Alfresco vs IBM FileNet comparison

Hyland and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Hyland is ranked #8 with an average rating of 6.8, while IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. Hyland holds a 8.4% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 9.1% mindshare. Additionally, 78% of Hyland users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Alfresco

Read 14 Alfresco reviews

2,661 Views
2,209 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 102 IBM FileNet reviews

3,604 Views
3,316 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM FileNet

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Alfresco and IBM FileNet are in the enterprise content management system category. IBM FileNet often has the upper hand due to its advanced features and comprehensive solutions, justifying a higher price tag.

Features: Alfresco supports open-source capabilities, flexibility, and modern content services for customizations. IBM FileNet offers robust security features, scalability, and sophisticated document management.

Room for Improvement: Alfresco could enhance its security and scalability to better compete with large enterprises. IBM FileNet might improve its user interface for easier setup and customization. Alfresco needs to develop a more comprehensive set of enterprise-level functionalities, while IBM FileNet should focus on simplifying the deployment process for quicker implementation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Alfresco's cloud-native design allows easy deployment and minimal setup challenges with responsive customer service. IBM FileNet is more complex to implement due to its extensive features but includes thorough documentation and professional support.

Pricing and ROI: Alfresco offers a lower setup cost favorable for smaller enterprises seeking specific customizations, yielding quicker ROI. IBM FileNet requires higher initial investment with longer ROI, matched by extensive capabilities and scalability benefits, preferred by large organizations seeking robust infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Alfresco vs. IBM FileNet Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco vs. IBM FileNet

July 2025

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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

Alfresco

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

8th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Document Management Software (3rd)

IBM FileNet

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 8.4%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 9.1%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Karthi Keyan

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

Streamlining document management with enhanced digitalization features needed

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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Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

Facilitates seamless integration for large enterprises with strong deployment capabilities

FileNet was scalable and could be implemented into big multinational organizations. However, it has become very expensive recently. Compared to low-code solutions such as Appian and outsystems, FileNet has gaps, mainly because it requires coding, which is not preferred by clients due to pricing concerns in Pakistan. We transitioned clients to cloud solutions, although FileNet has been strongly integrated with on-prem deployments.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."

"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."

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

"You can meet your users' expected features without having Alfresco's involvement."

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

"Document repository."

More Alfresco pros

"It has improved my organization by how we release documents, claims, and policies."

"We have probably cut out at least 40 percent of what the work process was by easing out that whole distribution of paper."

"IBM FileNet supports our document management and compliance processes."

"The most critical benefit has been ease of use. It speeds along our development helping us go to market a lot sooner."

"It has a straightforward approach to the install."

"IBM FileNet has improved our organization with its single collaboration space."

"I would highly recommend it to those seeking a robust enterprise content management solution."

"One of our clients, a customer of IBM, rolled out and replaced their existing ECM system with FileNet. Their productivity has increased pretty dramatically."

More IBM FileNet pros

Cons

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

"Alfresco could improve workflow digitalization and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities."

"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."

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

"Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk."

"If you don't have proper governance, things can go wrong. You have to make rules, such as one folder should not have more than 5,000 subfolders or children."

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

More Alfresco cons

"I would like to see expanded search features, like content search."

"FileNet needs improvement in pricing as it has become very expensive."

"The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement."

"There is room for improvement in the file management. It's very complex."

"We would like to see, in FileNet, the ability to manage video and audio."

"I would like to see it able to capture NLP in an advanced search. It would also be good if it could capture images and segregate them in categories within a span of seconds."

"It could be simpler to use, considering multiple use cases."

"We'd like to use the docker, to have it containerized."

More IBM FileNet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."

"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."

"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."

"The licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."

"1. It will be more expensive than estimated to setup. 2. You will need to double the staff while you are running the old system and installing the new system. 3. Depending on the number of documents to be migrated, make sure you understand the potentially massive amount of time and effort required to migrate the existing content to the new platform."

"There are lots of components to the product. Make sure before you invest that you know which components you need."

"The physical space that we have gained back pays for the service. Therefore, it has reduced our operating costs overall. We have definitely seen ROI. I would estimate $30,000 a year."

"It is still a leading ECM solution provider, however the cost to implement and maintain are higher than other solutions."

"Licensing costs depend on the size of the storage."

"The tool is expensive, and I rate its pricing a ten out of ten."

"For small scale industries, they allow different options. They can do open source. It is the complexity of the data security that they should think about before they choose."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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. ...

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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...

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What is your primary use case for Alfresco?

This is mainly for unstructured document management systems with workflow and data classification.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM FileNet?

The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?

From the company's perspective, the licensing cost for IBM FileNet is still affordable. Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...

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What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 14% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 13% of the time

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs Alfresco

Compared 8% of the time

Nuxeo vs Alfresco

Compared 7% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 17% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Documentum Content Management vs IBM FileNet

Compared 13% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs IBM FileNet

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

August 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

August 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Overview

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.

Hyland

IBM FileNet is a leading IBM enterprise content management product family. IBM FileNet is one of the ECM solutions that can change the way a company does business by enabling users to capture, activate, socialize, analyze, and govern content throughout its lifecycle.

There are many IBM FileNet products available, all of which are integrated and based on the FileNet P8 Platform.

IBM

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco vs. IBM FileNet

July 2025

Free Report: Alfresco vs. IBM FileNet

Find out what your peers are saying about Alfresco vs. IBM FileNet and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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