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Alfresco vs SharePoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Alfresco
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Document Management Software (1st)
SharePoint
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
164
Ranking in other categories
Web Content Management (2nd), Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (1st), Enterprise Intranet (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 8.0%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 11.8%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SharePoint11.8%
Alfresco8.0%
Other80.2%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Q&A Highlights

AS
Community Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
Apr 04, 2023
 

Featured Reviews

JM
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Maintaining document integrity with persistent linking and customizable workflows
Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk. Clients, especially large enterprises such as banks, are concerned about document security if someone breaches the server. It would be beneficial if Alfresco offers different options for document storage, such as databases or cloud solutions. Also, it would be helpful if Alfresco's viewer could be easily embedded in other systems, as its integration is currently complex.
AnjneyBhardwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Market Research Analyst at IDC Corporate
Collaboration has improved through simplified document access and controlled sharing
SharePoint is definitely used to keep a record of our files and data. The capability is quite good because it is time-saving. I have used it only four or five times, but it has been very helpful to keep all my information in a consolidated manner. The search feature is one of the most beneficial factors that we use to filter out the latest data or the latest file as per our convenience and use case. When you have a large repository, this feature is particularly valuable. Role-based access control has been helpful while developing the knowledge platform. The roles were defined clearly, which made it easy for the four or five of us to work simultaneously and collaborate on our project in a similar manner.

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."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the 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 product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way."
"You can meet your users' expected features without having Alfresco's involvement."
"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 product makes it easy to manage lists, forms, searching, and security. One of the most valuable features is its integration with Active Directory."
"This solution has helped us with the categorization, organization, management, discovery, and delivery of program and project related information."
"The ability to take Excel files and make them dynamic SharePoint lists with instant reporting capabilities has been a major benefit."
"SharePoint acts as a version control system, allowing easy recovery of past document versions."
"It has made us faster and more efficient."
"Its functionality is enormous."
"Its most valuable feature is the document library."
"Sharing information is very easy in SharePoint. We use multiple types of documents, like online Excel tools and online content editing, especially for group editing. This allows us to collaborate, even in distributed teams. Despite being geographically spread out, everyone can access the same files online, edit them, and see changes. We also use SharePoint to track all these changes, making our teamwork more collaborative overall. The tool fastens information sharing and collaboration."
 

Cons

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."
"I would like them to consider document capture functionality."
"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."
"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."
"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."
"The product does not perform 100% when used outside of a Microsoft based browser, Chrome, Firefox, etc."
"While working with SharePoint, I observed that if the number of files is too much, the upload time, management time, and search time consume a lot of time during the initial phase."
"We would like more security features, like automating."
"The technical support process should be more streamlined as it usually involves contacting vendors and arranging calls for resolution."
"The areas of this solution that need improvement are the relationships between lists, cross-site web parts, and page-building tools."
"The web parts in SharePoint could be more intuitive for end users."
"It should have more user-friendly customization, as it still requires developers to get engaged and build sites."
"SharePoint designer workflows can be buggy sometimes without any apparent reason."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."
"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."
"It is very expensive.​"
"SharePoint is included with our Microsoft license."
"They are about an eight in comparison to other similar products."
"As usual, Microsoft’s licensing structures don’t really seem to fit the needs of their products. This leads to always paying for a project you will never use fully or always be adding to."
"Licensing can be by server or by seat."
"The pricing works for us."
"The pricing is competitive."
"The product is reasonably priced."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Content Management solutions are best for your needs.
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Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Answers from the Community

AS
Community Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
Apr 4, 2023
Apr 4, 2023
Alfresco scores are high on all features of an ECM solution and tools. Back office processing, rated as 3.36 good. Business Process Application 3.55 Good to excellent. Document Management 4.12 Excellent. Records Management 3.81 Good to Excellent. Team Productivity 3.66 Good. Compared with Sharepoint the ratings are as below. Back office Operations 3.29. Business Process Application 3...
2 out of 8 answers
Aug 4, 2014
Hi, Sorry but I am not familiar with Alfresco. We have experience with the followings: WebSphere CMS, Sharepoint and Drupal. Thank you, Jacob (Kobi) Welber CTO
it_user71736 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 51-200 employees
Aug 4, 2014
www.springcm.com routinely solves this problem and there now is an "easy button" on ECM and we have lots of clients to prove it, plus it includes some pre-configured apps that are very quick to deploy and derive value from. ok, commercial over... two quick questions: 1- do you need to integrate with salesforce.com? 2- what is the primary challenge with sharepoint?
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business80
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise81
 

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 from the community version to the licensed version, which incurs migration costs. ...
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
Currently, the challenge is the general availability to users. Initially, they had poor documentation, but over the years, their documentation has highly improved. Initially, we had challenges find...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
This is mainly for unstructured document management systems with workflow and data classification.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
I do not know the difference between the prices of the two solutions; I did not work on this project.
What needs improvement with SharePoint?
It is not really better; we use the same solution as before with Google Drive and the Google App solution. Sometimes I have to refresh pages more than with Google, but it does not charge; the page ...
 

Also Known As

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.
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.
Find out what your peers are saying about Alfresco vs. SharePoint and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.