IBM FileNet vs M-Files comparison

The compared IBM and M-Files solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #4 in ECM , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 7.7% mindshare in the category. M-Files is ranked #9 in DMS , and holds a 7.0% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of M-Files users who would recommend it.

IBM FileNet

Read 103 IBM FileNet reviews

3,640 Views
3,349 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

M-Files

Read 2 M-Files reviews

977 Views
332 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

M-Files

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM FileNet and M-Files based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, OpenText and others in Enterprise Content Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: October 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

October 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

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

103

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (4th)

M-Files

Average Rating

9.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Document Management Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Content Management solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM FileNet is designed for Enterprise Content Management and holds a mindshare of 7.7%, down 10.2% compared to last year.
M-Files, on the other hand, focuses on Document Management Software, holds 7.0% mindshare, up 6.8% since last year.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM FileNet	7.7%
SharePoint	14.3%
OpenText Documentum Content Management	9.8%
Other	68.2%

Enterprise Content Management

Document Management Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
M-Files	7.0%
Alfresco	14.7%
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management	9.9%
Other	68.4%

Document Management Software

Featured Reviews

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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Laurie NYlund

Director of IT at JH Kelly

Good workflows, and it is easy to use with a dashboard that improves contract visibility

My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing this product is to do a pilot first. After you do your research, do an actual pilot before you commit because everyone has nuances and you might find out that it is not what you want, or that it doesn't really do what you think it's going to do. It is not the simplest product to use but because of the robustness of its feature set in the ability with the workflows, and the APIs, to do just about anything you can imagine with it, that's very valuable. I wish it was a little easier to use because we have to spend more time than I'd like with new users, teaching them how it works. We try to hide all that from them but the setup time to get everything the way we wanted was probably two months. That is two months in one resource working on it half time a week, but it just took a lot of work to get the metadata set up, to get the workflows set up, and to get all the documents added to the repository. Now we've got versioning and we know where everything's at, the dashboard is great, but don't assume when they tell you that you'll be up and running in two weeks, that that is the truth. It takes much longer than you think. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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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

"It is a user-friendly system and easy to manage for anyone with basic knowledge."

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

"It has a very broad market share and a lot of people know about it."

"It has improved my organization by how we release documents, claims, and policies."

"It also helps with compliance and governance issues because it's a datastore that is not modifiable, and you can guarantee that. You cannot guarantee that with a folder-based file structure, where multiple people have access."

"The best part of FileNet includes its advantages and most valuable features, which are its scalability and stability."

"Gves us the ability to create an end-to-end [document] transaction."

"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."

More IBM FileNet pros

"Using M-Files means anybody on the executive team to go in and immediately look at a dashboard and know the status of a contract."

Cons

"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."

"FileNet and similar enterprise-level tools require substantial costs, starting in the millions, which limits their use to large enterprises."

"I would like to have more governance features with more supervisory layers."

"I would like IBM to improve with each release, continue moving towards a continual, tighter integration, and build solutions that take advantage of all the different modules the platform has from one place."

"It could be simpler to use, considering multiple use cases."

"Sometimes, there can be issues with the database connections. FileNet has too many outages because things are broken in the database."

"In terms of functionality, what customers might be looking for is a little more in terms of native-records retention. Records Management is an add-on product. If there were just a little more of that built into the core functionality, that would be helpful."

"The product is expensive."

More IBM FileNet cons

"The integration with other products needs to be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."

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

"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."

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

"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."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

Government

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

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.

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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...

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What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

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Comparisons

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

Alfresco vs IBM FileNet

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 10% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs IBM FileNet

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

SharePoint vs M-Files

Compared 23% of the time

Alfresco vs M-Files

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs M-Files

Compared 12% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs M-Files

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs M-Files

Compared 7% of the time

More M-Files Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

October 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

Document Management Software

October 2025

Download M-Files product report

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

M-Files is the leading platform for knowledge work automation. With M-Files, knowledge workers can find information faster, work smarter, and achieve more. M-Files features an innovative metadata-driven architecture, embedded workflow engine, and advanced artificial intelligence that enable customers to eliminate information chaos, improve process efficiency, and automate security and compliance. By embedding automation and GenAI into its core, M-Files' platform not only increases efficiencies for organizations but also empowers knowledge workers to focus on what truly matters—innovation and strategic growth. With 10 global offices, M-Files serves more than 5,000 customers in 100 countries. Start your free trial OR Schedule a demo. For more information, visit www.m-files.com.

M-Files

Sample Customers

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

Crowe UK, Stearns Bank, Head Energy, OMV, TK Elevator

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

October 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, OpenText and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: October 2025.

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We monitor all Enterprise Content Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.