AEM Assets powers enterprise DAM, enabling organizations to centrally manage, organize, and distribute brand assets like images, videos, and documents. But when it comes to sharing these assets with broader teams, partners, or external users, how do you choose between the two leading AEM asset distribution portals—Asset Share Commons and Content Hub?
Both solutions enable easy browsing, searching, and downloading of approved assets, but they serve different use cases and come with unique benefits and limitations. This blog explores these differences to help your team make the right choice.
What is Asset Share Commons?
Asset Share Commons is an open-source community-driven solution built on AEM Sites. It provides a customizable asset sharing portal where users can browse, search, and download assets stored in AEM. Because it is open-source, organizations can tailor it fully to their branding and functionality needs.
However, Asset Share Commons requires an AEM Publish instance for hosting, which can lead to additional costs if your organization does not use a publish instance for other purposes like hosting websites. It is a lightweight, folder-based solution that relies primarily on traditional hierarchy navigation and search.
What is Content Hub?
Content Hub is Adobe’s official, cloud-native asset distribution platform included with AEM Assets Cloud Service licenses at no additional cost. It offers a modern, metadata-driven experience, where assets are organized through attributes and tags rather than folders, allowing more flexible categorization.
Content Hub focuses on a modern user interface with options to brand and configure the portal. It also integrates content remixing and editing capabilities via Adobe Express and Adobe Firefly generative AI, enabling non-creative users to adapt assets easily.
Key Comparison Points
| Feature | Asset Share Commons | Content Hub |
|---|---|---|
| AEM Compatibility | AEM 6.x & Cloud | Only Cloud |
| Cost & Hosting | Requires AEM Publish instance. If you have AEM assets license only, publish instance would be at additional cost. | Included free with AEM Cloud Service licenses. Unavailable for AEM 6.x |
| User Access & Limits | Unlimited users; suitable for organization-wide access | Standard license limits to 250 users |
| Asset Organization | Folder-based hierarchy | Metadata-driven, allowing assets to belong to multiple categories |
| Customization | Highly customizable | Limited customization options |
| Editing & Creation Tools | None | Integration with Adobe Express and Firefly AI |
| Support & Updates | Community-supported, no official Adobe support | Supported and regularly updated by Adobe |
| China Team Usage Considerations | Same AMS instance can be used Globally. | Depending on your organization needs, you may require separate AEM 6.x instance for China with Asset Share Commons. A separate China solution would to additional operational, license, development and maintenance cost. |
| Custom Pages | Full support for custom pages beyond search and asset details | Existing custom pages may not be compatible |
When to Choose What?
- Choose Asset Share Commons if you want a portal that can be fully customized, provides unrestricted access for any number of users, and you have the necessary resources to handle ongoing development and the additional infrastructure of an AEM Publish instance. If your DAM is organized around folders and you prefer to keep this structure rather than move to a metadata-first setup, Asset Share Commons is a better fit for your needs.
- Choose Content Hub if you want a turnkey, cloud-native solution included with AEM Cloud Service, with a modern UI, integrated editing features, and if your user base fits within the standard license count.
Conclusion
Both Asset Share Commons and Content Hub bring valuable capabilities to AEM asset distribution. The decision rests on your organization’s scale, customization needs, infrastructure preferences, and licensing budget.
Adobe Experience Cloud Blog 