Adobe Experience Manager vs Hyland OnBase comparison

Adobe and Hyland are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Adobe is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.6, while Hyland is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.6. Adobe holds a 3.2% mindshare in ECM, compared to Hyland’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hyland users who would recommend it.

Adobe Experience Manager

Read 26 Adobe Experience Manager reviews

3,092 Views
1,051 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Hyland OnBase

Read 13 Hyland OnBase reviews

4,004 Views
2,282 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Adobe Experience Manager

Hyland OnBase

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Adobe Experience Manager and Hyland OnBase compete in the digital marketing and content management category. Adobe Experience Manager appears to have the upper hand due to its extensive integration capabilities and advanced digital marketing features.

Features: Adobe Experience Manager offers robust features such as digital asset management, e-commerce capabilities, and seamless integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud Products like Target and Analytics. It also provides campaign management and key integrations with Salesforce and analytics services. Hyland OnBase emphasizes flexibility and integration across business processes, boasting strong security measures, audit trails, and advanced capture workflows.

Room for Improvement: Adobe Experience Manager could benefit from addressing its complex programming model, high cost of ownership, and by enhancing cloud service support and component use efficiency. Hyland OnBase needs improvements in its user interface, pricing model, and search functionalities, particularly by incorporating artificial intelligence for smarter document management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Adobe Experience Manager supports deployment across the private cloud, on-premises, and public cloud, but technical support can sometimes be slow. However, it benefits from knowledgeable personnel and managed services. Hyland OnBase primarily deploys on-premises and has feedback indicating a need for faster technical support and addressing implementation complexity that might affect user training needs.

Pricing and ROI: Adobe Experience Manager is known for its high cost, linked to the number of users and complexity, yet it offers efficient long-term investment returns in content management and analytics. Hyland OnBase is considered pricy but offers a modular pricing model tailored to vertical solutions, focusing on minimized coding overhead and providing considerable value, particularly in different regional applications.

To learn more, read our detailed Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Experience Manager

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

7th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Content Management (2nd), Enterprise Social Software (5th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)

Hyland OnBase

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

5th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (15th), Low-Code Development Platforms (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 3.2%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hyland OnBase is 6.2%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Hyland OnBase	6.2%
Adobe Experience Manager	3.2%
Other	90.6%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2771634

Senior Technical Program Manager /Senior Lead Solution Architech- Product Technology & Gen AI at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Have faced challenges with setup and pricing but have found flexibility and support helpful

Adobe Experience Manager needs more optimization. The frequency of components where we have vitals of a page or an app needs to be optimized because these are heavy Java codes along with some AEM developments. The code language should be optimized or they should have some string functions or web plugins to create a lighter version rather than implementing large amounts of code lines. They should start implementing industry best practices which are not currently offered. We perform our internal development for customization at our own pace. We have multiple frameworks that help us in various ways. We are advancing in terms of AI integration. We have already started our own POCs before Adobe implements these features.

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reviewer1981395

Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Seamless data management enhances security while monolithic architecture and reporting need improvements

I believe the reporting features need improvement, as other competitors in the market provide better analytics. Hyland is working on a new platform (HXP) to integrate features from all products, addressing some concerns. Additionally, there could be more integration points with products Hyland has acquired, such as Alfresco and Nuxeo. Offering a trial version with basic features would allow users to experience the product before purchasing. I find OnBase's monolithic architecture to be expensive, and adopting microservices could be beneficial.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Easy to work with the solution."

"The search capability in Adobe Experience Manager is superior, as search capabilities are determined by the metadata, and it also has metadata automation using AI."

"If you want to use content in a mobile application and you want the content in some other application, you can simply expose it from the CMS to different clients or different systems. It's easy. On top of that, the technology underlying AEM is open-source and is very powerful like Apache Sling and JCR."

"I like the profiling and segmentation."

"Adobe Experience Manager is quite a powerful product that you can use to design files and export them."

"It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer."

"Adobe Experience Manager is one of the best enterprise-level content management and digital experience platforms available."

"The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive."

More Adobe Experience Manager pros

"I like the cloud and its integrability."

"The most valuable features are that it's very secure and provides audit trails for our documents."

"Integrating Hyland OnBase with our systems enabled us to automate document designs and templates, which was extremely helpful in the finance and banking industry."

"The solution is very developed and we are not taking full advantage of its functionalities."

"The product's initial setup phase is not difficult."

"The retention module is one of the most valuable features. Whatever we scan onto the system can be identified and we are notified when the records are due to be disposed."

"We found the setup process to be okay since they do offer a troubleshooting guide."

"Its most valuable aspect is its flexibility"

More Hyland OnBase pros

Cons

"Many people complain about the price as it's one of the most expensive tools."

"Adobe Experience Manager's pricing could be improved."

"Adobe Experience Manager needs more optimization. The frequency of components where we have vitals of a page or an app needs to be optimized because these are heavy Java codes along with some AEM developments."

"In comparison to other CMS products, Adobe Experience Manager is missing some capabilities such as proper versioning or a better versioning system and backend connectivity. If something is deleted in AEM, the user cannot recover it. You have to call technical support, and they will need to recover the whole instance. So, it's really difficult. For example, if you delete a page, you cannot recover it. There should be an option to recover it. In AEM, you have to go to the previous state of the instance itself or the virtual machine, and you have to restore everything, which is not good."

"The latest trend is to render everything in the client-side framework. For example, SPA or single page application. This is a feature that needs improvement. The cloud deployment pipeline needs to be improved as well."

"A little bit of background knowledge of coding and website structure is required."

"The licensing plus implementation and maintenance cost is very expensive, making it not suitable for small organizations, and the setup is very complex."

"Adobe Experience Manager could improve by allowing the reuse of components like a progress bar across multiple pages to make the development process more efficient."

More Adobe Experience Manager cons

"For user experience, they would have to do more with the interface. It is not easy to work with and is a little messy. It is getting better, but it is not yet good enough. Other products are comparatively doing better in terms of the user interface. I have been hearing about Box, which is very easy to use and learn for the users. OnBase has to work on this aspect. It should have BPM capabilities. We compete with tools that provide the BPM feature and support those standards. They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

"An area for improvement would be the training - getting our people up to speed on how to use it required more training than we expected due to the complexity of the solution."

"We are struggling with duplicates and would like to have OCR functionality when using this solution."

"The application could potentially be more open-source, allowing integration with more solutions."

"The dashboards do have some room for improvement as compared to the other vendors which are there in the market."

"The look and feel could be better. The integration with the user could be better. It could also be more user-friendly."

"The solution’s initial setup is a little difficult."

"The migration is a bit difficult in the tool."

More Hyland OnBase cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a costly solution. I would rate the price at two out of five on a scale from one to five, where one is the most expensive and five is the most competitive."

"There's a free trial for one month for Adobe Experience Manager, which you can use for learning purposes, then, after the trial period, you'll need to purchase the license. Adobe offers a few plans for Adobe Experience Manager, but I'm unaware of how much my company is paying."

"It's really costly."

"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced."

"OnBase is reasonably priced."

"The solution costs around $6,000 per month."

"The tool's price is high."

"They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

"There are a number of different types of licenses. There are concurrent licenses, individual licenses and imaging licenses."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?

I think Adobe Experience Manager can be improved by making it simpler to use. I do not have anything specific in mind regarding needed improvements. I chose seven because if the app were simpler, I...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?

My main use case for Adobe Experience Manager is to share papers with colleagues and to edit PDF files. I use Adobe Experience Manager to share or edit documents with my colleagues because we work ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hyland OnBase?

I find pricing to be on the higher side due to its monolithic architecture. I would rate it six out of ten. Transitioning to microservices, allowing users to pay for only what they use, could reduc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hyland OnBase?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Hyland OnBase?

I was a vendor managing Hyland OnBase ( /products/hyland-onbase-reviews ) for Hyland, not as a direct user but as a business partner. We managed the solution and were a partner with Hyland.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Liferay Digital Experience Platform vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 5% of the time

WordPress Business-Enterprise vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 3% of the time

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OpenText Content Management vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 11% of the time

Alfresco vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 9% of the time

IBM FileNet vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager

December 2025

Download Adobe Experience Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Hyland OnBase

December 2025

Download Hyland OnBase product report

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud, Adobe CQ5

OnBase

Overview

Adobe Communique 5 (Adobe CQ5), currently manifested as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), is a web-based content management system which is developed to help businesses in offering high-end digital experience to their customers.

Adobe

Hyland OnBase is acclaimed for its robust document management, automating workflows, and improving organizational efficiency across various industries. Praised for its ability to manage records compliantly, especially in regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, the tool also integrates smoothly with other enterprise systems. Users benefit significantly from streamlined processes, reduced manual tasks, and enhanced data accuracy, boosting productivity and customer satisfaction.

Hyland

Sample Customers

Metra

Honda France Industries, Hill County Texas, Hylant Group, ING Lease France, State of South Carolina, Syracuse University, Swindon College, Rhode Island Department of Human Services, Rochester Institute of Technology, Moen, Odense University Hospital

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

December 2025

Free Report: Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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