Phase One's Media pro was one of those great DAM programs that showed up some years ago.
It was reasonably affordable for 139 Euro when I purchased my lifetime license in 2012 and upgraded it in 2017 for 39 Euro. Not cheap, but fair for a quality piece of software that I still think it's maybe one of the best multiplatform (read Windows and Mac) DAM software around. But honestly, I was pretty upset about having to pay for the update.
The problem is that Phase One decided to discontinue it in 2018 and they're trying to push the former MP users into Capture One, and offering absolutely no discount for the migration. It was certainly a calculated move.
The impression is that they are raising the prices to induce people to choose the subscription model.
Note that the Capture One perpetual license costs a lot of money, about 300 USD and the monthly subscription will be a money sink in the long run for 20 USD / month.
Just make some calculations: it will cost you 240 USD / year IF you choose the yearly plan, and 24 USD / month for the monthly plan. This is a total steal in my opinion.
And I'm talking about the BASIC Capture One. The full version is listed for 693 USD !!! With the "discount" the price drops to "mere" 417 USD !
Really?
To complete the drama, Media Pro is a 32-bit application and will not run on OSX 10.15 and up.
After my catalog passed 1GB in size and 100k images, MP became slower and slower to the point it was awful to use. The lag was so high that I decided to stop using it. At this time MP is taking EIGHT minutes to process the catalog (about 150K images) !
It's amazing of how fast Aperture is with the same catalog.
To keep things short, if you need a powerful DAM, give a try to Digikam or Photo Supreme.
Digikam is a bit different but powerful, fast, FREE and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux but proved to be very unstable on my Mac.
Photo Supreme worked like a breeze. Please read this post.
You may also like to check for ACDSee Photo Studio and Photo Mechanic.
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