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Adobe Experience Manager vs IBM ECM 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Adobe Experience Manager
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Web Content Management (3rd), Enterprise Social Software (5th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)
IBM ECM
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
3.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 3.2%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ECM is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Adobe Experience Manager3.2%
IBM ECM2.4%
Other94.4%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Becker - PeerSpot reviewer
Impressive integration of customer behavior with an easy setup and okay support
I've worked with all major content management systems. Currently, I work with the leaders such as Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Acquia Working with big companies, I help them either consider setting up a new content management system or address issues they might have with their existing…
Thinh Tran - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported enterprise document storage but lacks cloud readiness and AI capabilities
The new version of IBM ECM is at the end of support, and we need to migrate to a new version to get open support. We need AI capabilities from IBM ECM for additional functionalities in the next release. Specifically, AI is needed for finding documents. The trend is moving toward AI, and for managing many documents effectively, we need AI capabilities. Currently, IBM ECM only handles physical files, not unstructured files. IBM needs to work alongside customers and share best practices for IBM ECM. Reading the IBM Redbook alone is not sufficient for the knowledge we need to build the best architecture for my company. IBM ECM needs to improve the cloud version, such as compatibility with Amazon Cloud, not only IBM Cloud, to make their product more competitive.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Adobe Experience Manager is pretty stable."
"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."
"The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive."
"It's a complete package. You don't need to look elsewhere for digital marketing."
"I've used several CMS tools, but Adobe Experience Manager is feature-rich, especially for web security and content management. It's more efficient to manage content on Adobe Experience Manager, and you can do a lot with it, such as updating content at any time, and on any platform, even from mobile or tablet. Adobe Experience Manager is still getting updated daily, and it's the best CMS tool in the market for me. I like that you can manage assets in Adobe Experience Manager. I also like that the solution has an analytics dashboard that shows you where the traffic comes from, how many clicks come from a specific location, the number of clicks and impressions, etc. Adobe Experience Manager can be accessed by other teams, for example, the digital media department of my company, so the solution can be used and updated per each team's requirement. Adobe Experience Manager is more than just a web developer tool, as it also allows visibility tracking and has other uses. I also like that the GUI for Adobe Experience Manager is straightforward and catchy. It has separate folders and icons, so using Adobe Experience Manager isn't tough. The solution is straightforward to use and handle."
"I like the profiling and segmentation."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Adobe Experience Manager include its capability to manage content and create reusable fragments."
"I am going to continue using it because it is a good product for enterprise document management."
"The content management is all about you as you can make the same content for minimal purpose solutions applications."
"The scalability is a valuable feature, that we're able to display our documents to so many people."
"The tool is a very stable solution with high availability and no information leakage. It has built-in API integration on-site. You can integrate with other components and applications like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, etc."
"The vertical scalability, as we can use it across some of our applications."
 

Cons

"Adobe's technical support is so-so."
"Adobe Experience Manager's pricing could be improved."
"Programming model could be improved, it's a monolithic solution."
"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."
"There is a feature missing where if content is created on the UAT environment and needs to be transferred or synced to the production environment, there is no direct way of doing the sync."
"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."
"The licensing model is opaque, and technical support could be improved, especially for smaller companies."
"Many people complain about the price as it's one of the most expensive tools."
"I think it's already getting away from Java applets. A lot of our users struggle with keeping up to date with Java versioning, so a lot of the functions they're doing, like printing, emailing, and even some of the viewing, they're struggling with."
"I would recommend not going with ECM 8 and going with FileNet instead. It seems like that is the future of the lower-volume repository. It seems like they are moving away from ECM 8.5 so I think we're going to have some challenges coming up, getting off of that technology."
"The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNow, need only 20 days."
"I would like to see seamless application integration."
"Currently, IBM ECM only handles physical files, not unstructured files."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's really costly."
"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced."
"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."
"Reach out to local IBM partners.​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
33%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise16
 

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?
Improvements could be made, though it's difficult to pinpoint because Adobe Experience Manager has been part of my world for the past several years. Many people complain about the price as it's one...
What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?
I am on the Digital Asset Management team and we coordinate projects through Workfront, tracking assets through Workfront and with Adobe Experience Manager. My use cases involve migration within Di...
What do you like most about IBM ECM?
The tool is a very stable solution with high availability and no information leakage. It has built-in API integration on-site. You can integrate with other components and applications like SAP, Mic...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM ECM?
The product is expensive and has a perpetual license.
What needs improvement with IBM ECM?
The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNow, need only 20 days.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metra
KeyBank, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank, Sistema Tecnol‹gico de Monterrey, Illinois Department of Human Services, UnitedHealth Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM ECM and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.