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IBM FileNet vs OpenText Documentum Content Management vs SharePoint 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 5.8%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Documentum Content Management is 6.1%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 11.7%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SharePoint11.7%
IBM FileNet5.8%
OpenText Documentum Content Management6.1%
Other76.4%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Shankar-Kambhampaty - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Business workflows have been automated and document processes are streamlined at large scale
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The current state of the user interface development support and the ability to customize it leaves much to be desired. The backend engine, process engine, and object engine are fantastic. However, the user interface, which is required to provide an impressive experience to the user, is difficult to build. IBM will need to do something about this area. Over time, IBM has made improvements with enhancements through CP4BA and other tools, with which user interfaces can be built. But there is much more is needed. The initial setup process for IBM FileNet requires specialists. IBM FileNet is not a click-click-click deploy kind of product. It has several components that need to be installed in different versions and in a particular order. Additionally, IBM Cloud does not provide a proper experience. The problem is I cannot use IBM Cloud easily. I cannot even get a membership easily. With AWS, I just use my credit card, sign up, and I am done. With IBM Cloud, that is not how it is. They go through all validation processes, and it is a nightmare at times. There are problems around IBM FileNet, not exactly with IBM FileNet itself, but the point is that it is not a click-click-click deploy either on the cloud or on-premise. It requires specialists, and there is a big learning curve toward deploying and managing the whole infrastructure as well as the software. I communicate with the technical support of IBM frequently. I have communicated several times, and frankly, there is much to be desired on that side. When you raise a ticket, it takes 24 to 48 hours for them to respond. We live in a time where business moves at the speed of light. Twenty-four hours is a very long time. You need to be able to get technical support instantaneously. It is not like the more contemporary support models where you get turnaround in minutes, not days.
Ashish Shelar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at IBM
Offers version control capabilities, easy to set up but highly-priced
The main thing is the cost. Most of the time, organizations move away from Documentum due to cost. It's highly-priced, and the support costs are high. Now, SharePoint and other options. Microsoft gives free licenses, so organizations mainly look for cost-effective products. The second thing is updates and patching. We patch very often, every six months or a year. We have SP1, SP2, and SP3, and then suddenly, it's moved out of support. That's the organization's main pain area. They don't want to keep investing from a storage perspective. The licensing model should be changed. The product itself is out of support. They have not considered it for AI initiatives. The new version should be on the cloud. I'm not sure if the new version of Documentum, xECM, is cloud compatible or on which cloud it is compatible, but the OpenText server itself is on a cloud, which would be beneficial to the business. And it would also be easier for migration.
Ravi Raushan Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
Centralized document governance has boosted collaboration and made knowledge sharing structured
SharePoint is a powerful platform, but there are a few areas where I think it could be improved, such as user experience. For new users, the interface and navigation can feel quite complex, specifically when working with multiple sites and document libraries. Another improvement would be search functionalities. While it is good sometimes, it does not always return the most relevant result unless a document is very well-structured and tagged. Also, initial setup and customizations can be time-consuming and may require technical expertise, specifically when configuring workflows or permissions. From a modern development perspective, tighter and more seamless integrations with tools including Power Automate and better support for custom backend integrations through APIs could make it more efficient. Overall, simplifying usability and enhancing search and integration capability would make SharePoint even stronger. One additional area I would appreciate improvement would be performance and responsiveness, especially when dealing with a large document library. Sometimes loading or navigating through large datasets can feel quite slow. Another aspect is permissions management. While it is very powerful, it can become complex to manage at scale, specifically when there are multiple levels of access across teams and projects. Improving developer experience would also be beneficial. Making customization, API integrations, and extensions more straightforward would help teams, especially backend developers, leverage SharePoint more efficiently.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides records management functions."
"The beauty is the response time. It is very good nowadays within the platform."
"FileNet is very robust and it’s scalable."
"It has increased productivity and I have heard that it has reduced the time needed to open an account from 20 to 25 days down to a day."
"The main features we find impactful are the workflow and document management along with FileNet file stores."
"It is very user-friendly for business users. They can create their own searches. They are not dependent on administrators to create searches for them. It is self-service for them."
"The benefit of this solution is that it provides the whole file services, given that we have a lot of content management."
"We had several use cases; we used it for all of our loan processing and we took a 21-day manual process down to three, and we also used it for all of our credit applications, taking a 45-day process down to two."
"It stands out for its impressive records management capabilities and the ability to handle an extensive volume of documents, even reaching into the billions."
"I recommend Documentum as it supports big systems and offers good integration."
"We use it as a repository of our records."
"We like Documentum for its capacity and reliability."
"OpenText Documentum's composition is good. It is convenient and straight out of the box."
"It has the ability to categorize and search."
"The product is user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature is that it's a central repository for everything, whether it's videos, documents, Excel sheets, etc."
"The online editing capabilities, file sharing, auditing, information security, ease of solution management, and the easy user adaptation to the platform are the most valuable features."
"SharePoint is the ideal platform in the collaboration scenario where it is quite easy to set up document repositories with appropriate permissions with just a few mouse clicks."
"The most valuable features to our organization are the ability to store and share documents across the entire corporation, and the ability to use workflows."
"Collaboration became a lot easier."
"As a portal, EDM platform for organizations, I think it is an excellent product."
"For enterprise global collaboration, DMS, and ECM needs, this is the right platform."
"The product makes it easy to manage lists, forms, searching, and security. One of the most valuable features is its integration with Active Directory."
"There are a lot of valuable features (e.g., ease of use, collaboration, integration with LDAP, security, accessibility, stability, etc.)."
 

Cons

"The product is expensive."
"My thought process is that, we use a lot of FileNet products, and with the new versions that come from IBM, we were expecting IBM to provide some extended support for the products that we use at the customer's level."
"We are looking at FileNet on AWS cloud. To date, even our IBM rep cannot be certain if it will work."
"We know that they're looking at documents, but we don't know what documents they're actually going and finding the most, or where the bottlenecks might be."
"I think it's to the point where there are probably too many features. Every software, as it matures and graduates, grows the list of features. What many of our customers express is that it's just too complicated. They're using maybe five or ten percent of the features but they're having to pay for 100 percent. There is room for improvement in terms of simplifying it."
"We've had a few times when we were stuck and never had a solution."
"Cognos is a product that's wishy-washy at times, and most of the issues that we've ever had with Cognos were because our content store was too big."
"What I would like to see is more integration."
"It needs a better UI and it should also be cloud-ready. The UI has not changed in years."
"When Dell EMC had the technical support, it was better in terms of response and resolution. After the acquisition of Documentum from Dell EMC to OpenText the support became not as good in terms of responses and resolutions."
"The price is quite high as the licensing prices are significant."
"One area for improvement in OpenText Documentum is its handling of outdated documents, especially technical ones."
"It can be somewhat cumbersome for the operations team since it’s not a cloud instance"
"In BPM could be better. Its GUI needs the ability to build more rules. This is a crucial feature. For example, OpenText has some products that allow you to control your checks, invoices, and so on. They have exciting approaches to converting pictures to text, but the tool for business process management isn't easy to use. The GIU is not so good."
"The user interface can be improved. Searching for documents is complex and should be easier."
"Sometimes DocBroker cannot see the DocBase."
"Migrating SharePoint sites can be a cumbersome process and it usually results in the incomplete migration of SharePoint sites and data."
"The search functionality could be improved, especially when dealing with 'lift' lists, where there are performance issues."
"The UI could be more flexible out of the box."
"The solution should improve its integration with other project management tools."
"We need the storage of the files, the documents right now are in the database. Maybe SharePoint has to improve the capability to store the information in file systems."
"Processing data from multiple site collections is not easy as they reside in different databases."
"Office 365 SharePoint is a powerful and great tool, as long as your libraries’ content is limited in terms of the number of files. For huge data uploads, limitation problems will start popping up."
"The integration with Outlook could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform is inexpensive."
"Talking about the cost is difficult because IBM has offers that combine different products, and each of these offers has different types of licensing. IBM also has a policy that the actual price for a given customer may be very different from the stated book price. It's hard to say whether it's expensive or not."
"The solution saves time and money. It helps us to be able to accomplish the goals of our business, as opposed to being tangled in the weeds of what we could do."
"The biggest issue is the cost of the FileNet, because the license cost is very high. If a customer doesn't have good technical guides that are aware of the license calculation, they will pay too much. FileNet's license calculation depends on the processor and number of users. So my advice to a new customer is to be very careful with your calculations before purchasing FileNet."
"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. ​"
"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."
"The tool is expensive, and I rate its pricing a ten out of ten."
"We use extraction. Therefore, we can see 80 to 85 percent accuracy on data extraction. This reduces the manual indexing part, which is definitely a gain on performance efficiency."
"OpenText Documentum's pricing is good."
"It is quite an expensive product."
"It falls in line with a lot of things that are out there on the market. There is nothing extraordinary in terms of great or bad."
"The product is expensive."
"The price is considered affordable now."
"OpenText Documentum has announced a new licensing model, which could be more expensive."
"As usual, Microsoft’s licensing structures don’t really seem to fit the needs of their products. This leads to always paying for a project you will never use fully or always be adding to."
"The pricing is competitive."
"Licensing can be by server or by seat."
"It is pretty reasonable. It is $5 per month per user. We have 12 users now, so it is about $60 per month."
"Any extended support from Microsoft is expensive."
"The licensing model for SharePoint Online is based on per user, and it is monthly. The price of the solution overall is good."
"The platform has medium pricing."
"The cost is expensive, but worthwhile."
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Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer with 51-200 employees
Aug 23, 2013
Jive vs Sharepoint vs Drupal Commons
At Mediacurrent we often get requests to compare Drupal to other platforms used for intranet sites and social business platforms (like https://dev.twitter.com/ for example). This is often referred to as “Social Business Software”, which has grown in popularity in recent years. I decided to do a…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business81
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise83
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
The pricing and licensing of IBM FileNet is high. We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs a...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development suppor...
What is your primary use case for IBM FileNet?
My usual use cases for IBM FileNet involve three primary areas. The first is document management. For instance, if yo...
What needs improvement with OpenText Documentum?
The interface of OpenText Documentum could be more intuitive; sometimes it is hard to find where the information is l...
What is your primary use case for OpenText Documentum?
We are using it to archive the information about our sales.
What advice do you have for others considering OpenText Documentum?
One of my colleagues has found some automation features. It is not my responsibility regarding security features; I a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
I do not know the difference between the prices of the two solutions; I did not work on this project.
What needs improvement with SharePoint?
It is a little difficult to name the areas for improvements in SharePoint because I don't use it all that much. I kno...
What is your primary use case for SharePoint?
SharePoint is a repository that I use primarily for collaboration and sharing resources and assets. It's a good way t...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell EMC Documentum, Documentum , Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform
SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Agility; Bibliotheca Alexandrina; Capitec Bank; Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa; County of Los Angeles, Department of Human Resources; Fresenius Kabi; Heathrow Airport; Lahey Health; Linde PLC; Milestone Pharma Co. Ltd; National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development; Open Grid Europe GmbH; REPCO NEX Industrial Solutions; Springer Nature; Syngene International; Tata Power DDL; University of Texas Austin
Toyota, Aeroports de Paris, ASBBank Ltd., Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, CambridgeshireConstabulary, D&M Group, NPL Construction Company, and The Regional Municipality of Niagara.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: May 2026.
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