Canto Reviews

We moved our image library over to Canto about 2 years ago and I have found it to be a reliable and easily navigable platform. It's very easy to use and out of the three DAMs I've worked with, professionally, it's the easiest and most straight-forward interface.

I have very few complaints. I would love it if we could customize the branding of the platform a little more and it would be nice if there was an option to make the lightbox preview files were a little larger. (There is an option to make them larger, but the difference between the smallest view and the largest view is negligible.) There is also an issue trying to rename files once they have been uploaded. That still doesn't work. If you need to rename a file, you'll have to rename outside of Canto and re-upload.

The product itself is straight forward, easy to use and fairly customizable. The tagging system works great, file storage is good (once you identify what you would like), upload links are beneficial and the portals are key for deliverable.

The configuration of SSO does not allow enough control for the administrators of this tool, it also caused quirks for administrative accounts, where one experience via login vs via SSO was different for the admins; and the system didn't recognize licenses as being used when configured via SSO. Overall, we had to disable it for the time being which is a big loss/hit to our change management process....

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Thanks for your feedback on the onboarding process, Kayla. We're always working to improve our processes and this information helps us out so much!

Canto is way better than trying to sort through photos on Finder or Dropbox. You can tag images and put them in folders and search for key words. I like that you can also sort by pending/approved/rejected. It helps us keep photos organized by style, season, color, etc. I like that you can share folders with certain people.

The software is not very intuitive. The sorting by date hardly works, it is very finicky. The "zoom" boxes are more distracting than useful. Portals don't sync well. Portals should have more granular access and control. The interface is basic at best. Text runs off the screen, menus don't actually expand. Certain email providers can't get access.

Several features have really simplified my photo management role. Metadata is customizable to your needs - and while it takes careful thought initially, when set up is easy to apply. 'Upload links' allow outside people to add photography directly to the system in a controlled manner - this has significantly helped with timeliness and ease of receiving photography. I love the branding portal, and the versioning capabilities. I also love the Facial Recognition feature - no more tagging the same people over and over. The company consistently improves the software and innovates - releasing frequent feature updates.

While it is fairly intuitive, there are aspects (of the portals for example) that need to be explained to a new user - this can be time consuming. I have been frustrated that new features are sometimes expensive paid add-ons, even when they were discussed as 'coming' during the research process (features I thought would be included with upcoming releases). As much as possible, try to envision future features you will need and consider that in your contract discussions.

First of all, having a single source of truth is truly a game changer. Having that one file that is mirrored in other places makes having to edit it so much simpler. Additionally, the Portals are such a nice feature so that we can "share" our assets, specific ones, to different vendors or departments within our organization takes a lot of the mundane aspects of our previous requests off our plates. There are truly so many things I love about Canto and these are just a small taste of them.

We are using Canto in the hopes that it can serve us in several ways. One area that we would like to see is more of a desktop app that functions similar to Dropbox in that we can access our files in our Finder vs. the Canto Connector for Adobe. Also, the ability to be more granular with our user permissions and rights management. And more customization with the Presets as well as the ability to designate the Focal Spot on an image. (We have lots of ideas to help improve and add to Canto but these are the top ones)

I can now share images to individuals or groups of people without being tethered to VPN, or large files on transfer sites outside of the organization.

There have been a few features that could be improved, but Canto listens to feedback and often implements the suggestions quickly, or has great solutions.

Thanks for this review, Meg! We know that sharing assets is important, so we're glad to know that Canto's features are helping your organization.

Canto has many great product, but this one is perfect for those who are struggling with photo storage and management. We use Canto to store, tag, organize and search for our photos. As a company with many events it's perfect for tagging and finding our participants. Their facial recognition has proven to be an excellent asset to us.

The system is great, however it can get bogged down with resizing photos to thumbnail, slowing the scrolling speed when manually looking/ searching for photos.

Hi Sarah, thank you for the review! We're happy to hear that you've been satisfied with both the product and the customer service!

As a project manager, what I like most about Canto is the ability to search through metadata and quickly and easily find an asset I was looking for. I also like the ability to easily share assets, through email, dropbox, links, etc.

I wish the level of access we are paying for would allow more "power users" and more storage. But, we can always purchase more as the need arises.

Thanks for the review, Elizabeth! We love that our customers are able to customize Canto to fit their specific needs!

Canto has made it easy for us to have all our usable photography accessible in one place. It's super easy to put together and share a customized set of images and logos.

Cropping and resizing is cumbersome for new users.

We appreciate your review, Christy!

It is very user-friendly. It's visual and easy to navigate. It has great search and filter features. You can send people directly to an asset without giving them access to everything.

You can upload a separate cover image; you have to use one that is already in your library; it has to be an actual asset. This is difficult if your fold of assets only contains font or color libraries, the thumbnails have no visual.

Thanks for the feedback! We are glad Canto provides a simpler way for teams to collaborate!

Canto was extremely easy to implement into our business. Previously, we stored all of our photos/videos/files on the shared drive, external hard drives and servers. Canto has allowed us to ensure all employees who require access to digital assets have access to them, regardless if they are at the office or not. We really like the convenient options for sharing files with external stakeholders, especially the sharing link. It eliminates the need to upload files to dropbox and worry about storage issues.

No cons. Each time I have had a technical issue, the Canto support staff has helped me very quickly and ensured my problem was fixed.

Thank you for your review, Breanne! We're very happy to know that Canto is so easy and effective for your team.

- High quality visual display - Easy to share assets with clients - Search functionality is awesome

- One off asset links continuously break or don't work. - Support team doesn't do much. Does a lot of blaming issues on internet. - Program logs you out constantly. - Clients are unable to mark assets as approved or not approved. - You can't filter assets by comments, only if you are tagged. - The extras are pricey - admins, contributors, portals, etc.

1. Canto team was very supportive during the onboarding process 2. Endless possibilities with tagging images 3. Ability to use directly in Adobe products with plug-in

1. No uncheck all feature 2. Issues with uploading large batch of files

Thank you for this review, Jason. To uncheck all, you can hit the "Deselect All" button in the icon bar!

Canto helps organize our thousands of digital assets. We especially like that we can upload photos, videos, music, and Adobe files. It is helpful as a photo library but also in project collaboration.

Canto is not terribly user friendly. Customer service is great and is eager to help you, but some features are buried and if not in frequent use you'll find yourself asking for help for the same tasks.

Hi Cari, thanks for reviewing Canto! We're happy to hear that Canto is your photo library that assists in collaboration. An account manager will be reaching out soon regarding any trouble you're having with locating certain features.

The ease with which metadata tagging can be accomplished is likely the greatest strength for our use of this product. We've managed to create a keyword/tag database that now allows us to navigate our full media catalog with ease, and has made our workflow infinitely more streamlined. The branding guideline and adobe integration is definitely an additional benefit we're looking to utilize to its fullest shortly.

We operate in a segment with non-standard products so, unfortunately, we can't use the "smart tagging" system to its full potential.However, for tagging the "minutia" (As we call it) within the photo, but not necessarily the focus, the smart tagging system is great.

Canto is super easy to use and makes on-boarding team members super easy. It has great commenting features that helps us with retouching and approvals. One of my other most favorite features is the edit tool to make one asset live in multiple albums etc.

I wish the interface was a bit more current some of the navigation seems a bit antiquated. For example you can't go back within the canto interface you have to go back on the browser. It is also really sensitive to internet so if you loaded a bunch of sub folders and it refreshes the browser it does not remember where you were.

The software has a bit of everything, and it just works. The most complicated element is setting up your own metadata structure, and that's really an internal conversation about organisational culture, how we think, what we need. We love the portal functionality. There are tonnes of ways to upload, and lots of nice, very different ways to add metadata to your files.

The aesthetic is slightly dated, but that's honestly a minor quibble. Sometimes keeping it simple is what helps it work so well.

Thanks for reviewing Canto, Katrina! I'm glad to hear that you're using and enjoying our Mailchimp, Google Drive and WordPress integrations!

It's a visual, web-based DAM that is incredibly easy to use and assessable from anywhere. Canto is incredibly fast and responsive, with all sorts of plug ins and extensions to integrate your favorite browser, file transfer site or software application (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premier). The Portals & User Permissions allow a lot of fine tuning to ensure each user or team has access to only the assets they should. The admin controls couldn't be easier to use, making managing access through the system a total breeze. The simplicity is and emphasize on clean visuals really puts Canto above most other platforms we've used or demonstrated. Highly recommend others take the time to see what Canto offers and how your company can benefit from what it does best.

I don't have any, to be honest. Though it would be nice if a standalone application for advanced management existed, similar to how the Advanced Uploader application makes uploading large batches of files easier - would be nice if I could perform backups, re-arranging assets, etc. through an application for complex tasks. It's not essential, but I would absolutely be able to leverage something like that since mass re-organizing albums and assets through a browser can be sluggish and difficult.

Canto has made it possible for us to eliminate the need for staff designers to find images for people across campus. With a 100-seat plan, we have been able to identify key users in departments who can locate and download their own images. With most of us working remotely during the pandemic, we have access to what we need when we need it. Batch uploading of images makes it easy to upload and tag images in a time-efficient way. Images can be saved in various albums - which is also super helpful.

While competitively priced against similar products (and less than others we looked at) it's a fairly substantial financial investment.

The three major items that drove us to choose Canto as our DAM were the friendly and effective customer service, their ease of setup and customization, and their constant drive to update and make their software better. Both our account manager and the Canto IT team are quick to respond and always willing to do what is needed to help us achieve what we need.

We had some issues early on in the setup/implementation phase as we didn't feel like we were provided with adiquate information as to what was needed for our trainings. However, once we got into the process things became more clear and everything went smoothly.

We appreciate the review, Anthony. We're glad to hear your experience with customer support has been positive!

The best part about Canto, for us, is the Portals feature. They're perfect for us to provide individual dealers with the authorized assets they need, while keeping our internal non-client ready assets separate. We also love the self registration feature which allows us to control who is able to gain access through an invitation code.

The UX is not always intuitive for new users. It's unique from other similar products, so there can be a learning curve for the less savvy. Our customers are less technologically inclined, and don't always understand how to do the basics. It takes some training to catch them up to speed, but afterwards, they're usually able to fend for themselves.

Easy to use, great for collaboration with both external and internal team members. Ability to add custom fields for storing metadata. The search feature is great.

It's on the expensive side for covering just our basic needs.

What I like most about Canto right now is their customer support. They definitely saved the day for me a couple of Friday afternoons ago. I inadvertently deleted several important files while working on two portals. Since I'm not an admin on the account, I couldn't restore them myself. It was late on a Friday night so I couldn't contact any of our account admins. I was in a panic! However, they responded quickly and restored all of my files. I was jumping with joy! Thank you!

There are actually no cons to using Canto software. At times our team has trouble locating files but this is due more to the way we set it up.

Thank you for the review, Robin! Happy to hear that you've had such positive experiences with our support team.

Customer Service: If I ever email our account representative with a question or change to our account I hear back very quickly, many times within the hour. User Interface: The UI is very user friendly. We've had no issues with non-technical users adopting the system. Scalability: We love that we were able to start small and grow.

We've had some challenges with growing our the libraries and how to restrict folders, but our account manager has been working through those with us.

The ease of access with Canto was one of the main selling features for us. Rather than trying to have multiple users fighting for access to our photos and creative assets on a single server, we now can access this any time, any where. It's incredibly user friendly, and has been easy to teach other members of the company how to navigate quickly. The overall look of the software is visually appealing and it's very simple to organize.

There are almost no cons that I can think of in terms of the software. We briefly had an issue with tags not registering on new uploads, but that was resolved very quickly and may have just been an internet glitch. Whenever I've had a question or concern, if i couldn't find the answer i needed from the internal help function, the Support Team respond so quickly that any issues are resolved almost immediately.

Thanks for considering Canto as 'A Dream for Creatives'. We appreciate the review, Emily!