IBM FileNet vs Kiteworks comparison

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IBM FileNet

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Kiteworks and IBM FileNet compete in content management and secure file sharing solutions. Kiteworks may offer more favorable pricing and support options, while IBM FileNet boasts a comprehensive feature set that may justify its higher cost.

Features: Kiteworks provides secure file sharing, email protection, and compliance-focused integration. IBM FileNet offers document management, advanced analytics, and content lifecycle governance.

Room for Improvement: Kiteworks could improve its scalability for larger enterprises, enhance analytics capabilities, and expand integrations. IBM FileNet can simplify its deployment process, reduce setup complexity, and offer more competitive pricing plans.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kiteworks is known for straightforward deployment and attentive customer support, appealing to organizations needing quick setup. In contrast, IBM FileNet requires a more complex deployment process; however, it is supported by robust customer service channels.

Pricing and ROI: Kiteworks presents a lower setup cost, making it cost-effective with a focus on security and compliance. IBM FileNet demands higher initial investment but offers significant ROI through its scalability and comprehensive feature set for large enterprise environments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FileNet vs. Kiteworks Report (Updated: December 2025).

IBM FileNet vs. Kiteworks

December 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:

Categories and Ranking

IBM FileNet

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Kiteworks

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Security (29th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (5th), Content Collaboration Platforms (13th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 6.5%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kiteworks is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM FileNet	6.5%
Kiteworks	1.2%
Other	92.3%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Shankar-Kambhampaty

Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees

Business workflows have been automated and document processes are streamlined at large scale

I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The current state of the user interface development support and the ability to customize it leaves much to be desired. The backend engine, process engine, and object engine are fantastic. However, the user interface, which is required to provide an impressive experience to the user, is difficult to build. IBM will need to do something about this area. Over time, IBM has made improvements with enhancements through CP4BA and other tools, with which user interfaces can be built. But there is much more is needed. The initial setup process for IBM FileNet requires specialists. IBM FileNet is not a click-click-click deploy kind of product. It has several components that need to be installed in different versions and in a particular order. Additionally, IBM Cloud does not provide a proper experience. The problem is I cannot use IBM Cloud easily. I cannot even get a membership easily. With AWS, I just use my credit card, sign up, and I am done. With IBM Cloud, that is not how it is. They go through all validation processes, and it is a nightmare at times. There are problems around IBM FileNet, not exactly with IBM FileNet itself, but the point is that it is not a click-click-click deploy either on the cloud or on-premise. It requires specialists, and there is a big learning curve toward deploying and managing the whole infrastructure as well as the software. I communicate with the technical support of IBM frequently. I have communicated several times, and frankly, there is much to be desired on that side. When you raise a ticket, it takes 24 to 48 hours for them to respond. We live in a time where business moves at the speed of light. Twenty-four hours is a very long time. You need to be able to get technical support instantaneously. It is not like the more contemporary support models where you get turnaround in minutes, not days.

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KishoreT-Review

Associate Consultant at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees

Streamlined global file sharing with user-friendly interface and self-service capabilities

I'm not a network expert, however, there must be some room for improvement. Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss. If users receive such notifications, they can understand any disruptions are due to issues with their network or bandwidth rather than the site or Kiteworks. Additionally, I work from offshore India, and I told my client manager to communicate with the Kiteworks forum salesman regarding one feature. I noticed the Kiteworks login UI is very basic, lacking customization. Allowing more HTML tags to add hyperlinks or user-friendly information on the home page would be very useful.

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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

"We are able to find the proper documents which are needed for business processes."

"IBM provides good support since it's a big company."

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

"The usability is very good. We like the Content Navigator. It's very easy to use the search and retrieve for documents and has a lot of options for the user to download documents or send an email."

"The usability is really good. Our business users are pleased with it. They seem to get what they are looking for, and it's very efficient."

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

"We shred all our paper and no longer need the cabinet space. We used to have about six to 12 inches of cabinet space per customer, which is now gone."

"We have made our service routes more efficient, as far as moving work through the system and being able to react to customer situations and needs better by improving things, such as, address and beneficiary changes. I know that we have definitely made improvements in the process."

More IBM FileNet pros

"I can identify from which region our users are uploading or downloading files."

"Scalability is impressive."

"The solution can be used remotely; it's easy to upload and share files."

"The best part of this solution is that we can generate multiple reports about how the data is transferred and about user information or IP."

"The solution removes the limitations with file attachment size that is found with regular email."

"The top two features are the two-factor authentication, which is pretty good. It's easily understood by the users. And their API is rather robust. We have numerous integrations that work off the API."

"We could see whether the customer with whom we shared a file had downloaded it, which was not available with GitHub."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth."

More Kiteworks pros

Cons

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

"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."

"The setup process is very complex."

"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."

"If I had a concern, it would be that we are sometimes not getting to the root cause of the issues from a technical standpoint as quickly as we should. For the most part, it's good. However, when things get a bit dicey with more involved issues, we have had some delays in getting feedback. If I had a concern, it's around the technical support and their responses in regards to things like root cause analysis."

"Currently, our primary ERP system is SAP S/4HANA. Despite this, we have encountered difficulties integrating the solution with it, which remains an unresolved challenge for our team."

"The FileNet API seems like it is very difficult and not transparent."

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

More IBM FileNet cons

"There are always issues when there are bugs or upgrades. The challenge with upgrading is getting more storage from the customer. Every time we have a new version, it requires additional storage. This means that the customer would need to procure more storage for their server, which they don't like because it means additional cost to them. So, I think my request would be that the version upgrades don't require any significant storage requirement."

"We have experienced a few hiccups and bugs when using the admin console and from a user perspective."

"Kiteworks could benefit from enhancing the proposal knowledge base section, specifically regarding the type of work involved. Currently, the knowledge base seems insufficiently dedicated to this topic, making it challenging for new users to access the relevant administrative law. Improving the visual aids and providing clearer explanations could alleviate this issue."

"I would like to see immediate releases of fixes because now it takes at least a week. If that time span can be reduced to one day or two days, that would be very helpful for users so that things are sorted and transactions work smoothly."

"It could be more stable. In the next release, it would be better if it was more stable with improved performance."

"There is no offboarding process for end-users in Kiteworks. It's a manual process. There is no automated syncing with LDAP and checking to see if the account is still active. It's a manual process to get people out of here, which isn't the best way."

"I noticed the Kiteworks login UI is very basic, lacking customization. Allowing more HTML tags to add hyperlinks or user-friendly information on the home page would be very useful."

"It would be nice if Kiteworks could provide a free version of the platform so that it could be used for a certain number of file transfers. We could be charged a fee if we exceeded the number of allotted file transfers."

More Kiteworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. "

"The platform is inexpensive."

"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."

"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."

"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."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"The price of Kiteworks is reasonable."

"They changed it midstream. We were being charged a certain flat rate for SFTP traffic. For whatever reason, at the beginning of the year, our pricing changed, and we are now being charged more for using a feature of the product than we were when we first bought it. That has been our experience with billing. It turned out to be more expensive than when we started with it."

"The solution is very expensive because we are buying with Malaysian Ringgit and it's sold in US dollars."

"It is not really expensive. I mean, to me it's obviously expensive, but it's worth it."

"I believe it's a little costly, but given the faith that we put into it from a security perspective to maintain the integrity of our patient information that is being transferred through this system, that's a small price to pay. So, on the surface, it might look like a lot of money, but depending on the need for security, which is where we feel it shines, it's okay price-wise."

"The license management is changing and confusing. If I could make one change to it, it would be better license management through the API."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

Government

Insurance Company

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	74

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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 somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...

What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

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 prim...

What is Kiteworks?

Kiteworks is a secured file sharing platform that enables users to collaborate with different parties across a robust offering of secured protected channels. Users have the option of virtual privat...

What needs improvement with Kiteworks?

What advice do you have for others considering Kiteworks?

Scalability is impressive. It can be highly available, resilient, and scalable infrastructure. I can confidently give it a nine. It suits any level of organization, whether a small setup with two a...

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Product Reports

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IBM FileNet

January 2026

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January 2026

Also Known As

No data available

Accellion

Overview

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

Kiteworks empowers organizations to effectively manage risk in every send, share, receive, and save of sensitive content over numerous communications channels: email, file sharing, managed file transfer, APIs, and web forms. The Kiteworks platform unifies, tracks, controls, and secures sensitive content moving within, into, and out of an organization, significantly improving risk management and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Sample Customers

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

United States Securities and Exchange Commission, National Health Service, Husch Blackwell LLP, NYC Health + Hospitals, Viatris, MITRE Corporation, Chubb, Kraft Heinz, KPMG, Kohler, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Purdue Pharma, AVL