Box vs IBM ECM vs IBM FileNet comparison

Box and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Box is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.7, while IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Box holds a 4.3% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Box users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Box

Read 41 Box reviews

3,370 Views
1,213 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM ECM

Read 16 IBM ECM reviews

675 Views
641 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 102 IBM FileNet reviews

3,570 Views
3,284 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Box

IBM ECM

IBM FileNet

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Box, IBM ECM, and IBM FileNet 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

July 2025

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Helped 862,499 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 July 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Box is 4.3%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM ECM is 2.4%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 9.4%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Parthasarathy Chellapillai

Program Administrator at Flextronics

Used for data storage and data collaboration, but its data security could be improved

If I have restricted access within an organization by keeping the data in Box, there are other applications through which I can barge into the data. If anyone wants to keep a file restricted to four people, I can access it because it's available in the cloud. I can directly access the file and pull in the data by entering the file's name. Someone from outside the organization can't access it. However, someone from within the organization who is not supposed to access the data can access it, provided it is in Box. Box is almost like a folder structure outside your system. The solution uses the cloud, and you don't need any separate storage in your system. Even if your system crashes down, the data will be saved. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

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Omar_Ismail

ECM, Archives and Digital Preservation Consultant at DataServe

A stable solution for automation with high availability

Moving to the cloud with IBM ECM is not allowed. In Saudi Arabia, the cloud infrastructure is still non-operational, potentially for the next two to three months. Static clouds are prevalent among foundational enterprises such as IBM and Oracle. IBM offers its cloud insights, maintaining its cloud ecosystem. IBM's efforts to enhance the user experience within its ECM platform are lacking compared to competitors like OpenText. Progress in implementing new technologies and features seems sluggish. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is really easy to load files to and from this solution."

"Box is extremely stable, they have not been hacked or lost any data in the past seventeen years. I am very impressed with it."

"The most valuable feature of Box is security."

"I like the ease of use."

"The collaboration of the solution is good."

"Office Integration. The full integration into the Microsoft Office products is just perfect."

"It is a very user-friendly product."

"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."

More Box pros

"The content management is all about you as you can make the same content for minimal purpose solutions applications."

"The vertical scalability, as we can use it across some of our applications."

"The tool is a very stable solution with high availability and no information leakage. It has built-in API integration on-site. You can integrate with other components and applications like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, etc."

"The scalability is a valuable feature, that we're able to display our documents to so many people."

"IBM FileNet was more scalable."

"IBM FileNet supports our document management and compliance processes."

"It has increased our productivity."

"The beauty is the response time. It is very good nowadays within the platform."

"Provides records management functions."

"It puts governance in place around the content and processes. Access levels can be set to certain parts of the document based on role level."

"FileNet has the capabilities to meet compliance and regulatory requirements. It is very secure."

"I would say the workflow is pretty good. Also, the flexibility of being able to create custom objects with a lot of domain-specific attributes that we follow."

More IBM FileNet pros

Cons

"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."

"They could integrate better with other platforms."

"The price must be lowered."

"If you want to delete something in Box, you have to do it manually, one by one. That was my recent experience. They might have a bulk delete, but I could not find that option. If you want to delete something, you have to go to each and every file and delete it."

"The search features and role permissions are not very user friendly. It only searches the first few pages of a document, which is quite a problem."

"I haven't really come across a case where we're not able to use it for what it is, so I don't really have anything holding us up or any customers holding us up at this point that I know of. There are always some limitations, but as a technologist, I just live with them, and there is always room for improvement, but I don't have anything quantifiable."

"I find their API to be quite complex and it could be more straightforward."

"Data privacy, regarding where to store your data: Offering several transparent(!) options (where to store my data and whether to sync back or not and where to sync) regarding the local law situations (USA, EU, Switzerland!) would increase the credibility of a US based company (after NSA ‘snooping’)."

More Box cons

"I think it's already getting away from Java applets. A lot of our users struggle with keeping up to date with Java versioning, so a lot of the functions they're doing, like printing, emailing, and even some of the viewing, they're struggling with."

"I would recommend not going with ECM 8 and going with FileNet instead. It seems like that is the future of the lower-volume repository. It seems like they are moving away from ECM 8.5 so I think we're going to have some challenges coming up, getting off of that technology."

"The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNow, need only 20 days."

"I would like to see seamless application integration."

"It may be a little complex to implement and take some effort."

"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 application's processing engineer needs to be more advanced."

"The initial setup is complex. It is complex because there are several pieces of software that have to be installed in the right order to make it work alright."

"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."

"There is room for improvement in the file management. It's very complex."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"During the initial setup, all the details and different technical things that we were trying to figure out became complex."

More IBM FileNet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A business account has a minimum of three users. If you are more than three people in-house, go for the Enterprise version. All the external users are free of charge."

"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."

"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."

"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."

"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."

"Better sign a full year's contract to get a discount."

"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"

"Box's pricing is excellent."

More Box pricing and cost advice

"Reach out to local IBM partners."

"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."

"For small scale industries, they allow different options. They can do open source. It is the complexity of the data security that they should think about before they choose."

"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."

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

"My customers have seen ROI. There have been productivity gains, time savings gains, and things that they have been doing much more efficiently in a more modern way than they were before."

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

"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

University

Financial Services Firm

32%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Box?

The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?

I was not involved in discussions about paying for Box, so I cannot provide specifics about pricing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Box?

Collaborative editing was challenging if multiple people were in a document at once. The installation procedure was t...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM ECM?

The tool is a very stable solution with high availability and no information leakage. It has built-in API integration...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM ECM?

The product is expensive and has a perpetual license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM ECM?

The development platform is not local. For example, you need 100 days in IBM, whereas other platforms, like ServiceNo...

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?

The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; w...

See all answers

Comparisons

SharePoint vs Box

Compared 17% of the time

ShareFile vs Box

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive vs Box

Compared 12% of the time

Egnyte vs Box

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Box

Compared 5% of the time

More Box Competitors

Alfresco vs IBM ECM

Compared 11% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM ECM

Compared 11% of the time

SAP Extended Enterprise Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

More IBM ECM Competitors

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 17% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 14% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 8% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs IBM FileNet

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Box

July 2025

Download Box product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM ECM

July 2025

Download IBM ECM product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

July 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Overview

Box is a Modern Content Management Platform for companies of all sizes and industries. The difference that Box brings is that it offers the security and controls admins need with the sharing and collaboration capabilities end users want. Box has made it easier for people to securely share ideas, collaborate and get work done faster. Today, more than 62,000 businesses, including 59% of the Fortune 500, trust Box to manage content in the cloud.

The Box platform provides HIPAA, FINRA, FedRAMP, and many other compliances to go with granular access permissions and advanced security capabilities.

By using Box you can sync, share, and collaborate on all types of files, anywhere, on any device - but that's just the beginning. You can choose where to store your data, to manage your own encryption keys, and set workflows to automate content-based processes. You can also assign custom metadata tags to content, watermark sensitive content, and set file retention or legal hold policies.

Box has deep, native integrations with Microsoft Office and Outlook, Google Apps for Work, Salesforce, Netsuite, Docusign, Adobe, and many other best-of-breed solutions you may already be using.

Box

IBM Content Foundation on Cloud

IBM Content Foundation on Cloud allows organizations to deliver extensive enterprise content management capabilities to their users very quickly. IBM Content Foundation is powered by the FileNet content and process platform and IBM Content Navigator user experience. This cloud offering can be leveraged for a variety of use cases including collaborative document management, imaging solutions, social content management, archiving, and more. It also offers a platform for developing Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions in the cloud.

IBM Case Manager on Cloud

IBM Case Manager on Cloud is a solution platform that engages people with business content, provides contextual insight through real-time analytics, and enhances teamwork through collaboration tools and flexible workflow. Enables Business and IT to work together to create solutions across the enterprise that enables an organization to make smarter decisions for better business outcomes, while balancing the need for security and compliance in a world of heightened risk.

IBM

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

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc

KeyBank, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank, Sistema Tecnol‹gico de Monterrey, Illinois Department of Human Services, UnitedHealth Group

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

July 2025

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