PIM comparison
Centric PXM vs Pimberly
Two SaaS PIMs with a DAM and a supplier portal. How Centric PXM, formerly Contentserv, and Pimberly differ on scope, data model, channels, AI, architecture and pricing, from public sources only.
Same category, two different emphases
Centric PXM
In its own words “AI-powered product experience management”9
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.
Pimberly
In its own words “Integrated PIM & DAM Platform Driving eCommerce Success”30
A UK SaaS vendor founded in Manchester in 2015 and still led by its founder. Its platform combines PIM and DAM, with add-ons for supplier and customer portals, catalogues, spec sheets and AI, and it publishes its tier prices. Pimberly says it is built for manufacturers, brands, distributors and retailers.
“Both handle the product record and its assets. Choose on what you need around it, and on how much you want to know about cost before the first demo.”
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 and hold product data only: neither line-up has customer, supplier or location domains.
- Both are sold as SaaS, without an open-source edition.
- Both put a DAM and a supplier portal beside the PIM, with approval workflows on the product record.
- Both list Amazon and eBay among the marketplaces they reach, and Shopify and BigCommerce among their commerce connections.
- Gartner's 2026 Magic Quadrant for PIM places both as Niche Players, and we found no announcement of the placement from either vendor.
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.
| Centric PXM | Pimberly | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2000, in Germany, as Contentserv.6 | 20152946 |
| Headquarters | Centric Software is based in Campbell, California. Contentserv offices in Munich and Rohrbach (Germany), Lier (Belgium) and Faro (Portugal).12 | Manchester, United Kingdom, with an office in New York.29 |
| Ownership | 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 2018.6798 | Founder-led and venture-backed. Mercia and NPIF first invested in 2018 and backed a £4m round in February 2024, taking total funding past £14m. Virgin Money provided £5m of venture debt in December 2025.4546 |
| Chief executive | Fabrice Canonge, CEO of Centric Software since October 2025. A June 2025 release names Michael Kugler as Managing Director of Centric PXM.109 | Martin Balaam, founder29 |
| Size, in the vendor's own words | 1,600+ customers in 90 countries when the deal was announced in 2025. Centric Software as a whole states 1,500+ employees.611 | 87 employees and 169 customers in July 2026. The corporate page now lists 175 customers.4729 |
| Delivery | SaaS. We found no current statement on an on-premise edition.5 | SaaS, deployed on AWS. We found no self-hosted edition.44 |
| Published pricing | No prices published. The Centric PXM pages point to a demo request.1 | Published per year: Regular €36,000, Pro €60,000, Corporate €90,000. Enterprise is quote only.31 |
| Security certifications | Centric Software lists ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017 and 27018, and SOC 2 Type 2, without naming the products in scope.13 | Not published: no security certification stated on the pages we checked. |
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
Centric PXM groups Centric DAM, Centric Shoppingfeed, Centric DSA and an Onboarding Portal around its PIM, and leaves print to partner apps such as InBetween's Digital Publishing Connector. Pimberly includes a DAM with a CDN and unlimited export channels in every tier, sells Customer Connect, Pimberly Catalog and Product Data Sheets as priced add-ons, and has no channel analytics module.
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
The PIM sits at the core of Centric PXM, with DAM, syndication and digital shelf analytics around it.12
The PIM, with built-in validation rules, completeness tracking and workflows.32
Master data beyond products
Product content only: no customer, supplier or location domains in the Centric PXM line-up.1
Supplier onboarding
Digital assets
Centric DAM, with AI tagging, similarity search, versioning and rights-checked delivery per channel.2
Syndication
Channel performance analytics
Centric DSA tracks prices, availability, content, ratings and sentiment, and sends weak SKUs back to the PIM.4
Sharing with partners
Not published: no statement on a portal for sharing catalogues with distributors or retailers.
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
Centric PXM models hierarchies, attributes, validations and relationships with variants and regional assortments, and offers a paid Classification Library app for ETIM and ECLASS. Pimberly scopes products with attributes and assets by channel and locale, applies the same validation rules to supplier uploads, and keeps a product unchanged until its approval workflow reaches an accepted state.
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
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
Centric PXM syndicates through Centric Shoppingfeed, which reaches 1,000+ endpoints such as TikTok Shop and Google Shopping, with marketplace order sync, and SAWS, a partner, builds paid Shopify and Shopware connectors. Pimberly includes unlimited export channels in every tier, lists marketplaces such as Walmart and Wayfair and feed tools such as Feedonomics, and builds its own Shopify and BigCommerce connectors plus a Commerce Connector middleware.
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
Commerce platform connectors
Shoppingfeed names Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and VTEX. SAWS, a partner, builds paid Shopify and Shopware connectors.32021
Connectors built by Pimberly for Shopify and BigCommerce, plus a Commerce Connector middleware for other cloud commerce platforms.41
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
Centric PXM cites over 75 AI use cases, AI validation and mapping in its Onboarding Portal and a paid AI Connector on the customer's own model account; Centric AI MCP, announced in September 2026, does not say what it exposes or when it is available. Pimberly runs AI through Pimbles, a workflow engine with approval steps that it places at propose-and-approve, uses ImageAI to fill attributes from product images, and says outside agents connect through its API rather than a hosted MCP server.
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
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
Centric PXM is SaaS with REST APIs, connectors and a marketplace of free and paid apps, does not publish which cloud hosts it or what it is built on, and names SAP among its ERP connections without an SAP-certified connector that we found. Pimberly runs on AWS, also through AWS Marketplace, with an API that it says covers everything in the interface, connectors from Pimberly and partners such as Xiatech and no app marketplace, and shows SAP among its ERP logos without a statement on an S/4HANA connector.
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
SaaS. Centric's security page lists AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and its own data centres, without saying which hosts Centric PXM.513
SaaS deployed on AWS, also listed on AWS Marketplace.44
Technology
Not published: no statement on languages, frameworks or databases on the Centric PXM pages we checked.
Not published as such. AWS and MongoDB appear among the partners on Pimberly's partner page.42
APIs
REST APIs, used by a MuleSoft-certified connector Contentserv published in 2021. Centric PXM says it integrates through connectors and APIs.231
An API that Pimberly says covers everything available in the interface.40
Extensibility
The Centric PXM Marketplace lists free and paid apps from Centric PXM and partners, for channels, DAM, translation, AI and print.16
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
Centric PXM publishes no prices or packages, points to a demo request and marks its marketplace apps as free or paid. Pimberly publishes yearly tier prices from €36,000 (Regular) to €90,000 (Corporate), scales its tiers by SKUs, users and storage, and lists add-ons such as Pimberly AI from €7,500 a year.
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
None. The Centric PXM pages point to a demo request.1
Yes. Tier prices per year in euros, pounds and dollars, from €36,000 (Regular) to €90,000 (Corporate). Enterprise is quote only.31
Packages
Pricing unit
Not published: no statement on whether price follows products, users, channels or modules.
Tiers scale by SKUs, users and storage: Regular covers 50,000 SKUs and 20 users. Channels, currencies and brands are unlimited.31
Open source
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
Centric PXM lists 56 partners in two types, Service & Support Partners and Technology Partners, and partners sell marketplace apps such as SAWS shop connectors and SDZeCOM's Integration Suite. Pimberly names agency, consultancy, SI and technology partners such as Orium, Space48 and Infoverity, and Xiatech connects its Xfuze platform under a partnership announced in November 2025; neither describes partner tiers.
Who implements the platform, and with what. The partner you pick shapes the project as much as the software does.
Partner network
56 partners in the Centric PXM directory, across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.24
Agency, consultancy, SI and technology partners, including Orium, Space48 and Infoverity.42
Partner tiers
Two partner types: Service & Support Partners and Technology Partners. No tier definitions published.24
Not described on the pages we checked.
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
Gartner's 2026 Magic Quadrant for PIM places both as Niche Players, with Centric PXM listed as Centric Software. Contentserv announced a Strong Performer placement in The Forrester Wave, Q4 2023, and Pimberly states a Major Player placement by IDC without naming the edition; we found no IDC PIM placement for Centric PXM and no Forrester statement from Pimberly.
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
Niche Player, listed as Centric Software, per Gartner's report. We found no Centric announcement of the placement.25
Niche Player, per Gartner's report. We found no Pimberly announcement of the placement.28
IDC MarketScape, latest PIM or MDM edition
We found no IDC MarketScape for PIM that includes Centric PXM. Centric's October 2026 IDC Leader announcement covers merchandise financial planning.26
Major Player, as stated by Pimberly in September 2025. Pimberly does not name the IDC edition.48
The Forrester Wave, latest PIM or MDM edition
Strong Performer in the Q4 2023 edition, as announced by Contentserv. We found no Centric statement on a later edition.27
We found no Pimberly statement on The Forrester Wave: PIM, Q4 2023, the latest edition.
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 Centric PXM when
- the team wants digital shelf analytics that send weak SKUs back to the PIM
- marketplace orders should sync through the same product that syndicates the content
- the company runs Centric PLM, or Centric's planning and pricing products, and wants product content linked to them
- industrial catalogues should follow ETIM or ECLASS, or food data the GDSN Food & Beverage model
Teams tend to shortlist Pimberly when
- the budget has to start from published tier prices, before the first sales call
- content goes to many channels, currencies and brands, and the team wants them unlimited in every tier
- invited customers should pull approved product data from a portal of their own
- AI should propose changes to product data and wait for a person to approve them
Expert view
Centric PXM or Pimberly: it depends on your requirements
Taken feature by feature, Centric PXM and Pimberly cover a lot of the same ground: product data only, SaaS without an open-source edition, a DAM and a supplier portal beside the PIM, and routes to Amazon, eBay, Shopify and BigCommerce. They differ in packaging, in what they publish about price and in what sits around the PIM: Centric PXM as a suite within Centric Software's portfolio, Pimberly as a founder-led platform with published tiers and priced add-ons.
Centric PXM's digital shelf analytics, marketplace order sync and links to Centric PLM suit teams that want channels, shelf monitoring and product development from one portfolio. Pimberly's published prices, unlimited export channels and propose-and-approve AI suit teams that want to see the cost up front and keep a person in every AI change. Neither strength matters unless it answers a requirement you can name.
What works best for you depends on your unique requirements. Write them down, price both offers over three to five years and test each with your own products and suppliers. We are always happy to talk it through, so reach out to us whenever you want a vendor-neutral second opinion.
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.
- Pimberly
Pimberly says ARR passed USD 10 million
In its 28 July 2026 update, Pimberly said annual recurring revenue reached USD 10.4 million in early June 2026, up 25% year on year, across 169 customers.
Pimberly - Pimberly
Pimberly raises £5 million in venture debt from Virgin Money.
The funding supports expansion in the UK and the US.
BusinessCloud - Pimberly
Pimberly and Xiatech announce a partnership
The companies said they would connect Xiatech's Xfuze platform with Pimberly PIM and DAM.
Pimberly - Pimberly
Pimberly reports USD 8.1 million ARR for the first half of 2025
In its 15 September 2025 update, Pimberly said annual recurring revenue had risen 25% year on year to USD 8.1 million and that it had 149 customers.
Pimberly - Centric PXM
Centric presents Contentserv, now called Centric PXM, at K5.
The June note also says Centric acquired Contentserv in February 2025.
Centric Software - Pimberly
Pimberly receives a King's Award for Enterprise
Pimberly announced on 12 May 2025 that it had received the King's Award for Enterprise in International Trade.
Pimberly
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between Centric PXM and Pimberly?
Both are PIM-first SaaS platforms with a DAM and a supplier portal. Centric PXM, formerly Contentserv, is part of Centric Software, syndicates through Centric Shoppingfeed, tracks the digital shelf with Centric DSA and says it connects natively to Centric PLM. Pimberly publishes its tier prices, includes unlimited export channels in every tier and sells portals, print and AI as add-ons. Which difference matters depends on your channels, your wider IT landscape and your budget process.
What has changed since Contentserv became Centric PXM?
Centric Software, a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary, agreed to buy Contentserv in February 2025, and Investcorp, majority owner since 2019, agreed to sell at an enterprise value of €220 million, according to Investcorp. Shoppingfeed, which Contentserv bought in 2023, now runs as Centric Shoppingfeed, next to Centric DAM and Centric DSA. In September 2026 Centric launched Centric DPP and announced Centric AI and Centric AI MCP for its whole portfolio.
Do Centric PXM and Pimberly publish their prices?
Pimberly does: Regular costs €36,000, Pro €60,000 and Corporate €90,000 a year, and Enterprise is quote only. Its add-ons include Pimberly AI from €7,500 a year, Customer Connect and Product Data Sheets from €15,000 a year each, and Pimberly Catalog from €30,000 a year. Centric PXM publishes no prices or packages, and its pages point to a demo request. Compare offers over three to five years, including add-ons and marketplace apps.
How do the AI features of Centric PXM and Pimberly compare?
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. Pimberly's Pimbles runs prompts on products with approval steps, ImageAI fills attributes from product images, and Pimberly says agents connect through its API, not a hosted MCP server. Test both on your own products.
How do analysts place Centric PXM and Pimberly?
Gartner's 2026 Magic Quadrant for PIM places both as Niche Players, with Centric PXM listed as Centric Software, and we found no announcement of the placement from either vendor. Contentserv announced a Strong Performer placement in The Forrester Wave, Q4 2023, and Pimberly states a Major Player placement by IDC without naming the edition. Analysts weigh criteria you may not share, so test both against your own requirements.
How do you choose between Centric PXM and Pimberly?
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
- 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
- Gartner Magic Quadrant for Product Information Management Solutions Published 12 Oct 2026
- Pimberly About Pimberly
- Pimberly Homepage
- Pimberly Pricing
- Pimberly Product information management platform
- Pimberly Digital asset management
- Pimberly Workflows
- Pimberly Vendor Portal
- Pimberly Customer Portal
- Pimberly Pimberly Catalog
- Pimberly Automated product spec and sell sheets
- Pimberly Pimberly AI
- Pimberly What is agentic PIM? And why it's not agentic commerce Published 12 Oct 2026
- Pimberly Integrations
- Pimberly Pimberly partner network
- Pimberly Xiatech and Pimberly announce strategic partnership Published 3 Nov 2025
- AWS Marketplace Pimberly SaaS PIM/DAM
- Mercia Product information platform set for further US growth after £4m fundraise Published 27 Feb 2024
- Pimberly Pimberly secures £5 million venture debt funding from Virgin Money to accelerate global growth Published 17 Dec 2025
- Pimberly Pimberly crosses $10M ARR: inside a landmark first half of 2026 Published 30 Jul 2026
- Pimberly Pimberly business update for mid-2025 Published 16 Sept 2025