# Brandfolder — Design

Brandfolder by Smartsheet Inc. holds a panel rating of 1.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Smartsheet Inc. (https://brandfolder.com)
- Category: [Design](https://whats-best.ai/software/design.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/design/brandfolder
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/design/brandfolder/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/brandfolder/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-20 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-13

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Smartsheet Inc.
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

The bench scores Brandfolder, a Smartsheet company, as a brand asset library, not a design tool. Its strongest criterion is brand asset governance, at 6-7: captured pages document a central library with automated tagging, duplicate detection, version history, publish and expiration dates, asset analytics and partner-scoped private collections. Collaboration and handoff follows at 4-5, resting on sharing an asset, a collection or the entire library with user-level permissioning, guest portals without a paid seat, and a documented API with keys and SDKs. File ownership and portability scores 4-6, on the user agreement's self-service backup of customer content during the term. Weaknesses are sharp. Design and prototyping scores 0-2, with no public information on editing, prototyping or tokens. AI and content rights scores 1-2, with no public statement on providers, processing location or model training. Sovereignty scores 0-2: the contracting party is Smartsheet Inc. of Bellevue, Washington, its privacy policy places primary processing activities in the United States, and no public information on EU hosting appears. Pricing transparency scores 0-1; no figure appears, purchase runs through demo or quote.

**Speaks for it:**
- Brand asset governance scored 6-7 on a documented central library with automated tagging, duplicate detection, version history, publish and expiration dates, asset analytics and a Brandguide.
- Asset, collection and whole-library sharing with user-level permissioning, plus guest portals that need no paid seat.
- The user agreement grants a self-service backup download of customer content during the term, with file attachments in their native formats.
- Open API documentation with keys and SDKs, plus SSO sign-in for collaborators.
- The backup policy documents daily snapshots retained thirty-five days, transaction logs every five minutes and version-controlled template files.

**Held against it:**
- Design and prototyping scored 0-2; we found no public information on layout or vector editing, prototyping, reusable components or design tokens.
- AI and content rights scored 1-2; we found no public information on whether customer content trains models, on model providers, or on where AI processing runs.
- Sovereignty scored 0-2; the contracting party is Smartsheet Inc. of Bellevue, Washington, the privacy policy places primary processing activities in the United States, and we found no public information on EU hosting or a subprocessor list.
- Pricing transparency scored 0-1; the pricing page names premium and enterprise tiers but no figure appears, and the only purchase route shown is booking a demo or requesting a quote.
- We found no public information on comments or review threads, approval workflows for new assets, or licence and owner metadata per asset.

**Best for:**
- You distribute official brand assets to agencies, partners and retailers through gated, partner-scoped collections with request-access forms.
- Your external reviewers and partners need access through public portals and SSO without buying a paid seat.
- Your team creates design work elsewhere and needs a central library with version history and publish and expiration dates as a single source of truth.
- You want a written exit path, as the user agreement grants a self-service backup download of customer content during the term.

**Avoid if:**
- You need to design or prototype inside the tool; the captured pages present templates as files to download rather than layouts to edit.
- You require EU data residency or a European contracting entity; the contracting party is Smartsheet Inc. of Bellevue, Washington and its privacy policy places primary processing activities in the United States.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The Product Designer | The Frontend Engineer | The Brand Marketer | The Agency Owner | The Data Protection Officer | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Design, prototyping & design systems | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Collaboration, review & developer handoff | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 |
| Brand assets & governance | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 |
| Files, formats & portability | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 |
| AI features & rights to the work | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 0/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1/5** |

### The judges

- **The Product Designer** (v1.0): Owns the design system of a B2B software product. Wants components with variants, tokens with modes, prototypes that test a real flow, and library releases that are versioned and reviewable — a design system is a product, not a page of nicely arranged buttons.
- **The Frontend Engineer** (v1.0): Turns the designs into code and gets the ticket when they disagree. Wants an inspect mode without a paid seat, tokens exported in a documented format, components mapped to the code ones, and an API that reads the whole file rather than a screenshot of it.
- **The Brand Marketer** (v1.0): Keeps the brand consistent across twelve sales offices that make their own flyers. Wants locked templates non-designers can use, guidelines inside the tool, licence and expiry dates on every stock image, and a clear answer on whether a generated image may go on a trade-fair stand.
- **The Agency Owner** (v1.0): Runs a design agency of fifteen and hands every project over to the client at the end. Wants files that export with layers and components intact, guests who are not billed as editors, and terms that say the client owns the work — and what happens to it after a cancellation.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Reviews every tool where unreleased products, customer screenshots and employee photos end up. Wants the contracting entity and hosting region named, the AI providers on the subprocessor list, and training on customer files excluded for the whole organisation in the terms — not behind a toggle each user has to find.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has read "free for viewers", "commercially safe AI" and "export anytime" on every page in this category. Reads instead for the click that turns a reviewer into a billed editor, the plan the IP indemnity actually covers, and whether the export keeps a single component.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Dpf: EU-U.S. DPF, UK Extension, Swiss-U.S. DPF certified [S3]
- Dpf affiliates: Artefact Product Group LLC dba 10,000ft · Brandfolder, Inc. · On Brand Holdings, Inc. dba Outfit · TernPro, Inc. dba Slope [S3]
- Dpf dispute resolution: free of charge · JAMS [S3]
- Dpf response time: 45 [S3]
- Privacy contact: privacy@smartsheet.com [S3]
- Security practices: Security Practices document maintained, includes physical, organizational, technical measures [S4]
- Transfer mechanism: EU SCCs + UK International Data Transfer Addendum [S3]

**Data**
- Anonymization: yes [S3]
- Children: 18 · no [S3]
- Db point in time recovery: yes [S9]
- Db snapshot retention: daily · 35 [S9]
- Db transaction log frequency: 5 [S9]
- Export: native file attachments, industry standard export format · yes [S4]
- Policy last updated: 2022-10-05 [S9]
- Retention period: 7 [S3]
- Sensitive data: no [S3]
- Server stateless: yes · yes [S9]
- Template file restore: yes [S9]
- Template file version control: daily · yes [S9]

**Hosting**
- Primary processing: United States [S3]

**Integrations**
- API sdks: yes · yes [S2]
- Available: yes [S1]

**Legal**
- Address: 500 108th Ave NE, Suite 200, Bellevue WA 98004 [S3]
- Affiliates: Smartsheet UK Limited · Smartsheet Australia Pty Limited · Brandfolder, Inc. [S3]
- Controller roles: controller · processor · controller [S3]
- Copyright: Brandfolder, Inc. [S6]
- Copyright: ©2026 Getty Images. All rights reserved. [S10]
- Copyright entity: Brandfolder, Inc. [S7]
- Copyright holder: 2026 · Brandfolder, Inc. [S5]
- Export controls: Trade Regulations compliance; no use in sanctioned/embargoed regions [S4]
- Governing law: Seattle, Washington · Washington [S4]
- Headquarters: Smartsheet Inc. · Washington state, United States [S3]
- Language controls: yes [S3]
- Last updated: 2026-05-20 [S3]
- Notices address: legal@smartsheet.com · Smartsheet Inc. · 500 108th Ave NE, Suite 200, Bellevue, WA 98004 [S4]

**Pricing**
- Auto renewal: yes · one year · 30 [S4]
- Credit card threshold: wire · ACH · credit card · 25000 [S4]
- Invoice billing: subscription · annual in advance [S4]
- Late fee: 1.5 [S4]
- Model: No prices listed; quote-based via 'Book a demo' [S2]
- Payment terms: USD · net 30 [S4]
- Premium target: Organizations wanting scalable intelligent DAM with analytics, bulk asset management, more tagging [S2]
- Quote based: quote-based [S1]
- Refund policy: yes · yes [S4]
- Renewal price increase: renewal term · 45 [S4]

**Product**
- Access request: access request form · yes [S6]
- Addons: Resource Management · Collaborative work management [S2]
- Automated tagging duplicate detection: yes · yes [S1]
- Brand asset library: K - Marketing Template Library hosted as a private Brandfolder for official brand assets [S6]
- Brand asset portal: request form · official brand asset distribution [S12]
- Brand intelligence: Brand Intelligence · yes [S1]
- Brandportal assets public: yes · yes [S11]
- Brandportal private collection: yes [S5]
- Brandportal public assets: Skyline · 1 · yes [S5]
- Collection purpose: Marketing Assets Brandfolder contains Avalara marketing, product marketing, and sales enablement materials. [S8]
- Core features: Content library · Access control · Custom branding · Flexible asset organization · AI-Powered search with automatic tagging · Version history · Integration ecosystem · Developer resources · Streamlined workflows · Brandguide · Smart CDN ·… [S2]
- Customer count: 5000 [S1]
- Depreciated assets count: 4 · Depreciated Assets [S8]
- Download assets: Downloadable image categories: Elf Mio, Elf (1st-7th gen), Forward (1st-7th gen), Giga, Elga, Elga Mio, Elga Duo, Gala, Gala Mio [S10]
- Download purpose: Images may be downloaded for press/media and personal, non-commercial purposes; agreeing to the terms is required to download. [S10]
- Enterprise features: Custom Automation · Granular permissions · Multi-brand/team management · Editable metadata and colorspace conversions · BI insights data connector · Vanity URL [S2]
- Password reset: yes [S5]
- Premium features: Asset analytics · Document intelligence (OCR) · Bulk update/upload · SAML/SSO · Publish and expiration dates · Video AI with speech-to-text [S2]
- Private brandfolder: yes [S6]
- Private collections by request: yes · Ad Agency · 61 · Banff team · 50 · Indirect Partners · 62 · Media Kit · 55 · Newsroom · 43 · Retailers and Sales · 12 [S11]
- Public collections: Press Kit · 46 · Sales Tools · 152 · Templates · 13 [S11]
- Related links: Links to Isuzu Motors official site and Isuzu corporate information site [S10]
- Request access: yes [S5]
- Sales channel: Sales via demo booking / Get a quote; no self-serve checkout shown [S2]
- Sharing permissions: share asset or collection or entire Brandfolder · privacy controls · user-level permissioning [S1]
- Sign in smartsheet: Smartsheet [S5]
- Single source of truth: cloud-based single source of truth [S1]
- Smartsheet signin: Smartsheet sign-in option available [S11]
- SSO: Unity SSO or Brandfolder account sign-in available [S12]
- SSO sign in: Hy-Vee Inc. · yes [S7]
- User rights: access, erasure, objection, portability, rectification, restriction, withdrawal of consent [S3]

**Support**
- API: yes [S1]
- Live chat: yes [S5]
- Live chat: yes [S6]
- Live chat: yes [S7]
- Live chat: yes [S11]
- Live chat: yes [S12]
- Okta signin: yes [S6]
- Rights appeal: yes [S3]
- Warranty remedy: termination plus refund of prepaid fees · 30 [S4]

## Questions

### Is Brandfolder European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Brandfolder as Rest of world.

### Where does Brandfolder store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does Brandfolder have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Brandfolder?

As of 16 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Penpot (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/penpot), [Sketch (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/sketch) and [Frontify (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/frontify) highest among the other 13 Design products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Penpot](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/penpot) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Brandfolder alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/design/brandfolder/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 9 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 data facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 subprocessors fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://brandfolder.com/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://brandfolder.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Privacy policy: https://www.smartsheet.com/legal/privacy (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Terms of service: https://www.smartsheet.com/legal/user-agreement (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Brand assets & governance — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/marketing/brand (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Design, prototyping & design systems — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/k-marketing-template-library (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/portals/collaborators (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Collaboration, review & developer handoff — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/avalara/developer-api (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/outfit/backup-policy/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Files, formats & portability — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/portals/download (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S11] AI features & rights to the work — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/ai-image-descriptions-sandbox (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S12] AI features & rights to the work — found from sitemap: https://brandfolder.com/unity/unity-ai (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Brandfolder — Design", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-20. https://whats-best.ai/software/design/brandfolder

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/612?target=page