Argus 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Argus

4.8

(5)

Pricing

Starting at $2,500.00 per year

About Argus

Designed for small to large art galleries and museums, Argus is a cloud-based platform that helps manage client requests, resource allocation, internal and external communications and more. The software is designed to make it easier for museum curators to find information online, as well as share it with people who visit the museum in person or remotely. Argus' mobile app enables users to collect data and manage inventory while they are on location, rather than having to return to the office. Additionally, the platform enables gallery owners to easily make their objects and exhibits available for public viewing while providing more in-depth documentation on each artifact.

Argus Screenshots

Argus Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $2,500.00 per year

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

$2,500.00

per year

No plan information available

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Argus Features

Popular features found in Museum
Contact Management
Digital Asset Management
Event Management
Fundraising Management
Gift Shop POS
Inventory Management
Membership Management
Product Catalog
Ticketing
More features of Argus
Access Controls/Permissions
Collections Management
Customizable Fields
Customizable Reports
Data Import/Export
Document Management
Exhibition Management
Exhibit/Vendor Management
For Art Galleries
For Museums
Mobile Access
Reporting/Analytics

Argus User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.8

Ratings Breakdown

80%

20%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.2

Value for money

4.4

Customer support

5.0

Functionality

4.4

Have you used Argus and would like to share your experience with others?

Heather H.

Verified reviewer

Museums and Institutions

2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2024

Excellent product for collections management

My overall experience has been extremely positive - I highly recommend it.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Two of the biggest draws for our institution were the available customization, and also the ability to work from any device with an internet connection. Our institution has a lot of unique needs that we were able to work with the Lucidea team to see that they could be met. Also, the product support team is excellent and extremely responsive.

Cons:

No system is perfect - using the site on mobile is possible but clunky. There is some functionality and linking that could be improved. Data entry directly into the interface is tedious when dealing with high volumes of data, and there are some things which can't be imported effectively or easily. Generally, these are minor flaws.

Reasons for choosing Argus

We designed a rubric that evaluated the systems capabilities against our needs to decide which system would be the best fit. At the time, Argus was the only one which was fully accessible online, in addition to having other desirable qualities that best matched our needs.

Reasons for switching to Argus

We needed a system that was more robust, could handle a much higher volume of materials, and that allowed more field customization and options for inventory management.

Isabel T.

Museums and Institutions

201-500 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed March 2017

Argus.net a great resource for a large, highly active museum collection

Our museum converted from Open Edition to Argus.net at the end of 2013. Lucidea has been a responsive resource throughout the experience. For our use, we have been able to take advantage of the backend customization of the program. We have created new templates and adjusted existing ones to better suit the needs of a large institution with an active collection and exhibition plan. For more complex needs, we are able to contract with their R&D team to develop new functionality as well. Overall this is a powerful tool we use daily for managing a large collection.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Flexibility, complexity. The ability to handle many different scenarios and types of collections. The customer support is really solid as well.

Cons:

There is some functionality that isn't always consistent when building new templates -- the difference between us creating something in house vs something this is hard coded by the designers on the back end, but I am able to submit those to R&D for tweaking and enhancement in future. The support team is easy to communicate with.

Vendor Response

Thank you for your review, Isabel! -Lucidea Marketing Team

Replied March 2017

Barbara C.

Verified reviewer

Fine Art

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2023

Argus for Collection Management

The client support is excellent. Without the continued ability to access knowledgeable and responsive support on the new system, we would have struggled to use the system properly.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

As an art gallery and art collection with many part time staff, we needed a system that was intuitive so that learning the system was manageable. We also needed to be able to work remotely.

Cons:

We had problems with data import when setting up the system as some data went in to the wrong fields. This was partly our fault as we didn't fully understand how Argus worked when we set up the system.

Reasons for choosing Argus

Competitive price, customisable features, after sales staff support.

Reasons for switching to Argus

The old system was no longer fit for purpose as it had been built over 20 years ago.

Shannon P.

Arts and Crafts

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed May 2017

A long conversion process but the resulting Collection Management System was worth it.

The CMS accessible to all Gallery staff, which means there is a great deal of time saved by Registration staff from pulling and compiling different information for other staff members - they're now able to do this themselves. Additionally, with an OPAC system, the general public is able to access the full Gallery collection online and do preliminary research before contacting staff for additional information.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It's accessibility and ease of searching even for non-regular CMS users. The ability to tailor the security and access levels to different groups and individuals and the ability to easily share searches among these groups. Batch updating and basic data entry are made simple, and most sections are intuitive to use.

Cons:

New reports can't be pre-tested in Report Writer for layout functionality and spacing. It would be nice to have an option to click on an object image for an even larger view, as sometimes the primary record image is a little too small for research work. A reference/guide for some of the more seldom utilized areas would be helpful for the administrators, although the ARGUS support staff are usually quick to respond to all questions.

Britt S.

Used unspecified for unspecified

Review source

Reviewed November 2016

CU Art Museum is able to do more than every before!

CU Art Museum was one of the first institutions to use Argus.net and we have had such a good experience with them over the years! Their customer service is unbeatable; they are always open to feedback and ways they can improve usability. We especially love the ability to customize the public portal for our front-end users. We have increased our visibility on campus and awareness of our collection significantly in the last couple of years and the public portal has certainly had a positive impact!

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Showing 1 - 5 of 5 Reviews