Air Alternative: Creative Asset Management Comparison 2026

TL;DR: Air is an excellent digital asset management platform for creative teams, but it stops at storage and collaboration. Benly is built for ad teams who need the full workflow: asset organization plus a 50M+ searchable ad database, AI creative generation, and performance analytics. Choose Air if you need general-purpose DAM. Choose Benly if you need ad-focused creative intelligence connected to production.

Why Teams Look for Air Alternatives

Air solved a real pain point for creative teams: scattered assets across Google Drive, Dropbox, and local machines with no visual organization or context. The beautiful workspace interface, commenting features, and integrations with creative tools brought order to creative chaos. For pure asset management, Air works exceptionally well.

But for ad and marketing teams, friction points emerge:

• Gap between assets and production: Air organizes what you have but doesn't help create more. You store winning ads, then switch to other tools to produce variations.
• No competitive intelligence: Air only contains your assets. No searchable database of competitor ads or industry trends to inform creative strategy.
• No performance context: Stored assets lack performance data. You know the creative exists but not whether it worked, how it compared to alternatives, or why it won.
• Tool fragmentation: Ad teams using Air still need separate ad spy, AI generation, and analytics tools—fragmenting workflows and increasing costs.
• Per-seat pricing scales quickly: Air's $10/user/month seems affordable until your team grows. A 20-person team pays $200/month just for storage.

These gaps don't make Air bad at what it does. But ad teams needing a complete creative workflow often find themselves paying for 4-5 tools that don't integrate with each other.

Benly as an Air Alternative

Benly takes a different approach: integrated creative intelligence from discovery through production and measurement. Instead of stopping at asset storage, Benly connects competitive intelligence, asset organization, AI generation, and performance analytics in one platform sharing the same data layer.

The practical difference: discover winning competitor ads in the 50M+ database, save them alongside your assets, generate on-brand variations with AI, track how your versions perform, and iterate—without switching tools or manually transferring data.

At-a-glance comparison

Feature Comparison

Asset organization and management

Air provides a beautiful visual workspace for organizing creative assets. Drag-and-drop uploads, smart folders, automatic thumbnails, and powerful search make finding assets fast. It's purpose-built for creative file management and does that job well.

Benly includes asset organization with collections, tags, and visual browsing. While less focused on pure DAM features, Benly's organization connects directly to ad intelligence and generation. Save an ad from the 50M+ database or upload your own—both live in the same organized workspace.

Bottom line: Choose Air if you need enterprise-grade DAM for diverse creative assets. Choose Benly if you want ad-focused organization connected to intelligence and production.

Competitive intelligence and ad discovery

Air contains only your assets. No competitor ads, no industry benchmarks, no searchable database of what's working in market. For competitive research, you need separate tools like Foreplay, Minea, or BigSpy.

Benly maintains 50M+ ads updated daily across Meta, TikTok, Google, and YouTube. Search using natural language: "DTC skincare UGC testimonials targeting women 25-34." Competitive intelligence and your assets live in the same platform.

Bottom line: Air has no competitive intelligence. Benly provides 50M+ searchable ads integrated with your asset library.

Creative generation

Air does not include creative generation. It integrates with Figma, Adobe, and Canva so you can open assets in those tools, but the actual creation happens elsewhere. Air is storage, not production.

Benly includes AI creative generation producing 100+ on-brand variations from any brief. Generate directly from saved ads or competitor inspiration. See a winning concept, click to produce your brand's version with your colors, fonts, and messaging. Storage connects to production in one click.

Bottom line: Air integrates with creation tools but doesn't create. Benly includes built-in AI generation connected to your asset library.

Performance analytics

Air tracks asset usage metrics (views, downloads, shares) but not ad performance. There's no connection between stored creatives and campaign results. For performance data, you need separate analytics platforms.

Benly connects to Meta, TikTok, and Google ad accounts. See which creatives win, identify patterns in top performers, get AI recommendations. Stored assets link to actual campaign performance data.

Bottom line: Air tracks asset engagement, not ad performance. Benly connects creative assets to campaign results in the same platform.

Collaboration and sharing

Air offers best-in-class creative collaboration. Visual commenting, timestamped annotations on video, approval workflows, guest access, and beautiful shareable links. This is Air's core strength.

Benly includes commenting and approval workflows for creative collaboration, though less feature-rich than Air's annotation tools. Benly's collaboration extends to briefing, generation, and analytics—not just asset review.

Bottom line: Choose Air if visual annotation and creative review are your primary needs. Choose Benly if you need collaboration across the full ad workflow.

Pricing Comparison

Air pricing

Benly pricing

Total cost comparison

Air at $10/user/month seems affordable, but costs scale with team size. A 10-person team pays $100/month just for storage. Ad teams using Air typically also pay for:

Ad teams currently using Air plus other tools typically save $150-400/month by consolidating to Benly. The integrated workflow also eliminates time switching between disconnected systems.

Who Should Stay with Air

Air remains the right choice for specific scenarios:

• General creative teams managing diverse assets beyond ads (product photos, brand guidelines, video content)
• Agencies with non-ad clients who need DAM for various creative projects, not just advertising
• Teams with complex annotation needs who rely heavily on visual commenting and frame-by-frame video review
• Organizations prioritizing pure storage who have separate, well-integrated tools for intelligence and generation
• Small teams under 5 people where Air's per-seat pricing stays affordable

Ideal Air customer: A brand creative team managing diverse assets (product photography, brand guidelines, video content) who needs excellent organization and visual collaboration but handles ads separately.

Who Should Switch to Benly

Benly makes more sense when your workflow centers on advertising:

• Performance marketing teams who need competitive intelligence connected to asset management
• Agencies managing ad campaigns who need to discover, produce, and measure creatives in one workflow
• In-house ad teams at scaling brands who need inspiration, production, and analytics connected
• Teams consolidating tech stacks who are tired of managing separate DAM, ad spy, and generation tools
• Creative teams producing 50+ ads monthly who need AI generation connected to their asset library
• Growing teams who want predictable pricing instead of per-seat costs that scale with headcount

Ideal Benly customer: A paid media team producing 100+ ads monthly who needs to discover winning patterns, store assets, generate on-brand variations, and track performance —all without switching between multiple disconnected tools.

Switching from Air

What transfers

• Creative assets: Export from Air, import to Benly—your library transfers with metadata intact
• Folder structure: Organization maps to Benly's collection system
• Tags and metadata: Custom metadata transfers as labels and attributes in Benly

What needs reconfiguration

• User permissions: Set up team access in Benly (simpler since pricing is per-workspace, not per-user)
• Ad account connections: Connect Meta, TikTok, Google for analytics (new capability)
• Brand guidelines: Define once for AI generation (new capability)
• Integration updates: Reconnect any Figma, Slack, or other workflow integrations

Migration support

Benly offers migration support for teams switching from Air:

• Bulk import tool handles Air exports directly
• Onboarding call to set up brand guidelines, ad accounts, and team structure
• Typically complete in 2-4 hours depending on library size
• Run parallel for two weeks if you want to validate before canceling Air

What Customers Say About Switching

Switched from Air

"We loved Air for organizing assets, but our ad workflow was fragmented across five tools. Switching to Benly unified competitive research, asset storage, generation, and analytics. We cut tool costs by $300/month and saved hours daily."— Creative Director, DTC Fashion Brand

"Air was great for our brand team, but our performance marketing team needed more. Benly's ad database and AI generation connected to our assets made the difference. Now the whole team uses one platform."— Head of Marketing, E-commerce Company

Results after switching

• DTC brand reduced tool costs from $450/month (Air + 4 tools) to $99/month
• Agency increased creative output 4x by connecting inspiration to generation
• E-commerce team eliminated 3 hours daily of switching between disconnected tools

Getting Started

Ready to explore Benly as an Air alternative? Start with a 7-day free trial:

• Full access to 50M+ ad database
• Asset organization and management included
• AI creative generation included
• Analytics connection available
• Import your Air library immediately
• No credit card required

The best way to evaluate: run your actual ad workflow through both. Upload the same assets, try discovering competitor ads, generate variations, connect your ad accounts. Most ad teams find the workflow difference immediately apparent.