Should I Build It Should I Build It
24 May 2025
Developer Tools

open source affordable DAM for small to medium sized video production ...

...companies

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Strong Contender

The market has shown clear demand for this type of solution. Your challenge now is to create a version that stands out while delivering what people already want.

Should You Build It?

Build but think about differentiation.

Your are here

You're entering a market that has shown demand for Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, specifically tailored for video production companies. This puts you in the 'Strong Contender' category, meaning there's an existing need, but standing out is crucial. We found 5 similar products, indicating a moderate level of competition. While we don't have concrete "use" or "buy" signals from the similar products in terms of metrics, anecdotally, the discussions and comments that the similar products received suggest that users are explicitly seeking scalable, easy to use DAMS that support video files, local deployments, CDN, custom domains. This means that people want a product like yours, so there is high demand for it. Your challenge is to make an open-source DAM that is genuinely valuable and provides capabilities that closed-source solutions often lack while remaining accessible. Given the open-source nature of your approach, you might attract users who prioritize transparency, community contributions, and customization.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly analyzing the competitive landscape. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing open-source DAM solutions, particularly Daminik and Artstash. Pay close attention to user feedback, focusing on areas where these solutions fall short, such as complex media handling, version control, and user interface issues, as mentioned in the criticism summaries. Aim to address these gaps with your product.
  2. Prioritize support for complex media types, especially video, from the outset. Many users of similar products have specifically requested video support. Ensure your DAM can handle various video formats and resolutions efficiently. Additionally, implement robust version control features to streamline the collaborative video production workflow, addressing a common need in the industry.
  3. Focus on creating a user-friendly interface with clear documentation and intuitive navigation. Address issues like scrolling problems on mobile and desktop, as reported by users of similar products. A well-designed and easy-to-use interface can significantly improve user adoption and satisfaction, giving you a competitive edge.
  4. Consider offering flexible deployment options, including local deployment and CDN integration. Some users seek local deployment for security and control, while others prefer CDN for performance and scalability. Providing both options will cater to a broader range of users and their specific needs. Be very clear from the get-go what kind of cloud deployment and security / privacy options you support.
  5. Implement security encoding to ensure that the media assets stored on the DAM are protected by unauthorized use. A key element in DAM systems is security. Highlight and focus on it in your documentation and initial launch.
  6. Engage with the open-source community early and often. Encourage contributions, gather feedback, and iterate based on user input. This collaborative approach can help you build a more robust and valuable product while fostering a loyal user base. Make sure you actively monitor the comments in the open source community sites.
  7. Start with a minimal viable product (MVP) that includes core features such as asset organization, search, and preview. Focus on delivering a seamless experience for these core features before adding more advanced capabilities. This approach allows you to validate your assumptions and gather valuable feedback early on.
  8. Develop a clear and concise pricing strategy from the beginning. Offer a free tier for basic usage, and charge for premium features or increased storage capacity. This approach allows you to validate demand and generate revenue while providing value to a wider audience. However, since you plan to develop an open source tool, consider different monetization strategies.

Questions

  1. Given the existence of other open-source DAM solutions like Daminik, what specific features or integrations will your product offer to truly differentiate itself and attract users from established platforms?
  2. How will you balance the need for a user-friendly interface with the technical complexity of advanced video asset management, ensuring that your DAM is both accessible to non-technical users and powerful enough for professional video production teams?
  3. What specific strategies will you employ to foster a vibrant open-source community around your DAM, encouraging contributions, providing support, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project?

Your are here

You're entering a market that has shown demand for Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, specifically tailored for video production companies. This puts you in the 'Strong Contender' category, meaning there's an existing need, but standing out is crucial. We found 5 similar products, indicating a moderate level of competition. While we don't have concrete "use" or "buy" signals from the similar products in terms of metrics, anecdotally, the discussions and comments that the similar products received suggest that users are explicitly seeking scalable, easy to use DAMS that support video files, local deployments, CDN, custom domains. This means that people want a product like yours, so there is high demand for it. Your challenge is to make an open-source DAM that is genuinely valuable and provides capabilities that closed-source solutions often lack while remaining accessible. Given the open-source nature of your approach, you might attract users who prioritize transparency, community contributions, and customization.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly analyzing the competitive landscape. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing open-source DAM solutions, particularly Daminik and Artstash. Pay close attention to user feedback, focusing on areas where these solutions fall short, such as complex media handling, version control, and user interface issues, as mentioned in the criticism summaries. Aim to address these gaps with your product.
  2. Prioritize support for complex media types, especially video, from the outset. Many users of similar products have specifically requested video support. Ensure your DAM can handle various video formats and resolutions efficiently. Additionally, implement robust version control features to streamline the collaborative video production workflow, addressing a common need in the industry.
  3. Focus on creating a user-friendly interface with clear documentation and intuitive navigation. Address issues like scrolling problems on mobile and desktop, as reported by users of similar products. A well-designed and easy-to-use interface can significantly improve user adoption and satisfaction, giving you a competitive edge.
  4. Consider offering flexible deployment options, including local deployment and CDN integration. Some users seek local deployment for security and control, while others prefer CDN for performance and scalability. Providing both options will cater to a broader range of users and their specific needs. Be very clear from the get-go what kind of cloud deployment and security / privacy options you support.
  5. Implement security encoding to ensure that the media assets stored on the DAM are protected by unauthorized use. A key element in DAM systems is security. Highlight and focus on it in your documentation and initial launch.
  6. Engage with the open-source community early and often. Encourage contributions, gather feedback, and iterate based on user input. This collaborative approach can help you build a more robust and valuable product while fostering a loyal user base. Make sure you actively monitor the comments in the open source community sites.
  7. Start with a minimal viable product (MVP) that includes core features such as asset organization, search, and preview. Focus on delivering a seamless experience for these core features before adding more advanced capabilities. This approach allows you to validate your assumptions and gather valuable feedback early on.
  8. Develop a clear and concise pricing strategy from the beginning. Offer a free tier for basic usage, and charge for premium features or increased storage capacity. This approach allows you to validate demand and generate revenue while providing value to a wider audience. However, since you plan to develop an open source tool, consider different monetization strategies.

Questions

  1. Given the existence of other open-source DAM solutions like Daminik, what specific features or integrations will your product offer to truly differentiate itself and attract users from established platforms?
  2. How will you balance the need for a user-friendly interface with the technical complexity of advanced video asset management, ensuring that your DAM is both accessible to non-technical users and powerful enough for professional video production teams?
  3. What specific strategies will you employ to foster a vibrant open-source community around your DAM, encouraging contributions, providing support, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project?

  • Confidence: Medium
    • Number of similar products: 5
  • Engagement: Medium
    • Average number of comments: 10
  • Net use signal: 5.8%
    • Positive use signal: 7.8%
    • Negative use signal: 2.0%
  • Net buy signal: 2.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 4.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 2.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

Daminik – An Open source digital asset manager

12 Jul 2024 Developer Tools

Hey guys! We just published our little open source project on GitHub and would love to get some feedback. It's a very early release (alpha) but we thought it would be better to do it earlier so that we could get direct feedback.Over the last 10 years we have built small to large web-projects of all kind. Almost every project involved managing images and files in one way or another. How do we manage our images and where? What happens if an image or logo changes, does it get updated across all sites? Which Host/CDN to choose? Is everything we do GDPR-compliant? With Daminik, we are trying to build a simple solution to solve these problems. One DAM with an integrated CDN. That’s it.You can check it out at: https://daminik.com/?ref=hackernews (hackernews being the invitation code)Repo: https://github.com/daminikhq/daminikWe would love to get your guys feedback on our alpha.

Users highlighted the need for the DAM to handle complex media types and advanced asset management. There were technical issues with image resizing, repo accessibility, and website usability, particularly scrolling and language settings. Some users sought open-source options and custom domains, while others were confused about the product's use cases and desired clearer documentation. Positive feedback included appreciation for Symfony and the product's scalability. There were also comments on the landing page's design and clarity, with suggestions for improvement.

Users criticized the product for its limited media handling, only supporting images and lacking advanced asset management features like version control. The main repository being disabled, copyright issues, and poor browser performance were also noted. The product's user interface has issues with scrolling on mobile and desktop, and the landing page design is considered bad with unclear purpose. Users also reported language limitations, unclear documentation, and a misleading name. Custom domain support and self-hosting capabilities are missing, and there's confusion about the product's use cases.

Avatar
129
35
5.7%
2.9%
35
129
8.6%
5.7%
Relevance

Artstash - Version control integrated DAM built for game & video teams

02 Apr 2024 Design Tools 3D Modeling Productivity

Artstash is a Digital Asset Management platform ( DAM ) built specifically for Game and Video teams working with 3D game technology. Artstash brings together assets across multiple platforms and make them easy to search, preview and collaborate on.

The project is professionally implemented with a clear development plan and receives a strong recommendation. It's congratulated on its launch as a promising digital asset management (DAM) solution specifically useful for game developers. Artstash is regarded as a great and simple solution for digital asset management.

Avatar
15
3
3
15
Relevance

Daminik - Open source digital asset management

11 Jul 2024 Artificial Intelligence Database Tech

Daminik is a simple & scalable Digital Asset Manager (DAM) with a built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN). The single source of truth for all* your assets.
 Open Source, lightning-fast and GDPR-compliant. *only images in the alpha ;)

Daminik's Product Hunt launch received positive feedback, with users congratulating the team. The tool is seen as a simple, scalable, and GDPR-compliant DAM with a built-in CDN. Users inquired about video/blob support, security encoding, and local deployment options. One user found the arcade demo problematic and pointed out a typo, while another highlighted Daminik's usefulness for managing digital assets. Excitement was expressed regarding the open-source nature of the DAM.

Users expressed concerns about the limited functionality of the alpha version, noting the lack of video/blob support and local deployment options. The absence of these key features and an unclear timeline for their implementation were points of criticism. Some users were also unsure of the product's use case and pointed out issues such as a problematic arcade demo and a typo on the homepage. The image-only support in the alpha version was also highlighted as a limitation.

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141
7
14.3%
7
141
14.3%
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