With Brandfolder you get the archive, and project management is bought separately. Play brings the library, the tasks, the budget, the real cost and the crew that shoots, in one place.
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Updated: September 2026
Brandfolder is a brand DAM owned by Smartsheet: it centralises assets, controls permissions and lifecycle, and measures which material is used and where. It is strong on asset analytics and internal distribution. Play Platform includes a media library with AI tagging and videofeedback, and adds what Brandfolder leaves out: briefing, tasks, calendar, budgets, cost control, talent management and production services. The practical difference: with Brandfolder the management of the work is bought separately, with Play it comes inside.
Your priority is the brand archive and knowing which assets get used, who downloads them and which ones expire. Usage analytics and lifecycle control are its ground.
Your priority is producing: shipping pieces every month, approving them, knowing what they cost, and having someone to call when a crew is missing.
They agree on the library. They part company on everything that happens before the asset exists, and on how many products it takes to cover it.
| Capability | Play | Brandfolder |
|---|---|---|
| Central asset library with search | YesAutomatic AI tagging from PRO | YesIts core, with OCR and AI video |
| Asset usage analytics: downloads, channels, performance | NoPlay measures cost, not asset consumption | YesHome ground for the category |
| Asset lifecycle and fine-grained permission control | PartialPermissions per project and per role | YesWith SSO, SAML and expiry |
| Video review with comments on the cut | YesVideofeedback by version | PartialReview on assets, not video-specific |
| Structured briefing and project planning | YesBriefing assisted by KAMI AI | NoCovered by Smartsheet, a separate product |
| Tasks, delivery queues and a production calendar | YesIncluded in the same tool | NoCovered by Smartsheet, a separate product |
| Budgets, rate cards and production cost control | YesCost Control, expenses and purchase orders | No |
| Talent management: professional network and talent calls | YesMore than 1,200 vetted professionals | No |
| Production services you can hire | YesPLAY /Services, in the same environment | No |
| External collaborators at no per-seat cost | YesUnlimited on LITE, PRO and Enterprise | PartialDepends on the package bought |
| Starting today without talking to sales | YesOpen sign-up, no card | NoDemo and quote first |
| Published pricing | YesLITE, PRO and Enterprise, with figures | NoPremium and Enterprise, price on request |
Brandfolder is a Digital Asset Management platform owned by Smartsheet. It centralises a brand's assets, organises them with metadata and OCR, controls permissions and expiry, and measures which material is used, who downloads it and how it performs. Its Enterprise tier adds custom automation, granular permissions and BI connectors. It publishes no prices: you get in through a demo and a quote.
Play is a Production-Tech company. It combines three pieces in one flow: Play Platform, the software where production is planned, managed, approved and optimised; PLAY /Services, the creative, production and post-production team that makes the content; and KAMI AI, the assistant that structures briefs, organises projects and tags footage. It is all one product, at one price.
A DAM only stores. A project tracker only organises tasks. Review software only covers one stage. And a traditional production service hands you the video but gives you no platform and no control. Play is the only option that puts platform, services and AI in a single flow. Brandfolder covers the first box, and its parent company covers the second with another product.
The first one defines the comparison: how many tools it takes.
Brandfolder archives; planning the work is Smartsheet's job, bought separately. That is two subscriptions, two admin surfaces and two places to check the status of the same piece. In Play, the brief, the tasks, the material, the review and the cost are inside the same project.
One contract, one place to look, and no manual copying between tools.
A DAM's analytics tell you which assets get downloaded most and by whom, which is useful information for marketing. What they do not tell you is what those assets cost to produce. Play includes the rate card, the budget, the expenses and the purchase orders inside the project, so the cost comes from what was actually charged.
Real cost per piece and per campaign, comparable across projects.
A DAM comes into play with the approved piece. Everything before that — the brief, the shoot, the five versions and the arguments with legal — happens outside and is not recorded. In Play that history lives with the piece and can be consulted months later.
The reason behind each decision is still there when somebody asks six months on.
When capacity runs short, a well-measured archive does not shoot anything. Behind Play there is a network of more than 1,200 vetted professionals and an in-house creative, production and post-production team in Barcelona, Madrid and Toronto.
You scale content volume without building an internal team or opening a procurement process.
Each solves a different problem well. It is worth knowing which one is yours.
Brandfolder publishes no prices and works with two tiers, Premium and Enterprise, on a quote basis. Play publishes its own and charges per workspace.
0 €
149 €/month /workspace
Custom
Annual billing works out at 10 months. Extra storage at 29 €/TB per month.
To be straight about it: if you need to know which assets get used, who downloads them and when they expire, Brandfolder does it better than Play, and in a large organisation that analytics justifies its price. Play stops being comparable when the problem is not the archive but producing what goes into it, because then the DAM needs a project tracker, a cost spreadsheet and review software added to it. See all of Play's plans and add-ons.
If Brandfolder is already rolled out, they coexist without trouble. Play comes in through production, not through the archive.
The LITE plan is free, allows 3 internal users, unlimited external collaborators and 250 GB. No quote and no card.
Brief, tasks, calendar, media, review and cost inside the same project. The back catalogue stays where it is.
Client, freelancers and production company come in without taking a licence and without extending the package you bought.
This is the module with no equivalent in a DAM, and the one that makes the comparison more than two libraries.
Working footage and versions stay in Play; the final master goes to the brand archive if your organisation distributes from there.
For teams whose problem is producing, yes. Play covers the media library, the versions, the public links and the review, and adds briefing, tasks, budgets, cost control and talent management. For asset usage analytics and brand archive governance, no: that is Brandfolder's ground.
Brandfolder archives, governs and measures assets that already exist. Play manages the production of the ones that do not exist yet, with their budget, their crew and their real cost, all in a single product.
Not inside the DAM itself. Brandfolder is owned by Smartsheet, and managing the work is covered by that other product, bought separately. With Play, briefing, tasks, calendar, media and cost are in the same tool.
Brandfolder publishes no prices: it works with two tiers, Premium and Enterprise, reached through a demo and a quote. Play publishes its own: LITE free, PRO 149 € per workspace per month with 5 users included and 19 € per extra user, and custom Enterprise.
Yes, but of something else. Play's analytics, available from the PRO plan, measure finance and account health: cost per project, margins and the state of each client. They do not measure downloads or asset consumption, which is what a DAM measures.
Yes. External collaborators are unlimited on LITE, PRO and Enterprise. Only internal users are counted: 3 on LITE, 5 on PRO and custom on Enterprise.
Yes. Sign-up is open and asks for no card. Every account starts with 30 days of PRO and moves to LITE afterwards.
Yes, and with a DAM already rolled out that is the sensible setup. Play as the production system and Brandfolder as the brand archive for approved material.
The other enterprise DAM, with more modules and custom pricing too
The same comparison, against the whole category rather than one product
What gets measured when what you want to know is cost, not downloads
LITE, PRO and Enterprise, with the full module comparison
Notion is good for documenting production, not for running it.
Play is the Frame.io alternative that does more than review video: it plans, budgets, coordinates talent and produces in one flow.
Wipster reviews and approves video.
Ziflow approves creative work in any format.
A DAM stores and finds your footage.
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Try the Brandfolder alternative that does not need a second product beside it. Briefing, tasks, media, costs and talent in a single tool, from day one.
No card required. 250 GB and unlimited collaborators on the free plan. More than 350 brands and agencies already produce with Play.