DAM Wiki

Frontify Features

Frontify AG · St. Gallen, Switzerland · Founded 2013 · independent, VC-backedVerified 2026-09-30 · 179 sources
  • SaaS
  • Enterprise
  • GraphQL API
  • Webhooks
  • SAML · OIDC SSO
  • MCP: Frontify MCP Server
Complete · 7 of 7 pages
179sources
2API specs
09-30verified 2026
Official website ↗Frontify alternatives →

Scope: the Frontify SaaS platform, with the DAM (libraries, assets, metadata) in depth and the brand side (guidelines, templates, portals) summarised. Frontify distinguishes the backend of a library (where editors manage assets) from library pages / guidelines (the frontend where viewers consume them) S142. Several capabilities are Enterprise-only or beta; this is marked inline.

Ingestion & storage

  • Structure: assets live in typed libraries — Media, Logo, Icon (SVG only), Document — or in Projects (workspace, work in progress) under a brand; all belong to one account S3 S19. Library types are fixed; Frontify has no plan to merge them S149.
  • Upload channels: web (button or drag-and-drop into library backends and Projects), multi-batch uploads to several folders in parallel; frontend contributions through the Asset Submission block (lands in a review inbox; libraries only) S80; desktop app, browser extension (upload from web tools), mobile app S128 S147 S129; creative/office connectors (Figma, Adobe via CI HUB or LinkrUI, Microsoft Office) S152 S153; GraphQL API (multipart S3 upload) S19; Zapier / Tray.io S135 S136.
  • Limits: up to 25,000 assets per batch, individual files up to 5 TB; only Editors and Owners can upload S80. API: max 1,000 parts per file S62.
  • Formats: "nearly all file types"; executables are rejected; files with embedded restricted fonts upload but get no preview S80 S19. Recognised types after processing: image (incl. PSD/PSB, EPS, SVG, HEIF, DNG), video, audio, document (Office formats; .ai treated as document since 2026-05) — anything else stays a generic File S4 S34.
  • Default metadata on upload: admins can preset standard and custom metadata applied to a whole upload batch S80.
  • Versioning: revisions per asset (upload a new file, history panel, numbered revisions) in libraries and Projects S81; side-by-side comparison from the audit trail S100; API access to revision list since 2026-06 S34.
  • Variants & attachments: alternative formats/colour spaces as variants (Logo and Icon libraries only); attachments on assets S41 S62.
  • Duplicate detection: perceptual hash (pHash) on DNG, EPS, GIF, JPG, PNG, PSD, TIF, TTF, WEBP; flags visually identical files even across formats/sizes; inbox-style curation view S87.
  • Migration: automated migrations from Bynder, Brandfolder, Dropbox and Google Drive; larger migrations via Frontify Professional Services (export → customer uploads to an S3 bucket provided by the CSM → metadata sheet); manual upload suggested under ~100 GB S130 S131. Paid migrate/continuous-sync connector from Sitecore Content Hub S139.
  • Storage/CDN: AWS (US or EU region); delivery via AWS CloudFront through "Dynamic media services" S158 S97 S58.

Metadata & taxonomy

  • Standard metadata: title, description, file properties (type, size, colour space, dimensions, file creation date, upload date, uploader); alt text and "decorative" flag for accessibility S78 S34.
  • Legal: copyright status (Unknown / Copyrighted / …) and notice, licences, creator; optional "accept before download" S78 S91 S88.
  • Custom metadata: defined per library; types text, long text, number, date, URL, single select, multiselect, plus catalog-linked values S25 S62; required properties (assets missing them are hidden from end users), default options, help text; advanced (beta) settings: searchable/viewable toggles, conditional dependencies, per-property permissions (view / edit / admin by role, user or group) S25.
  • Tags: free-text, comma-separated entry, bulk tag overview ("3/5" counts); AI-suggested tags shown separately until accepted S78.
  • Controlled vocabularies: select/multiselect options; Catalogs (beta) bring structured business data (products, markets, campaigns) from CSV or API, with linking columns, and propagate value changes to asset metadata S123 S18. No hierarchical thesaurus is documented — Unknown.
  • Embedded metadata: EXIF / XMP / IPTC parsed on upload into Creator, Description, Copyright notice and Tags (priority order e.g. XMP:Creator > XMP:Author > XMP:Artist) S78; can be skipped per API upload (skipFileMetadata) S34. Write-back of metadata into files on download: Unknown.
  • Bulk edit: name/description, custom metadata, tags, collections, targets, lifecycle dates in bulk from the library overview/sidebar S78 S89 S92; Bulk Metadata Manager app S134; metadata CSV export per library (e-mailed) S141. Custom metadata moves with assets between libraries if properties match S78.
  • Metadata design aids: Metadata Architect (AI-suggested schema, Marketplace app) and Predictive metadata (AI fills values from your taxonomy, via Automations) S114 S113.

Search & discovery

  • Library search: ranks title first, then description, then tags, legal and custom metadata; prefix/partial matching; exact phrase in quotes (plus an "Exact match" toggle); boolean AND / OR / NOT S83 S20.
  • Facets: editors add facets to library pages from select/multiselect properties, tag groupings, or built-in orientation / file-type facets S82.
  • Search scopes: library search, workspace spotlight search across libraries, projects, folders and guideline content (editors/admins only), automatic cross-library search within a guideline when a library search returns nothing S86.
  • OCR ("asset content search"): text in PDF, DOCX, PPTX and PNG/JPEG/TIFF images indexed via AWS Textract and Comprehend; toggled per library/project; usable in all searches and the API S79.
  • Enhanced image search (open beta, admin-enabled): Azure OpenAI interprets image/icon content for natural-language queries without tags; GIF and video not supported; the generated understanding is not exposed as metadata S85.
  • Natural language search: semantic matches on descriptions (synonyms, cross-language) layered on keyword search; included with Enhanced image search S84.
  • Views: named, rule-based selections (standard/custom metadata, workflow status, lifecycle) applied to library pages; update automatically; no limit on count S94.
  • Saved searches for end users: Unknown.

AI capabilities

  • Auto-tagging (suggested tags) for PNG, JPG, TIFF, PSD/PSB, SVG, WEBP, HEIF/HEIC, MOV, MP4; AI tags flagged AUTO in the API S79 S34.
  • OCR search, Enhanced image search, natural language search (see above) S79 S85 S84.
  • Automations (beta): trigger → conditions → actions rules (set workflow status, descriptions, titles, tags, move assets…); OpenAI actions (describe/analyse images, translate metadata) installed from the Marketplace, run on Frontify's OpenAI key during beta (up to 10,000 assets/month), customer keys expected later S112. Predictive metadata and duplicate detection complement it S113 S87.
  • Brand assistant: RAG chat over guideline text (questions, copy review/generation, asset finding), 100+ languages; text-only sources; Azure may retain interaction data up to 90 days for monitoring; admin can enable/disable S115.
  • AI translation of guideline pages (beta, admin-activated, reviewed before publishing) S125.
  • Generative apps from the Marketplace: OpenAI image generator, Image Studio, Expand image with AI, background removal, FLUX Kontext editing (partner) S134 (Help Center Apps and Integrations collections).
  • Content credentials: API exposes a beta provenance object (credential state, content origin, generator, signing certificate) on assets S62; a UI feature description is Unknown.
  • Agentic hub lists all AI capabilities in-product; Frontify MCP gives external agents governed access (see Integrations) S116 S75.
  • Governance: AI features are toggled by account admins (beta terms for some); third-party processors named per feature (Azure OpenAI, AWS, OpenAI) S85 S79 S112. Model-training use of customer data is addressed in the AI addendum (not read) S172.

Organization

  • Folders inside libraries/projects, with folder-level access for invited users or groups (Media, Document, Icon, Logo libraries and Projects; not Template libraries) S95.
  • Collections: curated groups in all library types, shareable, pinnable, with personal collections for consumers; no size limit on selection S93.
  • Library pages: frontend views of a library backend; one backend can feed several pages, each page one backend; customisable search/filters, public access possible S142.
  • Relations between assets (campaign sets, variants of a logo) S146.
  • Targets: audiences (markets, departments) assigned to users/groups and to assets or guideline parts, controlling visibility S92.
  • Brand portals / guidelines: interactive brand guidelines with ~40 built-in content blocks (colours, typography, image grids, do & don't, Figma, Storybook, code snippets, Lottie, audio…), themes (Classic, Muse, Paper, custom), navigation manager, page commenting, multi-language (Enterprise), public sharing with terms & conditions, PDF/print export, brand-level Essentials (fonts, colours reused across guidelines and templates) S48 S54 S124 S126 S144 S143.
  • Multi-brand: several brands per account, each with its own libraries, projects and guidelines S3.

Workflow & collaboration

  • Projects (creative collaboration workspace) for unfinished work; Workflow Kanban boards with configurable, reusable statuses, owners and tasks S118 S3.
  • Asset workflow statuses in libraries, one task per asset, with assignees and checklists; automatable via API (beta) and Automations S23 S112.
  • Review & approval: approval requests with individual or group reviewers, revision settings, approval history; comments with @mentions (incl. groups, @all) S117.
  • Annotations: timestamped / frame-specific video comments, multipage PDF commenting, annotations and personal notes in guidelines S119 S161.
  • Inspect mode and prototyping in Projects; project briefs and project templates (Help Center "Creative collaboration" collection, not read in detail).
  • Creative tools: Figma (plugin, app for feedback, Figma block, Figma templates), Adobe CC Libraries / InDesign, Sketch plugin, CI HUB and LinkrUI connectors S152 S153 S138.

Rights & governance

  • Roles: Viewer, Editor, Owner per guideline/library/project (plus Reviewer / Translator contexts); account setting controls whether editors may invite; account admins S101 S10.
  • Groups: manual user groups and rule-based smart groups; SSO group mapping at login S151 S105.
  • Access requests and optional provisioning approval (reason + contact for each invitation; Enterprise, possible extra cost) S102.
  • Asset lifecycle (Enterprise): available-from / available-until dates, notifications, configurable expiry action (none, apply workflow status…) S89.
  • Download protection (Enterprise): at library, folder or asset level — request-based downloads, auto-approval, validity period, approvers, watermarks S90; custom download-request form (Help Center DAM collection).
  • Licences & copyright: licence records with optional acceptance before download; copyright status/notice defaults per library S88 S91.
  • Audit trail per asset (Enterprise; editors, owners, reviewers) S100.
  • Retention / legal hold: Unknown. Deleted guideline content can be restored (Help Center Guidelines collection).

Distribution & delivery

  • Sharing: public links for guidelines (optionally without account, with T&C, targets), share links for assets, collections and folders, external view of project assets S126 S127.
  • CDN links: static (version-pinned, never expire, stay valid after deletion) and dynamic (always latest revision, near-real-time invalidation; rolled out in stages) for images, videos, documents and audio S99 S56.
  • Transformations at download (UI): format conversion (AVIF, HEIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG), predefined sizes, cropping, SVG icon recolouring with brand colours, document → PDF; not for bulk downloads or video S96. Custom crop with focal point (Media Library) S145.
  • Media Processing API: URL-based resize/crop/cover/background removal/colourise/quality…, WebP negotiation, 4096 px cap S57 S59.
  • Templates: digital (from Figma, Sketch, InDesign; PDF/PNG/JPEG export), print (InDesign; PDF presets, bleeds, crop marks, spreads, CMYK), motion (single Figma frame; GIF/MP4/HTML, closed beta in early 2026) with locked brand elements, approvals for publications and external data sources (CSV) S120 S121 S122 S149. Creative API renders templates programmatically S26.
  • Newsletters / brand updates to users from within Frontify (Help Center "Brand updates newsletter" collection).
  • Desktop app (drag assets into any tool), mobile app, browser extension S128 S129 S147.

Video & rich media

  • Video assets get video + image previews and duration; recognised formats include AVI, FLV, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, MTS, WEBM, WMV S4.
  • Frame-accurate video commenting in Projects S119; auto-tagging covers MOV/MP4 S79; video CDN links S99.
  • Audio: MP3 preview and waveform image S4. Motion templates (GIF/MP4/HTML) S120. Lottie and audio blocks in guidelines (Help Center Guidelines collection).
  • Adaptive streaming, subtitles/transcription and 3D asset handling: Unknown (3D visualisations mentioned only as a possible custom content block S166).

Analytics & reporting

  • Analytics dashboard (Enterprise, admins + granted users): usage, engagement, search insights (incl. zero-result gaps), content performance, storage and template tabs; chart export S109.
  • Asset analytics: views, downloads, share-link views/downloads, guideline-search appearances, grouped by Library / Project / Guideline S110.
  • Media delivery analytics: CDN bandwidth per brand and over time (relevant to the 4 TB contractual threshold) S111.
  • Guideline analytics and third-party tracking via Segment (GA4, Adobe Analytics…) (Help Center Platform and Integrations collections).

Administration

  • SSO: SAML 2.0 / OpenID Connect (Enterprise), examples for Entra ID, Okta, OneLogin, Google, ADFS; JIT user creation; IdP group mapping; no SCIM S103 S104 S105 S106.
  • 2FA (TOTP, enforceable), password options, logout options for viewers S107.
  • Branding of the environment: custom domain/subdomain with SSL, branded login page, favicon, white-label e-mail templates, custom transactional sender (Help Center Platform collection).
  • Multi-brand / multi-tenant: brands inside one account; separate accounts for separate tenants (content duplication between accounts on request) S3 S131.
  • Marketplace administration: only account admins install extensions; option to hide the Marketplace from viewers S132.
  • Sandbox environments: no standard staging tenant; developer sandbox on request; Frontify advises isolating tests in dedicated libraries S5.
  • Usage metering: MAU and storage visible in the account's usage overview/analytics S157 S109.
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