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Alfresco vs M-Files vs OpenText Documentum Content Management 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

Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alfresco6.7%
SharePoint11.7%
OpenText Content Management6.3%
Other75.3%
Enterprise Content Management
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
M-Files3.9%
Alfresco9.9%
OpenText Content Manager6.4%
Other79.8%
Document Management Software
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Documentum Content Management6.1%
SharePoint11.7%
Alfresco6.7%
Other75.5%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Jaspreet k - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of development at Flash
Streamlined compliance workflows have reduced manual document handling and improved governance
Alfresco offers many features that I value highly. The first is the open architecture that provides extensive REST API and support of open standards such as CMIS, allowing our development team to easily extend their capabilities. The second valuable feature is the activity workflow engine, a powerful BPMN compliant workflow engine that automates complex and multi-step processes natively alongside the content. Another favorite feature is smart document processing. Due to its built-in AI capabilities, Alfresco can automatically classify documents based on our business requirements and tagging. This directly helps us find those documents by tagging them and locating them more easily. The smart document processing in Alfresco has helped us extract information via OCR and identify entities without requiring manual data entry, as it works on a metadata approach that is directly searched via OCR. The text is assigned as a token in the backend, and using the AI capabilities, Alfresco can automatically classify and read via OCR. Alfresco also provides automated lifecycle management that helps us enforce legal holds, retention schedules, and secure disposition of records, keeping the files secure and ensuring that our organization remains compliant with legal requirements.
LN
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.
Ashish Shelar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at IBM
Offers version control capabilities, easy to set up but highly-priced
The main thing is the cost. Most of the time, organizations move away from Documentum due to cost. It's highly-priced, and the support costs are high. Now, SharePoint and other options. Microsoft gives free licenses, so organizations mainly look for cost-effective products. The second thing is updates and patching. We patch very often, every six months or a year. We have SP1, SP2, and SP3, and then suddenly, it's moved out of support. That's the organization's main pain area. They don't want to keep investing from a storage perspective. The licensing model should be changed. The product itself is out of support. They have not considered it for AI initiatives. The new version should be on the cloud. I'm not sure if the new version of Documentum, xECM, is cloud compatible or on which cloud it is compatible, but the OpenText server itself is on a cloud, which would be beneficial to the business. And it would also be easier for migration.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of Alfresco's strengths is the data modeling, as document domain experts can model type and hierarchical associations and metadata constraints in a declarative way, and a graphical user interface model manager now allows users that don't know XML formalisms to build models."
"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 is the most widely used open source ECM in the world and it has characteristics that I really like such as a Java based platform, lots of integration points, many protocols for accessing it, advanced workflow support, scripting, easily customizable user interface, a concept of a group/team based working area called site."
"The features which are most valuable to us are rapid deployment, ease of installation, ease of use, and Linux platform support."
"I have seen a return on investment with Alfresco because errors due to outdated documents have been reduced, processes have been improved, and process flow has also been improved."
"The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way."
"Alfresco is a very good product that has very good inbuilt features, and at the same time, it is customizable and we can customize this product the way we want."
"The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."
"M-Files licence model is very flexible. You have the choice of Named User, Concurrent, or SaaS. This gives the business so much room and flexibility to implement new projects whilst maintaining costs and maximizing production."
"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."
"The stability is very good."
"The stability is very good, and sometimes we have connection issues with the DocBase Java Method Servers or DocBroker services because our project is about 400 megabytes and very big, but the designer works hard to resolve it."
"OpenText Documentum is a robust choice for enterprise-level document management."
"The lifecycle management is valuable because many of our businesses create content and it passes through a lifecycle."
"Two things are excellent in Documentum. One is business process management. The other is its support for metadata."
"We like Documentum for its capacity and reliability."
"In terms of scalability, Documentum is a very good product; it's scalable, flexible, and reliable."
"OpenText Documentum has improved availability and performance in our organization."
 

Cons

"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."
"Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving."
"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 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."
"We would like to see improvement in the numbers of documents that can be managed by the repository."
"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."
"We did encounter some stability issues when there were many simultaneous requests on the server."
"The integration with other products needs to be improved."
"Technical support is probably the weakest part. We had a number of authentication issues and support has been very slow to respond and get us solutions."
"It's difficult to manage and customize Documentum."
"It needs a better UI and it should also be cloud-ready. The UI has not changed in years."
"While generally secure, some noted security issues need consideration. The installation process for on-premise setup needs improvement as well."
"Documentum is a very robust system. Everything can be improved, but at this time, I do not have anything in particular. If anything, they can put our software in their standard."
"The biggest issue for us is the price of the product."
"The user interface can be improved. Searching for documents is complex and should be easier."
"The product needs to improve the way documents are logged together. I believe running it on the cloud or containerization will bring value to it. The tool's Time to Market and deployment cycle need to be improved. Finding suitable training materials for OpenText Documentum is also a bottleneck. If we can find the training modules easily, we can bring together people, give them quick training, and start working on the deployment. It can help with quick outputs."
"I would like to see performance improvements, especially regarding slow response times."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."
"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."
"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."
"OpenText Documentum has announced a new licensing model, which could be more expensive."
"The price is considered affordable now."
"The product is expensive."
"OpenText Documentum's pricing is good."
"It falls in line with a lot of things that are out there on the market. There is nothing extraordinary in terms of great or bad."
"It is quite an expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfresco?
My experience with the price, implementation cost, and platform licenses has been that it has been a fair price, the ...
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
For the moment, I have not had any complaints about how Alfresco could be improved that I could escalate.I could say ...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
My main use case for Alfresco is to centralize client records, loan documentation, digital contracts, onboarding proc...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with OpenText Documentum?
The interface of OpenText Documentum could be more intuitive; sometimes it is hard to find where the information is l...
What is your primary use case for OpenText Documentum?
We are using it to archive the information about our sales.
What advice do you have for others considering OpenText Documentum?
One of my colleagues has found some automation features. It is not my responsibility regarding security features; I a...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Dell EMC Documentum, Documentum , Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
Crowe UK, Stearns Bank, Head Energy, OMV, TK Elevator
Agility; Bibliotheca Alexandrina; Capitec Bank; Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa; County of Los Angeles, Department of Human Resources; Fresenius Kabi; Heathrow Airport; Lahey Health; Linde PLC; Milestone Pharma Co. Ltd; National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development; Open Grid Europe GmbH; REPCO NEX Industrial Solutions; Springer Nature; Syngene International; Tata Power DDL; University of Texas Austin
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: May 2026.
899,917 professionals have used our research since 2012.