Extensis Connect + Insight Reviews

This solution’s primary focus is font management, making it a breeze to store and share fonts, which is particularly helpful for creative teams. It lets you build your own font and asset libraries and customize access to them.

Extensis Connect + Insight also provides extensive font documentation, AI auto-categorization, and a smart search function that makes it easy to find fonts with simple descriptive names like ‘curly’ or ‘warped’. Font licensing is also accounted for since there’s a section where all your license documentation is brought together.

Fonts can be activated temporarily, permanently, or deactivated. This helps organizations keep track of correct license usage limits, preventing oversubscription, optimizing performance, and adhering to project guidelines.

The shining star of Extensis Connect + Insight is Project Risk Scanning, which is an exclusive feature for the Insights package. It lets you drag and drop project files and instantly assess and mitigate potential font-related risks that could impact the final product.

It scans for unlicensed, expired, oversubscribed, missing, and about-to-expire fonts, alongside outdated font formats. By identifying issues early, this tool helps companies prevent errors and stay compliant with licensing terms. Plus, it allows them to plan for necessary font updates or purchases whenever needed.

The process is simple and doesn’t take long. It’s even possible to scan multiple files simultaneously, ensuring a more efficient workflow. Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and PDF file types are all supported. While these are the most common used, designers would benefit from compatibility with other software like CorelDraw or Affinity Designer.

Extensis Connect + Insight‘s analytics section has charts for information like font type, license compliance, and license status. This is another easy and straightforward way to check for font issues.

The platform also splits fonts that use PostScript from those that don’t into different categories. This is a clear advantage since Adobe products no longer support this font type, letting you replace them and avoid future problems.

Another highlight is the storage and management of assets, which work similarly to how you manage fonts. You can easily sort assets into custom libraries and share them via a link. It’s also possible to set libraries as favorites and convert assets into formats like JPG, PNG, TIFF, and GIF. The conversion includes the option to resize assets as long as the required size is smaller than the original.

It’s possible to locally open files under 1GB directly via the assets section and edit them in real time. All changes are saved in the cloud, making it a breeze to fine-tune projects without having to re-upload them.

Finally, managing an Extensis Connect + Insight account is easy and doesn’t require users to contact the company’s support to make simple changes. There’s an admin panel, accessible via a browser, where users can access invoices, cancel the subscription, and change the payment method.

Users have two options to start using Extensis Connect + Insight. There are apps for Windows and macOS (Connect Fonts) and a browser app (Connect) that allows users to access the cloud-based service wherever they are. The apps support English, French, German, and Spanish.

The Connect web app requires a Safari browser extension to work on macOS operating systems. This means that there are three apps and a browser extension in total, which might make things confusing. Plus, some features are exclusive to each platform.

The auto-activation feature is a lifesaver. Its primary purpose is to allow users to open documents in apps like InDesign or Illustrator and automatically activate any font that is not present. This saves creators time and ensures that designs are always kept clean and functional without disruptions.

The interface of the app for Windows and macOS is slightly less appealing than that of the web app, but this doesn’t detract from its responsiveness, which is commendable across all platforms.

Extensis Connect + Insight‘s font auto-activation is available by integrating popular software used by creatives. It features plugins for Adobe Suite products, including Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator, and others like Sketch, Typefi, and ArtPro+.

It’s also possible to integrate SSO login via Azure and Okta. While it only offers these options, users can submit a form to request integration with other cloud providers. Depending on customer demand, the company may integrate your favorite cloud provider in the future.

Another benefit is the integration of third-party fonts. For example, you can add Google Fonts, which are open source and can be used almost anywhere. However, since Google periodically updates its available fonts, some may become unavailable overnight.

Extensis Connect + Insight pricing is transparent and doesn’t leave room for doubt. The cost is $200 per user per year, which includes the full features suite. Unfortunately, there’s no option for monthly payments, which isn’t ideal for customers looking for a short-term solution. While there are a few services offering lower prices, not many can match Extensis Connect + Insight‘s top-tier risk-management features.

The package includes font license management, smart tagging, 1TB of storage per user, font risk assessment reports, and project risk scanning. Although each seat license contains 1TB of storage space for asset management, you can add more in increments of 1 TB. Additionally, it’s easy to purchase more user licenses.

Before purchasing, users can choose a preferred time zone and sign up for a demo webinar. It covers the solution’s most relevant features, including auto-activation, reports, project risk scanning, and font organization.

Payments can be made via Visa, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards, and PayPal. Subscriptions renew automatically each year, but this can be changed in the admin panel. Fortunately, the company’s 14-day money-back guarantee allows you to try the service for two weeks without risking financial loss.

Extensis Connect + Insight provides many resources to help users navigate the apps and solve potential problems. These include free diagnostic tools, guides, video tutorials, troubleshooting information, and getting-started articles. Some of the articles contain links that open the apps and guide users through the platform.

Customer support agents can be contacted via email and live chat. While the live chat is available from 1:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (PST/PDT), email support is available Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (PST/PDT) in the United States, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (GMT) in Europe.

When we reached out to the support team via the contact form, we got a friendly and straightforward reply in less than 30 minutes.

There are a few less positive aspects, such as users having to install a number of different apps, limited integration options for font auto-activation, and the lack of a monthly billing cycle. Nonetheless, Extensis Connect + Insight provides an excellent solution for creative teams to maintain consistency across projects.

With customer satisfaction in mind, the company offers a demo webinar taking you through the product before you make a commitment, and if you choose to go ahead, you’re covered by the 14-day money-back guarantee.