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Alfresco vs IBM FileNet vs Nuxeo comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 August 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 8.4%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 9.1%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nuxeo is 2.4%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Karthi Keyan - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
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.
reviewer2650419 - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful data model building enables comprehensive document management for government sectors
The learning curve in Nuxeo is not easy, and it requires additional time. It's challenging to onboard new users or new developers. The resources on Hyland are good but lack exercises and use cases to apply by oneself during learning. There is not much practice to apply that knowledge directly on Nuxeo and get further details into the platform.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."
"Alfresco allows broad searches with many index fields that you can search on, although the created fields and their values may not be intuitive."
"The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata."
"Document repository."
"You can meet your users' expected features without having Alfresco's involvement."
"I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar."
"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."
"We have made our service routes more efficient, as far as moving work through the system and being able to react to customer situations and needs better by improving things, such as, address and beneficiary changes. I know that we have definitely made improvements in the process."
"It is used by large enterprises. It has to be scalable and robust for them to use. We have seen that on multiple projects over the years."
"Users are able to create their own content, and they can manage their own sets of tasks, to work at their own pace and get their jobs done."
"One of our clients, a customer of IBM, rolled out and replaced their existing ECM system with FileNet. Their productivity has increased pretty dramatically."
"The product is very stable."
"I would highly recommend it to those seeking a robust enterprise content management solution."
"We are able to find the proper documents which are needed for business processes."
"I like the security and also the configuration. It is easy to configure and most of our business use cases have everything just with the configuration itself."
"Nuxeo is very powerful in terms of building up the data model and the context model."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"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 has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving."
"The product is expensive."
"The setup process is very complex."
"A little better control into the ACLs of FileNet and databases."
"One of the things I know is a bit of a challenge for them - because I know that it lives on top of FileNet, so it's not necessarily living on top of a relational database, per se - is that we also are using it as our system of record for our language management and our language definitions. I know that that was a little bit of a challenge, just because of the underlying architecture."
"There is no room for improvement in the current version of FileNet, and I have not identified any potential new features or existing problems that require attention."
"It needs better collaboration between the IBM teams on the FileNet and CCM sides."
"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."
"To start with there are too many add-ons, which makes it hard for us. If they simplified the add-ons and plugins to be added to our existing systems, it would definitely help us in the future."
"The learning curve in Nuxeo is not easy, and it requires additional time. It's challenging to onboard new users or new developers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."
"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."
"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."
"It has reduced operating costs by reducing the amount of manual work needed."
"​There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need.​​"
"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. ​"
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"We use extraction. Therefore, we can see 80 to 85 percent accuracy on data extraction. This reduces the manual indexing part, which is definitely a gain on performance efficiency."
"The platform is inexpensive."
"1. It will be more expensive than estimated to setup. 2. You will need to double the staff while you are running the old system and installing the new system. 3. Depending on the number of documents to be migrated, make sure you understand the potentially massive amount of time and effort required to migrate the existing content to the new platform."
"When it comes to pricing, IBM needs to make an effort to improve the cost. That's the main issue regarding use of FinalNet in Columbia."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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...
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
Currently, the challenge is the general availability to users. Initially, they had poor documentation, but over the y...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
This is mainly for unstructured document management systems with workflow and data classification.
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 so...
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...
What needs improvement with Nuxeo?
The learning curve in Nuxeo is not easy, and it requires additional time. It's challenging to onboard new users or ne...
What is your primary use case for Nuxeo?
We are mainly using Nuxeo for the government sector, and we are providing document management for those government se...
What advice do you have for others considering Nuxeo?
The overall rating for Nuxeo is eight out of ten. My advice would be to consider sector and customer requirements car...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Electronic Arts, Jeppesen, U.S. Navy, Orange, GSD&M, Sirona Dental, Skyscanner, Verizon, Unizin, Enernoc, NHS
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: August 2025.
865,484 professionals have used our research since 2012.