The best media library software for DTC brands

If you’re here searching for the best media library software, you’re likely dealing with a lot of media. Working for an ecommerce brand, you’ve probably got folders filled with product images, brand graphics, logos, ad creative, lifestyle shots, user-generated-content (UGC), videos for social media… the list is endless. 😅 

There are tools out there that you might be already using -  like Google Drive and Dropbox - but they’re not built to help you manage your creative assets. Plus, if you’re already using them, you already know how chaotic these tools can be for your visuals. When marketing teams can’t find the content they need, it slows down the launch of campaigns. That’s why having a central hub for your content is essential.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through:

• What a media library is (and how it differs from a regular cloud drive)
  
  
• Why it’s essential for fast-moving ecommerce teams
  
  
• Affordable media library software tools to help you get started
  
  
• Tips on pitching a new software tool to your boss 

What is media library software? 

A media library software solution is a central place for your brand to store, organise, and manage all of its digital files — often called digital assets. These include everything from creative product photography and lifestyle shots, to videos for social, logos, graphics, UGC and audio files.

Unlike general cloud storage platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox, media library software is purpose-built for managing visual content. It gives you more control, more structure, and the tools to find and use your content quickly without the chaos of nested folders and endless file requests.

You might also hear this kind of tool referred to as media asset management. It’s a term used to describe the systems and workflows that help brands handle large volumes of creative content efficiently — and it often overlaps with what’s known more broadly as digital asset management (we’ll break that down shortly).

Media library software typically includes features to help you:

• Find what you need quickly by using keywords and tags to find relevant content. 
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• Keep everything organised with folders, tags and fields, giving you multiple ways to search. 
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• Share content easily with multiple sharing options including portals and collections. 
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• Stay in control of your assets with access permissions and approval workflows. 
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• Bring all your visuals together in one central location, meaning your team no longer has to ask you where the latest product shots are. 

In short, a media library helps you find the content you need, fast, so you can get on with launching campaigns, updating product pages, and growing your brand. 

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What are the benefits of using media library software for your brand?

Managing digital content as an ecommerce company isn’t just about keeping your files tidy — it’s about finding content quickly so you can push out campaigns on time and make sure you’re driving results. Whether you’re launching products, running campaigns, or collaborating with partners, a tool designed for media sharing will help your team stay organised and move fast.

Here are some benefits you’ll get from a media library software solution: 

Save time searching for content

When you’ve got thousands of product shots, videos, and graphics scattered across drives, it’s easy to waste hours tracking down the right file. With a good media library, everything’s super searchable because you can use keywords to find an image you’ve been thinking of. For example, type in the name of a product like ‘yellow t-shirt with pocket’ and a tool like Dash will surface relevant results in seconds. It means you don’t need to remember the exact file name of an asset (like you do in Google Drive 😅). 

Speed up your product launches 

You already know how fast ecommerce moves. Whether you’re dropping a seasonal collection, updating your bestsellers, or reacting to a trend, timing is everything. But if your media files are scattered across different folders or buried in email threads, it can stall the entire launch. Suddenly you’re missing deadlines, scrambling to recreate content, or delaying go-live dates. A media library will make sure everything you need is organised and easy to find, so your team can build product pages, ads, and email campaigns quickly. 

Collect content easily from creators and collaborators

For ecommerce brands, collecting content from photographers, influencers, or internal teams can quickly become a messy process. Files often arrive via email, WeTransfer, Slack, or even WhatsApp — and it’s all too easy for things to get lost. 

Media library software can help streamline this process. You’ll be able to collect content from your creators and organise them in a way that makes sense to your brand. It keeps your content pipeline flowing smoothly, even when you're juggling multiple projects.

Keep control of your brand assets 

As your ecommerce brand grows, so does the amount of  content you need to create. And when multiple teams and partners are working on different campaigns at once, it’s easy for things to go off-brand. Maybe someone grabs an old product image for a new launch, or an outdated logo ends up in your latest email. These slip-ups might seem small, but over time they dilute your brand and create inconsistent customer experiences.

A media library will help stay on top of your assets by offering approval workflows, version control, and enhanced security features. A good tool (like Dash for example 😇) will also have portals that allow you to share your latest content with your retailers and distributors.

Improve collaboration across teams and partners

Getting the right content into the hands of the right people can be a constant challenge, especially when you’re working with multiple teams, freelancers, and external partners. Without a central place to store and manage your assets, collaboration tends to rely on scattered links, outdated folders, or back-and-forth Slack messages. 

A media library gives everyone access to the files they need without bottlenecks. You can create curated collections, portals and set access levels so the people only have access to the assets that are relevant to them. 

Increase the ROI of your visual content

This is the benefit we’ve all been waiting for: a good media library will give you back some serious return on investment. 🤑 

That’s because high-quality content is expensive to produce. Just think of the money spent on photoshoots, designers and ad agencies, not to mention how much it's costing your brand every time someone in your team has to spend time searching for an asset.

We’ve already hinted at all the ways a media library can give you ROI, so here’s a summary: 

• Get more value from your content: Repurpose existing assets across campaigns and channels instead of paying for new shoots every time.
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• Reduce content production costs: Avoid unnecessary reshoots or duplicated design work because assets were lost or hard to find.
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• Free up your team’s time: No more hours wasted searching for files — your team can focus on higher-impact work.
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• Speed up time to market: Launch campaigns and products faster by having all the right visuals and information ready to go, whenever you need them.
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• Minimise brand mistakes: Reduce the risk (and cost) of publishing outdated or incorrect content that damages trust or conversion rates.
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• Support revenue-generating teams: Give your performance marketers, ecommerce managers, and content teams the assets they need without delays.

👉 Learn more about the ROI of digital asset management (aka media library software). 

5 media library software solutions to consider for your brand 

Ready to invest in a media library system? Here are five tools that you should consider for your ecommerce brand: 

1. Dash - for ecommerce brands who rely on visual content to help their business scale 

Dash is a media library software made with ecommerce teams in mind (although we mostly refer to ourselves as a digital asset management tool).  If you’re constantly juggling product launches, influencer campaigns, social content, and email promos, Dash will help you keep all your visual content and media files in check.

It’s designed for marketers and creatives, so it’s intuitive, quick to set up, and genuinely easy to use day-to-day. Instead of wasting time searching for files or sharing endless WeTransfer links, your team can focus on what actually drives results: getting content out the door.

Here are some of the things you can do in Dash:

• Quickly search for images and videos using keywords, tags and fields
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• Collect content from your creators and freelancers using guest upload links
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• Let retailers and partners self-serve your assets using portals
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• Easily resize and crop images to meet the requirements of your channels
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• Integrate with ecommerce tools like Shopify and WooCommerce to quickly update product listings

👉 Get the full list of Dash’s digital asset management features.

Brands already using Dash: COAT, Beavertown and Passenger.

Pricing: Starting at £99/$139 per month for all features and unlimited users.

2. Filecamp: for small businesses and agencies needing white-labeled client portals

Filecamp is a media library and file management tool that offers features for brands and agencies working with multiple clients or external partners. It’s one of the few tools at this price point that offers white labelling, which can be useful if you want to present a professional, on-brand experience to your clients or partners.

But here’s the catch: the interface is quite clunky and visually dated. While it technically gets the job done, it doesn’t feel intuitive — and definitely doesn’t feel like a tool designed for creative teams. If you’re working with media files you’re proud of, the space you manage that content in should feel just as polished and inspiring.

Brands already using Filecamp: Tata Harper Skincare, SPORLASTIC and Deluxe Design.

Pricing: $59 per month for 20GB and unlimited users

3. PhotoDeck for photographers or creative teams who license imagery

PhotoDeck is built for brands and individuals who need to deliver high-resolution files, license content, or sell imagery directly through galleries. You can create galleries for people to view, download, and purchase images, and even build sales pages — ideal for sales teams who need an easy way to curate product imagery for presentations. Magazines can also benefit from this platform by organising and distributing their media files quickly. 

That said, it’s more geared towards agencies and photographers, so it might not be the best fit if you’re an ecommerce brand.

Brands already using PhotoDeck: Le Creuset, Pehr and Rhinov.

Pricing: Starting at £90 per month 

4. Google Drive — for early-stage teams who need basic file storage

Google Drive is a go-to for many small teams. That’s because it's cheap, easy to use, and most people are already familiar with the interface. For brands just getting started, it’s a quick way to store and share files across the team.

But when it comes to managing visual content at scale — like product photos, social videos, or UGC — Drive quickly shows its limitations. There’s no custom metadata, poor search functionality, and no real way to manage version control or usage rights. Files often get lost in nested folders, and collaboration becomes messy once your team or asset count grows.

If you're currently using Google Drive and finding it hard to stay on top of your content, check out our guide on Google Drive vs digital asset management.

5. Dropbox — for teams who want simple file syncing and sharing

Dropbox is another familiar option for storing and sharing files, especially if you need strong file syncing across devices. It's a step up from Google Drive in terms of file previews and interface — and works well if you're mainly sharing folders and assets with a small group of collaborators. 

That said, it still lacks the functionality that fast-moving ecommerce brands need. Like Drive, it’s not built for media workflows, which means you’ll likely run into roadblocks as your asset library grows and your marketing needs become more complex.

You can explore this further in our article: Dropbox vs digital asset management.

6. Canto for mid-size to large businesses with structured approval processes

We thought we’d add in another digital asset management option so you can get a clearer picture of the DAM landscape.

Canto is a legacy DAM platform built for businesses that need tight control over their media files. You’ll get versioning, usage tracking, and layered approval workflows. It can be useful for teams with legal or brand compliance requirements, and it offers external portals for partner access.

That said, the interface feels dated, and the user experience can be clunky. Plus, if our research suggests it costs around $600 a month ($7,200 a year depending on your needs).  So it’s more suited to corporate environments than fast-moving ecommerce teams. For brands focused on launching quickly, collaborating with freelancers, or managing content across marketing channels, Canto may feel overly complex and slow to adopt — especially at its higher price point.

Read up on Canto digital asset management alternatives and find the best tool for your brand. 

How much effort does it take to get started with media library software?

One of the biggest concerns when switching tools or investing in something new is how long it’s going to take to set up. This is especially true for brands with thousands of assets scattered across shared drives, WeTransfer links and email threads.

Some media library software solutions come with long onboarding processes, steep learning curves, and months-long implementation timelines. You might even need a dedicated IT resource or external consultants just to get started. That might be fine for huge enterprise teams — but not for fast-moving ecommerce brands trying to stay agile.

The good news? Not all media library software takes weeks to roll out.
In fact, according to G2, Dash has a faster go-live time than a lot of its competitors. For example, you’ll get started 4 x faster with Dash than you would with an enterprise DAM like Bynder. 

We’ve designed Dash to be:

• Easy to set up without needing technical help
  
  
• Simple to import assets from existing tools like Google Drive or Dropbox
  
  
• Intuitive enough that your team won’t need loads of training
  
  

So if the idea of switching tools feels overwhelming, don’t worry — choosing the right media library software shouldn’t slow you down. In most cases, the time you spend getting set up is quickly earned back in saved hours, smoother launches and better content usage. (Just take a look at our article that covers the ROI of digital asset management.)

How to pitch a media library software solution to your boss

Now that you’ve got a solid idea of what media library software can offer, and which tools might suit your brand, it’s time to pull it all together into a strong pitch for your boss.

When you’re asking for investment in new software, ROI will be top of mind. So start by focusing on the real costs your team already faces:

• The money spent on product shoots, influencer campaigns, design work, and ad creatives.
  
  
• The time wasted searching for assets scattered across different drives, emails, and folders.
  
  
• The risk of paying to recreate content that already exists, simply because no one can find it when they need it.
  
  

A good media library helps you avoid these hidden costs by:

• Making your content easier to find and reuse across campaigns
  
  
• Reducing duplicated work (no more reshooting assets you’ve already paid for)
  
  
• Helping teams launch campaigns faster, with fewer blockers
  
  
• Giving marketers, designers, and freelancers the assets they need — without delays
  
  
• Freeing up internal resources to focus on work that actually grows the brand
  
  

Even saving just a few hours a week adds up fast across a busy ecommerce team.

Just look at haircare brand RevAir. Since moving their asset management over to Dash, their CCO, Kim, told us they save at least 20 hours a month now they’re not digging through disorganised Google Drive folders. As she put it:

"I truly believe Dash has saved us at least ten times its cost."

You can watch RevAir’s full case study to see how they made it work.

You can also download our free pitch deck template to help you make a case to your team. 

Pick the best media library software for your brand

There’s no shortage of media library tools out there, but finding the right one comes down to how your team works, how fast you need to move and how much content you’re juggling.

If you’re an ecommerce brand managing product launches, UGC, influencer partnerships, and ad creative, you need a tool that’s built for the real pace of marketing — not just another file storage system. You need something that keeps you organised, saves you hours every week, and helps you get more from every asset you create.

That’s exactly what Dash is built for. It’s fast, flexible, simple to set up, and packed with features designed specifically for ecommerce teams — from custom metadata and collections to guest uploads and a Shopify integration.

Want to try it for yourself? 

 👉 Start your free 14-day trial and see how much easier life can be when your content’s actually easy to find.

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