Self-hosted DAM options compared
This page compares the digital asset management (DAM) systems a company can run on its own servers when it cannot use a SaaS product. It is free and complete on this page, with no form and no download. Copy the tables into your own document, remove the products that do not fit, and use the checklist further down to decide whether your team can operate one.
Every fact in the tables was read on the project's own website, documentation or source repository on 12 October 2026, and each row links to where it was read. Licences and editions change, and two of the products below changed theirs in the last two years, so open the source before you rely on a row. We make Freedam, one of the commercial options listed; its row follows the same rules as the others. Freedam is proprietary, not open source: open source DAM or self-hosted Freedam explains what that changes for a team that runs it.
What the products are
Not every product named in lists of "self-hosted DAMs" is a general-purpose DAM. The second column quotes how each project describes itself.
| Product | How it describes itself | Licence of the self-hosted edition | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ResourceSpace | "Open source Digital Asset Management software" | BSD-style licence with a trademark clause | Licence file |
| Phraseanet | "Digital Asset Management application" | GPLv3. The project states that Phraseanet is being continued as Phrasea | README |
| Phrasea | "The open-source DAM for modern organizations" | MIT | Repository |
| Pimcore | A platform for product information, master data, DAM and digital experience, of which DAM is one part | Pimcore Open Core License (POCL) from Platform Version 2025.1. Source-available, not open source. Version 2024.4 was the last under GPLv3 | LICENSE.md, announcement |
| AtroCore (formerly AtroDAM) | A "Business Application Platform for master data, integrations, and automation", with a DAM part | GPLv3 core, with paid premium modules. The separate AtroDAM project is archived and merged into AtroCore | README, AtroDAM notice |
| Piwigo | "Open source photo gallery software for the web" in its README, and a digital asset management solution on its website | GPLv2 | README |
| Islandora | "Open-Source Digital Asset Management", built for digital collections in libraries and archives | GPLv2 | Repository |
| Nextcloud | A content collaboration platform for file sync and sharing. Not a DAM, but often used in its place | AGPLv3 | Repository |
| Razuna, open-source edition | "The legacy open-source version of Razuna, no longer actively maintained" | AGPLv3 | README |
| Daminion Server | Digital asset management, self-hosted on your servers or in the vendor's cloud | Commercial | Download page |
| Freedam | Digital asset management, hosted or self-hosted, the same product in both | Commercial | Self-hosting |
Three points from this table change a shortlist:
- Pimcore's licence has conditions. Under the POCL, free production use is limited to organisations with total global revenue of no more than €5 million a year, and to non-profit and educational organisations. Government bodies and public institutions are excluded from the non-profit exemption unless Pimcore approves them. Larger organisations need a commercial edition. Read sections 1.2 and 1.3 of the licence.
- AtroDAM no longer exists as a separate product. Evaluate AtroCore.
- The open-source Razuna is unmaintained. The current Razuna is a hosted product, with an on-premises option listed only in its Enterprise plan.
How they are run
| Product | Stack | Official install method | Vendor-hosted option | Latest release on 12 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ResourceSpace | PHP, MySQL, Apache | Official Docker image, or checkout and web setup | Yes | 11.0, June 2026 |
| Phraseanet | PHP, MySQL or MariaDB, Elasticsearch | Docker Compose. The manual method is no longer recommended | Yes | 4.1.23, September 2026 |
| Phrasea | Docker Compose services. Requirements not stated in the setup guide | Docker Compose, Kubernetes | Yes | 4.5.0, October 2026 |
| Pimcore | PHP, Symfony, MySQL or MariaDB, OpenSearch or Elasticsearch, Redis | Docker, Composer project | Yes, as a paid PaaS edition | 2026.3.1, October 2026 |
| AtroCore | PHP, PostgreSQL (recommended), MySQL or MariaDB | Installer for production. Docker image for trying it | Yes, same core | 2.4.7, October 2026 |
| Piwigo | PHP, MySQL or MariaDB | Manual install, or official Docker Compose file | Yes | 16.4.0, May 2026 |
| Islandora | Drupal (PHP), Fedora repository, Solr | Docker | No vendor. Third-party service providers | 2.19.0, September 2026 |
| Nextcloud | PHP, PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB | All-in-One Docker image, web installer, archive | Through providers | 35.0.1, September 2026 |
| Razuna, open-source edition | CFML | Not checked | The current product is hosted | 1.9.6, November 2018 |
| Daminion Server | Not checked | Installer | Yes | 11.0 |
| Freedam | PHP, PostgreSQL, Redis, S3-compatible object storage | Docker Compose with a command-line installer | Yes, same product | Monthly releases |
Sources for this table: the install pages of ResourceSpace, Pimcore, Piwigo, Nextcloud and Islandora, the READMEs linked in the first table, and each project's releases page on GitHub or its website.
Support and paid editions
| Product | Paid support or edition | Prices published |
|---|---|---|
| ResourceSpace | Paid cloud plans with support. The software has no licence fee | No figures on the pricing page |
| Phraseanet and Phrasea | Prepaid service hours and support contracts | No |
| Pimcore | Professional and Enterprise editions by subscription, on-premises or PaaS | Yes |
| AtroCore | Support plans, paid premium modules, SaaS editions | Yes |
| Piwigo | Support plans for self-hosted installs, and cloud plans | Yes |
| Islandora | None from the project. Service providers offer support | No |
| Nextcloud | Enterprise subscriptions | Yes |
| Daminion Server | Commercial licence | See its pricing page |
| Freedam | Subscription with releases, security patches and support | Yes |
We do not repeat other vendors' prices here, because they change. Follow the links.
Features stated on the official sites
This table records only whether the project's own site or README states the feature. "Not stated" means we did not find it there on the date above; it does not mean the product cannot do it. We did not test these products.
| Product | AI tagging | Search by visual similarity or meaning | Single sign-on | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ResourceSpace | Stated, through plugins that call external services | Stated, through a plugin | Stated, SAML plugin | Stated |
| Phraseanet | Not stated | Not stated | Stated in the README | Stated |
| Phrasea | Stated, through third-party engines | Not stated | Stated, through Keycloak | Stated |
| Pimcore | Not stated as a feature | Not stated | Stated. The edition that includes it was not confirmed | Stated, REST and GraphQL |
| AtroCore | Not stated | Not stated | Stated, as a paid OpenID Connect module | Stated |
| Piwigo | Stated for a cloud plan. Not confirmed for self-hosted installs | Not stated | Stated for a cloud plan. Not confirmed for self-hosted installs | Stated |
| Freedam | Stated | Stated | Stated, Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID | Stated |
For Freedam, the detail is on the self-hosting comparison page, including which AI features are switched off in a network with no internet access.
How to choose between them
| If your situation is | Look first at |
|---|---|
| You need open-source software under an OSI-approved licence, for policy or procurement reasons | ResourceSpace, Phraseanet or Phrasea, AtroCore, Piwigo, Islandora |
| The DAM is one part of a product data or content platform project | Pimcore or AtroCore, after reading the licence terms |
| The library is mainly photos, and a gallery with albums is enough | Piwigo |
| You are a library, archive or museum with digital collections | Islandora, ResourceSpace |
| You need file sync and sharing, and metadata, rights and renditions are secondary | Nextcloud |
| You want a vendor to supply releases, patches and support for the software you run | A commercial edition: Pimcore, Daminion, Freedam, or a support contract from an open-source vendor |
Whichever you shortlist, test it with your own files before deciding. The DAM requirements checklist lists what to test, and the RFP template has the deployment and security questions to send to vendors.
Why companies cannot use SaaS
Write down which of these applies to you. It decides the requirements.
| Reason | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Data protection law, or a works council or data protection officer who must approve where personal data is processed | Proof that images of people, consent records and face data stay on your infrastructure |
| Sovereignty or residency rules, in the public sector, health or defence | No foreign operator with access, whatever the server location |
| A client contract that forbids third-party processors | A deployment with no subprocessors, or with ones the client approves |
| Network constraints: an isolated network, or very large files on a local network | Software that runs with no outbound connection |
| A company policy of running its own systems | An operations team with time for one more service |
Cost is not in the list. Self-hosting removes a subscription and adds servers, storage, backups and staff time.
What your team takes on
| Area | What you are responsible for |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure | Hosts, operating system, containers, TLS certificates, DNS, reverse proxy, firewall |
| Storage | Capacity for originals, previews and search indexes, which grow with the library |
| Backups | Separate, tested backups of the database and of the asset storage |
| Updates | The application, its services, the operating system and the database, on a regular schedule |
| Security | Network perimeter, secrets, hardening, monitoring |
| Monitoring | Disk usage, queues, database health, certificate expiry |
Most incidents on self-hosted systems are full disks and expired certificates. Basic alerting prevents both.
Readiness checklist
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the reason for self-hosting written down, with the regulation, contract or policy named? | |
| 2 | Is there a named person or team who runs Linux and a database today and will run this? | |
| 3 | Is storage sized for the current library, yearly intake and 20 to 40% for previews? | |
| 4 | Has a restore of the database and of the storage been tested on a clean machine? | |
| 5 | Is there a monthly maintenance window for updates? | |
| 6 | Is it decided which AI features may call external services, and which must run locally or stay off? | |
| 7 | Is it decided how people outside the network reach shared assets, if at all? | |
| 8 | Has the licence been read by whoever approves software licences? |
If the answer to question 2 is no, a hosted service in a region and under a contract your organisation accepts is usually the better choice.
Self-hosting Freedam
Freedam is commercial software, not open source. The self-hosted deployment is the same product as the hosted service:
- Delivery. Versioned container images and a package with the Compose file, an environment template and a
freedamcommand.freedam installbrings the stack up,freedam upgrade <version>takes a backup and applies the next monthly release. - Services. The application behind nginx, PostgreSQL with vector and full-text search extensions, Redis, queue workers separated by workload, ClamAV virus scanning, document conversion, a local embedding service for search, and face detection. Originals go to S3-compatible object storage.
- Sizing. The reference deployment runs about 50 users and 10,000 assets on one host with 8 cores, 32 GB of RAM and SSD storage.
- Price. €9,000 per year per deployment, with unlimited workspaces, users and storage, monthly releases, security patches and support. You add the host, storage, backups and staff time.
The self-hosting pages document the topology, security and deployment, and you can request a one-page technical brief there. The hosted demo runs the same product.