How to Choose Digital Product Passport Software: A Buyer’s Guide for Fashion Brands

By Klas Kristiansson, co-founder of Portia and Managing Director of Stockholm design and apparel agency Desinder
Last verified: 21 October 2026

Short answer: To choose digital product passport (DPP) software, start from where your product data lives today, not from how the passport page looks. Check how the tool collects material and supplier data, which passport levels and data carriers it supports, how you get your data out, and what happens if you leave. Then test it with your own data on a small pilot.

What does DPP software actually do?

Every DPP tool does three jobs: it collects product data (materials, composition, suppliers, origin, certificates, care and repair information), structures it so it can be checked and reused, and publishes it as a passport that people reach by scanning the product. The European Commission expects the textile passport to be reachable “through a data carrier on the product itself, such as a QR code” (Commission textile apparel page).

Tools differ mostly in which of those jobs they were built for first. That is why two vendors can both say “DPP” and still solve very different problems.

When do fashion brands need to decide?

There is no legal date for textile passports yet. The Commission plans to adopt the textile delegated act in Q4 2027, and under the ESPR it can apply no earlier than 18 months after it enters into force. That puts textile DPP requirements at mid-to-late 2029 at the earliest (our estimate). We track every date in the ESPR Textile DPP Tracker.

So you have time to choose carefully, but not time to waste. The slow part is rarely the software. It is getting consistent material, origin and certificate data from your suppliers. A tool that helps you start collecting that data now is worth more than one that only looks good on launch day.

Step 1: Start with where your product data lives

The most useful question is where your passport data will come from. We group DPP tools into five types, explained in detail in the 5 types of DPP software:

Your situation	Type to look at first
Product data runs on spreadsheets and you have no PLM	PLM-native: the passport is built from the data you enter while developing the product
You already have a PLM or ERP with clean data	A passport layer that imports from it, or a PLM-native tool that runs alongside it
You need multi-tier supplier mapping and due diligence	Traceability-led
Product-level environmental measurement is your main goal	LCA-led, or an LCA partner whose results you import
Customer engagement is the first goal and your data is already clean	Marketing-led
You are a large group with many data systems to connect	Layered (orchestration)

Most small and medium fashion brands sit in the first two rows. The practical order is to get product and supplier data into one structured place, publish passports from it, and add specialist tools only for the gaps you actually have.

Want a quick read on where your brand stands before you talk to vendors? Take the 3-minute Product Operations Scorecard for fashion brands. It scores your product data, projects, costing, customer engagement and DPP readiness.

Step 2: Check what the EU rules already expect

The detailed textile rules are not published (the JRC’s proposed field list is in our textile DPP data checklist), but the Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) already sets essential requirements for every passport (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Articles 10 and 11). Use them as buyer questions:

A persistent identifier and a data carrier. The passport must be “connected through a data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier” (Art. 10(1)(a)). Ask how identifiers are created and kept stable.
Open, transferable data. Passport data must be based on open standards and transferable “without vendor lock-in” (Art. 10(1)(d)). Ask how you get your data out, and in what form.
Model, batch or item. The data must refer to the product model, batch or item, as the delegated act will specify (Art. 10(1)(f)). Ask whether the tool supports all three.
A back-up copy and long-term availability. A back-up copy must be available through a DPP service provider (Art. 10(4)), and the passport must stay available even after “a cessation of activity” of the company that created it (Art. 11(e)). Ask what the vendor’s plan is.
Access rights and security. Rights to change passport data must be restricted, and “data authentication, reliability and integrity shall be ensured” (Art. 11(f) to (h)). Ask who can edit what, and how changes are tracked.
Registration. Passports must be registered in the EU DPP Registry before a product is placed on the market. Ask how the vendor plans to support registration once the textile rules apply.

Step 3: Ask vendors these 25 questions

Copy these into your shortlist document and ask every vendor the same questions. Good answers are specific and show you the feature with your own data. To compare vendors side by side, download the 25 questions as a scoring template: XLSX or CSV.

Product data and product development

1. Where does the passport data come from? Is it entered during product development, imported, or typed into a separate passport tool?
2. Can it replace our spreadsheets or work alongside our PLM? Ask to see both paths if you are unsure which you need.
3. How do we import existing data? Ask about CSV or sheet imports, and how columns are matched to fields.
4. How long until a first passport is live with our own data? Ask for a demo or pilot with real styles, not a sample product.
5. How are changes handled across seasons? When a material or supplier changes, does the passport update from the same record?

Suppliers and traceability

6. Can suppliers log in and enter their own data? Which tiers: only your direct factories, or mills and spinners too?
7. Can suppliers upload certificates, and are they attached to the right material or product?
8. How do we see missing or expired evidence?
9. How deep does traceability go? Match the answer to what you actually need, not to the longest feature list.
10. What does supplier onboarding take? Ask what a factory has to do, and in which languages.

The passport itself

11. Which passport levels are supported: model or style, batch, individual item?
12. Which data carriers are supported? QR codes, NFC, RFID? Choose based on your products and labels.
13. How are unique identifiers created, and do they stay stable if we change tools?
14. Which languages can the passport be shown in?
15. Can we show impact data, and where does it come from? Is it calculated in the tool, or imported from an LCA partner?

Integrations and data ownership

16. Which integrations exist today, and which are on the roadmap? Ask for the ones you need to be shown live.
17. Is a sync one-way or two-way? For example, does data flow only from the DPP tool to your web shop, or both ways?
18. Is there a public API, or are integrations built on request?
19. Can we export all our data ourselves, at any time?
20. What happens to our passports and data if we stop using the tool?

Security, hosting and the vendor

21. Where is our data hosted? Which country or region, and on which infrastructure?
22. Which certifications exist, and who holds them? Is it the vendor itself, or its hosting provider?
23. How is GDPR handled? Ask for the privacy policy and data processing terms.
24. How is pricing structured? Ask what drives cost (number of products, passports, users or suppliers) and what is included.
25. Who will we work with? Ask who handles onboarding and support, and whether they understand fashion product development.

Red flags to watch for

“Already meets the textile DPP rules.” The textile delegated act has not been adopted, so no tool can show that yet.
No self-serve way to get your data out. The regulation itself warns against vendor lock-in.
A passport page with no data behind it. If the demo only shows a polished page, ask where each field comes from.
Certifications without a holder. “SOC 2” or “ISO 27001” can belong to the hosting provider rather than the vendor. Both are fine, as long as the vendor is clear about which is which.
Integrations that only exist on a slide. Ask to see them working.

Step 4: Run a short, practical selection

Write down your situation. Number of styles per season, tier-1 factories, existing systems (spreadsheets, PLM, ERP, web shop) and who will own the data.
Shortlist two or three tools of the type that fits your situation, using the table above. Our comparison of nine DPP tools for small fashion brands scores each on the same public criteria.
Send everyone the same 25 questions and ask for a demo with a few of your own styles.
Pilot 10 to 20 styles. Include at least one supplier and one certificate, so you test the slow part, not only the passport page.
Check the exit before you sign. Export your pilot data yourself and look at what you get.

For the data side of the pilot, use our DPP checklist for fashion brands.

Where does Portia fit?

Portia is fashion PLM and Digital Product Passport software in one tool, for small and medium fashion and apparel brands. It is PLM-native: the passport is built from the data your team already enters while developing the product. Here is how Portia answers some of the questions above:

Data source (Q1 to Q3). Use Portia as your fashion PLM, or import data from your existing PLM or ERP. Upload a sheet file and AI-powered matching maps the columns so materials, suppliers and other details end up in the right fields.
First passport (Q4). With your product data in a CSV and images ready, your first passport can be live in minutes.
Suppliers (Q6 to Q9). Tier-1 suppliers can log in to enter their data and upload certificates. Deeper tiers do not log in; see traceability software for what Portia covers.
Passport level and carrier (Q11, Q12). Your brand chooses style, batch or item. Passports are reached through QR codes.
Languages (Q14). Passports are available in English, Swedish, German and Dutch, with more languages coming.
Impact data (Q15). Environmental impact data, such as LCA results or footprints, is imported from partners or uploaded. Portia does not calculate it.
Integrations (Q16 to Q18). A one-way integration pushes passport data from Portia to your Shopify store (see Shopify Digital Product Passports). Custom integrations are available on request. There is no public API.
Your data (Q19). You can export your data whenever you want.
Hosting and security (Q21 to Q23). Your data is hosted in the EU (Ireland) on infrastructure certified to SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. Those certifications belong to the hosting infrastructure, not to Portia itself. Portia is GDPR-aligned; see our privacy policy.
Pricing (Q24). Pricing is on request. Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it.

Portia is probably not the best fit if you need multi-tier supplier mapping and due diligence, in-house LCA calculation, NFC or RFID tags, a public API for your own developers, or orchestration across many enterprise systems. In those cases a specialist will serve you better, possibly alongside Portia.

Sources and further reading

Last verified: 21 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose digital product passport software?

Start from where your product data lives today. If you run on spreadsheets, look at PLM-native tools; if you have a PLM or ERP, look at tools that import from it. Then ask every vendor the same questions about supplier data, passport levels, data carriers, data export and hosting, and pilot the best fit with 10 to 20 of your own styles.

What should I ask a DPP software vendor?

Ask where the passport data comes from, whether suppliers can log in and upload certificates, which passport levels and data carriers are supported, how identifiers stay stable, whether you can export all your data yourself, where data is hosted, and who holds any security certifications.

When do fashion brands need a Digital Product Passport?

There is no legal date for textiles yet. The Commission plans to adopt the textile delegated act in Q4 2027, and it can apply no earlier than 18 months after it enters into force, so mid-to-late 2029 at the earliest. That is an estimate.

Can any DPP software guarantee it meets the textile rules?

No. The textile delegated act has not been adopted, so no tool can show that it meets textile DPP requirements yet. Look instead at how a tool handles the essential requirements already in the ESPR, such as identifiers, open and transferable data, and long-term availability.

Do I need a PLM to create Digital Product Passports?

No. Some tools import data from a PLM or ERP, and PLM-native tools such as Portia can be your PLM and your passport tool at the same time. With your product data in a CSV and images ready, your first passport in Portia can be live in minutes.

Is Portia the right DPP software for my brand?

Portia fits small and medium fashion and apparel brands that want product development, tier-1 supplier data and passports in one tool. If you need multi-tier due diligence, in-house LCA calculation, NFC or RFID, or a public API, a specialist tool is likely a better fit.

See how Portia answers your checklist

Pricing is on request. Book a short demo with a few of your own styles and we’ll go through the questions that matter to you.

Book a demo