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Box vs IBM FileNet 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

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 FileNet is 9.4%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Documentum Content Management is 12.1%, up from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Parthasarathy Chellapillai - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Emad Rizki - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Ashish Shelar - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"The solution is scalable."
"File sharing, authorization on the back, its ease of use and reliable uptime performance are valuable features of this solution."
"Sharing and collaborating across files and folders has been a massive game changer."
"The interface is very good."
"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"File sharing with collaborators not on the same domain with offline access from multiple devices: I work on many projects that are multi-organizational, such as with customers, suppliers, or acquisitions."
"I like the ease of use."
"We've never had a penetration. We've never had a security issue that their support didn't solve. We love their audit trail. We can know exactly when a collaborator opens. We love how you can define a collaborator."
"It saves our customers time by 30 to 40 percent by eliminating the time to process paper."
"We probably would not have seen adoption so strongly without it."
"The standout feature for us is undoubtedly the Google-like search functionality, which allows us to search for documents within the system effortlessly. Instead of just querying the document database, this feature retrieves all relevant documents, akin to searching on the internet. It is very easy to use."
"Instead storing our documents offsite, we are storing all of our documents electronically."
"FileNet provides a compact solution for midsized companies."
"​Streamlined our business processes."
"If we run into problems, which is inevitable (and we run into problems all the time), we get quick responses and good solutions back from the technical support."
"The key way that this product has improved the way that that our business functions is by its stability. Its ability to remain up despite other pressures, its consistency, and lack of downtime are really the greatest things that it brings."
"It provides possibilities for us to save documents and supporting the business process while doing so."
"The product is user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature is that it's a central repository for everything, whether it's videos, documents, Excel sheets, etc."
"The most valuable feature of OpenText Documentum is the versioning."
"It stands out for its impressive records management capabilities and the ability to handle an extensive volume of documents, even reaching into the billions."
"I recommend Documentum as it supports big systems and offers good integration."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the security, storage, and document search capability."
"It is a very secure system. It is reliable, and that is one of the reasons people manage their content within Documentum. It gives them the confidence that the content is accessible to the right people and not to the wrong people."
 

Cons

"Tasks and comments could be easier to see, report, search, and manage."
"Maturity of the enterprise security around user management."
"Working on documents in real-time is sometimes faulty and could be improved."
"Improvements in speed - Box's high level of security impacts performance, especially when compared with other similar services."
"They could integrate better with other platforms."
"I don't like the low level of role-based security it provides – it's very cumbersome, and the support is ordinary at times."
"I would love to see the ability to invite collaborators extended to a file level, not just the folder level."
"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."
"If there was more AI capability, into Watson, that would be a benefit."
"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."
"The product is expensive."
"I think the support could be better, and it could improve."
"It is stable as long as you create the right environment. We have had issues at times, but just because of configuration issues."
"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."
"We know that they're looking at documents, but we don't know what documents they're actually going and finding the most, or where the bottlenecks might be. It would be nice if there was some interconnectivity back into Bluemix to say, "Ok, you've got a workflow problem here." That would be a neat feature moving forward because we've got a lot of users that would just say, "The system is not working." We had a few threads would get hung up because they were just constantly banging on these few documents. If that were the case, if we knew that ahead of time, then we could fix that, change the search sequences to make it more efficient. But we were blind to that until the users said it's not working."
"The only downside is that it takes a dedicated staff to maintain it and the learning curve is pretty steep."
"The biggest issue for us is the price of the product."
"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."
"OpenText Documentum needs to improve its support."
"In BPM could be better. Its GUI needs the ability to build more rules. This is a crucial feature. For example, OpenText has some products that allow you to control your checks, invoices, and so on. They have exciting approaches to converting pictures to text, but the tool for business process management isn't easy to use. The GIU is not so good."
"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."
"The price is quite high as the licensing prices are significant."
"The user interface can be a bit more intuitive."
"It's difficult to manage and customize Documentum."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"There's a free version that allows you to use it with almost full-feature access. Even in the free version, it gives you all you need."
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"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 have to pay for Box. It could be a little cheaper. On a scale from one to ten, I would give the pricing a five."
"The pricing may seem steep at first, but delve into the features and you'll soon realize it is incredible value for what you get."
"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
"Box's pricing is excellent."
"The solution saves time and money. It helps us to be able to accomplish the goals of our business, as opposed to being tangled in the weeds of what we could do."
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"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."
"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. ​"
"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."
"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."
"We use extraction. Therefore, we can see 80 to 85 percent accuracy on data extraction. This reduces the manual indexing part, which is definitely a gain on performance efficiency."
"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."
"The price is considered affordable now."
"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."
"OpenText Documentum has announced a new licensing model, which could be more expensive."
"It is quite an expensive product."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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.
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.
What needs improvement with Box?
Collaborative editing was challenging if multiple people were in a document at once. The installation procedure was t...
What do you like most about IBM FileNet?
The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.
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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Documentum?
It falls in line with a lot of things that are out there on the market. There is nothing extraordinary in terms of gr...
What do you like most about OpenText Documentum?
The most valuable feature of Documentum for our content management needs is its ability to segregate access based on ...
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...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
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, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: July 2025.
862,289 professionals have used our research since 2012.