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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
7.4
Alfresco boosts ROI through efficient document management, reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, and offering customization and robust community support.
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
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Alfresco's vibrant customer service and active community support ensure user satisfaction, though response times vary; ratings are generally positive.
Sentiment score
5.2
Box customer service is generally praised, but users want improved response times and frontline expertise for better experiences.
Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
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
Customer support is good because they are responsive.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Alfresco efficiently scales across multiple layers, supporting growth with robust clustering and handling large content volumes effectively.
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
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
8.2
Alfresco is stable but requires expertise for setup and scalability, with occasional issues under high loads mitigated by JVM tuning.
Sentiment score
7.9
Box is highly stable and secure, with minimal outages, though users seek improvements in upload speed.
Alfresco is generally a very stable and high-performance platform.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
The stability of Alfresco is rated highly as it hardly goes down.
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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 needs UI enhancements, better integrations, improved security, and more accessible customization, reporting, and advanced document capture features.
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
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 is costlier with added expenses, while the Community edition is free for budget-conscious projects.
Box pricing is initially steep but offers excellent value, with discounts and free versions available for businesses and education.
Overall, the cost can be a deal breaker for small companies or government institutions with budget restrictions.
Country Head Spain at Apiux
Pricing is considered mid-range.
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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 adaptable, affordable document management with seamless integration, boosting efficiency and collaboration with advanced automation and indexing.
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
It is highly extensible, meaning you can do whatever you want.
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
Head Of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The stability and latency were excellent, and there were no issues encountered, ensuring efficient file storage and retrieval.
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
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Box
Ranking in Enterprise Content Management
10th
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 (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 7.1%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Box is 3.8%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alfresco7.1%
Box3.8%
Other89.1%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

UC
Technical Project Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Extensive customization and governance enhance document management experience
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 finding the extension points and understanding how to extend the system. The workflow was one of the hurdles we had. At that time, it was not that beautiful or feature-rich. Even today, workflow consists of basic workflows. If you want to extend, you have to implement your own customizations. They are using it extensively with features such as records management, CMIS, Share UI, and Web Scripts. All these features are being used extensively. Governance of this system is required. If you don't have proper governance, things can go wrong. If you don't have a proper policy of how documents should be maintained, issues can arise. You have to make rules, such as one folder should not have more than 5,000 subfolders or children. This was advised by Alfresco, but we did not have that advice, so we had challenges when everything was dumped into single folders. It slows down the systems and sometimes becomes unusable. Whoever is going to use it should have that governance system in place.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfresco?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that Alfresco is very cheap and cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
One area where Alfresco can be improved is the ability to scan directly using Alfresco. Additionally, I would appreciate improvements especially when it comes to the ability to integrate with socia...
What is your primary use case for Alfresco?
My main use case for Alfresco is that I implemented Alfresco Content Services to solve complex enterprise problems for content service, record management, and process management. Using this tool, I...
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: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.