Alfresco vs IBM ECM vs IBM FileNet comparison

Hyland and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Hyland is ranked #7 with an average rating of 6.8, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0. Hyland holds a 8.6% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Hyland users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Alfresco

Read 14 Alfresco reviews

3,008 Views
2,436 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

IBM ECM

Read 16 IBM ECM reviews

743 Views
713 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 102 IBM FileNet reviews

3,699 Views
3,366 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM ECM

IBM FileNet

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, IBM ECM, and IBM FileNet based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

August 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 8.6%, up from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ECM is 2.4%, up from 2.3% 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
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM FileNet	8.4%
Alfresco	8.6%
IBM ECM	2.4%
Other	80.6%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Karthi Keyan

Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Streamlining document management with enhanced digitalization features needed

We used Alfresco as a document management system for automating and digitizing manual forms. Those were the main use cases The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes has improved our organization. The most valuable features of Alfresco include its integration with…

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Omar_Ismail

ECM, Archives and Digital Preservation Consultant at DataServe

A stable solution for automation with high availability

Moving to the cloud with IBM ECM is not allowed. In Saudi Arabia, the cloud infrastructure is still non-operational, potentially for the next two to three months. Static clouds are prevalent among foundational enterprises such as IBM and Oracle. IBM offers its cloud insights, maintaining its cloud ecosystem. IBM's efforts to enhance the user experience within its ECM platform are lacking compared to competitors like OpenText. Progress in implementing new technologies and features seems sluggish. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of Alfresco include its integration with the scanning solution, the ability to search, and the capability to store and index to capture metadata."

"I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar."

"You can meet your users' expected features without having Alfresco's involvement."

"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."

"Document repository."

"The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way."

"The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."

"Alfresco allows broad searches with many index fields that you can search on, although the created fields and their values may not be intuitive."

More Alfresco pros

"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."

"The content management is all about you as you can make the same content for minimal purpose solutions applications."

"[The most valuable features are] scalability and ease of use. These features are important because the customer where we have deployed it has millions of documents... And over the last five years, the volume of the documents has been increasing. It's handling all of them and without any errors."

"The most valuable features of FileNet are its comprehensive ability to store content, to get insights from the content, and to use that content for making decisions routed through workflow."

"For a large company, for the robustness, stability, performance, and the growth — that you can grow it within seconds — I would advise using FileNet, without any doubt."

"There is a high degree of usability with this solution. It is highly compatible with our clients' and customers' work environments, making it easy to deploy and implement."

"It has a very broad market share and a lot of people know about it."

"IBM FileNet has improved our organization with its single collaboration space."

"We use IBM Datacap's capabilities to capture data and then we use FileNet's capabilities for filing, to create an archive of documents... We [also] use FileNet's ability to expose information via APIs and interoperate with other systems."

"FileNet is highly scalable and suited for implementation in large multinational organizations."

More IBM FileNet pros

Cons

"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."

"I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen."

"If you don't have proper governance, things can go wrong. You have to make rules, such as one folder should not have more than 5,000 subfolders or children."

"I would like them to consider document capture functionality."

"Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold."

"Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk."

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

"Alfresco could improve workflow digitalization and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities."

More Alfresco cons

"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."

"I would like to see seamless application integration."

"The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNow, need only 20 days."

"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."

"For end-users there is a lack of administrative features. The interface of basic FileNet is not very good."

"We would like to see, in FileNet, the ability to manage video and audio."

"The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement."

"Needs a better administration tool."

"Sometimes, there can be issues with the database connections. FileNet has too many outages because things are broken in the database."

"Simplifying both training and maintenance would be an improvement."

"I think some of the technical pieces, when implementing it ourselves, were something of a roadblock until we discovered the Concierge. Those are some things they have to work on."

More IBM FileNet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."

"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."

"The license for Alfresco is expensive - not the maximum, but close. There are also extra costs once you start building integrations, as implementation seems to be very costly."

"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."

"Reach out to local IBM partners."

"Yearly, we pay for the maintenance, which is $20,000."

"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."

"For the medium scale or large scale, I would recommend FileNet. FileNet is free of licensing expenses, thus good for the money. It is not expensive, but worth for the money, especially for medium scale and large scale industries."

"For small scale industries, they allow different options. They can do open source. It is the complexity of the data security that they should think about before they choose."

"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. "

"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."

"The physical space that we have gained back pays for the service. Therefore, it has reduced our operating costs overall. We have definitely seen ROI. I would estimate $30,000 a year."

"There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

33%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	73

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfresco?

The pricing of Alfresco starts at $100,000, which can be expensive for small projects. There is often a transition fr...

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What needs improvement with Alfresco?

Currently, the challenge is the general availability to users. Initially, they had poor documentation, but over the y...

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What is your primary use case for Alfresco?

This is mainly for unstructured document management systems with workflow and data classification.

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM ECM?

The product is expensive and has a perpetual license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM ECM?

The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNo...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM FileNet?

The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.

See all answers

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 so...

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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; w...

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Comparisons

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 14% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 11% of the time

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 9% of the time

M-Files vs Alfresco

Compared 4% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

Nuxeo vs IBM ECM

Compared 14% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM ECM

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM ECM Competitors

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 11% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 8% of the time

M-Files vs IBM FileNet

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

September 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM ECM

September 2025

Download IBM ECM product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

September 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Overview

The Alfresco Digital Business Platform offers open, secure content services to let you unlock the value from your most important business information. Give users access to their content wherever and however they work with Alfresco’s open, flexible, and highly scalable cloud-native content services platform. Easily integrate and connect with everyday business applications. Find, view, collaborate on, govern, and securely share digital content—and get information to the right person at the right time.

Hyland

IBM Content Foundation on Cloud

IBM Content Foundation on Cloud allows organizations to deliver extensive enterprise content management capabilities to their users very quickly. IBM Content Foundation is powered by the FileNet content and process platform and IBM Content Navigator user experience. This cloud offering can be leveraged for a variety of use cases including collaborative document management, imaging solutions, social content management, archiving, and more. It also offers a platform for developing Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions in the cloud.

IBM Case Manager on Cloud

IBM Case Manager on Cloud is a solution platform that engages people with business content, provides contextual insight through real-time analytics, and enhances teamwork through collaboration tools and flexible workflow. Enables Business and IT to work together to create solutions across the enterprise that enables an organization to make smarter decisions for better business outcomes, while balancing the need for security and compliance in a world of heightened risk.

IBM

IBM FileNet is a leading IBM enterprise content management product family. IBM FileNet is one of the ECM solutions that can change the way a company does business by enabling users to capture, activate, socialize, analyze, and govern content throughout its lifecycle.

There are many IBM FileNet products available, all of which are integrated and based on the FileNet P8 Platform.

IBM

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.

KeyBank, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank, Sistema Tecnol‹gico de Monterrey, Illinois Department of Human Services, UnitedHealth Group

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

August 2025

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