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Alfresco vs Box comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.3
Alfresco enhances document management, reduces costs, and increases efficiency with open-source flexibility, driving paperless operations and environmental benefits.
Sentiment score
6.6
Organizations using Box report efficiency in file management, reduced compliance risks, and notable returns despite some awaiting detailed calculations.
Alfresco provides a significant return on investment by efficiently managing documents.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
I have seen a return on investment as open-source production with vibrant community support is cost-effective compared to many proprietary CMS solutions in the market.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
It made my office go paperless, thereby saving the environment.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Alfresco's support is responsive and professional, but faster responses often come from re-sellers or community forums.
Sentiment score
5.2
Box customer service is generally praised, but users want improved response times and frontline expertise for better experiences.
I would prefer a direct relationship with them, focusing on updating their products more like in an agile practice
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
The customer support for Alfresco is very vibrant, supportive, and responsive.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Alfresco scales efficiently across layers, handling growth easily with strong clustering and configuration flexibility, attracting users with scalability.
Sentiment score
7.7
Box offers strong scalability and performance for large organizations, but some limitations appear in enterprise-level deployments and large file handling.
Implementations needing to handle millions of documents may involve complex cluster setups requiring expert assistance.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Alfresco is very scalable and handles my organization's growth efficiently.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
Alfresco's scalability is very good; it grows with organizational needs and handles all organizational requirements.
Network Engineer at AT&T
I am uncertain about its effectiveness at an enterprise level, where SharePoint might be preferred.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Alfresco is highly stable with proper configuration, despite a steep learning curve and potential large-scale request issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Box is highly stable and secure, with minimal outages, though users seek improvements in upload speed.
The stability of Alfresco is rated highly as it hardly goes down.
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Alfresco is generally a very stable and high-performance platform.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Those issues have now been corrected.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Box was very stable and did not have any latency issues.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Alfresco users seek improved Microsoft integration, usability, security, AI features, and enhanced tools for better workflow and interface.
Box needs improved sync, search, file management, security, integration, interface, performance, permissions, API, pricing, and data recovery.
It would be beneficial if Alfresco offers different options for document storage, such as databases or cloud solutions.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Governance of this system is required. If you don't have proper governance, things can go wrong.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
I feel the documentation needs a lot of improvement, especially for Activiti microservice adoption, which is sometimes frustrating or slows me down.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
To open and see who is accessing the document now and see my movements across the document or the file we are sharing together.
Senior Projects Manager at Tech-hub
Collaborative editing was challenging if multiple people were in a document at once.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Alfresco's Enterprise Edition offers extensive features at a starting price of $100,000, with additional costs for upgrades and integrations.
Box pricing is initially steep but offers excellent value, with discounts and free versions available for businesses and education.
Alfresco is a very cost-effective and affordable tool.
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
The pricing of Alfresco starts at $100,000, which can be expensive for small projects.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Alfresco is very cheap and cost-effective.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
I found the pricing reasonable because when I was working for an IBM partner, Box was free for us.
Senior Projects Manager at Tech-hub
 

Valuable Features

Alfresco provides open-source document management, integration, customization, and scalability, enhancing collaboration and workflow while promoting cost-effectiveness.
Box provides secure file sharing, collaboration, advanced security, and seamless Microsoft integration, making it ideal for organizations.
This makes the record independent of the document, which is beneficial as documents often change, and it helps avoid continual updates to the registry.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
There is document storage with metadata, document versioning, document workflow, check-in, check-out, REST API for integration, easy customization, and vibrant community support.
Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
When it comes to scripting, if there is something that Alfresco does not do natively, you can use their custom API to do almost anything that you want.
Network Engineer at AT&T
Box had a very easy-to-use search feature and a good user interface on its website, which was faster and better than SharePoint.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
I find the synchronization feature most valuable in Box. When I use multiple devices, it syncs them together and gives excellent results.
Senior Projects Manager at Tech-hub
 

Categories and Ranking

Alfresco
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
7th
Ranking in Document Management Software
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Box
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
8th
Ranking in Document Management Software
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (12th), Digital Asset Management (6th), Content Collaboration Platforms (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 7.6%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Box is 3.7%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alfresco7.6%
Box3.7%
Other88.7%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Peter Liam - PeerSpot reviewer
Human Resources Specialist at Unilever Inc.
Unified document workflows have boosted customization, search efficiency, and collaboration
In my experience, some of the best features that Alfresco offers include document management, intelligent process management, and information governance. Out of those features, I find myself relying on document management the most because it helps users to quickly find and access information from anywhere on any device using web-based viewing tools. I presume all the features are very unique, robust, and helpful. Intelligent process management, integrated process, and content service capabilities help to streamline content-centric processes and enable faster, more informed decision-making. Alfresco is very scalable. Alfresco delivers a scalable way to automatically enrich content and metadata and provides key insights by automatically extracting valuable information. I love the full-text search engine, the ability to automate record lifecycle to save time and cost, and storing documentation. Creating rules for documents and folders adds to the overall usability of the features. Alfresco has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to save money by only needing to use one platform to serve our customers, which is Alfresco. The community version is free to use. We charge our customers for customization, so this greatly boosted our sales. Sales engagement and sales were boosted by at least thirty to forty-five percent.
Ahmed Rashad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Projects Manager at Tech-hub
Team collaboration has improved through shared access and real-time synchronization
I find the synchronization feature most valuable in Box. When I use multiple devices, it syncs them together and gives excellent results. I can assess the benefits of Box's file sharing. Box's integration with third-party apps is valuable, especially with Outlook. Box has helped my team's productivity by being very helpful with team collaboration when we are sharing certain shared documents between us. I mostly value Box's automation capabilities. They have helped optimize my business processes by saving time for sharing or sending files between the team. This gives us a shared workspace to work together on the same document or the same ideas. Box's security features have helped my organization meet compliance needs.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Content Management solutions are best for your needs.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfresco?
The pricing of Alfresco starts at $100,000, which can be expensive for small projects. There is often a transition from the community version to the licensed version, which incurs migration costs. ...
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
Currently, the challenge is the general availability to users. Initially, they had poor documentation, but over the years, their documentation has highly improved. Initially, we had challenges find...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
This is mainly for unstructured document management systems with workflow and data classification.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
I found the pricing reasonable because when I was working for an IBM partner, Box was free for us. We did not go to payment and other matters like this.
What needs improvement with Box?
I believe Box has a lot of features that put it in a good rank among the file-sharing apps. I would like to see features for online collaboration between team members in the future, to open and see...
What is your primary use case for Box?
I use Box, Delphi, and IBM FileNet. I worked for a software company as a project manager, and this experience includes FileNet. I also used Delphi for programming work. I am familiar enough with Bo...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
Find out what your peers are saying about Alfresco vs. Box and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.