Image Relay vs Dash: Which is better for your brand?

If you work for a growing ecommerce brand, you know how important your visual content is. And choosing the right digital asset management (DAM) tool is key to making sure that content works hard across all your marketing channels.

Image Relay has long positioned itself as a DAM solution for growing brands, with features that help you organise, manage and distribute your assets. But in 2024, Image Relay was acquired by enterprise DAM provider Canto—a move that could signal some big changes ahead. While the company says it’ll continue to operate separately for now, it’s worth keeping an eye on how this acquisition might shape the product in future.

Meanwhile, Dash (that’s us!) remains independently owned and laser-focused on helping ecommerce brands grow. We’re built to help small and mid-sized teams get content live, fast—with features that make finding, sharing and deploying assets feel effortless.

So which DAM is the better fit for your brand? 👀

In this comparison guide, we’ll explore Image Relay’s pros and cons, how it stacks up against Dash, and some other DAM alternatives worth considering. By the end, you’ll have a clearer idea of which tool will help your brand grow.

What is digital asset management (DAM)?

Digital asset management (DAM) helps you keep all your visual content—like product images, videos, and marketing graphics—in one tidy, searchable place. Instead of digging through cluttered Google Drive folders or chasing files over Slack, a DAM gives your team a single source of truth. You can store, organise, find and share your assets easily—so your brand stays consistent and your workflows stay fast.

DAM vs PIM: which best describes Image Relay?

In recent years, Image Relay has added product information management (PIM) functionality. That means you can manage key product details—like specs, descriptions, and SKUs—alongside your visual assets. It’s pitched as an “all-in-one” library for both creative and product content.

Sounds good in theory, but it’s worth considering whether you really need both in one tool. If your main goal is to manage and deploy marketing assets efficiently, a focused DAM (like Dash) could be a better fit. Especially if you already have a separate system for product data or you’re not quite ready to invest in a full PIM setup.

And let’s not forget: Image Relay was recently acquired by Canto, another enterprise DAM vendor. While that might signal a bigger product roadmap, it could also mean changes are on the way—particularly if your team’s looking for a more nimble, ecommerce-focused solution.

If you're after a tool that helps your brand get content into campaigns fast—with AI tagging, search, built-in resizing, and portals for retailers—Dash has your back.

What are the benefits of digital asset management?

If you’re searching for a DAM solution, we expect you’ll already have a good idea of how it can benefit your business. But here’s a list to help you know what to look for when comparing DAM vendors.

• Save time searching for assets: With DAM solutions, you’ll spend less time searching for assets which, in turn, will improve your workflows and marketing operational efficiency.
• Better brand consistency: When colleagues can access the most up-to-date brand assets, you can be confident only approved content is being sent to your marketing channels.
• Increase team productivity: Free up your team’s time so they can focus on more strategic tasks.
• Better collaboration and communication among teams: A good DAM provides features like asset feedback and collections to help your team collaborate on assets and projects.
• Robust security and access control: Most DAMs will protect your digital assets with advanced security features.
• Smooth content delivery: You can quickly distribute assets to various channels and platforms. For example, if you’ve got a new product shot, a good DAM will let you resize it to suit your channel requirement, as well as offer features like portals to deliver content to your agencies and retail partners.
• Improved analytics and reporting: You can view reports like who has downloaded what assets and how often.

In summary, a great DAM solution doesn’t just store your files—it helps your team work faster, stay organised, and make more of the content you’ve already invested in.

Image Relay: Pros and cons

First up, let’s take a look at some of Image Relay’s pros and cons for ecommerce marketers—ideal if you don’t have much time to read through the full comparison further down the article.

As we mentioned, Image Relay is now owned by Canto. While it’s still early days, this acquisition could signal changes to how Image Relay’s tools evolve. The information in this section is based on what we know prior to the acquisition, with the assumption that not much has changed in the platform (yet). 

Image Relay Pros

Connect product information with your assets
One of Image Relay’s standout features is its built-in product information management (PIM) tool, available through its Marketing Delivery platform. This lets you manage product data—like SKUs, specs, and descriptions—alongside your visual content. It’s a handy combo for large ecommerce teams managing thousands of products. But it’s worth noting that PIM is sold separately from the DAM (or bundled at a higher cost), and it’s unclear how this setup might change now it’s part of the Canto product family.

Create basic marketing templates
Image Relay includes a templating feature that lets teams build simple marketing materials like flyers, banners, and posters. It’s useful for sharing branded content with partners and retailers. That said, the templates are pretty limited in terms of layout and design control—so if you’re after more creative freedom, you’ll likely stick with tools like Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud.

Supports a variety of industries
While ecommerce is a clear focus for Image Relay, it also caters to sectors like manufacturing, tourism, and industrial supplies. That broad appeal may work if you're in a mixed-industry organisation. But if you're looking for a DAM laser-focused on ecommerce workflows, Dash is a better fit. We’ve built features, integrations, and workflows specifically for fast-moving marketing teams—not generic use cases across dozens of industries.

Image Relay Cons

Confusing, high-cost pricing
Now that Image Relay belongs to Canto, you’ll have to deal with hidden pricing. However, according to our research, Canto’s DAM solution could set you back $600 per month. If you want to use Image Relay’s PIM solution as well, you’ll have to book a demo to find out how much it's going to cost you. With Dash, pricing starts at $109/month. You get all features, unlimited users, and only pay more if you need extra storage or downloads.

Clunky user interface

You won’t find Image Relay listed on G2 anymore—likely due to its recent acquisition by Canto. But before the platform disappeared, we got a glimpse of its interface through customer reviews and screenshots. And to be honest? It looked pretty clunky and uninspiring.It’s not going to do your brand visuals justice—especially if you’re a creative team working with high-quality content.

Dash, on the other hand, has a beautiful user interface. 😍 Here’s a side-by-side comparison so you can see for yourself.

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Image Relay alternatives: Choosing the right DAM platform

If you’re here because you’d like to check out some of the different DAMs on the market, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some Image Relay alternatives for you to consider. 

Dash - for growing ecommerce brands

If you're a growing ecommerce brand, Dash (that’s us) is a strong alternative. Our pricing is designed with smaller teams in mind—starting at just £79/$109 per month. You’ll get access to all features from day one, including our Shopify and Canva integrations, and you can invite unlimited users at no extra cost. Dash is purpose-built for ecommerce workflows, helping you organise, share, and deploy your content fast.

Brandfolder - for enterprise companies

Brandfolder stands as one of the best DAMs for enterprise companies. It's got loads of features and integrations and serves some of the biggest companies in the world. It has a slick interface and offers lots of complex functionality— ideal if you're a massive brand with teams all over the world. Pricing however starts from around $1600 per month (yes, you read that right 🤯) so it’st not the best choice if you're a smaller company. Read our article about Brandfolder alternatives for a deeper dive.

Bynder - another option for large organisations

Possibly the most well-known DAM on our list is Bynder. It's been around since 2013 and has established itself as a market leader. With thousands of big names on its client list, it's clear Bynder is a popular choice amongst enterprise companies. But, as with most digital asset management software vendors, it comes with a hefty price tag. You'll be looking at around $450 for the most basic DAM package. And Bynder charges per user (as one of our customers who left Bynder for Dash, Fwip, discovered). So if you're a growing brand you'll quickly see the monthly costs rack up. Read more in our article that delves into Bynder's pros and cons.

Akeneo – for managing product information at scale

Since Image Relay is more PIM-weighted now it’s been acquired by Canto, we thought we’d throw a PIM solution into the mix.

Akeneo offers a popular PIM system that helps ecommerce brands manage and enrich their product information across multiple channels. It’s especially useful for growing DTC brands with expanding product ranges or those selling across marketplaces like Amazon, Shopify, or retail partners. With Akeneo, you can centralise product descriptions, SKUs, technical specs, and translations in one place—making it easier to keep your product data accurate, consistent, and ready for launch. If you’re scaling fast and need a reliable PIM to support your content operations, Akeneo is a strong contender.

How Dash compares to Image Relay for ecommerce brands

Now let’s take a closer look at how Image Relay stacks up against Dash. Since both tools claim to support ecommerce workflows, we’ll focus on the features that matter most when you’re running an online store—like collecting content from creators, organising assets for easy retrieval, and getting product visuals out to market quickly.

Both platforms offer useful tools like AI-powered tagging and metadata search, but there are some key differences in how they’re built—and who they’re really built for. Dash is designed specifically for DTC brands, so everything from the layout to the features are shaped around fast-moving marketing teams. If you want the full breakdown, take a look at our complete list of DAM features.

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Image Relay vs. Dash: Features

Image Relay and Dash are pretty neck-and-neck when it comes to the features they offer. Both include features like AI tagging, bulk uploading and downloading and customisable user permissions. There are a few differences, however. Let’s break them down:

Image Relay features

The main feature that separates the two tools is Image Relay’s Marketing Delivery platform. This is geared towards ecommerce brands who want a PIM platform and is often used by companies with hundreds of thousands of products and SKU codes. As we’ve mentioned, it’s unclear how much extra you’ll need to pay on top of the standard digital asset management system now they’ve been acquired by Canto. But it’s certainly worth checking out if you’ve got the budget to spare. One of the standout features of Image Relay is its robust metadata search, which allows users to quickly locate specific files within large asset libraries. Additionally, Image Relay helps maintain brand consistency by ensuring that brand integrity is preserved across all channels and at scale.

Dash features
Dash, on the other hand, has a set of features that ecommerce brands will find super helpful—many of which Image Relay doesn’t support. Most notably, Portals and Guest Uploads. Dash also excels at search, using AI to tag your content and make it easier to find assets fast.

• Portals: This feature takes collections one step further. With Portals, you can create a public-facing version of your Dash—perfect for sharing content with resellers, agencies or freelancers without handing out user logins. They can search, filter, and download the latest assets without having edit permissions. Here’s a glimpse of a Portal used by one of Dash’s ecommerce customers, Haws.
  
  
• Guest uploading: If you collect user-generated content or work with creators, Dash’s guest upload feature makes it easy to receive assets without needing to add people as users. Creators upload straight to a holding area in Dash, and you get to approve what goes live.
  
  
• Shopify Integration: Dash connects directly with Shopify, making it easy to pull the latest product images into your listings. No need to download and re-upload files—it’s all handled within your DAM.
  
  
• Image Resizing for channels: Dash lets you resize images directly in the platform. Whether you need square shots for Instagram, banners for your homepage, or thumbnails for email—just pick a preset or enter your own dimensions, and you’re good to go.
  
  

Dash is built with growing ecommerce brands in mind—so everything is designed to help you get your content out into the world quickly, without fuss.

Image Relay vs. Dash: Pricing

When it comes to clear, affordable pricing, Dash is hard to beat. Plans start at just £79 / $109 per month—and every plan includes all features and unlimited users. You’ll only pay more if you need extra storage or a higher download allowance, which means you can scale your usage without being forced into a pricey upgrade. It’s designed to deliver great ROI from the moment you get started.

Take a look at our pricing page for the full breakdown.

Image Relay, now owned by Canto, no longer offers public pricing. You’ll need to book a demo to get a quote—which makes budgeting and long-term planning trickier. Based on what we’ve found in our research, Canto’s pricing typically starts at around $600 per month, but this can climb significantly depending on your needs and the features you want access to. If you're a growing ecommerce brand, that’s a steep cost—especially when there are more flexible, transparent options on the table.

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Image Relay vs. Dash: Integrations

We won’t lie—Image Relay previously offered more integrations than Dash, with over 40 tools you could connect to your account. However, since Image Relay was acquired by Canto in 2024, it’s unclear what integrations are still supported or how they’ll be managed moving forward. If integrations are key to your workflow, you may need to dig a little deeper or book a demo to find out what’s currently available.

That said, from what we can see, Image Relay / Canto and Dash offer core integrations with tools like Shopify, WordPress, Hootsuite, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and Slack.

Dash also includes a few extras that are especially useful for ecommerce teams, such as Canva and our powerful Shopify integration. You can view our full list of integrations to see how Dash slots into your existing tech stack.

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Image Relay vs. Dash: User interface and user experience

We know growing your ecommerce brand takes time—which is why Dash is designed to be fast, intuitive, and simple to use. There’s no steep learning curve here. Your assets are front and centre, displayed in big, bold thumbnails that make browsing a breeze. You can quickly narrow down your search using tags, filters, and custom fields—all without clicking through endless menus.

Even the admin area is clean and easy to navigate, so adjusting user permissions or updating fields can be done in just a few clicks.

Before Image Relay was bought by Canto, it also got decent feedback when it came to usability. Customers said it was “visually simple” and generally easy to navigate. But with its recent acquisition, we’re not sure if or how the user experience might change down the line.

Let’s take a look at how both platforms stack up in practice—especially when it comes to viewing and managing individual assets. After all, this is where you’ll spend a lot of your time. Here's a side-by-side comparison of how an asset looks in Dash vs Image Relay.

[side by side comparison] 

We’ll let you decide which one feels more like home.

Image Relay vs Dash: Customer support 

Dash is often praised for our fast, friendly customer support—and we’re proud to deliver the kind of service that makes a real difference to busy teams.

Just take it from Abi, Brand Manager at COAT Paints:
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“The Dash team is incredibly responsive to any queries and always quick to find a solution. In my experience, no other platform has matched the level of customer service that Dash provides.”

If you ever need help, you can simply message us through the in-app chat and one of our team will respond—usually within minutes. Got a feature request? Add it to our feedback portal. If enough people vote for it, we’ll add it to our product roadmap.

Since Image Relay was acquired by Canto, it’s unclear how support is handled now, or whether users are expected to go through Canto’s broader enterprise support channels. If fast, personal support is important to you, Dash has you covered.

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How to implement a digital asset management system

Rolling out a DAM doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Here’s a straightforward process to help you get started—and make sure your team gets the most out of it:

• Start with your goals: What do you need your DAM to do? Think about the teams who’ll use it and the content you’re managing.
• Pick the right tool: Choose a DAM that fits your needs today—and can grow with your business.
• Get set up: Configure your DAM with the right folder structure, fields, tags, and permissions. If you’re using Dash, we’ll help you do this during onboarding.
• Move your assets: Migrate your content from wherever it lives now (Google Drive, Dropbox, or your desktop) and make sure it’s tagged and organised properly.
• Train your team: Get everyone up to speed with how to upload, search, share and collaborate inside your DAM.
• Check in regularly: Once you’re up and running, keep an eye on how the DAM is working. Is it saving your team time? Are assets being used? Tweak your setup as needed.

With the right support and setup, your DAM will quickly become your team’s go-to place for finding and sharing content.

How to decide if Image Relay is the  right digital asset management for your brand

So, now you’ve had a proper look at Dash and Image Relay, how do you decide which DAM is right for your brand?

Both tools are designed to help ecommerce businesses manage their content more efficiently. But with Image Relay now part of Canto, it's worth keeping an eye on how its product and pricing might change in the future.

To help you weigh things up, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Think about the features your team actually needs—without paying for extras you’ll never use
  
  
• Check which DAM integrates with your current tools (and whether those integrations are still available)
  
  
• Choose a system your team can hit the ground running with—no long learning curves
  
  
• Look into the quality of customer support and how easy it is to get help
  
  
• Consider how well the platform supports collaboration across teams, freelancers and retail partners
  
  
• And of course, make sure the pricing fits your monthly budget
  
  

Still deciding? Download our free comparison worksheet to help you map out the best choice for your business. 👇 Or, better yet, try Dash free for 14 days - no credit card required.