# Page 2 | IMatch Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 2 - Is IMatch the right Digital Asset Management solution for you? Explore 46 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/126559/IMatch/reviews --- IMatch 4.9 (46) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/126559/IMatch/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated June 3rd, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of IMatch ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-46 of 46 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use RB Richard B. Used the software for: ### "IMatch for a novice" May 6, 2015 5.0 I spent six years searching for a program to help me organize my image files. I downloaded and tested all I could find. After Christmas of 2000 a friend recommended IMatch. I downloaded and installed the trial version. The first thing I did was to read the Tutorial which gave me the basics I needed to begin using IMatch. I quickly learned that I had found the program I wanted and in less than two weeks I bought my license. I have been involved IMatch forums from the beginning. Over the years I have read countless comments about the "steep learning curve" for IMatch. IMatch is a feature rich program. Mario (the developer) is highly tuned to user needs and adds new features to accommodate users needs. As a result IMatch is indeed a complex application and if one tries to learn how to use every feature that person will spend a lot of time learning IMatch. Time I consider wasted. It is not necessary to learn how to use all that IMatch has to offer just to use IMatch to meet one's needs. With IMatch 5 this is even more applicable. Although I have been a member of alpha and beta testing groups and learned of features as they were added, there is no way that I can claim to know how to use each feature. Mostly what I learned was which feature would be useful for me. I doubt that I use more than about ten percent of IMatch 5's capabilities. Yet within the ten percent I find a Digital Asset Manager that will do all that I need. I read of IMatch users who manage hundreds of thousands of files. I manage about 10,000. Thus IMatch 5 is far more powerful than I need, yet I would not consider leaving IMatch due to it being complex. IMatch 5 is easy to learn if one sticks to the basics. Mario has provided an outstanding help system that is top of the line. In addition Mario and the IMatch forum members are extremely helpful. I doubt that anyone trying to learn a new application would find any better help than what is available for IMatch 5. Review Source MV Michael V. Manager Media Production Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IMatch is an outstanding piece of software!" March 25, 2019 5.0 Pros When you work with large image collections we would say IMatch from Photools does the job. It doesn't crash! We used various well known DAM solutions and they all crash regularly. Queries receive a quick response, issues are solved. The software is powerful and reliable, all this for a low price. Highly recommended! Cons It has a learning curve. It took a while to figure out how to perform fast searches on a large batch of images. Review Source JE Juergen E. Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best DAM product on the market!!" September 21, 2016 5.0 I use IMatch as my picture database for more than ten years and am still delighted about its capabilities and the tremendous support, provided by his maker Mario Westphal. The variety of product features is second to none, such as the ease of tagging pictures with keywords and categories or exporting pictures with reduced resolution. Complex renaming is extremely easy and the search speed (I manage more than 100.000 photos) is incredible. I haven't found a competitive product that provides such a flexibility, ease of handling and product support for such a price. I am looking forward to exciting future developments. Pros Support Cons That a lot of people don't know it! Review Source HP Herman P. Used the software for: ### "Extremely flexible and powerful DAM, highly recommended!" May 6, 2015 5.0 Whenever I am looking for a new program I use to write down my requirements. For a DAM program these requirements are: 1. It should allow me to find any image in my collection based on criteria defined solely by me. 2. It should play nice with the raw processors, image editors and printing software I use in my workflow. 3. It should not lock me in, so that I can move on should the program be no longer supported or when my requirements change. 4. It should be fast, not slowing down to a grinding halt when my image collection grows. 5. It should be expandable, when a specific function is not provided 'out of the box' it should be possible to add functionality by means of scripting or plug-ins. 6. It should be actively supported by the developer, no 'abandonware'. 7. It should be affordable, no business model which forces customers to pay for a new version which just fixes long outstanding bugs. IMatch meets and exceeds all these requirements easily. It became the highly flexible, fast and reliable 'central hub' in my workflow. The support from the genius behind this program is unparalleled, it seems like he is always there, answering questions, fixing the occasional bug, adding new features to the program. The documentation is a masterpiece in it's own right, I have never seen something like this before. Last but not least, there is an active and friendly user community where users share ideas and experiences and where they help each other. My only point of criticism might be the price setting, given the flexibility of the program, the continuous development and superior support a higher price would be easily justifiable. Highly recommended! Review Source WL Wolfgang L. Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Database Software for Photo Collection I could find" February 17, 2019 5.0 Best Tool for organizing my Photo collection Pros Handles large Collections of photos Self defined Relation and Version function between different file types Mighty categorisation functionality Easy Building of thesaurus with different Levels Easy search for pictures in some categories Fast and competent support Cons Data base file in my opinion is large But no negative Influence on Data base performance Review Source WH Wolf H. Used the software for: ### "Best DAM-Software I ever work with for all kind of files" May 14, 2015 5.0 I use IMatch for: - managing my potos \[with long science categories\]; - better Windows Explorer for all kind of files \[Office-Documents, videos, graphics, QuarkXpress and Adobe files,...\] - to work with my music-files \[adding musicians, training schedules for learning songs, ...\] Pro: + very powerful tool which can handle nearly all type of workflow; + great search function to find files in seconds; + the userinterface (ui) is very customizable; working with two monitors perfect; + hierarchical keywords; + hierarchical categories \[after understanding this concept, I using this function every day, when I'm working with all kind of my files\]; + concept of the ui \[left side to navigate; right side to add/change metadata\]; + to open the same file in different programs with just one click \[e.g.: My mp3 files I can open with foobar2000, vlc, Transcribe!, MP3-Tag, Tageditor,...\]. That safe me a lot of time; + drag & drop files into other software; even into QuarkXpress \[a lot of other DAM-Software struggling with this on my computer\]; + never have a software, which was used so often and are so stable; + for the possibilities which this software provide, it is very cheap; + support from the developer is outstanding: I have special wishes and he implemented it in one day; never saw this on other software products. + community forum! cons - none \[as long, as you a patient enough to try this software two days and read the quick start\] Highly recommend! Review Source HL Heiner L. Used the software for: ### "I highly recommend Imatch to everyone with thousands of images on their computer" May 12, 2015 5.0 I have used Imatch for nearly 10 years to manage a collection of about 180,000 images from digital cameras, scanned photos, slides and negatives as well as movie clips. I can tag, sort, filter and organize all files easily. Finding any picture or movie is a matter of seconds. I really like the addition of the time line view in Imatch 5. After folders with media files are added to the database you can see the pictures for a certain date, month, year or any other time frame without any effort or tagging. It does not matter where the files are located on your computer or network. Sure you need to have the camera time set correctly, if not, it's easy to correct the time stamp with Imatch. Imatch has a lot of functionality, don't try to learn it all at once. It's easy to start with just adding categories and ratings and expand your workflow if needed later. Imatch comes with a superb documentation, a great user forum and great support from the developer Mario. Imatch also comes with a scripting engine. You can either write your own script or use one of the scripts which comes with Imatch or find one posted on the user forum. Not many programs on my computer run as stable and are as affordable as Imatch. There is no subscription fee or yearly upgrade without any new functionality. Imatch does not lock you down with proprietary formats, all information and meta data can be written to the files or exported. Review Source PR Pavel R. Used the software for: ### "A must-have software for any serious photographer" May 6, 2015 5.0 I have been using IMatch 5 since the first beta version became available and with every new update it is getting better. I use it exclusively to catalog my photographs (RAW and jpg files), but it supports many other file formats. The search and filter functions, key features for my workflow, offer a great number of options so you can easily search for various combinations of metadata. The program offers seemingly endless number of settings and customizations which includes also the user interface. Thus, thumbnails can be customized to display metadata of your choice. This can be further combined with color codes which makes orientation in the list of thumbnails even easier. For more advanced users the software offers scripting thus broadening its versatility even more. Finally, I should mention excellent support provided by the software developer. Questions posted in the user forum are usually answered within couple of hours. Moreover, bugs are fixed fast, the more annoying ones (they are very rare) immediately, others are being corrected continuously with every new update (usually every one or two weeks). Updates often add various useful improvements. It is very hard for me to find any con, but if I really have to name some, it is probably a relatively steep learning curve. But it is a trade-off for a complexity of the software which in a long term is very useful for every serious user. Review Source MH Markus H. chief photographer Used the software for: ### "Simply the best! " May 5, 2015 5.0 I tried several DAMs before, when I tried IMatch, I was simply overhelmed by the power and possibilities of IMatch. I am using IMatch since 2001 and the "new" IMatch 5 is really a milestone ahead. I do manage all my photos (nefs, jpgs, tiffs) and all my office-files of my photo-agency, what is located in Switzerland. At the moment I do manage by IMatch 210'000 files, no problems with searching. Specially great I think, is the automatic version-system of IMatch (when you create for example jpgs from raws) and the manually or even automatically stacking - helps decluttering the screen a lot! Further I am very free to create my file windows - system (how the thumbs appears), using the famous categories (very strong) and take advantage of delivered scripts or I can create myself time-reducing scripts. Last but not least is a kind of "excell" integrated, so called Attributes, what helps me manage my bills and text and numbers, without storing them inside the files or sidecars (like Metadata, Exif, IPTC and so on), because Attributes will be stored only inside the IMatch-database. IMatch offers much more, than I can now review here, things like Apps, statistics, automatically data-driven categories, batch for outputs, slideshow, creating web-galleries and much more. Give IMatch a chance, you will be impressed! Review Source EF Emilio F. Photo video manager Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "GREAT Digital Assets Managment tool. Worth every penny " December 12, 2017 4.0 Pros Love that it supports wide range of formats. I mostly work with Raw and JPG and never had any issues importing images. Makes editing easy and able to add pertinent info in the IPTC field such as copyright, photographer byline gps coordinates ETC. Easy to tag photos and add to favorite and edits. Cons With this software gave you the chance to upload images directly from cameras, or SD cards. I first have to upload them to my External Hardrive and then export them. seems like an extra step that adds a bit of time in the long run. Specially after shooting a 2000 image wedding. Also it does not have image editing capabilites which can come in handy for small image tweaks like cropping or color correctiong. This would help avoid the dreaded lightroom editing rendering time. Review Source JH John H. Used the software for: ### "Superb program for managing images and other digital data!" May 6, 2015 5.0 I use IMatch to manage a collection of nearly 50,000 images from digital cameras and scanned photos, slides and negatives, as well as a separate collection of over 5,000 audio files. IMatch allows me to tag, sort, filter and organize my files in a variety of ways, using open (not proprietary) standards. It facilitates an efficient and integrated work flow for new images, including 'developing' of RAW images with DxO Pro, Lightroom, Photoshop and other programs and organizing the 'developed' output images. IMatch can be used 'out of the box' to manage files and can also be extensively customized to suit a user's specific needs. The developer is very responsive to user needs and requests and ships frequent updates of the program. The user community is also very responsive and helpful. A 30 day trial version is available to let potential users make a thorough evaluation before purchase. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that this is a superb program for managing digital data. Review Source DV Dave V. Software Engineer Used the software for: ### "Outstanding DAM with many ways to be used" May 18, 2015 5.0 IMatch is a phenomenal piece of software that I've used for several years. The dynamic categories provide an intuitive way to organize your photos. That coupled with the filters, metadata, ... make it extremely useful. It's a tremendous asset in cataloging and managing images of any kind. I have a collection of about 100,000 photos in it now, and I also use it with scans of business cards -- they're assigned categories and the contents entered, so now searching either via name or categories (e.g. restaurants in Bangkok I've rated 4 stars) is a breeze. The "problem" with previous versions of IMatch (version 3.6 and earlier) had to do with its' rather complex interface that was more "geeky" than many could handle. With IMatch 5, he's completely overcome that problem and something you can use after just a bit of an introduction. And it integrates well with Photoshop, Lightroom, and other photo software. 5 Stars in my book! Review Source LM Len M. Used the software for: ### "Cannot dream of managing my photos without IMatch" May 9, 2015 5.0 Managing photos in IMatch5 is easy and intuitive, making it a snap to use by beginners. Under the surface though, there is a highly sophisticated and powerful piece of software that enables more advanced users to search, categorize, and catalog their photos in incredibly versatile ways. If there is a particular "view" you want of your photos, IMatch5 can be adjusted to provide it. In fact, you can define as many views as you like, then call them up as your needs change. If you really want to customize your use of IMatch5, it has a very powerful scripting and app templating feature. The program is exceptionally well supported by the vendor, and has a large, active, & knowledgeable user forum. The vendor provides product updates on a regular basis, and the help system is one of the best I've ever experienced - detailed, deep, and updated in sync with every product update. Highly recommended. Review Source MD Mees D. Owner Used the software for: ### "Excellent product with outstanding support" May 4, 2015 5.0 Extremely competent and extra-ordinary versatile product for managing pictures. Is also capable of managing other types of files (although I don't use it for that purpose myself). IMatch can be tuned to your personal wishes and work-flow, but is also usable out of the box. You can use it without any training and gradually work your way up the ladder and tune it to fulfil all wishes. Works seamless with other software (I use PS5 for editing pictures and IMatch for managing pictures, no LR or Bridge for me any longer). Pro's: no vendor lock-in (like e.g. Adobe products), very regular updates (bugfixing and functionality updates), extremely good support from vendor and on user platform, multiple language, low system requirements. Con's: can be a bit daunting at first sight, long learning curve if you want to explore everything (but then : who does need everything?) Review Source DL Daniel L. Used the software for: ### "IMatch5 - an essential tool for photography and science writing" May 4, 2015 5.0 If you can do serious work without an asset manager like IM5, good on ya. I'm a geologist and commonly bring 3-400 images back from a day in my volcanoes. I can spend as much time cataloging, categorizing, and keywording my images as I did shooting them. But, I can find what I need rikki-tik when I'm writing. No asset manager this good can be "easy to use," it does too much and offers too many opportunities to do new things to call it easy. Once you get a good workflow going, it is easy, but establishing that workflow is difficult and takes a lot of time. In the best of all possible worlds, Mario Westphal (IMatch), Axel Rietschin (FastPictureViewer) and the Lightroom team would go into a room and come out with - The Best of All Possible Worlds! Review Source MM Micha M. Used the software for: ### "Excellent Software, very good support" May 7, 2015 5.0 I am using imatch since version 3 and am VERY happy with the new version 5. It is fast (even for thousands of files - I actually have approx. 40.000), very well supported and does not force you to use a certain external tool - you can use photoshop, gimp, lightroom, whatever you like. The only perfomance issue that I observed are data driven categories. They are very powerful, but should not be updated on the fly to avoid performance issues - update them on demand (this is an option). The support is really good. In the user-forum, you get very fast answers from other users, but also from the programmer. You can even use the tool for office or music files - they are all supported. I highly recommend it! Review Source IP Ian P. Photographer Used the software for: ### "The swiss army knife of Digital Asset Management Software" May 5, 2015 5.0 Having worked with a lot of Digital Asset Management software aimed at professional photographers I have to say nothing comes close to IMatch for flexibility in storage and metadata search . I currently have over 100,000 RAW, TIF and JPEG images within a single database and retrieving the correct images is super fast. I can search by client, keyword, date or any metadata item that you care to mention or want to create for future reference. Now that flexibility does come with a small learning curve but it is well worth the effort for the rewards it brings. Customer service is second to none with the developer responding to queries within hours if not minutes in my experience. Review Source DH David H. Engineer & Programs Manager Used the software for: ### "Used this software and it's prior vers. as an advanced amatuer to form a searchable image catalog. " May 5, 2015 5.0 This software and it's prior version has given me the ability to find images very rapidly for various photo projects. My workflow includes an IMatch, Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC grouping. This combination works seamlessly together. It is the essential DAM portion of my image environment. The customer service provided by this developer is outstanding and far exceeds that found by me from any of the other multitude of companies dealt with everyday. The help system supplied with the software is the most complete and up to date I have ever seen. The response time to queries to the developer is sometimes minutes and always thorough. Review Source FB Frank B. Used the software for: ### "Very flexible | great support | at the beginning a little bit difficult" May 7, 2015 5.0 Pro: - very flexible software (nearly everything is supported by the software and things that are not supported can be added by an own script) - great search functions - manages very larges databases (my one is "only" 80.000 pics in 300 folders and managed with 8000 categories but I've heard about db's containing more than 300.000 pics) - great support by the developer and by other users (forum) Con: - the entry threshold is a little bit high - the software is "not really" multi user capable Review Source KB Kasey B. Used the software for: ### "This is not cheap, but worth your money" February 8, 2017 5.0 If you are willing to spend on the pricetag of this product, then you will love it. It has a wealth of features and options that is comp to Photoshop. That being said, there is some learning curve to it. Review Source JA Javier A. Used the software for: ### "Every thing you need to organize, mantain, modify and keep track of you digital documents" May 5, 2015 4.0 \- Its possibilities seem infinite - Customer service is amazing - A little bit steep learning curve Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.