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Open-source DAM software compared

Open-source DAM options compared: licences, hosting, support and total cost. ResourceSpace, Pimcore, Phraseanet and Nuxeo reviewed for European buyers.

In short

Open-source DAM removes licence fees and gives full control over code, hosting and data residency, which suits public bodies and organisations with strict sovereignty rules. The trade-off is ownership of hosting, upgrades and security patching, typically 0.2 to 1 FTE of technical effort (editorial estimate). Read the licence terms carefully, because several products now use open-core or revenue-based licences.

How to evaluate open-source dam

  1. Licence type and any revenue thresholds for free use.
  2. Health of the community and availability of paid support.
  3. Hosting model: self-hosted, partner-hosted or vendor cloud.
  4. Usability for non-technical users.

Open-source DAM: 4 vendors (A to Z)

  1. Hyland Nuxeo

    Westlake, Ohio, United States

    Hyland Nuxeo is a cloud-native content services and DAM platform, originally developed by French vendor Nuxeo from 2000 and owned by Hyland, a Thoma Bravo portfolio company, since 2021. It suits enterprises with complex content models and in-house engineering capacity, and stands out for its configurable content model, APIs, trainable AI and Apache-licensed core code.

    Best for: Large organisations with complex content models and engineering capacity that want DAM inside a wider enterprise content platform.

    EnterpriseEU hosting: UnknownSaaS, Private cloud, On-premises

  2. Phraseanet (Alchemy)

    Paris, France

    Phraseanet is an open source DAM published by Alchemy, a Paris software company registered in 1996, and released under GPL v3. In 2026 Alchemy is replacing it with Phrasea, a rewritten API-first open source DAM offered as SaaS, on-premises or hybrid. It fits organisations with in-house IT that want source code access and self-hosting.

    Best for: French and European organisations with in-house IT capability that want an open source, self-hostable DAM supported by its original developers.

    Mid-marketEnterpriseEU hosting: UnknownSaaS, On-premises

  3. Pimcore

    Salzburg, Austria

    Pimcore, a Salzburg-based software company founded in 2009, offers an open-core data and experience management platform that combines PIM, MDM, DAM and CMS. Its DAM shares one data model with product and master data, and can run on-premises, in a private cloud or on Pimcore PaaS. It suits organisations with development capacity or an implementation partner.

    Best for: Mid-market and enterprise organisations with technical capacity that want DAM, PIM and MDM on one flexible, self-hostable platform.

    EnterpriseMid-marketEU hosting: UnknownSaaS, Private cloud, On-premises

  4. ResourceSpace

    Faringdon, United Kingdom

    ResourceSpace is a free, open source DAM first built for Oxfam in 2006 and now developed by Montala Limited, an employee-owned UK B Corporation. Organisations can self-host it with no licence fee or buy hosting and support from Montala. It is widely used by charities, museums, universities and public bodies and includes AI metadata, face recognition and visual search.

    Best for: Charities, museums, universities and public bodies that want an open source DAM with strong AI metadata and rights tracking, self-hosted or managed in the UK.

    Mid-marketSMBEU hosting: NoSaaS, On-premises, Private cloud

Compare the first three side by side

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free open-source DAM?

Yes. ResourceSpace is released under a BSD-style licence and Phraseanet under GPLv3. Pimcore moved to its own open-core licence from version 2025.1, which is free only below a revenue threshold. Hosting and administration still carry costs.

Is open-source DAM secure?

Open-source DAM can be as secure as SaaS when it is patched promptly, hosted on hardened infrastructure and covered by access controls and backups. The responsibility sits with you or your hosting partner.