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Adobe Experience Manager vs IBM FileNet 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
7.0
Adobe Experience Manager offers efficient management and seamless updates, leading to substantial returns and justified investment due to its features.
Sentiment score
6.5
IBM FileNet boosts productivity and efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances document management, yielding significant financial gains and competitive advantage.
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Adobe Experience Manager support is praised for quality but critiqued for slow responses and challenges in complex or regional issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
IBM FileNet's support is praised for responsiveness and partnerships, despite occasional delays and challenges like database implementation issues.
They are attentive to big companies but tend to be negligent towards mid-sized companies.
There are Adobe engineers, sales representatives, and engineers assigned to Sephora North America.
They are always supportive.
People come from all over the world, and they have specialists at the other end of the world to help if needed.
IBM has a different division that provides consultation to end users, and most customers utilize consultation from IBM, which costs approximately $100k USD to $200k USD.
For IBM FileNet, I give a rating of nine out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Adobe Experience Manager is scalable, customizable, and ideal for large enterprises, though cloud transitions may present challenges.
Sentiment score
8.3
IBM FileNet excels in scalability and adaptability, supporting extensive users and data, suitable for multinational enterprises with diverse needs.
You cannot simply add more servers without purchasing the license.
The scalability of Adobe Experience Manager is pretty good because we have so many engineers that are knowledgeable about and have experience in altering the Adobe Experience Manager system.
The bigger products like IBM FileNet can handle billions of documents and thousands of users.
With Kubernetes, we can simply add instances of the worker, CPU, or memory without needing deployment.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Adobe Experience Manager is stable with high performance, but custom code and integrations can cause occasional issues and memory leaks.
Sentiment score
7.7
IBM FileNet is valued for its reliable performance and stability, with improvements noted in recent upgrades and infrastructure configurations.
Since they are enterprise and have significant digital business coming through the digital medium, the stability of the product is very important.
In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet.
FileNet was restricted to DB2's enterprise edition instead of the standard edition, causing complications.
 

Room For Improvement

Adobe Experience Manager users face challenges with documentation, integration, cost, complexity, support, and inefficient development and deployment processes.
IBM FileNet needs enhanced hybrid cloud support, integration, automation, analytics, mobile experience, simplifying APIs, and reducing costs.
Technical support could be improved, especially for smaller companies.
Many people complain about the price as it's one of the most expensive tools.
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.
The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement.
From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.
FileNet needs improvement in pricing as it has become very expensive.
 

Setup Cost

Adobe Experience Manager is costly but valuable for large enterprises, offering a trial and flexible licensing for scalability.
IBM FileNet's high pricing affects licensing, with costs manageable for large enterprises but challenging for smaller businesses.
Adobe Experience Manager is expensive compared to competitors.
For large enterprises, the cost is often comparable with other major CMSs.
FileNet and similar enterprise-level tools require substantial costs, starting in the millions.
The product has become more expensive and requires significant investment for enterprise solutions.
Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable.
 

Valuable Features

Adobe Experience Manager excels in Digital Asset Management, integration, AI metadata, intuitive GUI, and fast web page delivery.
IBM FileNet provides scalability, robust document management, and seamless integration with extensive automation, governance, and workflow tools for efficient operations.
Feature-wise, I believe the dispatcher module is the best aspect of Adobe Experience Manager.
The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive.
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
At this level, companies don't buy a ready-made solution.
The best part of FileNet includes its advantages and most valuable features, which are its scalability and stability.
 

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 FileNet
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
102
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 FileNet is 8.4%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM FileNet8.4%
Adobe Experience Manager3.2%
Other88.4%
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…
Emad Rizki - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless integration for large enterprises with strong deployment capabilities
FileNet was scalable and could be implemented into big multinational organizations. However, it has become very expensive recently. Compared to low-code solutions such as Appian and outsystems, FileNet has gaps, mainly because it requires coding, which is not preferred by clients due to pricing concerns in Pakistan. We transitioned clients to cloud solutions, although FileNet has been strongly integrated with on-prem deployments.
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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
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Insurance Company
9%
 

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 Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise73
 

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 FileNet?
The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
From the company's perspective, the licensing cost for IBM FileNet is still affordable. Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metra
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.