PIM comparison
Akeneo vs Centric PXM
Two PIM-first suites with DAM, supplier onboarding and syndication. How Akeneo and Centric PXM, formerly Contentserv, differ on scope, data model, channels, AI, architecture and pricing, from public sources only.
Same category, two different emphases
Akeneo
In its own words “The Product Experience (PX) company”5
A French PIM vendor with open-source roots. It sells a SaaS suite it calls the Product Cloud: the PIM at the centre, with digital asset management, supplier onboarding and channel activation around it, and since the PricingHUB acquisition in 2026, pricing as well.
Centric PXM
In its own words “AI-powered product experience management”32
Centric PXM, formerly Contentserv, is the product experience management suite of Centric Software, a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary that agreed to buy Contentserv in February 2025. It combines PIM and DAM with content syndication through Centric Shoppingfeed, digital shelf analytics and an Onboarding Portal for supplier data. It is aimed at brands, manufacturers, retailers and distributors, and Centric says it connects natively to Centric PLM and its planning and pricing products.
“Both put a full suite around the product record. Choose on how your developers, channels and product development teams need to connect to it.”
What they have in common
Read the differences below against this common ground. Both are credible options for the same broad job.
- Both are PIM-first suites for product content: neither line-up has customer, supplier or location domains.
- Both surround the PIM with a DAM, supplier onboarding, syndication and channel analytics as products of their own.
- Both are sold as SaaS, and both run an app marketplace with apps built by the vendor and by partners.
- Neither has a print module in its own line-up.
- Neither publishes a full price list, and both list ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, for Centric PXM at the level of Centric Software.
When to look beyond both
You want a fully MACH, composable PIM with AI built in.
Bluestone PIM
Ergonode
You run retail or wholesale with many suppliers and want a PIM built around retail.
ConnectingTheDots
inriver
You need multi-domain PIM and MDM, or GDSN and retailer compliance drive the project.
Syndigo
Stibo Systems
You need multi-domain PIM and MDM with AI features.
Viamedici
Informatica Product 360
You want commerce and PIM in one platform, with AI built in.
Crystallize
Pimcore
At a glance
The basic facts side by side. Every cell links to the public page it comes from.
| Akeneo | Centric PXM | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 20131 | 2000, in Germany, as Contentserv.29 |
| Headquarters | Registered office in Nantes, France. Offices in eight cities, including Boston and Sydney.21 | Centric Software is based in Campbell, California. Contentserv offices in Munich and Rohrbach (Germany), Lier (Belgium) and Faro (Portugal).35 |
| Ownership | Venture-backed. A $135M Series D in March 2022, led by Summit Partners with Alven and Partech, took total funding to $196M.3 | Part of Centric Software since 2025. Investcorp, majority owner of Contentserv since 2019, agreed to sell at an enterprise value of €220 million. Dassault Systèmes took a majority stake in Centric in 2018.29303231 |
| Chief executive | Romain Fouache4 | Fabrice Canonge, CEO of Centric Software since October 2025. A June 2025 release names Michael Kugler as Managing Director of Centric PXM.3332 |
| Size, in the vendor's own words | 400+ employees, 900+ enterprise customers, 200+ partners1 | 1,600+ customers in 90 countries when the deal was announced in 2025. Centric Software as a whole states 1,500+ employees.2934 |
| Delivery | SaaS on Google Cloud. The open-source Community Edition is still released for self-hosting.1417 | SaaS. We found no current statement on an on-premise edition.28 |
| Published pricing | Growth shows “starting at $0” a year next to a free trial. Advanced and Premium are quote only.8 | No prices published. The Centric PXM pages point to a demo request.24 |
| Security certifications | ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type I14 | Centric Software lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017 and 27018, and SOC 2 Type 2, without naming the products in scope.36 |
Factor by factor
Eight factors, each with how the two approaches differ. Open a factor for the sourced facts and the questions to ask both vendors. Nothing here is scored.
How a capability is deliveredDescribes packaging, not quality.
- In the platform
- Separate module
- Apps or partners
- Not offered
- Not publicly documented
01 · How they differProduct scope and packaging
Akeneo sells Supplier Data Manager and Shared Catalogs as add-ons in every package, includes one PX Insights data source in Premium and has run PricingHUB as a separate business unit since June 2026. Centric PXM groups Centric DAM, Centric Shoppingfeed, Centric DSA and an Onboarding Portal around its PIM, and added Centric DPP, a standalone Digital Product Passport product, in September 2026.
What each vendor sells around the product record, and how it is packaged. Packaging decides what is in the licence, what costs extra, and who you call when something breaks.
Core PIM
Master data beyond products
Product data only: no customer, supplier or location domains in the Product Cloud line-up.7
Product content only: no customer, supplier or location domains in the Centric PXM line-up.24
Supplier onboarding
Digital assets
Centric DAM, with AI tagging, similarity search, versioning and rights-checked delivery per channel.25
Syndication
Channel performance analytics
Centric DSA tracks prices, availability, content, ratings and sentiment, and sends weak SKUs back to the PIM.27
Sharing with partners
Not published: no statement on a portal for sharing catalogues with distributors or retailers.
Print and publishing
Ask both vendors
- Which of our requirements are in the base subscription, and which are separate modules, add-ons or partner apps?
- Who supports a partner app when it breaks: you, the partner or us?
- Can we add a module later without a new implementation project?
02 · How they differData model and governance
Akeneo organises products into families of attributes, with variants, categories, associations, reference entities and industry family templates. Centric PXM models hierarchies, attributes, validations and relationships with variants and regional assortments, and its paid Classification Library app builds models from ETIM and ECLASS.
How products, variants and relationships are modelled, and how each platform keeps data complete and approved. This decides how much of your catalogue fits without workarounds.
Modelling approach
Families of attributes, variants, categories, associations and reference entities, with industry family templates.9
Data quality
Data Quality Insights is part of the Product Cloud.7
Ask both vendors
- Model our three hardest products live: a configurable item, a bundle and a spare part with fitment data.
- How do completeness rules differ per channel and per locale?
- What does a change to the data model cost once we are live?
03 · How they differSyndication and channels
Akeneo sells Activation as a channel product of its own, which it says reaches 500+ retailers and marketplaces, with connector apps for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce and Shopify as add-ons. Centric PXM syndicates through Centric Shoppingfeed, which reaches 1,000+ endpoints such as Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop and Google Shopping, with marketplace order sync; the reach figures count different things, so check your own channel list against both.
How product content leaves the PIM: to your own webshop, to marketplaces and retailers, and to commerce platforms. If the number of channels is your bottleneck, this factor weighs more than the editing screens.
Delivery to retailers and marketplaces
Activation, which Akeneo says reaches 500+ retailers and marketplaces.7
Commerce platform connectors
Connector apps for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce and Shopify, listed as add-ons in the package table.8
Ask both vendors
- Show a live feed to one marketplace we use, including what happens when the channel rejects an item.
- Which channel connectors do you maintain yourselves, and which do partners maintain?
- When a retailer changes its template, who updates the mapping, and at what cost?
04 · How they differAI features
Akeneo ships a Data Architect Agent from July 2025, Agentic Ziggy from July 2026 and an MCP server that reads and writes products, families and assets. Centric PXM cites over 75 AI use cases and a paid AI Connector on the customer's own model account, while Centric AI and Centric AI MCP, announced in September 2026 for the whole portfolio, name no PXM agent and do not say when the MCP is available.
What AI does inside each product, as announced by the vendor. Vendors ship AI features several times a year, so read this as a snapshot and test on your own data.
Agents in the platform
AI in onboarding
AI extraction of product data from images and PDFs, from July 2025.11
Ask both vendors
- Which AI features are in the subscription, and which are priced per use or per credit?
- Run the enrichment on ten of our real products and show what a reviewer still has to correct.
- Where is our data processed, and is it used to train models?
05 · How they differArchitecture and integrations
Akeneo runs on Google Cloud, on a PHP and Symfony codebase, with REST, GraphQL and an Event Platform, and offers SAP accelerators as iFlows that the customer runs in SAP Integration Suite. Centric PXM is SaaS with REST APIs and connectors, does not say which cloud hosts it or what it is built on, and names SAP among the ERP systems it connects to, with no SAP-certified connector that we found.
How each platform is hosted, built, extended and connected to ERP, commerce and DAM systems. This is where IT teams spend most of their evaluation time.
Hosting
Technology
PHP and Symfony, with MySQL and Elasticsearch.16
Not published: no statement on languages, frameworks or databases on the Centric PXM pages we checked.
APIs
REST (OpenAPI), GraphQL and an Event Platform for change events.19
Ask both vendors
- Which connectors for our ERP and commerce platform are yours, and which are built by partners?
- What are the API rate limits, and how long does a bulk import of our full catalogue take?
- Where is our data hosted, and can we choose the region?
06 · How they differPricing and licensing
Neither publishes a full price list. Akeneo shows an entry point for Growth, sells Advanced and Premium on quote and keeps a free open-source Community Edition; Centric PXM names no packages, points to a demo request and marks its marketplace apps as free or paid.
How each vendor packages its offer and what moves the price. Compare offers over three to five years, including modules, connectors, partner work and your own team, not on the first-year licence.
Published prices
Growth shows “starting at $0” a year next to a free trial. Advanced and Premium are quote only.8
None. The Centric PXM pages point to a demo request.24
Packages
Growth, Advanced and Premium. Supplier Data Manager and Shared Catalogs are add-ons in all three.8
Pricing unit
Not published: no statement on whether price follows products, users or channels.
Not published: no statement on whether price follows products, users, channels or modules.
Open source
Community Edition, free under the OSL-3.0 licence. The latest release, v2026.4, came out in August 2026.17
Self-hosted licence
Support for self-hosted Enterprise Edition 7 ended on 30 September 2026. Enterprise customers move to SaaS for SLA-backed patches.18
Not published: no current statement on an on-premise or self-hosted licence.
Ask both vendors
- Which metrics drive the price: products, users, channels, locales, API calls or modules?
- How are renewals priced, and is there a cap on increases?
- What does year three cost if our catalogue doubles?
07 · How they differPartners and implementation
Akeneo states 200+ partners and lists apps from Akeneo and partners in its App Store, and does not describe partner tiers on the pages we checked. Centric PXM lists 56 partners in two types, Service & Support Partners and Technology Partners, and partners sell apps such as SAWS shop connectors, SDZeCOM's Integration Suite and InBetween's Digital Publishing Connector.
Who implements the platform, and with what. The partner you pick shapes the project as much as the software does.
Partner network
200+ partners, as stated by Akeneo.1
56 partners in the Centric PXM directory, across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.47
Partner tiers
Not described on the pages we checked.
Two partner types: Service & Support Partners and Technology Partners. No tier definitions published.47
Ask both vendors
- Which certified partners in our region have delivered a project like ours in the last two years?
- What does your own team do during the implementation, and what is left to the partner?
- Can we speak to two customers in our industry?
08 · How they differAnalyst coverage
In the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for PIM, Akeneo announced a Leader placement and Gartner's report places Centric Software as a Niche Player. Akeneo announced a Leader placement in the IDC MarketScape for PIM for Commerce 2024-2025, where we found no edition that includes Centric PXM, and the latest Forrester Wave statements we found are Strong Performer placements for Akeneo in Q2 2021 and for Contentserv in Q4 2023.
Where analyst firms placed each vendor in recent editions, as announced by the vendor or the analyst. Analysts weigh criteria you may not share, so read this as a map of the market, not a ranking for your project.
Gartner Magic Quadrant for PIM, 2026
Leader, as announced by Akeneo.6
Niche Player, listed as Centric Software, per Gartner's report. We found no Centric announcement of the placement.48
Ask both vendors
- Which of the analyst's criteria match our requirements, and where did you score lowest?
Where each tends to fit
Teams tend to shortlist Akeneo when
- an open-source edition matters, for a pilot or for a self-hosted setup
- developers want GraphQL and change events, or already work in PHP and Symfony
- outside AI tools should read and write products, families and assets through an MCP server
- catalogues have to be shared with retailers or distributors through Shared Catalogs or a Digital Showroom
Teams tend to shortlist Centric PXM when
- content goes to many marketplaces, and their orders should sync through the same product
- the team wants to track prices, ratings and sentiment on the digital shelf and send weak SKUs back to the PIM
- the company runs Centric PLM, or Centric's planning and pricing products, and wants product content connected to them
- industrial catalogues should follow ETIM or ECLASS through a ready-made classification app
Expert view
Akeneo or Centric PXM: it depends on your requirements
Mapped module for module, Akeneo and Centric PXM tell a similar story: a PIM at the centre, with a DAM, supplier onboarding, syndication and channel analytics around it, all sold as SaaS. The differences sit underneath: who owns each vendor, how developers and outside AI tools reach the product record, and which wider family of products the PIM connects to.
Akeneo's packaged Product Cloud, open-source edition and REST, GraphQL and MCP access suit teams whose developers want to build around the product record themselves. Centric PXM's Shoppingfeed syndication with order sync, digital shelf analytics and native links to Centric PLM suit teams that want channels, shelf monitoring and product development in one vendor's portfolio. Neither strength matters unless it answers a requirement you can name.
What works best for you depends on your unique requirements. Write them down first, then ask both vendors to model your own products, onboard a real supplier file and publish to a channel you use. If you would like a second pair of eyes on that test, talk to us: we are happy to help, vendor-neutral.
Independent advice that starts from your requirements, not from a platform.
Recent moves
Releases, deals and leadership changes from both vendors, newest first, each with its source.
- Akeneo
Akeneo says it is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for PIM.
The page cites the Gartner report dated 12 October 2026.
Akeneo - Akeneo
Akeneo appoints customer success, marketing and centre of excellence leaders
Jean Lethuillier joins as vice president of customer success, Carole Offredo as chief marketing officer, and Edouard Dewulf as senior director of the global centre of excellence.
Akeneo - Akeneo
Akeneo Summer Release adds Agentic Ziggy
The release adds an agent layer so teams can coordinate agents that enrich and govern product data.
Akeneo - Akeneo
Akeneo acquires PricingHUB and adds pricing to its Product Cloud.
PricingHUB continues as a dedicated business unit inside Akeneo.
Akeneo - Akeneo
Akeneo ships its Spring 2026 release for an adaptive Product Cloud.
The release adds responsive catalog modeling and feeds discovery signals back into the product record.
Akeneo - Centric PXM
Centric presents Contentserv, now called Centric PXM, at K5.
The June note also says Centric acquired Contentserv in February 2025.
Centric Software
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between Akeneo and Centric PXM?
Both are PIM-first SaaS suites with a DAM, supplier onboarding, syndication and channel analytics around the PIM. Akeneo sells its Product Cloud in three packages on Google Cloud, keeps an open-source Community Edition and opens the product record through REST, GraphQL, events and an MCP server. Centric PXM, formerly Contentserv, is part of Centric Software, syndicates through Centric Shoppingfeed and says it connects natively to Centric PLM. Which difference matters depends on your channels, your developers and your wider IT landscape.
What has changed since Contentserv became Centric PXM?
Centric Software, a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary, agreed to buy Contentserv in February 2025, and Investcorp, its majority owner since 2019, agreed to sell at an enterprise value of €220 million, according to Investcorp. The suite now trades as Centric PXM, with Centric DAM, Centric Shoppingfeed and Centric DSA, and Centric says it connects natively to Centric PLM and its planning and pricing products. In September 2026 Centric launched Centric DPP and announced Centric AI and Centric AI MCP for its whole portfolio.
Do Akeneo and Centric PXM publish their prices?
Partly. Akeneo's package page shows Growth starting at $0 a year next to a free trial, and Advanced and Premium are quote only. Centric PXM publishes no prices or packages, and its pages point to a demo request. Neither publishes the unit the price is based on, so ask both which metrics drive cost and compare offers over three to five years.
Can you self-host Akeneo or Centric PXM?
Akeneo still releases its open-source Community Edition, which you can host yourself, but support for the self-hosted Enterprise Edition 7 ended on 30 September 2026. Centric PXM is sold as SaaS, and we found no current statement on an on-premise or self-hosted licence. Centric's security page lists AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and its own data centres, without saying which one hosts Centric PXM, so ask for it in writing.
How do the AI features of Akeneo and Centric PXM compare?
Akeneo ships a Data Architect Agent and Agentic Ziggy, a layer that coordinates specialised agents, plus AI extraction from images and PDFs and an MCP server for outside AI tools. Centric PXM cites over 75 AI use cases, uses AI in its Onboarding Portal to validate and map supplier data, and sells an AI Connector that runs on the customer's own ChatGPT, Azure OpenAI, Gemini or Mistral account. Centric AI MCP was announced in September 2026, without a stated scope or date. Test both on your own products.
How do you choose between Akeneo and Centric PXM?
Write down your requirements first. Then run a scripted demo in which both vendors model your own products, import a real supplier file and publish to one of your channels. Compare the offers over three to five years, including add-ons, marketplace apps, connectors and partner work.
Read next
How this comparison was built
We compared the two vendors on public information only: their own websites, documentation and press releases, plus reporting that names its source. We did not run either product for this page and we do not score or rank. Where a vendor does not publish something, the page says so instead of guessing.
We have a relationship with every vendor on our platform. None gets preferential treatment: all are compared in the same way, on the same factors, for our customers.
Spotted something out of date? Email info@pimvendors.com and we will check it against the source.
Sources
- Akeneo About us
- Pappers Akeneo SAS company record (RCS 790 672 588)
- Akeneo Akeneo announces $135 million Series D Published 15 Mar 2022
- IT Brief UK Akeneo names three leaders to drive AI commerce push Published 9 Oct 2026
- PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance Akeneo named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for PIM Solutions Published 15 Oct 2026
- Akeneo 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Product Information Management Solutions Published 12 Oct 2026
- Akeneo Akeneo Product Cloud
- Akeneo Compare packages
- Akeneo Akeneo PIM
- Akeneo Akeneo announces acquisition of PricingHUB Published 11 Jun 2026
- IT Brief Australia Akeneo unveils first AI agent and analytics tools for product data Published 30 Jul 2025
- Akeneo Akeneo introduces the first truly agentic product experience platform Published 8 Jul 2026
- Akeneo MCP server overview
- Akeneo Security
- Akeneo Akeneo available on Google Cloud Marketplace
- GitHub akeneo/pim-community-dev
- GitHub Akeneo PIM Community Edition v2026.4 Published 28 Aug 2026
- Akeneo Help Center Everything you need to know about our PIM versions
- Akeneo Akeneo API documentation
- Akeneo Akeneo App Store
- Akeneo Akeneo accelerators for S/4HANA
- PR Newswire IDC and Gartner recognize Akeneo as a global leader in PIM Published 4 Feb 2025
- Akeneo The Forrester Wave: PIM, Q2 2021
- Centric Software Centric PXM
- Centric Software PIM and DAM software
- Centric Software Digital Shelf Analytics
- Centric Software Centric PXM for Industrial Manufacturing
- Dassault Systèmes Dassault Systèmes announces Centric Software's acquisition of AI-powered PXM solution, Contentserv Published 25 Feb 2025
- Investcorp Investcorp agrees to sell software vendor Contentserv Published 25 Feb 2025
- Dassault Systèmes Dassault Systèmes to acquire majority stake in Centric Software Published 14 Jun 2018
- Centric Software Contentserv, now Centric PXM, to showcase AI-powered product experience management at K5 2025 Published 19 Jun 2025
- Centric Software Fabrice Canonge named Chief Executive Officer of Centric Software Published 30 Oct 2025
- Centric Software About us
- Centric Software Contact and offices
- Centric Software Security and data privacy
- Centric Software Centric Software launches Centric DPP Published 24 Sept 2026
- Centric Software Centric Software unveils Centric AI to power smarter product decisions at NRF 2026 Published 10 Sept 2026
- Centric Software Centric PXM Marketplace
- Centric Software Classification Library
- Centric Software AI Connector
- Centric Software Digital Publishing Connector
- Centric Software Shopify Connector
- Centric Software Shopware Connector
- Centric Software Integration Suite
- MuleSoft Anypoint Exchange Contentserv API Published 24 Feb 2021
- Centric Software Centric PXM partners
- Gartner Magic Quadrant for Product Information Management Solutions Published 12 Oct 2026
- Centric Software Centric Software named a Leader in 2026 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Solutions Published 14 Oct 2026
- Contentserv via ECのミカタ Contentserv named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave: Product Information Management, Q4 2023 (in Japanese) Published 19 Dec 2023