DAM vs CMS: What's the difference?

you're watching this because you've got digital content to manage probably a lot of it maybe you've heard of digital asset management or a content management system at first glance these two may seem similar they're both systems that lets you work with your digital assets and content so they overlap in some ways but they're built for very different purposes and play different roles for most organizations that deal with digital assets and content hi i'm jenna from kanto and today we're going to look at the difference between a dam and a cms so you can figure out which one is right for your organization before we get to a full overview let's quickly clear up some terms which can be a little confusing at first asset and content in everyday speech sometimes these two terms are used interchangeably but here they're different an asset is a broad category that covers all kinds of digital files photos videos audio text documents graphics powerpoint presentations spreadsheets animations pdfs just about any file you might find on a hard drive content in terms of a cms at least is different in the absolute simplest terms it is website content things like text and visuals arranged into pages so that it can live on a website those pages and what's displayed on them are the kind of content a cms manages so these two are related because assets from a dam can be used to build content in a cms let's take a look at how each system works and what it does best so what is a cms to explain let's start with the world's most popular cms and one you've probably heard of wordpress wordpress forms the foundation for millions of websites around the world it's estimated to be behind more than 30 percent of all internet sites you can of course build a website from scratch without a cms but you would need to code every part yourself and every small change would require more coding a cms offers a more user-friendly environment to build your website wordpress is far from the only cms out there other popular cmss include drupal typo 3 joomla wix squarespace shopify to name a few a cms is used by teams building updating and making regular changes to a website this could be many people in an organization but you'll typically find copywriters and editors using a cms the most a cms is great for building blogs portfolios forums e-commerce stores and just about any website where content is regularly updated so what's a dam a dam acts as a central repository for an organization's digital assets assets like images graphics documents presentations and visual brand material like logos or word marks a dam keeps all of your assets in one place organized searchable and up-to-date unlike a cms which is primarily used by the teams updating the content of a website a dam is used by a broader range of roles in an organization of course this could include the team updating the content of a website by pulling assets from a dam but this could also include for example a team working on a banner for a conference who needs logos and graphics the hr or legal departments who need new letterhead officially approved documents or reference material graphic designers who need to collaborate with photographers on a new catalog these are just a few of the countless ways a dam can be useful to teams who might never touch a cms there are many dam providers out there and every dam is different so while a cms and a dam both deal with organizing digital files and managing data it's clear they are built to do very different things and serve very different needs within an organization that's why a cms and a dam work best as a complementary part of your organization's tech stack please like and subscribe if you found this video helpful

Channel: Canto

Views: 4,803

Keywords: CMS, DAM, Canto, Digital Asset Management, Content Management System, Wordpress, digital media

Id: RUHiP5OHAWY

Length: 4min 37sec (277 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020