Adobe Experience Manager vs Hyland OnBase comparison

Adobe and Hyland are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Adobe is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Hyland is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.6. Adobe holds a 3.3% mindshare in ECM, compared to Hyland’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hyland users who would recommend it.

Adobe Experience Manager

Read 28 Adobe Experience Manager reviews

3,343 Views
1,170 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Hyland OnBase

Read 13 Hyland OnBase reviews

4,371 Views
2,404 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Adobe Experience Manager

Hyland OnBase

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Adobe Experience Manager and Hyland OnBase compete in the digital marketing and content management category. Adobe Experience Manager appears to have the upper hand due to its extensive integration capabilities and advanced digital marketing features.

Features: Adobe Experience Manager offers robust features such as digital asset management, e-commerce capabilities, and seamless integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud Products like Target and Analytics. It also provides campaign management and key integrations with Salesforce and analytics services. Hyland OnBase emphasizes flexibility and integration across business processes, boasting strong security measures, audit trails, and advanced capture workflows.

Room for Improvement: Adobe Experience Manager could benefit from addressing its complex programming model, high cost of ownership, and by enhancing cloud service support and component use efficiency. Hyland OnBase needs improvements in its user interface, pricing model, and search functionalities, particularly by incorporating artificial intelligence for smarter document management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Adobe Experience Manager supports deployment across the private cloud, on-premises, and public cloud, but technical support can sometimes be slow. However, it benefits from knowledgeable personnel and managed services. Hyland OnBase primarily deploys on-premises and has feedback indicating a need for faster technical support and addressing implementation complexity that might affect user training needs.

Pricing and ROI: Adobe Experience Manager is known for its high cost, linked to the number of users and complexity, yet it offers efficient long-term investment returns in content management and analytics. Hyland OnBase is considered pricy but offers a modular pricing model tailored to vertical solutions, focusing on minimized coding overhead and providing considerable value, particularly in different regional applications.

To learn more, read our detailed Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

December 2025

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Adobe Experience Manager

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Content Management (1st), Enterprise Social Software (5th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)

Hyland OnBase

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (15th), Low-Code Development Platforms (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 3.3%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hyland OnBase is 6.0%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Adobe Experience Manager	3.3%
Hyland OnBase	6.0%
Other	90.7%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2771634

Senior Technical Program Manager /Senior Lead Solution Architech- Product Technology & Gen AI at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Have faced challenges with setup and pricing but have found flexibility and support helpful

Adobe Experience Manager needs more optimization. The frequency of components where we have vitals of a page or an app needs to be optimized because these are heavy Java codes along with some AEM developments. The code language should be optimized or they should have some string functions or web plugins to create a lighter version rather than implementing large amounts of code lines. They should start implementing industry best practices which are not currently offered. We perform our internal development for customization at our own pace. We have multiple frameworks that help us in various ways. We are advancing in terms of AI integration. We have already started our own POCs before Adobe implements these features.

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reviewer1981395

Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Seamless data management enhances security while monolithic architecture and reporting need improvements

I believe the reporting features need improvement, as other competitors in the market provide better analytics. Hyland is working on a new platform (HXP) to integrate features from all products, addressing some concerns. Additionally, there could be more integration points with products Hyland has acquired, such as Alfresco and Nuxeo. Offering a trial version with basic features would allow users to experience the product before purchasing. I find OnBase's monolithic architecture to be expensive, and adopting microservices could be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive."

"Adobe Experience Manager is pretty stable."

"Over the past two to three years, the organization has grown rapidly with Adobe Experience Manager as a best and supportive tool."

"Adobe Experience Manager has made document management smoother because many people use Adobe, making it simpler for me to modify and resend PDF documents."

"I've used several CMS tools, but Adobe Experience Manager is feature-rich, especially for web security and content management. It's more efficient to manage content on Adobe Experience Manager, and you can do a lot with it, such as updating content at any time, and on any platform, even from mobile or tablet. Adobe Experience Manager is still getting updated daily, and it's the best CMS tool in the market for me. I like that you can manage assets in Adobe Experience Manager. I also like that the solution has an analytics dashboard that shows you where the traffic comes from, how many clicks come from a specific location, the number of clicks and impressions, etc. Adobe Experience Manager can be accessed by other teams, for example, the digital media department of my company, so the solution can be used and updated per each team's requirement. Adobe Experience Manager is more than just a web developer tool, as it also allows visibility tracking and has other uses. I also like that the GUI for Adobe Experience Manager is straightforward and catchy. It has separate folders and icons, so using Adobe Experience Manager isn't tough. The solution is straightforward to use and handle."

"It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer."

"Adobe Experience Manager is a content management system, and we use it to create and manage a website."

"Adobe Experience Manager offers several best features, including user-friendliness and a more secure platform than any other content management systems I have worked with."

More Adobe Experience Manager pros

"Its most valuable aspect is its flexibility"

"The solution is very developed and we are not taking full advantage of its functionalities."

"The retention module is one of the most valuable features. Whatever we scan onto the system can be identified and we are notified when the records are due to be disposed."

"The solution's most valuable features are integration and flexibility."

"I like the cloud and its integrability."

"Hyland OnBase is valued for its security, especially for those in the finance domain who require data confidentiality."

"OnBase is a remarkable tool. It is a well-done product. Hyland has a lot of experience in building it and looking for new things for clients in terms of functionalities. It has amazing stability, and it can grow horizontally and vertically. It is built for growth. Their technical support is also quite good and available throughout the year."

"The most valuable features are that it's very secure and provides audit trails for our documents."

More Hyland OnBase pros

Cons

"The licenses are very expensive."

"The licensing plus implementation and maintenance cost is very expensive, making it not suitable for small organizations, and the setup is very complex."

"The latest trend is to render everything in the client-side framework. For example, SPA or single page application. This is a feature that needs improvement. The cloud deployment pipeline needs to be improved as well."

"Tool-wise, the Adobe Experience Manager support team is not very responsive when the user face issues in AEM as a Cloud Service."

"I haven't seen any areas for improvement in Adobe Experience Manager as it's a full-fledged CMS tool, and Adobe is already working on enhancements for the solution. Adobe is working to make Adobe Experience Manager more valuable and easier to use for any user, even non-technical ones, through multiple components and templates. Day by day, Adobe provides the latest update to Adobe Experience Manager, and if my team needs any particular change, it just needs to be reported to the Adobe team. As Adobe Experience Manager has a broad scope and a lot of use cases and features, it's a solution that requires some time and effort from you in terms of learning, especially if you're implementing it for different clients, which could be an area for improvement."

"In comparison to other CMS products, Adobe Experience Manager is missing some capabilities such as proper versioning or a better versioning system and backend connectivity. If something is deleted in AEM, the user cannot recover it. You have to call technical support, and they will need to recover the whole instance. So, it's really difficult. For example, if you delete a page, you cannot recover it. There should be an option to recover it. In AEM, you have to go to the previous state of the instance itself or the virtual machine, and you have to restore everything, which is not good."

"A little bit of background knowledge of coding and website structure is required."

"The licensing plus implementation and maintenance cost is very expensive, making it not suitable for small organizations, and the setup is very complex."

More Adobe Experience Manager cons

"We need to troubleshoot why our reports didn't get downloaded in a day. There is a workflow feature which powerful but also complicated."

"The solution’s initial setup is a little difficult."

"For user experience, they would have to do more with the interface. It is not easy to work with and is a little messy. It is getting better, but it is not yet good enough. Other products are comparatively doing better in terms of the user interface. I have been hearing about Box, which is very easy to use and learn for the users. OnBase has to work on this aspect. It should have BPM capabilities. We compete with tools that provide the BPM feature and support those standards. They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

"Software malfunctioning usually occurs when we receive documents from external sources."

"We found the size of images to be a restriction, though this may have been due to the API used rather than the Hyland application."

"The migration is a bit difficult in the tool."

"An area for improvement would be the training - getting our people up to speed on how to use it required more training than we expected due to the complexity of the solution."

"The application could potentially be more open-source, allowing integration with more solutions."

More Hyland OnBase cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced."

"It's really costly."

"There's a free trial for one month for Adobe Experience Manager, which you can use for learning purposes, then, after the trial period, you'll need to purchase the license. Adobe offers a few plans for Adobe Experience Manager, but I'm unaware of how much my company is paying."

"It's a costly solution. I would rate the price at two out of five on a scale from one to five, where one is the most expensive and five is the most competitive."

"They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

"There are a number of different types of licenses. There are concurrent licenses, individual licenses and imaging licenses."

"The tool's price is high."

"The solution costs around $6,000 per month."

"OnBase is reasonably priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adobe Experience Manager?

It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?

Moving forward, if Adobe implements AI tools wherein a vendor or a stakeholder comes in and gives instructions, they could develop a page or a whole site accordingly in a few minutes or a few days,...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?

Adobe Experience Manager is used for developing components, content management, and developing experience fragments and content fragments. Assets are used for the DAM for storing files and document...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hyland OnBase?

I find pricing to be on the higher side due to its monolithic architecture. I would rate it six out of ten. Transitioning to microservices, allowing users to pay for only what they use, could reduc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hyland OnBase?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Hyland OnBase?

I was a vendor managing Hyland OnBase ( /products/hyland-onbase-reviews ) for Hyland, not as a direct user but as a business partner. We managed the solution and were a partner with Hyland.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Content Management vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 5% of the time

SharePoint vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 5% of the time

Sitecore Experience Manager vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More Adobe Experience Manager Competitors

OpenText Content Management vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 10% of the time

Alfresco vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 8% of the time

IBM FileNet vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 7% of the time

Pega Platform vs Hyland OnBase

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager

January 2026

Download Adobe Experience Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Hyland OnBase

January 2026

Download Hyland OnBase product report

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud, Adobe CQ5

OnBase

Overview

Adobe Communique 5 (Adobe CQ5), currently manifested as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), is a web-based content management system which is developed to help businesses in offering high-end digital experience to their customers.

Adobe

Hyland OnBase is acclaimed for its robust document management, automating workflows, and improving organizational efficiency across various industries. Praised for its ability to manage records compliantly, especially in regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, the tool also integrates smoothly with other enterprise systems. Users benefit significantly from streamlined processes, reduced manual tasks, and enhanced data accuracy, boosting productivity and customer satisfaction.

Hyland

Sample Customers

Metra

Honda France Industries, Hill County Texas, Hylant Group, ING Lease France, State of South Carolina, Syracuse University, Swindon College, Rhode Island Department of Human Services, Rochester Institute of Technology, Moen, Odense University Hospital

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

December 2025

Free Report: Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase

Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. Hyland OnBase and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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