Alfresco Reviews

Name: Alfresco
Brand: Hyland
Rating: 3.8 (13 reviews)

3.8 out of 5

13 reviews
77% willing to recommend

3,589 followers

What is Alfresco?

The Alfresco Digital Business Platform offers open, secure content services to let you unlock the value from your most important business information. Give users access to their content wherever and however they work with Alfresco’s open, flexible, and highly scalable cloud-native content services platform. Easily integrate and connect with everyday business applications. Find, view, collaborate on, govern, and securely share digital content—and get information to the right person at the right time.

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Alfresco is the #4 ranked solution in top Document Management Software and #9 ranked solution in top Enterprise Content Management solutions. PeerSpot users give Alfresco an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. Alfresco is most commonly compared to SharePoint: Alfresco vs SharePoint. Alfresco is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 65% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 16% of all views.

Helped 845,564 peers since 2012

Featured Alfresco reviews

Karthi Keyan

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

We used Alfresco as a document management system for automating and digitizing manual forms. Those were the main use cases The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes has improved our organization. The most valuable features of Alfresco include its integration with…

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Karthi Keyan

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

I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen. Alfresco also needs to be well-integrated with Microsoft, as it's currently a nuisance for customers who rely on Microsoft's Office 365 solutions. There's a pretty obvious gap in the overlap between SharePoint when customers go to O365 and are presented with the SharePoint license and storage to start with, which Alfresco isn't taking advantage of.

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Jacinto Manuel Obispo Marquez

Country Head Spain at Apiux

Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk. Clients, especially large enterprises such as banks, are concerned about document security if someone breaches the server. It would be beneficial if Alfresco offers different options for document storage, such as databases or cloud solutions. Also, it would be helpful if Alfresco's viewer could be easily embedded in other systems, as its integration is currently complex.

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Alfresco mindshare

Product category:

As of April 2025, the mindshare of Alfresco in the Enterprise Content Management category stands at 7.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management

PeerAnalyst reports based on Alfresco reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	Enterprise Content Management	Apr 6, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Apr 6, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alfresco vs SharePoint	Apr 6, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alfresco vs OpenText Documentum	Apr 6, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alfresco vs OpenText Extended ECM	Apr 6, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
SharePoint	3.9	16.7%	78%	158 interviews Add to research
OpenText Documentum	3.9	12.6%	83%	31 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

Valuable features of Alfresco include document management, content modeling, MS Office integration, collaboration, and workflow automation. Users appreciate ease of installation, rapid deployment, and Linux support. Its extensibility, customization capability, and open-source model make it adaptable. Alfresco excels in metadata handling, offering flexible searching and broad index fields. It features integration with scanning, persistence in document linking, and business process digitalization. Users find customization easy with frameworks like Surf.

"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."
"The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."
"The most valuable features of Alfresco include its integration with the scanning solution, the ability to search, and the capability to store and index to capture metadata."

Room for Improvement

Alfresco's Model Manager needs enhancement for comprehensive content model support. The user interface requires more intuitiveness. Development tools such as an Eclipse plugin would aid developers. Non-technical users need easier customization features. Document capture functionality should be integrated. Alfresco should align more with Microsoft Office 365, improve document storage security, and simplify configuration. Increasing repository document capacity through NoSQL is desired. A more streamlined presentation layer and improved workflow digitalization are needed.

"Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk."
"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."
"Alfresco could improve workflow digitalization and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities."

Pricing

Enterprise buyers evaluating Alfresco encounter varied pricing experiences. Although the base cost is competitive, starting around $100,000, extra expenses arise with licensing, upgrades, integrations, and migration from the Community to Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition offers advanced features over Community Edition, such as clustering and workflow editing. OEM licensing through partners might offer cost advantages. Alfresco's overall pricing is mid-range, but the bundled services and features justify the investment for larger scale deployments.

"The license for Alfresco is expensive - not the maximum, but close. There are also extra costs once you start building integrations, as implementation seems to be very costly."
"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."
"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."

Popular Use Cases

Alfresco is primarily utilized for content management, document storage, and workflow automation. Users integrate it with scanning solutions to reduce manual paperwork and automate manual forms. Many look up documents, despite finding it less user-friendly than Nautilus. It serves as a document management system for storing transaction-related documents, such as invoices and purchase orders, linking them with records in ERP systems, essential for transactional proof within organizations.

Service and Support

Alfresco customer service is proactive and eager to assist. Community resources provide additional support. Technical support is consistent but sometimes slow due to complex internal processes, with quicker assistance often available through resellers or partners. Skilled engineers can often troubleshoot independently. The Community Edition benefits from robust forum support. When issues arise, Alfresco support is responsive and expert, instilling confidence in users. Users rate technical support between 3.5 and 4 out of 5.

Deployment

Alfresco's initial setup is generally straightforward, offering basic and advanced options. Users unfamiliar with technical aspects might find the basic setup simple with default parameters, while the advanced setup requires more technical knowledge. Installation can be customized using comprehensive documentation. Some find the process challenging without prior training or guidance, but available resources like Zero Day guides and vendor support ease the setup. Users appreciate the inclusion of a stack installer and multiple deployment methods.

Scalability

Alfresco scales effectively across web, application, and database layers, utilizing Apache servers for high availability and separate scaling via MySQL or PostgreSQL clusters. Users report no major scalability issues even with clustering capabilities in smaller setups. Some may face challenges with older versions needing expert setup for large document volumes, but many endorse its robust performance following Alfresco guidelines, requiring minimal resource adjustments.

Stability

Alfresco stability is highly regarded, facing no major issues if properly managed by certified administrators. Some users mention challenges with older version upgrades due to major refactoring. Stability can be impacted by large server requests, which are manageable with proper JVM settings. For large repositories, a well-scaled architecture is essential. Earlier cluster implementations required specialized knowledge, but newer versions have reduced performance concerns by offering enhanced scaling options.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Alfresco Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.