Alfresco vs IBM ECM vs M-Files comparison

The compared Hyland and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Hyland is ranked #9 in ECM , with an average rating of 6.8, and holds a 7.6% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #13 in ECM , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 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

2,397 Views
1,990 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

IBM ECM

Read 16 IBM ECM reviews

675 Views
641 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

M-Files

Read 2 M-Files reviews

960 Views
278 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM ECM

M-Files

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, IBM ECM, and M-Files 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

July 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

Enterprise Content Management

Document Management Software

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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Laurie NYlund

Director of IT at JH Kelly

Good workflows, and it is easy to use with a dashboard that improves contract visibility

My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing this product is to do a pilot first. After you do your research, do an actual pilot before you commit because everyone has nuances and you might find out that it is not what you want, or that it doesn't really do what you think it's going to do. It is not the simplest product to use but because of the robustness of its feature set in the ability with the workflows, and the APIs, to do just about anything you can imagine with it, that's very valuable. I wish it was a little easier to use because we have to spend more time than I'd like with new users, teaching them how it works. We try to hide all that from them but the setup time to get everything the way we wanted was probably two months. That is two months in one resource working on it half time a week, but it just took a lot of work to get the metadata set up, to get the workflows set up, and to get all the documents added to the repository. Now we've got versioning and we know where everything's at, the dashboard is great, but don't assume when they tell you that you'll be up and running in two weeks, that that is the truth. It takes much longer than you think. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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

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

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

"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata."

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

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

"Document repository."

"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."

More Alfresco pros

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

"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 scalability is a valuable feature, that we're able to display our documents to so many people."

"The vertical scalability, as we can use it across some of our applications."

"Using M-Files means anybody on the executive team to go in and immediately look at a dashboard and know the status of a contract."

Cons

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

"Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving."

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

"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."

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

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

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 integration with other products needs to be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"Reach out to local IBM partners."

"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Government

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

32%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

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Comparisons

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 19% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 16% of the time

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Purview Records Management vs Alfresco

Compared 2% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

IBM FileNet vs IBM ECM

Compared 25% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM ECM

Compared 11% of the time

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

More IBM ECM Competitors

SharePoint vs M-Files

Compared 33% of the time

Microsoft Purview Records Management vs M-Files

Compared 14% of the time

IBM FileNet vs M-Files

Compared 13% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs M-Files

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive vs M-Files

Compared 3% of the time

More M-Files Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

July 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM ECM

July 2025

Download IBM ECM product report

Buyer's Guide

Document Management Software

July 2025

Download M-Files 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

M-Files is the leading platform for knowledge work automation. With M-Files, knowledge workers can find information faster, work smarter, and achieve more. M-Files features an innovative metadata-driven architecture, embedded workflow engine, and advanced artificial intelligence that enable customers to eliminate information chaos, improve process efficiency, and automate security and compliance. By embedding automation and GenAI into its core, M-Files' platform not only increases efficiencies for organizations but also empowers knowledge workers to focus on what truly matters—innovation and strategic growth. With 10 global offices, M-Files serves more than 5,000 customers in 100 countries. Start your free trial OR Schedule a demo. For more information, visit www.m-files.com.

M-Files

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

Crowe UK, Stearns Bank, Head Energy, OMV, TK Elevator

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

July 2025

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