as possible, try to envision future features you will need and consider that in your contract discussions.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

The features available within Canto are well designed and well implemented. We needed a solution for managing various types of digital assets for different use cases, and Canto fit the bill exactly. In addition to the great product, Canto's implementation and support teams were fantastic and helped our implementation to go extremely smoothly.

Cons

There is very little to dislike about Canto. All of the features promised to us during the sales cycle were available, and we found no "gotchas" or surprises. We could have used some more guidance about how/when to use the Portals feature, but that ended up being a minor issue in our case.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Canto is very well designed and easy to navigate.

Cons

Everything can always be cheaper, but Canto prices are competitive.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

File finding and searching on Canto is very easy and highly effective (provided that your naming and tagging is up to scratch) and the implementation and sharing of permissions, accounts and controls is very fluid and clear cut.

Cons

Uploading and ensuring the right metadata is attached to files can take time and slow large uploads, but is key to ensuring that files are easily found later.

Pros

It's a visual, web-based DAM that is incredibly easy to use and assessable from anywhere. Canto is incredibly fast and responsive, with all sorts of plug ins and extensions to integrate your favorite browser, file transfer site or software application (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premier). The Portals & User Permissions allow a lot of fine tuning to ensure each user or team has access to only the assets they should. The admin controls couldn't be easier to use, making managing access through the system a total breeze. The simplicity is and emphasize on clean visuals really puts Canto above most other platforms we've used or demonstrated. Highly recommend others take the time to see what Canto offers and how your company can benefit from what it does best.

Cons

I don't have any, to be honest. Though it would be nice if a standalone application for advanced management existed, similar to how the Advanced Uploader application makes uploading large batches of files easier - would be nice if I could perform backups, re-arranging assets, etc. through an application for complex tasks. It's not essential, but I would absolutely be able to leverage something like that since mass re-organizing albums and assets through a browser can be sluggish and difficult.

Pros

• One source of truth for a wide range of assets
• Prevents access and server issues with a team spread throughout the country
• Easy to use and deploy, while constantly refining structure and strategy
• Branded portals allow our employees to self-serve versus manually managing daily requests

Cons

• Interface can be clunky; needs a modern refreshed makeover!
• More style guides to customize for different needs and brands within one organization

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Canto was extremely easy to implement into our business. Previously, we stored all of our photos/videos/files on the shared drive, external hard drives and servers. Canto has allowed us to ensure all employees who require access to digital assets have access to them, regardless if they are at the office or not. We really like the convenient options for sharing files with external stakeholders, especially the sharing link. It eliminates the need to upload files to dropbox and worry about storage issues.

Cons

No cons. Each time I have had a technical issue, the Canto support staff has helped me very quickly and ensured my problem was fixed.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

The product itself is straight forward, easy to use and fairly customizable. The tagging system works great, file storage is good (once you identify what you would like), upload links are beneficial and the portals are key for deliverable.

Cons

The configuration of SSO does not allow enough control for the administrators of this tool, it also caused quirks for administrative accounts, where one experience via login vs via SSO was different for the admins; and the system didn't recognize licenses as being used when configured via SSO. Overall, we had to disable it for the time being which is a big loss/hit to our change management process.

The Style Guide tool is a great idea, but needs some work and should not be used as a deciding factor in the tool. It needs some more work and analysis on managing font, including details on using logos, etc. to be a proper style guide. It works well for corporate colours, and that's about it.

Lastly, the integration process needs some evaluation on the Canto side. It is lengthy, the "integration specialists" cannot answer questions that we can figure out ourselves with ease, and it doesn't seem like there is much support or guidance. In all honesty, we could do it ourselves must faster.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

Interface is very intuitive. There is a really good balance between having a turnkey solution and being able to customize things. Custom tags and multiple ways of tagging assets was my biggest priority. There were a few solutions that provided more customization, but would've required more oversight as well. Our small team didn't have the bandwidth for that.

Ability to create portals and upload links has been a gamechanger for us in asset distribution and collection. Just hosted a large community fundraiser. We gave each photographer an upload link with the option of some quick tags. We had thousands of images tagged and uploaded into the platform effortlessly. This used to be very time consuming for us.

Cons

Facial recognition is pretty weak. They are the larger customer of AWS facial recognition tool. If Canto switched to Google's tool, I feel it'd be much more reliable and function the way it's intended to. As of now, we just opt not to use it.

Support could do a better job at recognizing the shortcomings of their product and recommending product enhancements. I often have to request multiple times for something to be an enhancement. I haven't had any follow-up yet, so not sure if they're going to implement things though.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

I really like how easy it is to upload, organize and tag photos. The facial recognition feature is great when dealing with lots of photos of people, like we do as a university. It is amazingly accurate and will recognize people from photos when they were 20 years younger. It's very easy to search for photos.

Cons

I can't complain. We probably don't take advantage of a lot of features Canto has to offer.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Canto

Switched From

Pros

As a project manager, what I like most about Canto is the ability to search through metadata and quickly and easily find an asset I was looking for. I also like the ability to easily share assets, through email, dropbox, links, etc.

Cons

I wish the level of access we are paying for would allow more "power users" and more storage. But, we can always purchase more as the need arises.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Canto

Pros

- Easy/intuitive layout and general interface that allows users to search via a search bar or through a more traditional folder layout.
- Branding Customization
- Customization of the tags/categories to our specifications (custom fields)
- Very responsive to feature requests and program is updated with new additions frequently
- Curated views allow us to "sort" our photos in an order that makes most sense within an album.
- IT support is very responsive to issues. Makes sure to follow up with you to make sure things are functioning correctly.

Cons

- Integration has been somewhat challenging figuring out how to get the searches to yield results in the specific ways we want.
- Wish there were more specific/fined tuned permissions for individual users beyond the main 3 categories
- Facial Recognition doesn't work that well and in fact we have stopped trying to use it. Sometimes the photos will be almost exactly the same (head shots for example) and it doesn’t recognize them as the same person or will misidentify. The interface when it comes to both applying and searching through names is also very clunky.
Smart Tags – Have not been relevant for our business since most of our photos are of events not products we well. Our smart tags identify things like "human" "clothing" "accessories" which has no relevance to what people of our company will search. We end up having to go in and put in the tags manually.

Pros

We moved our image library over to Canto about 2 years ago and I have found it to be a reliable and easily navigable platform. It's very easy to use and out of the three DAMs I've worked with, professionally, it's the easiest and most straight-forward interface.

Cons

I have very few complaints. I would love it if we could customize the branding of the platform a little more and it would be nice if there was an option to make the lightbox preview files were a little larger. (There is an option to make them larger, but the difference between the smallest view and the largest view is negligible.) There is also an issue trying to rename files once they have been uploaded. That still doesn't work. If you need to rename a file, you'll have to rename outside of Canto and re-upload.