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Alfresco vs M-Files vs SharePoint 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 Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Alfresco8.8%
SharePoint15.0%
OpenText Documentum Content Management10.2%
Other66.0%
Enterprise Content Management
Document Management Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
M-Files7.8%
Alfresco15.9%
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management11.1%
Other65.2%
Document Management Software
Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SharePoint15.0%
OpenText Documentum Content Management10.2%
OpenText Content Management10.0%
Other64.8%
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…
LN
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.
Madhur D'silva - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata."
"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."
"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 digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."
"You can meet your users' expected features without having Alfresco's involvement."
"Document repository."
"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."
"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."
"Information is much more readily available."
"Our staff found it simpler, as they did not have to work within a classification system."
"For any organization with more than one person in it, if they are trying to organize things to let people in the company know what others are doing, then this solution is good for them."
"The ability to take Excel files and make them dynamic SharePoint lists with instant reporting capabilities has been a major benefit."
"It is well supported by Microsoft."
"SharePoint is already moving to cloud, if you are using SharePoint online, which is cloud-based technology, it is more accessible."
"SharePoint acts as a version control system, allowing easy recovery of past document versions."
"It is very stable."
 

Cons

"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."
"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."
"Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold."
"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."
"Alfresco could improve workflow digitalization and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities."
"I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen."
"The integration with other products needs to be improved."
"It would be nice if the editing and setting up of SharePoint were more user-friendly, so I do not have to have an expert to deal with it."
"The search functionality could be improved, especially when dealing with 'lift' lists, where there are performance issues."
"The workflow engine cannot support the business needs."
"It is too heavy. MS should not have paid foreign coders dollars per each row of code. They wasted the stability and reliability in the end."
"The technical support process should be more streamlined as it usually involves contacting vendors and arranging calls for resolution."
"The limitations and boundaries must be extended."
"Flexibility and extensibility, above everything, could be improved."
"The technical support from Microsoft for SharePoint is often slow and rated a three out of ten."
 

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."
"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."
"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."
"It is pretty reasonable. It is $5 per month per user. We have 12 users now, so it is about $60 per month."
"The platform has medium pricing."
"The solution's pricing is relatively expensive because it's bundled with other products."
"Any extended support from Microsoft is expensive."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"It comes bundled with the Microsoft 365 pricing plans."
"The pricing is competitive."
"We have purchased add-ons to handle multiple site collections, form creation, and design."
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Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Retailer
7%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise37
Large Enterprise80
 

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.
Ask a question
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
As SharePoint is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, the pricing is acceptable.
What needs improvement with SharePoint?
Not with SharePoint specifically, but overall with the software or tools from Microsoft, I think there are areas that...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
 

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
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.
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