10 best brand compliance software to keep your brand on track

Brands are like people. The best ones are those we know we can trust and rely on. If you’re flaky and inconsistent, chances are you’re going to have trouble making and maintaining healthy, happy relationships.

This same rationale applies to brands. We want to like their character, and take comfort in knowing what to expect when we interact with them. Which is why brand compliance software is indispensable for brands of every size.

So, let’s take a look at the best tools on the market right now that will protect your brand reputation through consistency, collaboration, and all that good stuff.

We’ll break this article down into the following use cases:

• Building brand guidelines
• Implementing strong approval processes
• Fostering collaboration across your brand
• Gathering customer feedback
• Monitoring brand consistency
• Creating content

1. Frontify – best software for building brand guidelines

Source: frontify.com

You’d have to be a real sucker for punishment to build your brand without developing a sturdy set of brand guidelines. These guidelines will help you craft your brand’s personality and maintain consistent messaging. But they will also make sure every employee you hire knows what your brand’s core values are, and how best to communicate them.

Frontify is known for its intuitive interface and easy to use tools that make it possible for anyone to create some cracking brand guidelines regardless of their design or technology knowledge.

Pros

• Frontify has a handy style guide customization feature that allows you to tailor your branded content to a tee.
• This software also offers stats and analytics around your brand assets, helping you see and understand how your assets are being used.
• Frontify comes with the ability to translate and localize your brand guidelines, making them accessible to people from different countries and cultures.

Cons

• If you’re more interested in social media communications, this software has limited tools for monitoring this kind of consumer interaction.
• Frontify might be a bit pricey for smaller or startup organizations, starting at $79 per month.
• For brands seeking more in-depth insights and analytics around their brand, they might find Frontify’s monitoring too basic.

2. Filestage – best software for implementing strong approval processes

If you’ve already sorted your brand guidelines, you’re going to want to set up a smooth and speedy approval process that will keep each and every piece of brand work consistent across your entire team.

Whether your team is making a piece of social film content, reviewing copy, or doing a small brand refresh on your website, Filestage is the perfect tool to keep all of your projects consistent and moving in the right direction.

On top of that, Filestage also doubles as file comparison software, quickly highlighting changes between two versions to help make sure nothing has changed without you noticing.

Pros

• Filestage integrates with your favorite tools like Slack, Asana, and Microsoft Teams for seamless file reviews and approvals within your brand.
• It’s easy to review and comment on PDF files, videos, documents, designs, live websites, and more.
• The software also saves each version of your file, so it’s easy to go back and track progress.

Cons

• With our Free plan, there is a limit on the amount of review steps you can have. This may or may not affect your workflow, depending on the type of project.

3. Bynder – best software for fostering collaboration across your brand

Source: bynder.com

For brands to be consistent, every team across the organization needs to be on the same page. It’s as simple as that.

The right brand compliance software will make collaborative working a whole lot easier. It will give your people one shared space where they can touch base on all things brand-related, reducing the risk of using old assets or putting off brand content out into the world.

Bynder is a popular graphic design project management option for teams who want to manage their brand’s digital assets with ease.

Pros

• Bynder has lots of different features that allow for efficient, collaborative working across the board. Multiple users can work together on the same project, sharing feedback and uploading new versions as they go.
• Bynder gives you control over who can do what to your files and assets with their permissions and access features. This ensures content governance and prevents the unauthorized use of your assets.
• Bynder’s version control feature helps to keep your teams in the loop.

Cons

• While Bynder has lots of features that aid collaboration, this comes with the downside of some complexities and a bit of extra learning and adjustment time for you and your team.
• Slow loading times have been reported by more than a few frustrated customers.

4. Qualtrics – best software for gathering customer feedback

Source: qualtrics.com

A brand without a loyal customer base is like a plant without sunlight. It simply won’t survive. Communication needs to come from both sides. That’s where customer feedback comes in handy.

Qualtrics is packed full of useful features for consumer engagement, so let’s unpack this platform’s biggest pros and cons.

Pros

• Qualtrics has a humongous range of survey creation options like customizable question types, and advanced customization. This will allow you to create tailored and engaging surveys to collect customer feedback.
• Gather feedback from multiple different channels, including email, websites, mobile apps, and social media.
• Powerful analytics and reporting features keep up with your customers and pick up on trends and patterns with real-time data visualization.

Cons

• The reporting interface can be less intuitive, requiring time to train employees.
• Qualtrics requires its users to sign a contract for a period of time, which may not appeal to those looking for short-term solutions.

5. Brandworkz – best software for monitoring brand consistency

Source: brandworkz.com

Having some top-notch guidelines is great. To maintain high brand standards, you need to regularly check these guidelines, assets, and templates. Brandworkz comes with some useful monitoring features.

Pros

• Brandworkz offers a clean platform to organize and manage your brand assets, guidelines, and templates.
• The intuitive template feature allows you to create various assets while sticking to brand guidelines.
• Customizable checklists and audits help monitor brand compliance more easily.

Cons

• Automation features are relatively limited compared to other software.
• Limited integration with social media channels.

6. Marq – best software for creating content

Source: marq.com

Marq allows everyone to create content for the brand while following your visual identity via your guidelines.

Pros

• A range of customizable templates for all sorts of marketing content.
• User-friendly drag and drop features make it easy for anyone to create content.
• Integrates seamlessly with most platforms including Google Drive, Dropbox, and HubSpot.

Cons

• May lag with large files or high-resolution images.
• Not a replacement for specialized design tools for complex tasks.

7. Filecamp – best DAM software for small to medium-sized companies

Source: Filecamp_

Filecamp is an intuitive cloud-based DAM tool offering a central hub for brand assets, ideal for small to medium-sized companies.

Pros

• User-friendly interface requiring no training.
• Full portal branding is available across all plans.
• Unlimited users across all plans and flexible permissions.

Cons

• Lacks advanced search functionality found in larger DAM tools.
• Limited integrations with other tools.

8. Brandkit – best software for keeping brand assets secure

Source: Brandkit_

Brandkit offers a self-serve brand portal, allowing easy access to everything from logos to templates.

Pros

• In-built AI tools help manage brand governance.
• Offers security features to protect your brand assets.

Cons

• Smaller teams may find the number of features overwhelming.

9. Brand24 – best for monitoring your brand’s online reputation

Source: Brand24_

Brand24 is an AI-powered platform that allows you to track, analyze, and respond to online mentions of your brand.

Pros

• AI-powered sentiment analysis, topic mapping, and influencer tracking.
• Robust features for reputation management and crisis response.

Cons

• Some features require higher-tier plans.

10. Pics.io – best for tracking changes to brand assets

Source: pics.io_

Pics.io provides a centralized space for brand materials, helping keep assets organized and monitored.

Pros

• Strong access controls to manage who can see sensitive materials.
• Integration with popular platforms.

Cons

• Some users report slower loading times with larger files.

What is brand compliance?

Brand compliance is the process of ensuring consistency in branded assets across every channel or touchpoint. This is achieved by implementing structured approval workflows, strong brand guidelines, and regular audits.

Final thoughts

If you want to keep your brand looking, sounding, and feeling consistent as it grows and evolves, you’re going to need brand compliance software. If effective collaboration and creative review processes across every file type are a top priority, Filestage will be a great choice.