Adobe launched Assets Essentials in 2021. Here is how it differs from AEM Assets, and which one suits which customer.
What is Assets Essentials?
Assets Essentials is a lightweight version of Adobe Experience Manager Assets with a simplified user experience, built for marketing and creative professionals to store, discover and distribute digital assets across teams. It is designed to connect more users across a brand with the assets they need to deliver rich customer experiences.
It is cloud-based, so customers can start with essential asset management and upgrade seamlessly to the enterprise DAM, AEM Assets, as their needs grow.
Assets Essentials is the default asset management experience across Experience Cloud applications, starting with Adobe Journey Optimizer and followed by Adobe Workfront (see Adobe Workfront and its use with AEM).
Features of Assets Essentials
- A collaborative workspace that unites teams
- Simplified asset management
- Creative Cloud and Experience Cloud integrations
- Cloud-based, with nothing to maintain
- AI-powered search, discovery and management
- A quick, intuitive user interface
- Workflows to find the assets needed to assemble and personalize messages across the customer journey
- Work management and asset management together, for personalized experiences at scale
What is AEM Assets as a Cloud Service?
AEM Assets is a cloud-native DAM with an AI and machine learning backbone. It gives creatives and marketers more room to work and supports richer, solution-specific asset management integrations. How it works is covered in AEM Assets as a Cloud Service: all you need to know.
The differences
| Assets Essentials | AEM Assets | |
|---|---|---|
| User experience | Configurable | Customizable |
| Asset management and library services | Basic | Advanced |
| Security and rights management | Basic | Advanced |
| Integrations | Experience Cloud connections | Dynamic Media and asset portals (Brand Portal, Asset Share) |
The verdict
Start with essential DAM capabilities and grow into an enterprise DAM as the business needs it. Customers with heavy asset management requirements should choose AEM Assets as a Cloud Service over Assets Essentials; the customer's requirements should decide.
Assets Essentials gives customers an entry path: essential DAM capabilities that extend access to content to more users in a large enterprise, with a seamless upgrade to AEM Assets as a Cloud Service when the business needs more — more features, analytics, campaign integration and so on.
Comparing the asset portals too? See Brand Portal vs Asset Share Commons vs Dynamic Media.