When companies first start looking into DAM solutions to better organize their content, understanding digital asset management pricing models can quickly become complicated. What most organizations don’t fully realize in these early stages of searching for a DAM vendor is that their needs may change over time.

This means the initial price tag for a DAM may not stick for very long. It’s important to fully understand DAM pricing. What the initial cost includes, and what kinds of increases you’re looking at as you grow as a company.

But before you start planning, let's explain digital asset management pricing in detail.

• What costs are included in DAM pricing
• Comparing asset management pricing

Let's take a look at the different DAM costs to help you better understand what to expect with each one.

Digital Asset Management Costs

There are various factors at play when it comes to determining the cost of a DAM. The size of your organization, your unique use case, storage needs, and more can determine the DAM solution you need. Although there is a lot of information out there about the costs of DAM solutions, there are three main components:

• Subscription costs,
• Upfront costs, and
• Ongoing costs.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these costs below.

Subscription Costs

All DAM solutions have a base subscription cost, which is usually dependent on a combination of things. Storage needs, user numbers, administrators, and user groups. To receive an accurate quote for the subscription price for your DAM solution, you’ll need to answer these four questions:

1. Storage: How many terabytes (TBs) of assets will you store?
2. Users: How many people will use (or could use) the DAM?
3. Administrators: How many people will manage the library?
4. User Groups: How many different customized user groups will be needed?

Each DAM vendor has a slightly different approach in how they price their base subscription, as well as what they include with it. For example, MediaValet’s core DAM subscription-only charges for storage, and includes unlimited users, administrators, and custom user groups.

Understanding This Cost

This is often the most variable cost, so it’s important to consider how each vendor’s digital asset management pricing structure will impact your organization’s long-term growth. Some pricing structures can prevent organizations from extending DAM access to other users, such as additional departments or marketing agencies, as it would increase the price of the DAM’s base cost substantially. A subscription model that’s based on just storage, with unlimited users, can greatly improve the scalability and reach of your DAM. This should be a priority if you’re expecting to grow your user base.

Upfront Costs

There are often one-time fees to cover the upfront costs of implementing the DAM. First, an onboarding fee is an extra cost associated with the initial DAM setup for your organization and may increase with additional storage or integrations. Another is a consultation fee. Many DAMs will either offer consultation internally or have partners that can provide additional support with navigating more complex DAM implementations. Both of these fees are normal but can vary across vendors and quickly add up if they’re estimated based on an hourly rate. With MediaValet, the onboarding fee is a flat rate that covers the entire onboarding process, followed by unlimited training and support over the customer’s lifetime. We also have several partners that can help with additional implementation needs.

Understanding This Cost

In many cases, implementations can take longer than expected, so take care to understand what’s included with these fees to avoid getting caught with an unexpected bill. Make sure you understand if the onboarding and consulting fees are based on a set number of hours and the implications of going over and above what’s included. Understanding the kinds of services that are included also set clear expectations between the DAM vendor and you, the customer.

Ongoing Costs

A typical ongoing cost is for DAM training which involves booking time in with the DAM vendor to train new users on the platform or update users on how to take advantage of new features. This can be in the form of one-on-one training or group training sessions and is usually priced based on a set number of hours and/or sessions. Another ongoing cost is for DAM support, which covers technical challenges with the DAM (system bugs, setting up new users, recovering deleted assets, etc.). Like training costs, support costs are usually bundled or billed hourly. Both DAM training and support are critical to the adoption and usability of the platform, so it should be an expected cost. Again, with MediaValet, unlimited training and support are included in the base subscription cost.

Understanding This Cost

While “optional” training and support can be tempting to pass up, ensuring new users understand how to use the platform ensures better long-term adoption and increased ROI. It can also save you from wasting valuable time trying to solve technical problems yourself, only to make matters worse. In most cases, investing in training and support inevitably saves you time and stress down the road. With this in mind, consider using a vendor that offers unlimited training, or be sure to thoughtfully budget for this additional cost.

Comparing Digital Asset Management Pricing

When shopping around for DAM solutions, it’s important to ensure you're comparing apples to apples. In this section, we’ll cover all the basics you should know about DAM costs before you start comparing digital asset management pricing structures. The three major considerations you’ll need to understand prior to comparing DAM prices are:

1. Features and Integrations,
2. User Needs, and
3. Ability to Scale.

Let's take a closer look at each consideration below.

1. Features and Integrations

Since every organization has unique needs, the DAM you decide to go with should reflect that. A very important part of comparing the costs of different DAM solutions is only looking at systems that have the features you’ll need. Be sure to deep dive into the DAM’s features on asset organization, search capabilities, distribution solutions, archiving, security, and the ability to scale—and don’t forget to look into their training and support.

What’s the use of investing in a DAM if it doesn’t work with the rest of your tech solutions? Running into a problem with the right integrations can be a major roadblock in choosing a successful DAM. MediaValet integrates with many of the most-used programs like Microsoft 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, and much more.

2. User Needs

The right DAM partner will take into account how the DAM needs to work for your team, and how they can offer ongoing support that will boost user adoption, and foster confident usage. MediaValet offers a customer success program where you’re partnered with one of our customer success managers to make sure your DAM works the way you need it to with unlimited training and support.

3. Ability to Scale

Where you’re at today is not likely where you’ll be six months, a year, or five years down the road. Most organizations are looking to grow, making scalability an important factor to consider when comparing DAM vendors. It's important to take into account how your costs may grow as your business does. Are these costs are sustainable? MediaValet offers unlimited users and user groups at no extra cost to help our clients who are looking to scale.

Whether you have a library of digital assets already, or you’re starting fresh, MediaValet works with you. We work to develop an intuitive and future-proof taxonomy that will scale and grow along with your business.

Get the Full Picture

When embarking on a digital asset management pricing comparison, it’s important to understand how each vendor’s pricing works, as well as what features and benefits they provide. This will help optimize productivity, get the most out of your DAM, and avoid any unforeseen costs.

To avoid surprises and going over budget it's important to:

• Map out features and benefits the DAM is providing,
• Take time to choose a partner that will help you find the right plan, and
• Make sure there’s room for you to scale up if needed.

Ensure you understand the subscription, upfront, and ongoing costs of your DAM. Also, clarify what's included in what you’re paying for. It's just as important to choose a DAM partner that you trust to find the right solution for you.

We believe in investing in the success of our clients by offering unlimited onboarding, training, support, users, and user groups. Why wouldn’t we help our customers get the most out of their DAM? Get your custom MediaValet pricing today.