Newly adopted. Chose against Photoshelter for UX, Easy search, Visual Library.
Updated May 31, 2022

Newly adopted. Chose against Photoshelter for UX, Easy search, Visual Library.

Tara Collins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Canto

We have years of photos from the field of our nonprofit work that have never been organized properly, so we were in need of a photo management solution to better organize and locate the assets we have.

We're currently in the process of implementing it, and hope it will save our team lots of time in the future as we grow and scale. It will be used across the whole organization, but mainly across marketing/creative/fundraising functions.
  • It has an easy UX and search capabilities
  • The visual library is so easy to navigate, and has a better visual experience than most competitors
  • It feels simplistic once you're trained and get the hang of it
  • The albums/folders are a little confusing, but their team is helpful in assisting
  • The entire application does not feel like it's built for retina Mac screens. Most buttons/features appear slightly pixelated on my Mac, and it feels like they haven't adapted it to be high-resolution for Mac retina screens.
  • I would love to see how they're constantly evolving and improving (not sure if they are)
  • Too early to tell, but we assume it will save us hours previously wasted searching Dropbox for org photos
  • It will help us get more return and use out of the photo assets we already have
We heavily evaluated Libris by PhotoShelter. I think if we were a larger, more corporate organization, we would have been more likely to adopt it. It didn't have a great UX though.

Do you think Canto delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Canto's feature set?

Yes

Did Canto live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Canto go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Canto again?

Yes

It's great for small organizations who aren't looking for a super complicated system—but would like complex features as their org scales in the future. This is the best of both worlds with simplicity and high-powered tagging/metadata features.

Overall, the search functions and visual library sold me. Great for a staff that isn't the most tech-savvy or maintaining close attention to detail. Don't implement though unless you have a clear project manager over Canto with clear structure on asset uploads/tagging. It is work up front (for every system, not just Canto), but the simplicity of the service comes later if you set it up well.

Canto Support

So far, receiving great support. Not sure if it will decline after our 30-day onboarding experience though.

Using Canto

It's visual organization of images is awesome - better than others out there, but the folder/album structure is somewhat confusing and not the most intuitive. Also I love scrolling through the image library with their great search feature, but beware that at a certain point on your scroll - the whole Canto site will just refresh, starting you back at your original search results -- effectively losing your visual place in search. I've noted this to the Canto team, but still see the problem happening.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • search
  • downloading images
  • tagging
  • organizing in albums/folders
  • building a portal
  • uploading mass amounts of imagery with the right details