IBM ECM vs IBM FileNet vs SharePoint comparison

IBM ECM and IBM FileNet are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. IBM ECM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.5, while IBM FileNet is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. IBM ECM holds a 2.4% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM FileNet’s 8.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of IBM ECM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM FileNet users who would recommend it.

IBM ECM

Read 17 IBM ECM reviews

761 Views
731 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 103 IBM FileNet reviews

3,640 Views
3,349 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SharePoint

Read 162 SharePoint reviews

9,505 Views
4,657 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

IBM ECM

IBM FileNet

SharePoint

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM ECM, IBM FileNet, and SharePoint 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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

September 2025

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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 October 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM ECM is 2.4%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 8.2%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 15.0%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SharePoint	15.0%
IBM FileNet	8.2%
IBM ECM	2.4%
Other	74.4%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Thinh Tran

BPM Consultant at TECHCOMBANK

Has supported enterprise document storage but lacks cloud readiness and AI capabilities

The new version of IBM ECM is at the end of support, and we need to migrate to a new version to get open support. We need AI capabilities from IBM ECM for additional functionalities in the next release. Specifically, AI is needed for finding documents. The trend is moving toward AI, and for managing many documents effectively, we need AI capabilities. Currently, IBM ECM only handles physical files, not unstructured files. IBM needs to work alongside customers and share best practices for IBM ECM. Reading the IBM Redbook alone is not sufficient for the knowledge we need to build the best architecture for my company. IBM ECM needs to improve the cloud version, such as compatibility with Amazon Cloud, not only IBM Cloud, to make their product more competitive.

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ARTHUR BRUNO

Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Has provided robust content management but requires simplification in configuration and usability

We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process automation and business automation features are barely used. Currently, we primarily use it to store content. We are now trying to use all of the functionalities of IBM FileNet, but we have not yet utilized the full capacity of the system. We are trying to reduce redundancy with IBM FileNet by enhancing our business rules. However, we still have significant redundancy. IBM FileNet can help us reduce redundancy, but we need to understand the tool and use all the functionalities to accomplish this. Ease of use with IBM FileNet is a disadvantage of this tool. It is complex and hard to use. When we try to set up IBM FileNet, we have many questions. We do not understand what we need to do in IBM FileNet. There are many configurations we must make but do not know how to implement. While IBM FileNet is very reliable, it is very difficult to set up. When reading the documentation about IBM FileNet, it appears to be very reliable and secure, but setting up configurations, access rules, authorization, and authentication seems to be very challenging.

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Madhur D'silva

Lead Consultant at Eviden

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

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

"I am going to continue using it because it is a good product for enterprise document management."

"It allows for multiple people to access content simultaneously."

"Instead storing our documents offsite, we are storing all of our documents electronically."

"The most valuable features for us are Wex (Watson) for search, Datacap for OCR/ICR, and Automation Anywhere for RPA."

"The most valuable features of FileNet are its comprehensive ability to store content, to get insights from the content, and to use that content for making decisions routed through workflow."

"The key feature for us is that it keeps our content store small. That helps our DBAs when they have to do the backups of our audit system, or of the content store."

"It has the ability to mix document management and process automation."

"I would highly recommend it to those seeking a robust enterprise content management solution."

"It saves our customers time by 30 to 40 percent by eliminating the time to process paper."

More IBM FileNet pros

"OneDrive and SharePoint provide a secure, fully auditable way of storing information."

"It keeps our company organized and everything is in one place."

"It's very easy to integrate with other software from Microsoft; it works fine with Excel, Word, email, and similar tools, which I find valuable."

"The online editing capabilities, file sharing, auditing, information security, ease of solution management, and the easy user adaptation to the platform are the most valuable features."

"SharePoint is a ten out of ten solution."

"SharePoint is easy to collaborate with."

"Combined reports and data with timeline tracking."

"Helps with document collaboration and workflow."

More SharePoint pros

Cons

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

"Currently, IBM ECM only handles physical files, not unstructured files."

"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."

"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 like to see seamless application integration."

"The installation and configuration to start up needs expert level knowledge."

"I would like to see Azure AD added."

"We would like to see, in FileNet, the ability to manage video and audio."

"Needs a better administration tool."

"The analytics in FileNet are too complicated and they consume too much infrastructure, memory, and CPU. They're too expensive to work with."

"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."

"It would be nice if they could make it like containers are working in Kubernetes to auto-scale based on demand."

"The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated."

More IBM FileNet cons

"It does not integrate despite being part of the Microsoft family."

"There's a challenge with desktop applications synchronizing with online documents in real-time. If someone is working on a document in the desktop version of Excel, for example, and someone else is editing the same document online, the changes won't sync immediately. That's the only real challenge we've encountered."

"The areas of this solution that need improvement are the relationships between lists, cross-site web parts, and page-building tools."

"One issue is that when users mistakenly hide files or set permissions incorrectly, it can lead to files becoming inaccessible, requiring intervention from Microsoft support to resolve."

"SharePoint designer workflows can be buggy sometimes without any apparent reason."

"There are some limitations on storage."

"More hints and make it more user-customizable."

"The initial setup was very complex."

More SharePoint cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Reach out to local IBM partners."

"The physical space that we have gained back pays for the service. Therefore, it has reduced our operating costs overall. We have definitely seen ROI. I would estimate $30,000 a year."

"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."

"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."

"Talking about the cost is difficult because IBM has offers that combine different products, and each of these offers has different types of licensing. IBM also has a policy that the actual price for a given customer may be very different from the stated book price. It's hard to say whether it's expensive or not."

"The tool is expensive, and I rate its pricing a ten out of ten."

"The platform is inexpensive."

"There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need."

"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."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"The licensing model for SharePoint Online is based on per user, and it is monthly. The price of the solution overall is good."

"It is very expensive."

"SharePoint is included with our Microsoft license."

"It comes bundled with the Microsoft 365 pricing plans."

"The platform has medium pricing."

"The pricing is competitive."

"We have purchased add-ons to handle multiple site collections, form creation, and design."

"Any extended support from Microsoft is expensive."

More SharePoint pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

34%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

Government

Insurance Company

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	74

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	79
Midsize Enterprise	37
Large Enterprise	80

Questions from the Community

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?

We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process...

See all answers

What do you like most about SharePoint?

The search feature is valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?

As SharePoint is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, the pricing is acceptable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SharePoint?

Not with SharePoint specifically, but overall with the software or tools from Microsoft, I think there are areas that...

See all answers

Comparisons

Alfresco vs IBM ECM

Compared 18% of the time

Nuxeo vs IBM ECM

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 11% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM ECM

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM ECM

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM ECM Competitors

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 11% of the time

Alfresco vs IBM FileNet

Compared 10% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 9% of the time

M-Files vs IBM FileNet

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs SharePoint

Compared 8% of the time

DocuSign vs SharePoint

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs SharePoint

Compared 7% of the time

Box vs SharePoint

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon WorkDocs vs SharePoint

Compared 5% of the time

More SharePoint Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM ECM

September 2025

Download IBM ECM product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

September 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint

September 2025

Download SharePoint product report

Also Known As

No data available

SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010

Overview

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

SharePoint is a Microsoft-based platform for building web applications. It covers a widerange of capabilities and while it is appropriate for experienced webdevelopers, even non-technical minded users can easily navigate through thesystem and execute functions such as collaborating data, managing documents andfiles, creating websites, managing social networking solutions, and automatingworkflow.

Major areas that SharePoint deals with are websites,communities, content, search, insights, and composites. The purpose is to give usersthe ability to create or develop these key business components on their owneven without technical knowledge of, for example, how to build a website or howto integrate coding. Configuring SharePoint into a business's system is meantto cut out all of the complicated steps, and pave the way for easierimplementation all around.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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.

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.

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

September 2025

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