578 Acquia DAM (Widen) Reviews
Acquia DAM is an intuitive, reliable, and highly-configurable digital asset management (DAM) platform that has become essential to my work supporting marketing and sales operations. It’s easy for teams to use, even with minimal training. Like all DAM platforms, there are a few quirks (for example: using the “Search within Document Text” feature can return what an untrained user thinks are incorrect results, but is exactly what they searched), but once explained, users appreciate the depth of functionality.
As an admin, I rely heavily on metadata tagging to organize assets by product and content type. Acquia’s filename-to-metadata integrations have significantly reduced manual tagging, and I anticipate that their new task automation integration will do the same. Additionally, their seamless integration with CI Hub and Workato makes it easy to connect with tools like Adobe and Microsoft Office. While some of these integrations require support team involvement to update, the turnaround is fast – usually under 24 hours.
Performance-wise, Acquia DAM is outstanding. Searches return results in under a second, and I’ve never experienced a system-wide outage long enough for users to notice. Even a DAM consultant I hired commented on how much faster it is than the competing platform used by their employer.
Customer support is responsive and thorough. Over 98% of my issues are resolved through the Customer Community Portal, and I’ve only needed to escalate once. Acquia also connected me with Stacks, a third-party agency that helped create custom documentation and training tailored to our DAM.
User adoption has been phenomenal. After transitioning from a marketing-only tool to an organization-wide platform in 2023, user satisfaction jumped from 3% to 58%, and frustration dropped from 32% to just 2%. One sales user told me, “It’s a convenient and easy-to-use one-stop shop,” and a distributor even said our DAM is easier to use and more content-rich than our competitors’ platforms.
My favorite feature is how intuitive it is for untrained users – over 90% of our 1,000+ users receive no formal training, yet they can still find and download what they need. The platform scales beautifully with evolving needs, and its Asset Group Security/User Role functionality allows me to onboard new users or use cases without disrupting existing permissions.
Searches are generally effective within 1–2 tries, and while advanced search could improve results, the upcoming semantic search feature promises to make this even better. I also use Portals to provide selective access to assets – especially helpful for things like vector logos that sales users don’t need regularly but must access intentionally.
The DAM-focused team at Acquia deserves special recognition. They are knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely invested in the success of their customers. As an admin, I’ve felt consistently supported and motivated by their guidance and enthusiasm. Whether it’s through direct support, community engagement, or DAM-specific events, they foster a sense of partnership that makes managing a complex system feel collaborative and rewarding. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
While Acquia DAM is a powerful and reliable platform, there are a few areas where it falls short or could be improved.
One recurring issue is that system-generated emails often get caught in spam filters, especially for third-party users. This can lead to delays or missed communications. I’ve mitigated this for internal users by working with my IT team to add the email address to my company’s safe senders list, but external users don’t have that luxury. Additionally, the way user permissions are applied to shared collections is frustrating. If a recipient has a DAM account, their permissions override the shared link – even if the link doesn’t require login. This isn’t a bug, but a design flaw that undermines the sharing experience.
There are also several limitations on the admin side. For example, Acquia DAM only supports one complex and one one-way SSO integration, which is restrictive for organizations like mine that work with multiple distributors. Admin search functionality is limited and unreliable: I can’t search users by all fields (like state), and even when I can, the results aren’t always accurate. There’s also no way to mass edit user details or automate external account management.
Another major limitation is that admins cannot perform mass metadata updates on archived assets – only Acquia personnel can, and that comes at a cost. The new Insights module is also underwhelming; while it can run basic reports like “searches with zero results,” I often have to rely on Acquia-provided Excel workarounds to get the data my team needs.
While integrations like filename-to-metadata are incredibly helpful, they require support team involvement for updates. This means I have to plan ahead and coordinate changes, which adds friction to what could be a self-service process.
Search is generally strong, but there’s still no reverse image search capability, something admins have been requesting since at least 2015. Portals are also limited: they only support five filters, which makes them impractical for anything beyond very narrow use cases. In my opinion, most organizations can do without the Portals feature entirely.
Another challenge is the lack of visibility into support tickets submitted by non-admin users. As the DAM admin, I can’t be copied on or view tickets submitted by my team. This is problematic because many of their issues involve internal terminology or search errors that Acquia support may not understand without context. It would be far more efficient if I could triage or field those requests first.
Pricing has become a concern. Since Acquia acquired Widen Collective, costs have risen more rapidly. I’ve seen higher-than-expected rate increases, and unlike the initial contract, Acquia hasn’t offered savings for multi-year renewals. If you’re considering Acquia DAM, I strongly recommend negotiating a cap on annual rate increases in your master service agreement.
Finally, it's important to note some broader challenges. The private equity firm that owns Acquia DAM has laid off critical staff – including the Senior Managed Services Consultant I was actively working with – in favor of short-term profits. I believe this will negatively impact the long-term success of the platform. Additionally, Acquia’s primary focus on Drupal can sometimes leave DAM-only customers feeling overlooked at Acquia events. That said, the DAM customer success team remains highly motivated, and DAM-specific events (both virtual and in-person) are always beneficial. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The Acquia DAM system is set up to empower a full time admin. It's a very self-service system, with admins being able to perform configuration and maintenance tasks themselves. When help from Acquia is needed, the support team is available online chat and/or email support and is always professional and helpful.
We also like that Acquia DAM includes a suite of applications to help manage assets, specifically for product information management and workflow.
The robustness of the API allows us to integrate our DAM into our technology stack. As a result, we have been able to align our asset management practices with existing workflows and overarching business needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Acquia relies on a network of partners for integrations with other systems. Development of specific integrations can lag and don't always align with our technology stack. The a la cart nature of integrations provides flexibility (don't pay for what you don't need), but can add up if you want a lot of integrations.
Setup fees are usually required to configure new applications within the system or when adding integrations; these are one-time fees but do require additional budget beyond the cost of the applications or integrations themselves.
Our design team uses Acquia DAM every day and wishes for a more fully featured connection with Adobe Creative Suite. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
As a project coordinator who connects with outside business partners frequently, I appreciate how easy for me to create a collection of assets that I want to share with people. I like how I can customize the view in a simple way that is very user-friendly, even to people who are not familiar with the platform. I also like the feature where I can create my collection and manage its privacy or permissions. All in all, its fairly straightforward and fast. Although I haven't really explored every nook and cranny of it, I can say it serves its purpose, and it definitely makes my job easier. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes it's hard to look for certain assets, especially images. I think if it has a feature like image search, it would be a lot easier. For a company as big as VSP, where users store thousands of assets, we can't help but have some errors in the naming conventions, and it would help us locate files/images a lot faster if we had that technology. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like that the platform is easy to use and is user friendly. Onboarding new users is very straight forward, and we have the ability to permission a lot of stuff which doesn't hinder users on exploring, and testing out the platform. If they accidentally delete an asset, we can easily restore it back.
However, with the Portals app, permissions are not that much and it is reserved for a much more experienced user. Having the customer chat option is appreciated because we can discuss the issues live. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I guess having less permission options for the Portals and Insights app. Also, with the recent company changes the communication when it comes to new updates or releases are kind of lacking.
Having less export options in the Pending Delete, since it is frequently used by our team right now during our asset clean up. Exporting as a PDF is kind of useless since it is hard to navigate through. A CSV file is much more appreciated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the ease of use for users. I use the platform frequently, almost every day along with my coworkers. I enjoy the filtering options and the Acquia Team, specifically Aiden, have been incredibly helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I wish there were more template options for both portals and the dashboard. I think that would be incredibly useful. I enjoy the ability to customize it, I just wish there were some more structured options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
My favorite part about Acquia is the ease of help- chat support is always available quickly and I like that they will get back to me if they can’t answer right away on the spot. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Some things seem clunky, like two views of assets. I also wasn’t the moooost impressed with our onboarding training, we had no idea what we were doing and I feel like the help wasn’t super customized to us, so we pretty much had to redo everything once we understood the dam better. And it’s been difficult to get someone to help us get our wrike integration working even though we’ve been paying for it since we joined Acquia. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I find the DAM to be relatively user-friendly. As with other databases, it does take some getting used to. There are a number of training videos to watch that are helpful. Once you get into the individual asset modification, there are a number of ways you can do that - through the system itself or by downloading a csv file where you can make the modifications off-line and then upload said document for ease on adding metadata. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes navigation on the DAM can be a bit annoying. Going back one level isn't the easiest thing to do sometimes. It almost feels like you have to start fresh with each "search." Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
My favorite feature are the portals and the ability to update one location and have the assets reflected across our website. It makes for one source of truth and a seamless experience for my sales team and customers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I wish the DAM had more ability to integrate with social media - some DAM's have the ability to create social media posts and schedule within the service. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
A quick way to upload assets
Good workflow Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Integration with Drupal sites, even thought module is available but facing lot of issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I think the best thing for me as a designer is that clients can access the collective and source their own images. I used to waste HOURS sourcing images for internal clients. We set them up as a user, and click, done. Client is empowered to search and source their own images, and our brand is consistently presented to them with a customizable WIDEN interface. Life saver. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I think the only thing I can say negatively about WIDEN, is entering metadata. I loathe it. It takes time to think through possible metadata tags, but we share the workload, and it's a minor irritation. I wish it just knew what I was thinking. :) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
