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Adobe Experience Manager vs Alfresco comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.4
Companies experienced increased ROI using Adobe Experience Manager, noting improved efficiency, security, scalability, and significant automation benefits.
Sentiment score
8.4
Alfresco provides efficient document management and cost savings, boosting employee efficiency and reducing IT support needs.
I have seen a return on investment through reduction in time to market, automation through AI, and the availability of very scalable solutions.
project manager at FedEx
Security has been very robust and has improved by 70%.
Digital Marketing Manager at Ford Motor Company
Alfresco provides a significant return on investment by efficiently managing documents.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
I have seen a return on investment as open-source production with vibrant community support is cost-effective compared to many proprietary CMS solutions in the market.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
It made my office go paperless, thereby saving the environment.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Adobe Experience Manager provides responsive, knowledgeable support with high ratings, though some report slow responses and communication challenges.
Sentiment score
7.9
Customer service is praised, but technical support receives mixed reviews, with users desiring more agile updates and interactions.
They are attentive to big companies but tend to be negligent towards mid-sized companies.
Managing Partner(Austria) at a integrator with 11-50 employees
There are Adobe engineers, sales representatives, and engineers assigned to Sephora North America.
Digital Asset Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
For P1 tickets, the resolution time is approximately four hours.
Senior Technical Program Manager /Senior Lead Solution Architech- Product Technology & Gen AI at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would prefer a direct relationship with them, focusing on updating their products more like in an agile practice
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
The customer support for Alfresco is very vibrant, supportive, and responsive.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Adobe Experience Manager efficiently scales for large organizations, enhancing security and efficiency but challenges may occur during cloud migration.
Sentiment score
8.7
Alfresco efficiently scales across layers, handling growth well and managing high document volumes with minimal resource adjustments.
You cannot simply add more servers without purchasing the license.
Infra At Idealake IT Pvt Ltd Head at Idealake Information Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Adobe Experience Manager's scalability is excellent, as it reduces infrastructure and maintenance costs.
project manager at FedEx
Adobe Experience Manager can handle numerous projects because more projects can be developed, enhanced, and numerous components can be reused in many projects and published.
Senior Project Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It has continued to grow with my organization and can handle a large volume of content.
Data Analyst at Unilever
Implementations needing to handle millions of documents may involve complex cluster setups requiring expert assistance.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Alfresco is very scalable and handles my organization's growth efficiently.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Adobe Experience Manager is praised for stability, performance, and scalability, despite occasional issues with custom code or server resources.
Sentiment score
8.3
Alfresco is stable but needs experienced setup, careful upgrades, and proper architecture for large volumes and simultaneous requests.
Adobe Experience Manager is a stable tool.
Senior Project Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Adobe Experience Manager delivers very high performance, is reliable, and operates fast.
Digital Marketing Manager at Ford Motor Company
Since they are enterprise and have significant digital business coming through the digital medium, the stability of the product is very important.
Infra At Idealake IT Pvt Ltd Head at Idealake Information Technology Pvt. Ltd.
The stability of Alfresco is rated highly as it hardly goes down.
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Alfresco is generally a very stable and high-performance platform.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Those issues have now been corrected.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Adobe Experience Manager needs easier setup, improved usability, better documentation, and more resources for user efficiency and integration.
Alfresco struggles with security, UI customizations, integration, and lacks documentation, hindering adoption and development efficiency.
I believe the user interface should be more user-friendly and intuitive for all levels, allowing beginners to use this tool easily.
Digital Marketing Manager at Ford Motor Company
The feature I really appreciate is how reusable components save time across pages.
Frontend Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Technical support could be improved, especially for smaller companies.
Managing Partner(Austria) at a integrator with 11-50 employees
It would be beneficial if Alfresco offers different options for document storage, such as databases or cloud solutions.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Governance of this system is required. If you don't have proper governance, things can go wrong.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
I feel the documentation needs a lot of improvement, especially for Activiti microservice adoption, which is sometimes frustrating or slows me down.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
 

Setup Cost

Adobe Experience Manager is expensive and complex, best for large enterprises with careful evaluation of licensing and scalability.
Alfresco's enterprise pricing is cost-effective for large organizations but potentially expensive for small projects, with varying options and costs.
For large enterprises, the cost is often comparable with other major CMSs.
Managing Partner(Austria) at a integrator with 11-50 employees
Adobe Experience Manager is expensive compared to competitors.
Infra At Idealake IT Pvt Ltd Head at Idealake Information Technology Pvt. Ltd.
The price is significantly high.
Senior Technical Program Manager /Senior Lead Solution Architech- Product Technology & Gen AI at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Alfresco is a very cost-effective and affordable tool.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
The pricing of Alfresco starts at $100,000, which can be expensive for small projects.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Alfresco is very cheap and cost-effective.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Valuable Features

Adobe Experience Manager enhances efficiency with content management, personalization, multi-site support, and seamless integration for data-driven strategies.
Alfresco offers cost-effective document management with robust customization, intuitive interface, and seamless integrations, supporting cloud and on-premises collaboration.
Feature-wise, I believe the dispatcher module is the best aspect of Adobe Experience Manager.
Infra At Idealake IT Pvt Ltd Head at Idealake Information Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Adobe Experience Manager has made document management smoother because many people use Adobe, making it simpler for me to modify and resend PDF documents.
Founder . Interior Architect & Interior Designer at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Adobe Experience Manager increases operational efficiency through centralized assets and reduces time spent searching, editing, and managing files.
project manager at FedEx
This makes the record independent of the document, which is beneficial as documents often change, and it helps avoid continual updates to the registry.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
There is document storage with metadata, document versioning, document workflow, check-in, check-out, REST API for integration, easy customization, and vibrant community support.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
When it comes to scripting, if there is something that Alfresco does not do natively, you can use their custom API to do almost anything that you want.
Network Engineer at AT&T
 

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Experience Manager
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Web Content Management (1st), Enterprise Social Software (5th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)
Alfresco
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Document Management Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 3.8%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Alfresco is 7.6%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Adobe Experience Manager3.8%
Alfresco7.6%
Other88.6%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Hilax Chamberlain - PeerSpot reviewer
Digital Marketing Manager at Ford Motor Company
Centralized content management has unified our digital channels and delivers consistent experiences
Adobe Experience Manager offers enterprise-level digital assets management and very robust customization, brand value consistency, and omnichannel delivery. It saves development and maintenance time. The digital asset management and omnichannel delivery features have benefited my team by managing our digital assets, ensuring brand consistency, and enabling us to deliver customized content easily to our clients. Organizing and obtaining information from results is beneficial. Strengthening our online experience as a brand is valuable. Easy integration with other Adobe services improves productivity and provides a smooth experience. Adobe Experience Manager has positively impacted my organization by enabling component and page reuse, which reduces application size. It saves manual effort for maintaining all applications, improves traffic, and ensures consistency across all our applications. It provides better security, scalability, and makes our applications more robust.
Maria Giulia - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Wells Fargo
Streamlined document workflows have improved collaboration and supported compliant record management
Alfresco delivers an open, scalable, cloud-native content, process, and governance management suite. When it comes to document management, it is one of the best and top-notch solutions available. Alfresco helps us to quickly find and access information from anywhere on any device using web-based viewing tools. It is a very intelligent tool because it provides intelligent process management where integrated process and content service capabilities streamline content-centric processes and enable faster and more informed decision-making. I love the basic workflows that are easy enough for casual users to set up and utilize. Cloud synchronization capability provides a great way to share documents with third parties and to use as a backup system for critical documents. The best features Alfresco offers include the Alfresco mobile app, folder rules that are easy to set up, and the ability to make metadata assessment easier to automate. Easy customization and support from Alfresco are great advantages. We have been able to automate most of the repetitive tasks using folder rules and metadata automation, saving a lot of time and cost. Through the Alfresco mobile app, it makes it easy for those on the road to access, approve, and share documents, promoting collaboration. Deal flow processes run much more efficiently. Compliance needs are easily met in a cost-effective manner.
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885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise23
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adobe Experience Manager?
It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer.
What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?
Adobe Experience Manager performs well overall, though some improvements could be made. Bug troubleshooting is challenging and requires developer expertise. Pricing is higher and not as pocket-frie...
What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?
Adobe Experience Manager is one of the most powerful and scalable CMS platforms I have ever used. It serves as our central content management tool for managing all our applications and delivering a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfresco?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that Alfresco is very cheap and cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
One area where Alfresco can be improved is the ability to scan directly using Alfresco. Additionally, I would appreciate improvements especially when it comes to the ability to integrate with socia...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
My main use case for Alfresco is that I implemented Alfresco Content Services to solve complex enterprise problems for content service, record management, and process management. Using this tool, I...
 

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud, Adobe CQ5
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metra
Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. Alfresco and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.