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Box vs M-Files comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Ranking in Document Management Software
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (8th), Cloud Storage (12th), Digital Asset Management (6th), Content Collaboration Platforms (8th)
M-Files
Ranking in Document Management Software
11th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Document Management Software category, the mindshare of Box is 5.4%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of M-Files is 5.1%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Box5.4%
M-Files5.1%
Other89.5%
Document Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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

"The collaboration of the solution is good."
"Box had a very easy-to-use search feature and a good user interface on its website, which was faster and better than SharePoint."
"The application is very light in terms of uploading and downloading files."
"The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization."
"Box is very simple and effective, so I prefer Box."
"The solution is scalable."
"I like that Box makes it easy to deploy virtual machines."
"File sharing, authorization on the back, its ease of use and reliable uptime performance are valuable features of this solution."
"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."
 

Cons

"Working on documents in real-time is sometimes faulty and could be improved."
"Collaborative editing was challenging if multiple people were in a document at once."
"I would like to see features for online collaboration between team members in the future, to open and see who is accessing the document now and see my movements across the document or the file we are sharing together."
"One thing that Box would benefit from is a records management component."
"The price must be lowered."
"Tasks and comments could be easier to see, report, search, and manage."
"The solution's data security should be improved."
"With OneDrive, you can continuously save your files over a Box folder. That is something I wish we could have."
"The integration with other products needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"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."
"I have to pay for Box. It could be a little cheaper. On a scale from one to ten, I would give the pricing a five."
"I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
"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."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
"The more you dig, the deeper the level of tools, and the more expensive it becomes."
"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
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
University
6%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Legal Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise27
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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Comparisons

 

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 vs. M-Files and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.