Put your media in order with the top 14 best photo library programs
Do you handle a lot of photos and visuals?
Photo library software could save the day and prevent you from having a nervous breakdown at every iconographic😤 search.
Photo library applications and software do several things at once: store your photos, of course, but also classify them, index them and sometimes rework them a little.
But there's no point investing in a gas factory if all you need is a simple visual search engine!
To help you find the software that's right for you, here are the top 14 best photo library software packages.
Photo library software: what's in it for the company?
The accumulation of photos and multimedia files on company servers is bad for both the environment and productivity. Digital overstocking consumes energy unnecessarily and reduces the company's carbon footprint.
What's more, the lack of effective management of image, video and audio files wastes time looking for the right visual.
Setting up a photo library is an essential solution for streamlining the use of multimedia files, for a number of reasons:
- everything is centralised in a single tool, so you don't have to identify the location of the image or video in order to use it;
- each file is classified and indexed using keywords, making it easy to find using a search engine🔍 ;
- the photo library also makes it easier to manage copyright and rights to use visuals, as well as image rights.
💡 Most photo library software is considered DAM (Digital Asset Management) designed to manage digital assets.
ACDSee
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, image professionals.
ACDSee is efficient photo library software for managing, organising and storing digital assets.
It uses artificial intelligence to sort photos using facial recognition and geolocation functions. The software supports the RAW format so popular with photographers, and lets you edit and retouch images.
You can import images from Picasa and Lightroom, but also access your photos without importing them. The software also manages batch retouching, which is really handy when you've got several images to process!
👍 The benefits
- Free updates, lots of tutorials and useful advice for beginners,
- Import from Picasa and Lightroom,
- Batch image processing,
- Synchronisation with your phone,
- RAW support for over 550 digital camera models.
ACDSee Photo Studio
Adobe Bridge
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Large companies, image professionals and photographers.
Adobe Bridge is the photo library software in the Adobe suite for previewing, editing and organising photos.
Tags, keywords and categories can be added to the metadata to enable classification and search using filters.
Integration with the Adobe suite is the main strength of this DAM software, since you can open photos in Creative Cloud, publish them on Adobe Stock or edit them with Photoshop. That's why this software is often used by companies involved in graphic design or photography.
Finally, Bridge lets you view photos as thumbnails without opening them, which saves a great deal of time.
👍 The benefits
- Free with Creative Cloud subscription,
- Export or rename files in batches,
- On-demand metadata generation,
- Creation of PDF contact sheets (portfolio).
Alphasia
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Large companies and local authorities.
Alphasia is a full web (SaaS) media library and image management solution for organising iconographic collections (videos, images, sounds, documents). It has been developed by the French company Agelia (FIGA group).
The photo library provides intuitive file classification and simple indexing assisted by artificial intelligence.
Available in full web multi-support, this platform can be integrated in white label, without limitation of size or number of files.
Images can be geolocated and made available internally or externally.
👍 The benefits
- French and multilingual software,
- All file types accepted, with no storage or user limits,
- Unlimited number of customisable index fields,
- Download authorisation management,
- Automatic image indexing.
Aprimo
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, image professionals.
Developed by Teradata Corporation, Aprimo is DAM software in SaaS mode designed for B2B and B2C companies.
Focused on improving the customer experience, Aprimo facilitates the work of marketing teams, retailers and creative professionals.
The platform offers metadata management and resource sharing, as well as workflow management and access permissions.
Digital files are stored in a single location, making them easier to find and use.
👍 The benefits
- Advanced features for sharing with clients,
- Simple, intuitive user interface,
- Integration with other Aprimo solutions,
- Preview videos and images without opening them.
Asset Bank
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Large companies, image professionals.
Asset Bank is a DAM software package developed to manage and organise all your multimedia files within the company.
Developed by Bright, a UK company, it supports all file formats, including video, audio, images and documents.
You can upload files in bulk and send links to external service providers. The software also detects duplicates and integrates APIs for implementation in different solutions, including a Wordpress site.
Finally, Asset Bank offers flexible metadata with free zones to optimise indexing.
👍 The benefits
- Fine-grained management of file access and use rights,
- Automatic tagging using artificial intelligence,
- Saving of searches,
- File conversion for downloading,
- External sharing of galleries and files.
Brandfolder
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Large, small and medium-sized businesses.
Brandfolder is a very popular digital asset management software.
It lets you store, organise and share images, videos and other files via a cloud platform.
Regularly backed up, storage space is unlimited for each customer.
Files can be indexed by artificial intelligence using facial recognition and geolocation.
👍 The benefits
- Management of HD video, images and 3D,
- Multiple possibilities for organising visuals,
- Ability to find similar images thanks to artificial intelligence,
- Uncluttered design,
- Possibility of inviting users (e.g. customers) free of charge.
Brandfolder
DigiKam
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, large companies.
Free and open source, DigiKam software is considered one of the best for managing, sorting and classifying photos. It can manage over 100,000 images in the form of RAW files or photos.
Photos can be imported according to different scenarios that you configure yourself. Metadata, comments and tags can be customised to make it easy to find photos according to specific criteria.
DigiKam can also decode RAW files from the latest camera models, thanks to a regularly updated library.
👍 The benefits
- Open source and free to use,
- Allows the coding of custom plugins,
- Compatible with macOS, Windows and Linux,
- Can be stored on a local or remote server,
- The "Similarity" function detects duplicates.
Ephoto Dam
🙋♀️ Who is it for? SMEs and large companies.
Ephoto Dam is a comprehensive DAM software package that supports the media content management needs of large organisations.
With just a few clicks, you can import, search and share all your digital assets, even very large volumes, and collaborate easily on your creations. With Ephoto Dam, you can also administer your content, for example by setting user access rights or managing rights assignment contracts.
To make your processes run more smoothly, the solution integrates with a number of tools, via plugins for the Adobe CC suite, the Akeneo PIM, Microsoft Office and the Wordpress and Drupal CMSs.
👍 The benefits
- Numerous extensions available for your business applications,
- Mobile application for working on the move,
- Various media search modes: contextual facets, similarity, geolocation, etc,
- Direct publication on social networks,
- Automatic file indexing.
Ephoto Dam
Image Relay
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, large companies.
Image Relay is cloud-based photo library software that lets you upload, organise and manage your multimedia files.
This SaaS software, created in 2002, is scalable and offers a range of functions, including presentation and conversion of multimedia files. It can be installed as a complete white label application, and can incorporate APIs for implementation with your other programs, such as a PIM.
Available only in English, it supports many other retouching and editing programs.
👍 The benefits
- API integration,
- Easy to use and intuitive platform,
- Possibility of making the photo library available to customers or suppliers,
- Online availability (Saas software) with no need to download applications.
Libris DAM
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Large companies, image professionals.
Libris DAM is one of the best DAM software packages on the market. With its cloud-based platform, it lets you upload and store multimedia files on which different people can collaborate.
Its storage and management capacity makes it a particularly robust and powerful tool.
Libris DAM also lets you change photo resolution, format and other data directly online.
The software is easy to use and intuitive. It lets you share files without having to download them.
👍 The benefits
- Cloud-based Saas platform with powerful access controls,
- Photo and video content management and online sharing,
- Conversion and resizing on the platform,
- Individualised configuration of each gallery.
Phraseanet
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, large companies.
Phraseanet is also a free, open source photo library software for managing your digital files. Developed by Alchemy, the tool can be downloaded and configured to suit your needs. You can add functionality by coding plugins or downloading them from the site.
A community of experts and users, as well as SaaS services, are available for support.
In addition, Phraseanet offers all the functions expected of a photo library: indexing, annotation, validation, publication, etc. Searches can be carried out in full text or by keyword.
👍 The benefits
- Open source, customisable software,
- Import documents individually or in batches,
- Publication to external sites (video streaming, social networks, etc.),
- Access control and authorisations for resources,
- Software in SaaS mode, compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux and available on a range of browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc.).
Phraseanet
Pics.io
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises.
Pics.io is easy-to-use digital asset management software. Available as a SaaS model, files are uploaded and managed in the cloud.
Pics.io enables search and filtering, access control and filing of different files. Documents are synchronised in the cloud and can be easily integrated with other software such as Slack or Google Drive.
Artificial intelligence enables files to be tagged to make them easier to index and search (dynamic tagging).
👍 The benefits
- Intuitive, user-friendly interface,
- Easy to set up,
- Several price levels depending on the number of users,
- File sharing and collaboration between team members,
- Seamless integration with Google Drive.
Pics.io
Piwigo
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, image professionals.
Piwigo is an open source online photo library available for download or cloud hosting.
It offers full functionality: album hierarchy, batch management, access control, etc.
As the code is open, you can configure the application as you like by adding plugins. Photos can be transferred via the web, FTP or a remote application.
👍 The benefits
- Easy to install and update,
- Pleasant user interface that encourages users to leave comments and notes,
- Automatic import of metadata,
- Integration with APIs in different environments (Wordpress, Lightroom, etc.).
Wikipixel
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Image professionals, small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, local authorities.
Wikipixel is a professional solution for managing digital media in the cloud: image files, photos, 3D, videos, plans, audio, etc. Centralised in one place, these media are indexed and accessible from any web browser.
This DAM software also manages copyright and access rights, and enables files to be shared online for collaboration between different teams or with customers. It can also be used as document management software (EDM).
The solution is developed by a French company, Provencemédia, based near Avignon.
👍 The benefits
- French company and responsive support,
- Batch editing,
- Integrated instant messaging,
- File archiving and sharing.
Zoner Photo Studio
🙋♀️ Who is it for? Entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, beginners.
Zoner Photo Studio X is photo library software with fairly standard photo management and editing functions. Files are automatically sorted into folders as soon as they are imported, and you can then add labels, descriptions and keywords.
The integrated photo editor makes retouching easy, with intelligent layers and filters.
The software's strong point is that it makes it easy to share directly on social networks, as well as allowing you to create media (photo books, canvas prints, calendars, etc.).
👍 The benefits
- Integration with the most popular clouds (Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox),
- Ability to create printed media from photos,
- Preset filters and layers for easy retouching,
- Sharing on social networks.
In conclusion
There are a huge number of photo library and Digital Asset Management software packages on the market, and it's easy to get confused 🤪.
Most of them offer trial versions or demonstrations: so don't deprive yourself of these to find out which solution best meets your needs!
Article translated from French
Currently Editorial Manager, Jennifer Montérémal joined the Appvizer team in 2019. Since then, she's been putting her expertise in web copywriting, copywriting and SEO optimisation to work for the company, with her sights set on reader satisfaction 😀 !
A medievalist by training, Jennifer took a short break from fortified castles and other manuscripts to discover her passion for content marketing. She took away from her studies the skills expected of a good copywriter: understanding and analysing the subject, conveying the information, with a real mastery of the pen (without systematically resorting to a certain AI 🤫).
An anecdote about Jennifer? She stood out at Appvizer for her karaoke skills and her boundless knowledge of musical dreck 🎤.