Alfresco vs IBM FileNet vs SharePoint 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 #4 with an average rating of 7.9. Hyland holds a 8.8% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 8.2% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Hyland users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Alfresco

Read 14 Alfresco reviews

3,139 Views
2,543 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 103 IBM FileNet reviews

3,640 Views
3,349 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SharePoint

Read 162 SharePoint reviews

9,505 Views
4,657 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM FileNet

SharePoint

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, IBM FileNet, and SharePoint 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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

September 2025

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Helped 869,095 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 October 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 8.8%, up from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 8.2%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 15.0%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SharePoint	15.0%
IBM FileNet	8.2%
Alfresco	8.8%
Other	68.0%

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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ARTHUR BRUNO

Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Has provided robust content management but requires simplification in configuration and usability

We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process automation and business automation features are barely used. Currently, we primarily use it to store content. We are now trying to use all of the functionalities of IBM FileNet, but we have not yet utilized the full capacity of the system. We are trying to reduce redundancy with IBM FileNet by enhancing our business rules. However, we still have significant redundancy. IBM FileNet can help us reduce redundancy, but we need to understand the tool and use all the functionalities to accomplish this. Ease of use with IBM FileNet is a disadvantage of this tool. It is complex and hard to use. When we try to set up IBM FileNet, we have many questions. We do not understand what we need to do in IBM FileNet. There are many configurations we must make but do not know how to implement. While IBM FileNet is very reliable, it is very difficult to set up. When reading the documentation about IBM FileNet, it appears to be very reliable and secure, but setting up configurations, access rules, authorization, and authentication seems to be very challenging.

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Madhur D'silva

Lead Consultant at Eviden

Collaborative work benefits while user-friendliness challenges persist

The most valuable feature of SharePoint is its user interface, which is very easy to use. I do not have to be very technical to use it. Its rights management capabilities and ability to restrict access to certain people are also very useful. Furthermore, I can access SharePoint from any device, whether it is a phone or laptop, which is very convenient.

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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 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."

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

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

"Document repository."

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

"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."

More Alfresco pros

"The natural interpolatability with IBM Datacap, that is a key component of our solution, as well as with BPM, and WebSphere Portal. That's why we prefer FileNet instead of some other, less world-class solution."

"I have found that it scales well."

"Stability is really good. We fairly recently upgraded a version of it and have not been having any problems. The resources seem to be really good with this version; it is a little easier to troubleshoot issues."

"FileNet can for sure cover the requirements of a medium and a big company, because of the scalability and the possibility to connect with many other IBM products."

"Provides records management functions."

"It has given us a whole new environment to do document management and document storage."

"It has the ability to mix document management and process automation."

"The best part of FileNet includes its advantages and most valuable features, which are its scalability and stability."

More IBM FileNet pros

"Its most valuable feature is the document library."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The most valuable feature of SharePoint is its ease of use."

"It has an easy to distribute administration capability, and can also scale to meet a large number of future needs."

"The product provides flexibility in collaboration."

"Ability to store files of any type."

"The stability of SharePoint is high."

"It allows for simultaneous users to be on it."

More SharePoint pros

Cons

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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 setup process for Alfresco was complex."

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

More Alfresco cons

"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."

"The area of migrations to new versions must be made easier. It's quite good that they have now begun to improve the API area, to modernize the interfaces, but there's always a very big investment involved in migrating from one version to another. That prohibits rolling out new functionalities to customers. It's not so easy.... In that area, they really must improve."

"Currently, our primary ERP system is SAP S/4HANA. Despite this, we have encountered difficulties integrating the solution with it, which remains an unresolved challenge for our team."

"Developers like us have an upgraded interface. That interface does not work in the process that we have today. It hangs and is not user-friendly."

"The new user interface is not easy to set up, so some improvements along these lines would be good."

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

"I would like to see the dashboard be a little bit more robust and a little more user-friendly"

"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

"You still need a bit of expertise to add branding."

"SharePoint Online could improve the user interface and when modifying any of the user interfaces can be challenging. Additionally, there are challenges with the detail in the analytics user interface and the overall customization could improve."

"The solution should improve its integration with other project management tools."

"Replication needs improvement."

"The solution should be made more user-friendly for technical and business people."

"Make it more intuitive."

"Annoyingly, many new Office 365 apps always end up being only US locale for the first year of their life. Microsoft needs to realise that most of their customers are not in the USA."

"The way to change the version of the files in SharePoint should be improved. The method of synchronizing files from local to the cloud can also use improvement."

More SharePoint cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

"The cost is about $40,000, plus yearly maintenance."

"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."

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

"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."

"The biggest issue is the cost of the FileNet, because the license cost is very high. If a customer doesn't have good technical guides that are aware of the license calculation, they will pay too much. FileNet's license calculation depends on the processor and number of users. So my advice to a new customer is to be very careful with your calculations before purchasing FileNet."

"It is still a leading ECM solution provider, however the cost to implement and maintain are higher than other solutions."

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

"Licensing costs depend on the size of the storage."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"SharePoint is included with our Microsoft license."

"For this type of solution, it is not wise to buy it without Software Assurance."

"The platform has medium pricing."

"It is very expensive."

"The pricing is competitive."

"The pricing works for us."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The solution's pricing is relatively expensive because it's bundled with other products."

More SharePoint pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Comparison Review

it_user8925

Developer with 51-200 employees

Aug 23, 2013

Jive vs Sharepoint vs Drupal Commons

At Mediacurrent we often get requests to compare Drupal to other platforms used for intranet sites and social business platforms (like https://dev.twitter.com/ for example). This is often referred to as “Social Business Software”, which has grown in popularity in recent years. I decided to do a…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

Government

Insurance Company

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing 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	31
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	74

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	79
Midsize Enterprise	37
Large Enterprise	80

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 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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process...

See all answers

What do you like most about SharePoint?

The search feature is valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?

As SharePoint is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, the pricing is acceptable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SharePoint?

Not with SharePoint specifically, but overall with the software or tools from Microsoft, I think there are areas that...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 14% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 9% of the time

Nuxeo vs Alfresco

Compared 7% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs Alfresco

Compared 5% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

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 9% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM FileNet

Compared 6% of the time

Box vs IBM FileNet

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs SharePoint

Compared 8% of the time

DocuSign vs SharePoint

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs SharePoint

Compared 7% of the time

Box vs SharePoint

Compared 6% of the time

M-Files vs SharePoint

Compared 3% of the time

More SharePoint Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

October 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

September 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint

September 2025

Download SharePoint product report

Also Known As

No data available

SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010

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 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

SharePoint is a Microsoft-based platform for building web applications. It covers a widerange of capabilities and while it is appropriate for experienced webdevelopers, even non-technical minded users can easily navigate through thesystem and execute functions such as collaborating data, managing documents andfiles, creating websites, managing social networking solutions, and automatingworkflow.

Major areas that SharePoint deals with are websites,communities, content, search, insights, and composites. The purpose is to give usersthe ability to create or develop these key business components on their owneven without technical knowledge of, for example, how to build a website or howto integrate coding. Configuring SharePoint into a business's system is meantto cut out all of the complicated steps, and pave the way for easierimplementation all around.

Microsoft

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.

Toyota, Aeroports de Paris, ASBBank Ltd., Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, CambridgeshireConstabulary, D&M Group, NPL Construction Company, and The Regional Municipality of Niagara.

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

September 2025

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

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