Ethos vs Frontify: Key Differences in Brand Asset Management

If you're here, you probably already understand the importance of maintaining consistency in your branding. But handling that single-handedly can be inefficient and, quite frankly, overwhelming. It's 2024, and we now have tools for everything. And that includes managing your brand as well. 

The term Brand Asset Management (BAM) refers to the systematic process of organizing, storing, and sharing the elements that define a brand’s identity—such as logos, colors, fonts, and messaging. As your brand grows and you have to post content among diverse platforms and interact with a vast number of consumers, maintaining consistency in your branding becomes increasingly cumbersome. 

And this is where Brand Asset Management tools come in to save the day. These platforms make branding a walk in the park. With just a click, you efficiently distribute your brand assets to everyone and ensure consistency among your visuals and branding message. BAM tools not only reinforce brand recognition but also enhance your brand's credibility and build customer loyalty.

Moreover, BAM tools ensure that all your employees and stakeholders are on the same page regarding your brand’s identity and how your audience should perceive it. As a business operator, you’ll know exactly what needs to be done, how it should be done, and when.

With quite a many BAM tools available in the market, choosing the right one can feel like a dilemma. In this article, we’ll compare two popular platforms for managing brand assets - Ethos and Frontify. So, let's get started. 

A Brief Introduction to Frontify

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Frontify has been in the BAM industry forerunners for over a decade now. The platform was first introduced in 2013, and since then, it has been used by thousands of leading brands worldwide, such as Uber, Microsoft, Volkswagen, Kia, and Telefónica.

One of Frontify’s standout features is its ability to create and maintain digital brand guidelines. Brand guidelines are essential for upholding consistency in your branding, and with Frontify you can have an upper hand at that. Other key features of Frontify include centralized brand libraries, brand libraries, and its collaboration tools. We’ll have a detailed look at these features later on in the comparison section. 

Frontify claims to be best suited for medium to large enterprises, creative teams, and agencies. The platform provides a comprehensive layout for managing branding. As such, small-scale businesses can have a hard time understanding the comprehensive layout. 

A Brief Introduction to Ethos

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Unlike Frontify, Ethos is a newcomer in the BAM market. Launched recently in 2023, Ethos may not yet boast a decade of market presence or a list of global clients, but it certainly doesn’t fall short in terms of innovation and potential.

Ethos is designed to simplify the branding experience through its all-in-one brand management space, where users can design, collaborate, and share brand assets with ease. The BAM tool also innovates the industry with its unique blend of AI-powered tools and interactive showrooms. Unlike traditional brand management platforms that focus solely on organizing assets, Ethos integrates artificial intelligence to assist users in crafting compelling brand messages. With just a few clicks, you can create designs and taglines that resonate with your target audience! 

The platform is especially attractive to a broad range of users, including solopreneurs, influencers, startups, agencies, and enterprises. The best thing about Ethos is its scalability. If you have a vision, the right amount of patience, and unwavering dedication to Ethos, you can steadily but surely position yourself as a leading competitor in your respective industry.

Key Feature Comparison - Ethos vs Frontify

At first look, both of these platforms might look really similar, but they have very different use cases. Here is a detailed comparison between the key features of Frontify and Ethos. 

Asset management capabilities

Frontify: 

Frontify provides asset management through its comprehensive digital asset libraries that offer features such as version control, which helps track changes made to brand assets over time. This is particularly useful for teams that frequently update their branding materials. Furthermore, the platform integrates seamlessly with popular design tools like Sketch and Adobe. Your team can easily access brand assets through their preferred platforms, minimizing disruption in workflows and enhancing productivity at the same time. 

Ethos: 

Ethos has a much simpler take on asset management through its interactive brand showrooms. This feature allows users to create a visually appealing and engaging presentation of their brand assets. The platform also allows customizable options for sharing. You can choose who can view or edit various assets and thus ensure sensitive information remains secure. Additionally, Ethos centralizes asset management for consistency in branding. You can share logos, fonts, brand guidelines, and rules in one easily accessible location with all team members involved. 

AI-powered Features and Integration capabilities

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Frontify:

Frontify doesn’t have a strong focus on AI powered tools. However, the platform compensates by providing numerous organizational tools and integration capabilities. Frontify allows users to integrate their preferred software into their BMS so that designers and all employees can create, edit, and review brand assets on their preferred platforms. 

Ethos: 

Ethos is a revolution in brand management tools. It features AI as a primary tool, which you can use to come up with creative taglines with a strong and subtle call to action. Moreover, you can also integrate several third party software in the platform for enhanced usability and functionality. 

Collaboration Tools

Frontify:

Frontify’s collaboration tools include real time feedback mechanisms and structured workflows for brand asset approvals. These features contribute to a collaborative environment where you can allow team members to give input on brand guidelines and assets. As such, you create a unified approach to branding among your team. This is particularly advantageous for creative teams and agencies that need to collaborate with clients or across departments.

Ethos:

Ethos also has similar collaboration tools compared to Frontify. The platform places a strong emphasis on live team collaboration. You can invite team members and stakeholders into your brand space. Users can control who has the ability to create, share, or modify brand assets. This feature is particularly beneficial for teams that need to work together on branding initiatives, as it fosters an environment of transparency and real-time feedback.

Usability & Customization

Frontify: 

Frontify offers a comprehensive layout for creating and managing various branding assets. This feature might be challenging for small-scale business operations to grasp at first. But this isn’t a gap in Frontify’s space; rather it targets medium to large scale enterprises. The platform also enhances usability and customizability by allowing integration capabilities with a wide range of third-party apps. 

Ethos: 

Compared to Frontify, Ethos upholds simplicity in its usability. The platforms provide customizable showrooms for personalized brand spaces. Using the drag-and-drop feature, you can easily create brand assets and deliver a branding experience that resonates with your audience. 

Pricing & Scalability

Frontify does not publicly list its pricing plans on its website. You have to request a quote for that. But, according to a review by Dash, the most basic plan Frontify offers can be as much as 600$. And even then if you want to use their DAM function, you'll have to pay extra. 

The $600 price tag makes this platform a bit too pricey for small businesses. Compared to this, Ethos offers significantly more affordable pricing plans. Their starter model, designed for influencers, costs just $4 per month. Furthermore, for only $44 monthly, you can access all the features the platform has to offer.

If you’re already a well-established business with thousands of dollars in profit each month, you can easily go for Frontify. But if you’re just starting out, allocating $600 each month is out of the question. You may not even make that much. In that case, Ethos can be a much more suitable option. It may not boast a customer base of industry-leading brands, but it certainly doesn't lack features. And it offers the scalability you need to lift your business from the ground up!

So is Ethos Right for Me? 

You can’t know unless you try. Ethos offers a 30-day completely free trial. You can play around with the tool for a month, explore the different features the platform has to offer and decide accordingly whether or not the platform can suffice for your business needs. 

And don’t worry about entering your card details. The trial is completely free, and you can avail it without a card!

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