Canto vs. Image Relay

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Canto
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Canto delivers digital asset management capabilities while offering an intuitive experience for teams. Canto's AI Visual Search enables users to search their brand libraries using natural language.N/A
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Image Relay Marketing Delivery keeps digital assets and product information in one place with the goal of supporting fast, seamless creation and delivery.N/A
Pricing
CantoImage Relay
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CantoImage Relay
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCanto's platform, supported by a flexible and transparent pricing structure, caters to a diverse array of industries. It empowers companies ranging from teams of 50 employees to global enterprises to fuel their content delivery, maximizing their ROI.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CantoImage Relay
Considered Both Products
Canto
Chose Canto
We chose Canto because of the cost, customer service, and features. We were also impressed with the onboarding process.
Chose Canto
I have not used any other Canto-like products, but Canto is greatly superior to saving corporate visual assets on the cloud in complex folder structures that cannot be auto-searched by what the visuals represent.
Chose Canto
Canto was one of the most cost effective options and was the only one that included all of the features that we were looking for (AI tagging, facial recognition, PMS integrations, OCR text recognition, etc)
Chose Canto
It's hard to find anything by default in dropbox vs canto. There's basically no search features compared to Canto.
Chose Canto
Canto is much more visual based, and really like the sharing link.
Chose Canto
I used Canto Cumulus many years ago which is why I recommended Canto for us. We had hoped it would fit better with our very broad needs, but several people have recommended we pursue Media Valet, assuming we continue to look for a DAM. They feel it is more applicable to …
Chose Canto
Dropbox is not as organized as Canto is. This is very impactful to help us stay consistent and to stay proper when managing our digital assets. Moreover, the ease of navigation is a lot better than dropbox ever was, this is a big reason why our company has been using Canto for …
Chose Canto
Canto is not the best DAM solution on the market. It feel sort of date and is based on older ways of working with assets. The performance and UX for the cost is not in alignment. I would highly recommend picking a different product for the price point. Other Dam solutions have …
Chose Canto
After researching and demoing several DAMs, we landed on Canto for several reasons: the price was lower than most of it's competitors, it integrated with our create workflow solution, and it had a simple and user-friendly interface, which was browser-based and required no …
Chose Canto
Canto provides a more powerful directory and database to support the process for input and sharing of assets.
Chose Canto
While I've only done demo versions of the listed products and others, I can say that Canto was one of the most easy to use yet robust toolkits I encountered. It can do everything you want and more, but not be too bogged down in using it. That said, some of the workflow and …
Chose Canto
I don't have enough experience with other DAMs to truly weigh them against Canto.
Chose Canto
Canto's customer service was amazing compared to bynder. I didn't feel rushed or like "just another sale" thanks to Beau Nichols. He continued to follow up (in a not-annoying way) as I was receiving approval from my company.
Chose Canto
Other teams at our university are using PhotoShelter to store and organize their photos, and I use/access PhotoShelter to download images that have been provided to us through that system as well. When using Canto, we are entering more detailed types of information on our …
Chose Canto
Canto is more robust, but it also has its disadvantages as well. Definitely offers more features and is cheaper than its competitors though.
Chose Canto
I have not used other DAMs. I have used Dropbox. which I do not like at all. DB is just a folder system that adds tagging. It's bulky and not a DAM at all to me.
Chose Canto
We evaluated Bynder when we were searching for a DAM. We ultimately chose Canto because it made more sense for our organization in terms of the face detection, and how the assets were handled. Bynder was too robust for our needs.
Chose Canto
Canto is more visible than Dropbox, which we were using before making the switch. We are able to share assets easier and theoretically search assets easier as well, but the open nature of Canto has led to some data integrity issues which we are working through. The tagging …
Chose Canto
Bynder has more focus on media creation and brand management; we needed an easy way to access mainly pictures and stories from all our locations and from the field.
Chose Canto
This was selected by the University.
Chose Canto
I don't know of any other products like Canto.
Chose Canto
Much more storage, tags, better system. less clutter.
Image Relay
Chose Image Relay
The decision really seemed to come down to the interface, the value, and the approach to innovating how the assets were stored and accessed. It was important to us that our DAM has plenty of features and options while also not being over-designed or overcomplicated. It needed …
Chose Image Relay
The discovery process was by far the best with Image Relay. We did not have to waste time on several sales calls before they gave us a real demo and answered our specific questions. We got EVERYTHING we needed to know in the first meeting and that ultimately did help us make …
Chose Image Relay
Image Relay convinced us with an excellent pitch, a competitive price, and great support.
Chose Image Relay
I find Image Relay to be superior to all three platforms mentioned above. IR is faster, has a cleaner interface, has outstanding support, and is highly customizable. Image Relay just makes sense for us on every level. While there are other options, some free, nothing stacks up …
Chose Image Relay
I got a presentation from each and I felt the connection with Image Relay was better for me. Every need we had were covered by the Image Relay system. The presentation was really professional and we could feel that they knew what they were doing. Of course, the price was also a …
Chose Image Relay
We were using our in-house storage NAS system and Backup on DVD and hard drive. The issue is that we lost a lot of data by it either crashing or becoming unreadable. And it's very difficult to organize and share data. To share data we were using WeTransfer, but the issue is …
Chose Image Relay
Google Drive does not have the same capacity and functions that Image Relay has, so it is really no competition at all. I really enjoy all the functions that Image Relay has that other companies may not have considered.
Chose Image Relay
We compared Image Relay to a couple of other digital asset management systems and chose Image Relay based on a strong recommendation from the company that digitized thousands of our archived photos and documents. They noted that many of the features are similar product to …
Chose Image Relay
Image Relay's share function works similarly to these other products, which worked well enough for us. But Image Relay's share function makes the process of searching for, selecting, and sharing photos fast and seamless. There's also less need to clean out old files and photos. …
Chose Image Relay
Drive is good but the way to find and organize folders is less user-friendly. Sharepoint is not user-friendly at all. We Transfer is easy to share and download once but not as a permanent online library. I really think Image Relay is the best option to create a common space …
Chose Image Relay
We have always used dropbox or google drive and while they have served their purpose, they don't operate on the same level as Image Relay. The easy-to-use organization along with the ability to create your own APIs and do mass moves and uploads and distinct meta-tagging is key …
Chose Image Relay
We used Kwikee (which is now Syndigo I believe) for many years. Clunky interface and it was very slow to get new assets up. Image Relay was a very refreshing change!
Chose Image Relay
I have used several digital asset management systems in relation to archives work, and I think Image Relay is the most user-friendly and clean looking.
Chose Image Relay
I created a rubric to compare IR with Intelligence Bank and PhotoShelter. Some of the comparisons were close, but ultimately the intuitive user interface, price, and back-end programming (as analyzed by our web guy) helped us select Image Relay.
Chose Image Relay
Image Relay is much more user friendly. It is also much easier to upload files to Image Relay.
Chose Image Relay
Image Relay is much more user-friendly and easy to access. I struggled with Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Teams because it is so much simpler in layout and structure. You do not need to hunt around forever to find what you're looking for. It is also more cost-effective …
Chose Image Relay
Canto Cumulus was the best competition. It did a few of the things mentioned earlier a little better. We had chosen Image Relay before finding Canto, and have not felt compelled strongly enough to switch. If we were starting over, we might start with Canto.
Features
CantoImage Relay
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Canto
6.7
Ratings
6% below category average
Image Relay
-
Ratings
Dashboards6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports6.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Content analytics6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
DAM Features
Comparison of DAM Features features of Product A and Product B
Canto
7.2
Ratings
15% below category average
Image Relay
-
Ratings
Uploading assets7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Downloading assets8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Categories7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset storage8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset sharing8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset search7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Tagging system7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Content editing6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Embed codes7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Metadata6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Collections7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
User access6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
DAM Integrations6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
DAM API7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow automations5.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Related asset discovery6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CantoImage Relay
Small Businesses
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.1 out of 10
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CantoImage Relay
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.6
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
3.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CantoImage Relay
Likelihood to Recommend
Canto is an excellent tool for organizing assets and searching for them in one location. I also really enjoy using the mobile version of Canto on my smartphone when I am on the go. Canto is robust and fast and it has been a major advancement in the way that my organization stores and shares assets.
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Image Relay is perfect for a creative team that is putting out a lot of content and always creating more. It works great with freelancers and has customizable access for different groups of individuals. I have not seen the PIM side of things with Image Relay. Management chose a different system for our PIM but it was prior to learning about Image Relay. The system we have for PIM seemed more robust for syndicating to multiple channels, however, it does not have the collaboration a creative team needs as Image Relay does.
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Pros
  • Allowing users to download a resized version of an image self serve (eg. for social media)
  • Sharing collections where recipients can see and download high res images
  • Tagging to make searches very simple and eliminate complete folder structures
  • Tag all info about an asset in the data rather than trying to name images with this data
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  • Image Relay keeps things organized well
  • It's SO easy to create upload links and send them to people when you need materials from them. I love that you are emailed when someone uploads to a folder you created.
  • The support team is great at Image Relay too—I've rarely had any problems, but when I do or have questions they respond very quickly!
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Cons
  • I do with we could search for colors or items in Canto, for example red shirt photos
  • We have a small team, but everyone needs different levels of access, I feel like there arent many levels of access as there could be
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  • The AI tagging terms are too generic to really be helpful to us.
  • When we did our initial upload the system couldn't pull in old dates, so everything has a date of the day it was uploaded. It will be a while before searching by "most recent" works properly.
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Likelihood to Renew
We are very likely to renew our service with Canto. This is because of the support we have received and what we have seen Canto do so far for our company. We are finally able to organize our assets well and maintain governance over all of our digital assets. It has eliminated time difference issues and is equipping people within our company with a lot of content for them to use and push.
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I believe once all of our staff see how efficient Image Relay is in managing our digital assets, there will be no question that the cost vs. value will mandate continued use moving forward. It literally will pay for itself in saved staff time, I believe.
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Usability
Canto is about as easy to use as it gets. I have personally trained a handful of employees who are unfamiliar with DAM/marketing SaaS technology on how to use the platform for their needs. These trainings only take about half an hour (given they are using a very limited set of Canto's features), and afterward, they are pretty well-equipped to use the platform.
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I didn't have to be trained to figure out how to use it, everything is straight forward which is important when you have a lot of external-facing users on this platform. The folders help you navigate what you have but I also use the search feature a lot if I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
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Reliability and Availability
Canto is usually available, though sometimes goes down for 30 min - 1 hr. Usually resolved quickly
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No answers on this topic
Performance
I've satisfied with the performance
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I think Canto's onboarding process was really helpful. Our employees were able to utilize the system without excess training sessions which isn't always the case with some software. I also think that their customer support has proven to be super helpful when minor issues arise
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Amazing. We are having a quick call once a week to be sure we are right on track. They answer all our questions right away and if they are missing something they will just find the answer and get back to us as fast as possible. There is no need to look elsewhere!
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Online Training
Very knowledgable and accommodating trainers who listen to what you're asking and provide detailed yet simple instructions.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
We didn't have a thorough enough plan for ownership of uploading and tagging and some of our tags were inconsistent which led to some regression in our usage. We tightened up that plan on our end and spoke with support team on Canto's end to establish some best practices and have a much better workflow now.
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The Image Relay team was very helpful in guiding us through the process. Excellent customer service and guidance.
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Alternatives Considered
Canto was one of the most cost effective options and was the only one that included all of the features that we were looking for (AI tagging, facial recognition, PMS integrations, OCR text recognition, etc)
Read full review
The decision really seemed to come down to the interface, the value, and the approach to innovating how the assets were stored and accessed. It was important to us that our DAM has plenty of features and options while also not being over-designed or overcomplicated. It needed to have a flow and logic to it so that we could do more while not being overwhelmed or lost in the product. In all of these areas, Image Relay really seemed to stand out among the rest.
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Scalability
Canto is based on the West coast, so occasionally patches and planned outages happen during East coast working hours
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Through a public service-based portal we've created, we have decreased the number of simple service calls that our service reps receive, because customers are now able to access an online platform and help themselves. This frees up our service reps and give them more time to spend on other, more complex cases.
  • Decreases the time spent looking for assets. Simply search Canto!
  • Easily providing information to many parties that our business deals with has been very helpful in improving relationships.
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  • It is a huge time saver for our team
  • It enables us to quickly share information and files internally as well as with customers and vendors externally.
  • Being able to share files in real-time makes our decision process faster, more accurate, and far more effective.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Canto Screenshots

Screenshot of the Canto AI Visual Search to discover digital assets faster.Screenshot of asset discovery with AI Visual Search, using natural language to instantly find the most relevant images and videos in Canto.Screenshot of Canto's integrations, including Adobe Creative Suite, Hootsuite, Canva, and monday.com.Screenshot of sharing tools to push on-brand digital content to teams, channels, and platforms while maintaining control with access controls and digital rights management.Screenshot of the organized, searchable content hub, where everyone can always find what they need, when they need it.