Canto vs. Xinet

Canto is an excellent tool for organizing assets and searching for them in one location. I also really enjoy using the mobile version of Canto on my smartphone when I am on the go. Canto is robust and fast and it has been a major advancement in the way that my organization stores and shares assets.

Incentivized

As a legacy DAM system, Xinet is great. But historically they have been slow to develop new features and they have allowed their competitors to take the lead with more modern features like video and digital/social support and more intuitive interfaces. It seems that most DAM companies have a cloud-first view on their storage, while Xinet, which emerged from on-premises servers, has only recently begun to move into that space. That said, Xinet is a niche product perfect for anyone needing to manage large, still photoshoots and rights-managed assets, and then share them with large teams since it is not based on a per-user pricing structure.

Incentivized

• Allowing users to download a resized version of an image self serve (eg. for social media)
• Sharing collections where recipients can see and download high res images
• Tagging to make searches very simple and eliminate complete folder structures
• Tag all info about an asset in the data rather than trying to name images with this data

Incentivized

• Organize assets by metadata.
• Grouping assets in a smart manner.
• Search capability.

Incentivized

• I do with we could search for colors or items in Canto, for example red shirt photos
• We have a small team, but everyone needs different levels of access, I feel like there arent many levels of access as there could be

Incentivized

• Automated triggers and actions could be a little more intelligent and could use a better interface (visual) for setting them up.
• Drag and drop file movements in the web portal would be a tremendous improvement.
• 3D file previewing for max and maya files would make the software invaluable to our teams.

Incentivized

We are very likely to renew our service with Canto. This is because of the support we have received and what we have seen Canto do so far for our company. We are finally able to organize our assets well and maintain governance over all of our digital assets. It has eliminated time difference issues and is equipping people within our company with a lot of content for them to use and push.

Incentivized

Canto is about as easy to use as it gets. I have personally trained a handful of employees who are unfamiliar with DAM/marketing SaaS technology on how to use the platform for their needs. These trainings only take about half an hour (given they are using a very limited set of Canto's features), and afterward, they are pretty well-equipped to use the platform.

Incentivized

Xinet is intuitive to use. It is perhaps the only DAM that features a traditional mounted volume, so anyone working in an environment with local servers will love it. Search is accurate and faceted searches allow users to narrow search results. Setup requires a lot of training if you want to leverage all of its complex workflow capabilities.

Incentivized

Canto is usually available, though sometimes goes down for 30 min - 1 hr. Usually resolved quickly

Incentivized

I've satisfied with the performance

Incentivized

I think Canto's onboarding process was really helpful. Our employees were able to utilize the system without excess training sessions which isn't always the case with some software. I also think that their customer support has proven to be super helpful when minor issues arise

Incentivized

Support is handled by third-party server integrators. Our partner, NAPC, has always been there when we've needed them and also develops unique plugins to expand XInet's capabilities.

Incentivized

Very knowledgable and accommodating trainers who listen to what you're asking and provide detailed yet simple instructions.

Incentivized

We didn't have a thorough enough plan for ownership of uploading and tagging and some of our tags were inconsistent which led to some regression in our usage. We tightened up that plan on our end and spoke with support team on Canto's end to establish some best practices and have a much better workflow now.

Incentivized

Canto was one of the most cost effective options and was the only one that included all of the features that we were looking for (AI tagging, facial recognition, PMS integrations, OCR text recognition, etc)

Incentivized

We selected Xinet based on having a large number of potential users and wanted unlimited web seats. Paying a one time software fee versus a monthly seat payment was a big draw. Telescope was four to five times more expensive and was not feasible at the time. We liked Basecamp but we needed a local solution for storage, not hosted.

Xinet is a great platform to build off of. We use it in combination with Enfocus Switch which has greatly improved the automation capabilities and we use Xinet as the portal for external users. Our internal users very rarely interact with the Xinet GUI.

Incentivized

Canto is based on the West coast, so occasionally patches and planned outages happen during East coast working hours

Incentivized

• Through a public service-based portal we've created, we have decreased the number of simple service calls that our service reps receive, because customers are now able to access an online platform and help themselves. This frees up our service reps and give them more time to spend on other, more complex cases.
• Decreases the time spent looking for assets. Simply search Canto!
• Easily providing information to many parties that our business deals with has been very helpful in improving relationships.

Incentivized

• Increased employee efficiency
• Proper usage of assets
• Client management and control

Incentivized