Brandfolder vs. Collage: Choosing the Right DAM for Your Team
A generation of marketing teams adopted Brandfolder in the 2010s as their first Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. At the time, it felt powerful and comprehensive.
However, layers of enterprise complexity began to slow Brandfolder users down rather than support them. Features that looked impressive in a demo became bottlenecks when marketers were simply trying to get the right asset to the right partner.
As DAM renewal deadlines approach, long-time Brandfolder customers are asking a practical question: Does this platform still support how we work, or are we working around it?
Brandfolder users tell us they feel overwhelmed by the platform’s scope and underwhelmed by its day-to-day ease of use. That’s why so many teams make their way to Collage. Collage is different. It’s built for external distribution, self-serve access, and easy management of brand identity.
Here are the three areas where teams feel a noticeable improvement when switching from Brandfolder to Collage.
1. User Experience for the Core Team
Brandfolder was built over a decade ago. Its evolution has been shaped by acquisitions, enterprise requirements, and deep integrations into the broader Smartsheet ecosystem. The result is a system optimized for scale and governance, often at the expense of everyday usability.
For core DAM users, the workspace can feel rigid. Taxonomies must be carefully maintained. Permissions require ongoing oversight and updates. Publishing and organizing assets becomes a process rather than a quick action.
Collage was built for ease of use, inspired by modern design systems. The workspace is lightweight, flexible, and fast. Organizing, publishing, and updating assets takes minutes and does not require extensive oversight.
The system fits how marketing teams naturally work instead of forcing teams to adapt to it.
2. Distributing Assets to “Second Layer” Users
The value of a DAM is strongly influenced by how people outside the core team use it. These “second layer” users include sales teams, field reps, agencies, retailers, partners, and distributors.
These groups significantly grow the reach of your brand. If their adoption is low, distribution suffers regardless of how well the DAM is organized.
This is where many Brandfolder teams struggle. While storage and organization are strong, non-admin users find the system difficult to navigate. Marketing teams still end up sending assets individually over email or Slack because it’s faster than explaining how to use the DAM.
Collage is designed to support second-layer users from the beginning. Brand Portals are easily customized, intuitive to browse, and require little explanation. It only takes a few clicks to go from a landing page to downloading the correct asset.
Distribution is a core part of Collage, not an afterthought.
3. The De Facto DAM Admin
Many enterprise DAM platforms create an unofficial role within the core team: The De Facto DAM Admin.
This role usually falls to a junior creative or content specialist who ends up managing permissions, approving requests, maintaining taxonomy, training new users, troubleshooting access, and acting as the gatekeeper for assets.
The platform unintentionally centralizes asset distribution around one person. The admin spends a disproportionate amount of time maintaining the system and serving users individually instead of focusing on creative and brand work.
Collage’s simplicity and self-serve design allow teams to access what they need without relying on a single administrator. Teams regain time to focus on the work that matters, balancing the workload across the core team.
Migration and Switching from Brandfolder
Switching systems sounds complex, but for most teams, the migration from Brandfolder to Collage is straightforward.
The process typically includes asset transfer, metadata mapping, and permissions alignment.
Collage provides hands-on support throughout, and most teams are fully migrated within two business days. There’s minimal disruption to ongoing campaigns or creative work.
When It Is Time to Reconsider Brandfolder
Reconsider Brandfolder when:
- Usage is low
- Content distribution regresses to ad-hoc requests
- External partners require training and demos of the DAM
- Marketing acts as the asset gatekeeper
- Managing the DAM requires quarterly reviews and its own meetings
If any of these conditions apply, it’s time to switch to a DAM focused on the essentials. Collage gives you:
- Easy access and management for internal users
- Streamlined distribution for external audiences
- Low administrative overhead
- Fast onboarding and intuitive UX
The Bottom Line
The system that once felt “powerful” starts to feel heavy.
External partners need hand-holding, and one team member quietly took on the administration of a system that isn’t creating a return on the time or money invested.
If your DAM requires governance meetings to function, it’s not serving your team. Your team is serving the DAM.
Collage’s founders helped build Brandfolder from its earliest days. We saw where it buckled, so we built Collage differently. Brandfolder was a logical first-wave DAM for many organizations, but there’s another shift in SaaS happening.
As brands balance AI readiness with tighter budgets, teams need a future-focused system that can surface and distribute the right assets without adding operational overhead.
Collage offers a modern replacement designed for distribution, visibility, and creative efficiency—helping brands get more value out of the content they produce.