Likelihood to Recommend Widen is a great digital asset manager internally. I loved the framework that the platform has. However, we created a main portal to share with our external partners so we could control what was private and what was public. The portal framework was not as user-friendly and we tried too much to make it like a website when it was meant to be a DAM. The main reason we switched providers is that we wanted to have the option to have a consistent framework internally and externally that was more user-friendly with better search capabilities.
Read full review Cloudinary handles pretty much anything you have related to images. From serving them up efficiently to adding transformations on the fly, there's really little this service doesn't do. Their pricing plans allow you to grow into the right levels and their website dashboards are very helpful. I would easily recommend this for all but the simplest of use cases.
Read full review Pros They offer valuable guidance and educational resources to Administrators Their I.T. support is knowledgeable and responsive. And friendly! They build community among Acquia DAM (Widen) Admins They aren't as salesy and pushy as many of the other DAM Vendors that we considered. I don't feel like they are constantly trying to upsell me or take advantage. I hope this continues to be the case with the acquisition by Acquia. They're just plain nice people to work with. Read full review Cloudinary is the best in the market for photo and video transformations. Cloudinary takes customer's requests for special features and implements them very quickly. Read full review Cons Improvements in the cropping and editing features within Acquia DAM are essential to ease the workload for our graphic designers. The current functionality falls short in providing the necessary tools and precision required for efficient asset manipulation, not helping with that time management at all. Enhancing the onboarding experience, we propose creating more video tutorials for Acquia DAM. These visual guides, covering topics from account setup to collaboration features, offer dynamic, step-by-step learning. To improve the onboarding experience, we recommend expanding introductory tools and templates in Acquia DAM. Introducing more user-friendly features and providing a variety of templates will empower new users to navigate the platform with ease, fostering quicker proficiency and enhancing overall usability. Read full review Their API does require URLs that can get quite lengthy and not always easy to parse on sight. Documentation on how transformations work and what they actually do to your image could be clearer (what does force_strip actually mean?). Although a free tier exists and is quite generous, should you need to acquire a premium plan for your needs the pricing at scale can climb quickly. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Acquia DAM (Widen) is changing its pricing model and at this point, we are unsure whether it is a good thing for us or not. While we consider this a robust tool, we will take our time to evaluate the competitors.
Read full review Usability We used to have to respond to any email questions from our library users about how to find assets. With Acquia DAM (Widen), the system is similar to online shopping, workable with keywords for those who like to search that way, or with filters for those who like to browse.
Read full review Cloudinary is very easy to use and offers fast way to upload your images, files and videos to their servers. Then they give you quick ways t implement those files or images onto your website using their API or just a normal URL. They also give you very fast ways to make edits to those files and include them in the url.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Never had an issue where I was unable to access Widen.
Read full review Performance There have been a couple of rare instance where after I uploaded an asset, I was unable to rename it, or after uploading it it took a while before it actually appeared and can be viewed in the DAM.
Read full review Support Rating It's very seldom that I have to reach out for support, but when I have, there are quick solutions and follow-ups to make sure the system is working how it should be. My customer support team is also great at reaching out on a regular basis to keep me up to speed on emerging features I may be able to leverage to improve my experience.
Read full review We rarely use their support. But when we need it they are always there. They provide great consultation and suggestions to help us manage our costs and resources better. In the last 8 years perhaps we have contacted them 3 or 4 times - which is really really great
Read full review Online Training The training was very thorough. The recordings for all our traning sessions were provided to us so that we could go back and review. Our trainer was always available for follow up questions. Our trainer shared a spreadsheet with us as a checklist for all things that needed to be done to ensure proper import and setup of our assets and DAM.
Read full review Implementation Rating It was a lot of work! But worth the effort to get our assets cleaned up and organized. Enough time and personnel need to be allotted for any implementation, but we had some advantage in having our assets in a previous DAM with attached metadata in XML, and our users were prepared with knowledge of our existing DAM at that time. Though old habits present their own issues, a company that is starting from scratch with no DAM has to think farther ahead about how it will organize and collect assets. Far more pre-planning with stakeholders would be needed for a company starting an implementation from scratch.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Compared to
Google Drive , the DAM platform stands out as a significantly advanced solution, offering additional features that elevate the user experience and functionality. While
Google Drive excels in basic file storage and sharing, the DAM platform goes beyond these fundamentals, providing enhanced capabilities that cater to diverse needs.
Read full review Cloudinary seemed to be the most sophisticated with the most documentation and platform support. Other solutions seemed to be a lot harder to implement, however, due to the good documentation and API samples on their GitHub we were able to implement it nicely. Additionally, they have a lot of really well-known brands using them like Wired, Sky News, and eBay which gave us a lot of confidence that this was a good robust solution to use and to help others with
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model Can not give an accurate rating.
Read full review Return on Investment The central area for all images and videos is excellent. It has helped improve brand visuals and reduced requests on creative teams. Due to our small user base (50), many features are not fully used by our business, the small user base is mainly down to costs and budgets set at the start of the year which is a shame as the benefits would be great but the step in costs is too great to transition effectively. Uploading photoshoots can be tricky due to restrictions on upload and edit counts. Read full review Images are essential to our product and using Cloudinary has allowed us to serve them up in a cost-effective and efficient way. Not having to worry about your images frees you up to tackle the real challenges for your product. Read full review ScreenShots Acquia DAM (Widen) Screenshots