The 8 best Canto alternatives in 2026

1. MiseOur pick

A brand asset library built for the AI era: AI does the filing, tagging and creating, and your team approves it. Enter your website and Mise builds your brand kit; drop in your files and they're tagged, described and searchable the same day.

• Pricing: Free to start with your brand kit, 50 files and one Studio run, no card. Pro is £149 a month per brand (or £1,490 a year) plus VAT, with unlimited files and users and no seat fees; 7-day free trial, cancel any time. Enterprise, from £10,000 a year, puts all your brands on one contract and adds SSO, roles, audit log, a security pack, DPA and migration help.
• Pros: Brand kit (colours, type, logos, imagery rules) built from your website or Figma design system; every upload auto-tagged, described and given alt text; AI search across names, product IDs and image content; a review queue for drafts, duplicates and off-brand items; branded share links and portals; licence expiry dates, with expired files blocked automatically; 200 on-brand Studio designs a month; works inside Claude, Cursor and Codex, and pushes assets into Figma.
• Cons: SSO, roles and audit log come with Enterprise only; Google Drive, Dropbox and Box imports are one-off copies rather than live sync; Shopify sync is still to come; videos are capped at 1GB per file; as a new product it has no third-party reviews yet.
• Best for: Marketing, brand, CRM and ecommerce teams paying for a DAM they barely use, or keeping assets in Dropbox because a DAM was too expensive.
• Not for: Organisations that need deep multi-stage approval workflows across hundreds of users, or heavy video production.

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2. Dash

A UK-built DAM with simple, published pricing and unlimited users on every plan.

• Pricing: $109 to $589 a month, with a 10GB storage base and extra storage at £25 per 10GB. 14-day free trial.
• Pros: Easy to use; reviewers single out its value for money compared with Bynder.
• Cons: Auto-tags can be inaccurate; no download tracking on embed links; 10GB base storage fills quickly for video-heavy teams.
• Best for: Small and mid-size brands that want something live this week.
• Not for: Teams with large video libraries.

3. Air

A creative-team DAM that leans hard into AI generation and editing.

• Pricing: Credit-based with unlimited users. Free plan with 120 credits a month; paid plans from about $25 a month per G2's listing.
• Pros: 50+ AI image and video models; strong search and collaboration; public API and MCP server.
• Cons: Reviewers find it pricey for freelancers and small businesses; tagging can be laborious; credit pricing is harder to forecast.
• Best for: Content and social teams producing a lot of new imagery.
• Not for: Teams that need a predictable fixed bill.

4. Pics.io

A DAM that can sit on top of your own Google Drive or S3 storage.

• Pricing: $100 a month (Solo) to $800 a month (Small, 50+ users); Enterprise is quoted. 7-day free trial; AI features cost from $50 a month extra.
• Pros: Cost-effective, especially if you already pay for storage; full API on larger plans.
• Cons: AI tags are generic; navigation can be confusing; no Figma plugin.
• Best for: Teams that want to keep files where they already are.
• Not for: Design teams who live in Figma.

5. Frontify

Brand guidelines and assets in one platform, popular with design-led brands and priced by monthly active users.

• Pricing: Quote only, charged by monthly active users (anyone who logs in during a month, partners and freelancers included, averaged over six months). Vendr's data on 37 purchases puts the median at $33,033 a year.
• Pros: A single source of truth for brand guidelines; strong Figma plugin; fast, helpful support; MCP server on GitHub.
• Cons: The admin side has a learning curve; the template editor is weaker than Canva's; active-user pricing grows every time a partner logs in.
• Best for: Brand teams whose main job is publishing and policing guidelines.
• Not for: Teams with lots of occasional or external users, or tight budgets.

6. Brandfolder

Brandfolder by Smartsheet, a mid-market DAM focused on organising and sharing. Smartsheet bought it in 2020 and was itself taken private by Blackstone and Vista in January 2025.

• Pricing: Quote only, on Premium and Enterprise plans. Vendr's data on 30 deals puts the median at $24,999 a year, with a range of about $12,000 to $55,000.
• Pros: Easy to organise; good internal and external sharing; Premium includes SAML SSO, asset expiry dates and video AI with transcription.
• Cons: Search is the most common complaint on G2; reviewers call it expensive, and one reported a 37% price rise in year two.
• Best for: Teams already using Smartsheet, or sharing heavily with outside partners.
• Not for: Teams that want published prices or predictable renewals.

7. Acquia DAM

The former Widen, now part of Acquia's digital experience suite.

• Pricing: Quote only, by organisation size, users, storage and features.
• Pros: Flexible, well-supported; around 300 integrations; native MCP server; AI alt text and video tools.
• Cons: Reviewers want better dashboards and reporting; some search issues; Figma only through a third-party connector.
• Best for: Enterprises already on Acquia or Drupal.
• Not for: Small teams that want to self-serve.

8. Bynder

The best-known enterprise DAM, majority-owned by Thomas H. Lee Partners since 2022, sold as modules on annual contracts.

• Pricing: Quote only. Vendr's data on 81 purchases puts the median at $41,800 a year, with most deals between about $10,000 and $87,000.
• Pros: Polished interface and strong support; deep workflow, governance and 160+ integrations; MCP server launched September 2026.
• Cons: Expensive, with 3-5% annual escalators common; modules and add-ons cost extra; onboarding takes weeks to a couple of months; steep learning curve for advanced features.
• Best for: Global enterprises with hundreds of users and complex governance.
• Not for: Teams that want published prices or to be live this week.