DAM for designers
Digital asset management for designers: what it does, what it costs, what it will not do
A design team needs a digital asset management (DAM) system when it spends its days sending files: the logo for sales, the resized banner for a reseller, the “final” PDF for a client who still has last month’s version.
Updated October 2026. Prices were read on each vendor’s own pricing page on 4 October 2026.
A DAM puts finished work in one searchable library where other people help themselves, and moves feedback from email onto the file. A designer working alone usually does not need one.
This guide covers what a DAM does for designers, how approval works step by step, what the tools cost, and what Filecamp does not do. We make Filecamp, so we start with the awkward part: it has no Adobe or Figma plug-in.
Do you need a DAM, or is a folder enough?
If you work alone, a desktop organiser is enough. Adobe Bridge is free. Eagle is a one-time licence of $34.95. Both tag and search your own files well, and neither is built for sharing with clients.
If a team hands files to other people, a DAM starts to pay when:
- marketing, sales or clients ask you for the same logo or image every week;
- nobody is sure which file is the approved one;
- feedback arrives in email, chat and phone calls, about different versions;
- files go to people outside the company, and you want them to see your brand, not a storage provider’s.
What a DAM does for a design team
One library other people can search. Files are found by tags, descriptions and labels, not by remembering who saved them where. In Filecamp, search covers names, descriptions, tags, author and copyright, with filters for type, label and date. AI tags for images come with the Advanced and Professional plans.
Previews of design files in the browser. Filecamp shows Photoshop, Illustrator, EPS, PDF, TIFF and SVG files, camera raw files and video, so a marketer can check a file without owning the application. InDesign files are stored and shared like any other file but show an icon, not a preview; put a PDF next to them.
Versions. Upload a new version of a file and it becomes the current one. Earlier versions stay available to open and download.
Sharing with clients and partners. Send a link to a file, a folder or a collection, for viewing only or for download, with an expiry date. A request-files link lets a client or photographer send files to you.
Your brand, not ours. Your logo and colours on every plan. On Advanced and Professional each client or brand can have its own look, and guidelines can live on Pages next to the files. On Professional the library runs on your own web address.
Feedback and approval on the file itself. This needs the Professional plan.
Approval, step by step
- Upload the draft to a folder where commenting is switched on. Commenting is set per folder.
- Invite the reviewers. Colleagues get access to the folder. Clients open a link and register themselves on the review page, so you do not create accounts for them, and since users are unlimited they cost nothing.
- Reviewers comment on the spot they mean. A click places a numbered marker on the design; the comment sits beside it. Everyone sees the same thread, so the same correction is not sent three times.
- Upload the new version. The earlier version stays, with the comments that belonged to it.
- Record the decision with a label, such as “Changes requested” or “Approved”. Anyone can see where a file stands, and you can filter the library by label. Your own label names come with Advanced and Professional.
Worth knowing before you promise it to a client: reviewers who register themselves do not get email notifications; there is no side-by-side comparison of two versions; a multi-page PDF is approved as one file; and there are no automatic reminders or deadlines.
Does it work with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Figma or Canva?
There is no plug-in. You save or export as usual and drag the files into the browser, or connect Filecamp as a drive (WebDAV, on every plan) and copy folders across from Finder or Windows Explorer.
If a panel inside Creative Cloud or Figma is central to how you work, you need a different tool, and it rarely sits on the cheapest plan: on the vendors’ own pricing pages the plug-in starts at $109 a month at Dash, $175 at Stockpress, $625 at Sparkfive, $695 at Kontainer and $800 at Pics.io.
What it costs
| Tool | Published price | Users |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe Bridge | Free (desktop) | One designer |
| Eagle | $34.95 once (desktop) | One designer |
| Filecamp | $29 / $59 / $89 a month | Unlimited |
| Stockpress | $99 a month (200 GB); a free plan has 3 GB | Unlimited |
| Brandkit | from $99 a month | Unlimited |
| Dash | $109 a month (10 GB) | Unlimited |
| Pics.io | $100 a month for one user; $250 for ten; $800 for fifty | Per plan, $15 to $25 per extra user |
| Sparkfive | $310 a month (ten users, 500 GB) | $15 per extra user |
| Kontainer | $500 to $2,220 a month | 25 to 2,000 |
| Canto, Bynder, globaledit | no published price |
A design team rarely works alone: marketers, sales people, clients and freelancers all need to get in. Count those logins before you compare prices. More in what digital asset management tools cost.
Which Filecamp plan a design team needs
| Plan | Per month | Storage | For a design team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | 20 GB | The library: previews, versions, sharing links, permissions, labels |
| Advanced | $59 | 50 GB | A look per client or brand, Pages for guidelines, collections, AI tags, your own label names |
| Professional | $89 | 100 GB | Comments with markers for approval, your own domain, access requests |
If approval is why you are here, you need Professional. The 30-day trial runs on Professional, without a credit card, so you can test it with a real project. Design files are large: another 100 GB is $45 a month.
What Filecamp does not do
No plug-in for Adobe, Figma or Canva. No public API and no single sign-on yet; both are planned for the end of 2026. No approval routing, reminders or deadlines, and no side-by-side comparison of versions. No preview of InDesign files. No password-protected links and no two-factor login. If one of those is a must today, a larger tool is the better fit.
Questions designers ask
Does everyone get the latest file? Yes. The newest version is the one people see and download; the older ones sit behind it.
Can a client comment without an account? They open a link and register themselves, which takes a moment and costs nothing.
How do I stop the “send me the logo” requests? Put the logos, fonts and templates in one folder, share it with a link that does not expire, and keep the guidelines on a Page next to them. Then the answer to every request is the same link.
How should we name and sort the files? We wrote that up separately: file management for graphic designers and marketers.
Is our work safe? Files are stored on Microsoft Azure in your region, connections use HTTPS, stored files are encrypted, and all data is backed up daily with backups kept for 30 days. Nothing is public unless you share it.
Filecamp is a fantastic solution, easy to use, and cost-efficient. We love the file-sharing function,
which allows us to collaborate on files for marketing projects with our partners and customers.
Try it with a real project
The trial is 30 days on the Professional plan, so commenting and approval are included, and it needs no credit card.
Anna Larson
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