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Box - Intelligent Content Management vs M-Files comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2026

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

Box - Intelligent Content M...
Ranking in Document Management Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (9th), Cloud Storage (10th), Digital Asset Management (3rd), Content Collaboration Platforms (8th)
M-Files
Ranking in Document Management Software
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Document Management Software category, the mindshare of Box - Intelligent Content Management is 6.3%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of M-Files is 3.6%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Box - Intelligent Content Management6.3%
M-Files3.6%
Other90.1%
Document Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jeremey Kenney - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Technology & Integration at GlobalMac IT
Secure file governance has improved collaboration and automation for client document workflows
The best features are around security, being able to set up different groups, and the governance features are really great. The new AI functionality that they released has been pretty handy. For governance and security, the audit trail capability is excellent. We are able to see when people interact or change files or if something was deleted, and we can go through and review that audit trail. The AI has been great for creating different workflows that we are able to execute. When a form gets submitted into Box - Intelligent Content Management or a file is uploaded, there are certain automations that we can put in place to where it can essentially generate tickets in our system for new users or other tasks.
LN
Director of IT at JH Kelly
Good workflows, and it is easy to use with a dashboard that improves contract visibility
My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing this product is to do a pilot first. After you do your research, do an actual pilot before you commit because everyone has nuances and you might find out that it is not what you want, or that it doesn't really do what you think it's going to do. It is not the simplest product to use but because of the robustness of its feature set in the ability with the workflows, and the APIs, to do just about anything you can imagine with it, that's very valuable. I wish it was a little easier to use because we have to spend more time than I'd like with new users, teaching them how it works. We try to hide all that from them but the setup time to get everything the way we wanted was probably two months. That is two months in one resource working on it half time a week, but it just took a lot of work to get the metadata set up, to get the workflows set up, and to get all the documents added to the repository. Now we've got versioning and we know where everything's at, the dashboard is great, but don't assume when they tell you that you'll be up and running in two weeks, that that is the truth. It takes much longer than you think. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"File and Folder sharing in the organization and outside of it."
"The editable features and upgrading capabilities are great."
"The application is very light in terms of uploading and downloading files."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"It is really easy to load files to and from this solution."
"Box is very simple and effective, so I prefer Box."
"The features I have found to be most helpful over other cloud storage platforms are: Collaboration - just not that it exists, but it is easy and user friendly, allowing data that is necessary to be worked on to be brought to the surface; Security - focus on compliance, encryption, enterprise grade management; 3rd Party Integrations - allowing for Box to truly be a platform to be used with other software."
"Box's automation capabilities have helped optimize my business processes by saving time for sharing or sending files between the team."
"Using M-Files means anybody on the executive team to go in and immediately look at a dashboard and know the status of a contract."
"M-Files licence model is very flexible. You have the choice of Named User, Concurrent, or SaaS. This gives the business so much room and flexibility to implement new projects whilst maintaining costs and maximizing production."
 

Cons

"My biggest problem with Box.net is the lack of a free desktop syncing feature."
"Box Sync is still a bit buggy and it is difficult to get used to not being able to organize your view of folders as it is determined by the owner of the folder."
"They could integrate better with other platforms."
"The upload speed needs improvement."
"I haven't really come across a case where we're not able to use it for what it is, so I don't really have anything holding us up or any customers holding us up at this point that I know of. There are always some limitations, but as a technologist, I just live with them, and there is always room for improvement, but I don't have anything quantifiable."
"Integrations, the more integrations the better. Office + Outlook are great but we need more like it."
"Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices."
"Working on documents in real-time is sometimes faulty and could be improved."
"Technical support is probably the weakest part. We had a number of authentication issues and support has been very slow to respond and get us solutions."
"The integration with other products needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
"The pricing may seem steep at first, but delve into the features and you'll soon realize it is incredible value for what you get."
"There's a free version that allows you to use it with almost full-feature access. Even in the free version, it gives you all you need."
"Box needs to improve with their pricing in terms of licensing costs."
"Box's pricing is excellent."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
Box - Intelligent Content Management has fairly good pricing for licenses, especially if you do an annual plan. We always suggest our clients do a month-to-month plan so that they have flexibility ...
What needs improvement with Box?
I would suggest more out-of-the-box integrations as far as the automations go. Box - Intelligent Content Management has many templates, and you can customize some things, but there appear to be som...
What is your primary use case for Box?
Box - Intelligent Content Management is used for file storage for clients and provides a secure way to share files with other people as well as internally with our team. Box - Intelligent Content M...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
Crowe UK, Stearns Bank, Head Energy, OMV, TK Elevator
Find out what your peers are saying about Box - Intelligent Content Management vs. M-Files and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.