Alfresco vs IBM ECM vs OpenText Extended ECM comparison

Hyland and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Hyland is ranked #9 with an average rating of 6.3, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Hyland holds a 7.6% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 77% of Hyland users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Alfresco

Read 13 Alfresco reviews

2,157 Views
1,715 Comparison Views

77% willing to recommend

IBM ECM

Read 16 IBM ECM reviews

639 Views
518 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

OpenText Extended ECM

Read 21 OpenText Extended ECM reviews

3,102 Views
2,381 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM ECM

OpenText Extended ECM

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, IBM ECM, and OpenText Extended ECM 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: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

May 2025

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Helped 850,076 peers since 2012

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 May 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 7.6%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ECM is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Extended ECM is 11.4%, up from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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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Jaideep MS

Practice Director at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Enables effective document control yet requires better affordability and clarity

I use extended ECM for procurement, sales, engineering documents, and sometimes invoices and accounts payable or receivable The version controls and the business workspace part integrate well with SAP and OpenText, providing granular level control over who accesses the workspace. The seamless…

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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

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

"Document repository."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"OpenText Extended ECM's most valuable features include permissions and security models. I also like the tool's ability to add metadata and use it to categorize information."

"WebReports has a lot of capabilities that offer good opportunities to customize the applications the way we want to."

"The ability to add metadata and use that to categorize information is a valuable feature of OpenText Extended ECM."

"The solution's automatic document numbering, state management, and process flow are very useful features to go through the full cycle of the document."

"Smart Viewing videos are most valuable for the end users. The end users like the look and feel of Smart View. It's similar to SharePoint, with the latest HTML5 features, filters, and everything. It's like online shopping."

"The version controls and the business workspace part integrate well with SAP and OpenText, providing granular level control over who accesses the workspace."

"Being able to search is valuable. Its search is pretty powerful. We are able to search for specific text, and it points us to the document that has that text. That is pretty powerful."

"It's a very good solution."

More OpenText Extended ECM pros

Cons

"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."

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

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

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

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

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

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

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

"I would like to see seamless application integration."

"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 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."

"The initial setup can get really complicated, and it takes time."

"The cost of the product could be improved."

"The solution needs to improve the user interface."

"We had some issues with scalability in the production. So, I would rate it a five out of ten."

"More out-of-the-box automation features should be added to OpenText Extended ECM."

"A dashboard with information would be nice to see."

"The annotation tool needs improvement. In other tools, such as Hyland OnBase, you can easily do annotation. You can easily merge documents. You can easily compare documents, whereas with OpenText, it seems to be a challenge."

"OpenText Extended ECM's user interface could be improved."

More OpenText Extended ECM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

"Reach out to local IBM partners."

"The total cost of the product will vary on the capabilities required"

"The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer."

"The licensing is not that complex for the core products, but it becomes more complicated for some additional modules."

"The pricing is costly. It's costly to integrate with Office 365 and to go back and forth with the sales team."

"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."

"The product is pricey."

"The solution is expensive."

"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."

More OpenText Extended ECM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

36%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Government

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Alfresco?

Mostly, the primary use case is to store documents related to transactions in our company. These documents could be s...

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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 OpenText Content Suite Platform?

We also have a module on top of the Content Server called WebReports that has been one of the things that helped us f...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenText Content Suite Platform?

The cost is a significant factor that may deter medium-sized businesses from using OpenText extended ECM.

See all answers

What needs improvement with OpenText Content Suite Platform?

The cost of the product could be improved. Currently, there are certain snags in document viewing, and communication ...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenText Documentum vs Alfresco

Compared 19% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 19% of the time

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Compared 11% of the time

IBM FileNet vs Alfresco

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Purview Records Management vs Alfresco

Compared 3% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

IBM FileNet vs IBM ECM

Compared 30% of the time

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 12% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM ECM

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

SharePoint vs IBM ECM

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM ECM Competitors

OpenText Documentum vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 21% of the time

SharePoint vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 19% of the time

IBM FileNet vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 7% of the time

M-Files vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 2% of the time

More OpenText Extended ECM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

May 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM ECM

April 2025

Download IBM ECM product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenText Extended ECM

April 2025

Download OpenText Extended ECM product report

Also Known As

No data available

OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share

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

OpenText Extended ECM (formerly OpenText Content Suite Platform) is an enterprise content management platform that securely governs the information lifecycle by integrating with leading enterprise applications, such as SAP, Microsoft 365, Salesforce and SAP SuccessFactors. Bringing content and processes together, Extended ECM provides access to information when and where it’s needed, improves decision-making and drives operational effectiveness.

OpenText

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

ATCO Australia, MSIG Asia, Orica, Salt River Project

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

May 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: May 2025.

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