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Alfresco pros and cons

Vendor: Hyland

3.9 out of 5

17 reviews
82% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Alfresco offers flexibility in metadata searching and service integration, enhancing functionality while saving money by consolidating services on an open-source platform. It improves workflow through digitalization, but concerns exist over document storage security on file servers. The support team is responsive, yet documentation requires improvement, especially for Activiti microservices. Configuration and setup present significant challenges, with a steep learning curve and potential errors during the process. Teams can efficiently introduce new features.

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Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Alfresco's flexibility in searching elements of metadata and integration with other services enhances functionality.

The support team at Alfresco provides fast and professional assistance.

It saves organizations money by consolidating various services onto one open-source platform.

Alfresco facilitates seamless innovation by allowing teams to introduce new features efficiently.

Improvement in workflow and business processes through digitalization significantly impacts organizational efficiency.

CONS

There are concerns about Alfresco storing documents on a file server, as it poses a security risk.

The documentation, particularly for Activiti microservice adoption, needs significant improvement.

The configuration of Alfresco presents substantial challenges.

Alfresco's setup process is described as complex.

It has a very steep learning curve, with a high potential for making errors during the learning process.

Alfresco Pros review quotes

Online Educator, specializing in ECM and BPM at Marver Solutions Ltd

Mar 8, 2017

Alfresco is the most widely used open source ECM in the world and it has characteristics that I really like such as a Java based platform, lots of integration points, many protocols for accessing it, advanced workflow support, scripting, easily customizable user interface, a concept of a group/team based working area called site.

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Consultant with 201-500 employees

Aug 11, 2014

The features which are most valuable to us are rapid deployment, ease of installation, ease of use, and Linux platform support.

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Works with 11-50 employees

Dec 19, 2016

The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way.

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Senior Java Developer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Dec 21, 2016

Alfresco is a very good product that has very good inbuilt features, and at the same time, it is customizable and we can customize this product the way we want.

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Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Dec 21, 2016

One of Alfresco's strengths is the data modeling, as document domain experts can model type and hierarchical associations and metadata constraints in a declarative way, and a graphical user interface model manager now allows users that don't know XML formalisms to build models.

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CEO at a tech services company

Dec 21, 2016

Document repository.

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Solution Architect at Zaizi Ltd

Dec 29, 2016

If you are looking for a product which has all the common functionalities such as document and media management, record management, workflows, document indexing and searching, then in that case, Alfresco is the platform that you need.

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Manager Records and Information Governance at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 29, 2017

I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar.

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Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

May 3, 2022

The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata.

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reviewer2560407

Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Oct 1, 2024

Alfresco allows broad searches with many index fields that you can search on, although the created fields and their values may not be intuitive.

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Alfresco Cons review quotes

Online Educator, specializing in ECM and BPM at Marver Solutions Ltd

Mar 8, 2017

Technical Support: Average, this might be because I am quite experienced and the questions I have might be difficult to find an answer to quickly as I have probably already exhausted most solution possibilities before I contact support.

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Consultant with 201-500 employees

Aug 11, 2014

Some of the user interface could be more intuitive, such as the new record category, where the expression is a term and not really a dynamically evaluated expression as it might imply.

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Works with 11-50 employees

Dec 19, 2016

Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving.

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Free Report: Alfresco Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Alfresco. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Senior Java Developer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Dec 21, 2016

We did encounter some stability issues when there were many simultaneous requests on the server.

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Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Dec 21, 2016

We would like to see improvement in the numbers of documents that can be managed by the repository.

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CEO at a tech services company

Dec 21, 2016

I would like them to consider document capture functionality.

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Solution Architect at Zaizi Ltd

Dec 29, 2016

There is need to improve features such as the record management and case management in the product.

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Manager Records and Information Governance at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 29, 2017

Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold.

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Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

May 3, 2022

I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen.

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reviewer2560407

Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Oct 1, 2024

The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge.

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Show 6 more reviews (out of 16)

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Product Categories

Product Categories

Enterprise Content Management

Document Management Software

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

OpenText Content Management vs Alfresco

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Alfresco

Box vs Alfresco

IBM FileNet vs Alfresco

SS&C Blue Prism vs Alfresco

OpenText Content Manager vs Alfresco

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs Alfresco

Oracle WebCenter vs Alfresco

Nuxeo vs Alfresco

Oracle Content Management vs Alfresco

M-Files vs Alfresco

Newgen OmniDocs vs Alfresco

Laserfiche vs Alfresco

See all alternatives

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