Freedam
Guides10 min readUpdated

Brand portal software: requirements checklist and vendor scorecard

This page is a requirements checklist and vendor scorecard for choosing brand portal software. It is free and complete on this page, with no sign-up form. Fill it in here: mark the rows that do not apply to you as Skip, set a priority on the rest, and record a result per vendor during demos and trials. Your answers are saved in this browser, the score per vendor is calculated as you go, and the tables export as CSV. The scoring method is in the section after the tables.

A brand portal is a website where people outside the core brand team (agencies, dealers, press, colleagues in other departments) find and download approved brand assets and guidelines without asking anyone. The glossary entry has the full definition. The second half of this page covers what to put in a portal and how to launch one.

How to use the scorecard

  1. Shorten it. Skip every row that does not match a problem you have today. Twenty rows that you test are more useful than forty that you read.
  2. Set priorities. Mark each row Must, Should or Nice. A vendor that fails a Must is out, whatever its total.
  3. Test, do not ask. Each row has a test you can run yourself in a trial with your own files. Record what you saw: Pass, Partial or Fail.
  4. Score each vendor separately, then compare. Have at least one person from outside the brand team run the tests in the "Finding and downloading" table.

Requirements

Content and guidelines

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
1. Logo pages show each variant with its specifications Publish a logo with minimum size, clear space and misuse examples
2. Colour values can be copied Copy a HEX and a CMYK value from a swatch
3. Typefaces are shown with weights, and font files can be offered Publish one typeface with a downloadable file
4. Guideline pages can be edited without a developer Ask a non-designer to change a paragraph and publish it
5. A complete brand kit downloads in one step Download it and check the folder structure
6. Portal sections can be filled by rule, not only by hand Define a section as "approved, tagged retail" and add a matching asset
7. Templates can be offered next to the guidelines Publish a presentation template and a social post template

Access for people without an account

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
8. A visitor can download the logo without registering Open the portal in a private browser window
9. A link can be limited to listed email addresses or a company domain Create one and open it with an address that is not listed
10. A link can carry a password and an expiry date Create one, then open it after the expiry
11. What a guest sees is enforced on the server Request the direct file address of a hidden asset while signed out
12. Different audiences see different content Set up two audiences and compare what each sees
13. Guests can be limited to a web-size or watermarked copy Download as a guest and check the file
14. A guest can request access to a restricted file Send a request and approve it as an administrator
15. Partners with accounts can sign in through their own identity provider Sign in with a Google or Microsoft account on the plan you would buy

Rights, versions and expiry

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
16. An expired asset cannot be downloaded from the portal Set an expiry date in the past and try as a guest
17. An embargoed asset appears on its release date without manual work Set a release date for tomorrow and check the next day
18. Replacing a file updates every place it appears Upload a new version and reload the portal and an existing link
19. Usage rights are shown next to the download Open an asset page as a guest
20. A retired asset can point to its replacement Retire a logo and open its old address

Finding and downloading

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
21. A first-time visitor finds the logo in under a minute Ask a colleague who has never seen the portal, and time it
22. Search finds assets by what they show, not only by file name Search for the content of an image that has no matching file name
23. Results filter by market, product, format and language Filter to one market and one format
24. The visitor chooses the format and size at download Download one image as web JPEG and as print file
25. Several assets download together Select ten assets and download them as one archive
26. The portal works on a phone Find and download a logo on a phone

Branding and languages

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
27. The portal carries your logo, colours and typeface, not the vendor's Compare the portal with your website side by side
28. The portal runs on your own address Ask how, on which plan, and at what cost
29. The interface is available in your partners' languages Switch the language as a guest
30. Page content can be written per language Publish one page in two languages

Administration and reporting

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
31. An administrator can preview the portal as a given guest or user Check what one named partner would see before publishing
32. Downloads are reported per asset Find the ten most downloaded assets of the month
33. Searches with no result are reported Search for something missing, then find it in the report
34. Access by link is logged Find who opened a restricted link, and when
35. Partner accounts can expire Create an account with an end date
36. The portal reads from the asset library, with no second upload Publish an asset to the portal without copying the file

Vendor and contract

Requirement How to test it Priority Vendor A Vendor B
37. Prices are published, or quoted in writing for your numbers Ask for the total for your users, storage and portals
38. Guests and viewers do not need paid seats Ask how an external downloader is counted
39. All assets and metadata can be exported when you leave Ask for the export format and run it on a sample
40. You can try the product with your own files before a sales call Sign up and upload twenty files

Scoring

  1. Give each tested row a result: Pass = 2, Partial = 1, Fail = 0.
  2. Multiply by the priority: Must = 3, Should = 2, Nice = 1.
  3. Add the rows for each vendor. Divide by the maximum possible score to get a percentage.
  4. Remove any vendor with a Fail on a Must row, whatever its percentage.
  5. Record separately the time taken in row 21. If a new visitor needs more than a minute to find the logo, treat it as a warning even when every other row passes.
Vendor Must rows failed Score Maximum Percentage Time to find the logo Three-year cost
Vendor A
Vendor B
Vendor C

Pricing questions for a mid-size company

Brand portal pricing differs more in structure than in headline price. Ask each vendor the same questions and write the answers in one table.

Question Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C
Is the portal included in the base plan or sold as a module?
How many portals or brands are included?
Are external guests, link recipients and viewers free?
What counts against storage: originals only, or also previews and versions?
Is single sign-on included on the plan we would buy?
What are the one-time costs: setup, migration, training?
What is the price at renewal, and what limits the increase?
What is the total over three years for our numbers?

The DAM cost guide explains the pricing models behind these questions.

What belongs in a brand portal

Publish a small set that is safe to use without asking. Do not expose the whole library.

Content What to include Notes
Logos and brand marks Every approved variant in SVG and PNG, plus print originals Show minimum size, clear space and misuse examples next to the files
Brand guidelines Colours as copyable values, typography, tone of voice A page is easier to keep current than a PDF
Approved imagery Product images, lifestyle images, executive portraits Only assets that passed review and have valid rights
Templates and documents Presentations, social templates, spec sheets, dielines The files partners otherwise rebuild themselves
Brand kit One archive with logos, colours and fonts For an agency that starts today

Leave out drafts, unreleased campaigns, assets with restricted rights and internal working files.

Access tiers

Tier For whom What they get What you ask for
Open Press, the public, anyone Logos, colour values, guidelines, press images Nothing
Link Partners and agencies for a campaign or a period Campaign kits, product imagery An email address or a password
Account Staff and regular partners Master files, templates, unreleased material A named account, with single sign-on where possible

Put the logo in the open tier. A journalist who has to register for a logo will copy a small one from your website instead. The brand center design guide explains the tiers and the homepage structure in detail, and the brand center template lists the pages and their content.

Keeping the portal current

Portals go out of date when publishing is a manual step. Three practices prevent it:

  1. Fill sections by rule. Define a section by criteria such as "campaign key visual, approved, rights valid", so that an asset appears when it meets them and disappears when it stops.
  2. Publish through approval. An asset reaches the portal because it was approved, in one step, not because someone remembered to copy it.
  3. Serve files from the library. When the portal reads from the library, a new version of the logo replaces the old one everywhere at once.

Launch plan

Step What to do
1. Collect the requests List the last twenty asset requests the brand team received. They show what the portal has to answer first
2. Choose the first release Publish logos, guidelines and the current campaign. Add the rest after launch
3. Set the tiers Decide for each section whether it is open, behind a link or behind an account
4. Test as an outsider Ask someone outside the brand team to find and download the logo, and time it
5. Announce one address Send the portal address, add it to onboarding documents and email signatures, and set the old shared folder to read-only
6. Review monthly Check downloads, searches with no result and assets close to expiry

If the portal serves dealers or resellers, the dealer distribution rollout template adds a permissions matrix and a launch checklist for that audience.

Where Freedam stands on this scorecard

We make Freedam, a digital asset management system with a brand portal, so test our claims like any other vendor's. What the documentation states for the rows above:

  • Rows 1 to 5. The brand guide shows logo variants with minimum sizes and clear-space diagrams, colour values in HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone that copy on click, typeface specimens with font downloads, and a brand kit as a ZIP file.
  • Rows 8 to 15. The public portal lets visitors browse, search and download without an account. Share links can be open, limited to listed addresses or company domains, or protected by a password, with an expiry date. Access rules are checked on the server for every request and can hide assets from guests, watermark previews or downloads, limit download resolutions and require a download request. Sign-in with Google and Microsoft accounts is supported.
  • Rows 31 to 36. An access tester shows what a given user or a guest gets for a given asset. The administrator analytics report top assets and searches with no result. Accounts can carry an expiry date. The portal reads from the library.

Row 38: viewers are free on the published pricing. The demo is a working library with a public portal and a brand guide, where you can run the tests on this page.

Try Freedam

Open the live demoExplore a fully stocked sample workspace as an administrator. No card, no setup.Start freeEvery workspace begins with a 30-day Team trial, then continues on the Free plan.See pricingCompare the Free, Team, Business and Tailored plans.

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