Adobe Experience Manager vs IBM FileNet comparison

Adobe and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Adobe is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6, while IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9. Adobe holds a 2.8% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 10.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Adobe Experience Manager

Read 20 Adobe Experience Manager reviews

1,067 Views
676 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 100 IBM FileNet reviews

3,679 Views
2,383 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Adobe Experience Manager

IBM FileNet

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Adobe Experience Manager and IBM FileNet compete in the enterprise content management category. Adobe Experience Manager seems to have the upper hand with its strong integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud and efficient content management capabilities, although it's often more suited for larger enterprises.

Features: Adobe Experience Manager offers tight integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud, robust Digital Asset Management (DAM), 3D asset management, and handles user-generated content effectively. FileNet provides advanced business process automation, extensive scalability, and reliable storage capabilities, along with strong document and records management.

Room for Improvement: Users of Adobe Experience Manager often find the high total cost of ownership and complexity challenging, especially without skilled developers. Adobe's tech support can be slow. IBM FileNet's licensing model is costly and complex, with users wishing for more intuitive user interfaces and better support for cloud transitions. Both products could improve their integration capabilities and simplify implementation processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Adobe Experience Manager is available in multiple deployment options, while FileNet focuses on on-premises deployment. Adobe's tech support, despite having dedicated teams, often experiences delays. FileNet's support system is robust but the product's complexity poses challenges. Deployment can be complex for both, but FileNet benefits from a more established reputation.

Pricing and ROI: Adobe Experience Manager is pricey, matching its feature richness suitable for large enterprises, but requires careful cost management. IBM FileNet demands a significant investment with complex licensing that can result in unexpected costs. Both provide substantial value, with Adobe focusing on larger enterprises and FileNet offering flexibility for medium to large businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 838,713 peers since 2012

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

Adobe Experience Manager

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Content Management (2nd), Enterprise Social Software (6th), Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) (1st)

IBM FileNet

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

100

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Adobe Experience Manager is 2.8%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 10.4%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Thomas Becker

Managing Partner(Austria) at a integrator with 11-50 employees

Impressive integration of customer behavior with an easy setup and okay support

I've worked with all major content management systems. Currently, I work with the leaders such as Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Acquia Working with big companies, I help them either consider setting up a new content management system or address issues they might have with their existing…

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you want to use content in a mobile application and you want the content in some other application, you can simply expose it from the CMS to different clients or different systems. It's easy. On top of that, the technology underlying AEM is open-source and is very powerful like Apache Sling and JCR."

"I like the native applications such as Adobe Target, Adobe Analytics, and Adobe Experience Platform. Because of these, it's very easy to connect and obtain reports on how my website is doing, how many have visited it, how frequently, etc. The multiple publisher concept is one of the best parts of this solution."

"Adobe Experience Manager is a content management system, and we use it to create and manage a website."

"The most valuable features of Adobe Experience Manager include its capability to manage content and create reusable fragments."

"I've used several CMS tools, but Adobe Experience Manager is feature-rich, especially for web security and content management. It's more efficient to manage content on Adobe Experience Manager, and you can do a lot with it, such as updating content at any time, and on any platform, even from mobile or tablet. Adobe Experience Manager is still getting updated daily, and it's the best CMS tool in the market for me. I like that you can manage assets in Adobe Experience Manager. I also like that the solution has an analytics dashboard that shows you where the traffic comes from, how many clicks come from a specific location, the number of clicks and impressions, etc. Adobe Experience Manager can be accessed by other teams, for example, the digital media department of my company, so the solution can be used and updated per each team's requirement. Adobe Experience Manager is more than just a web developer tool, as it also allows visibility tracking and has other uses. I also like that the GUI for Adobe Experience Manager is straightforward and catchy. It has separate folders and icons, so using Adobe Experience Manager isn't tough. The solution is straightforward to use and handle."

"Adobe Experience Manager is quite a powerful product that you can use to design files and export them."

"The integration of customer behavior and website setup is impressive."

More Adobe Experience Manager pros

"I like the security and also the configuration. It is easy to configure and most of our business use cases have everything just with the configuration itself."

"IBM FileNet was more scalable."

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

"We are able to find the proper documents which are needed for business processes."

"The most valuable features are the interconnectivity and the collaboration. No longer do I have to wonder what system I need to go to for the data I need. I know it's in FileNet."

"The standout feature for us is undoubtedly the Google-like search functionality, which allows us to search for documents within the system effortlessly. Instead of just querying the document database, this feature retrieves all relevant documents, akin to searching on the internet. It is very easy to use."

"FileNet has the capabilities to meet compliance and regulatory requirements. It is very secure."

"I have found that it scales well."

More IBM FileNet pros

Cons

"Adobe's technical support is so-so."

"Programming model could be improved, it's a monolithic solution."

"Tool-wise, the Adobe Experience Manager support team is not very responsive when the user face issues in AEM as a Cloud Service."

"The solution's pricing and stability could be improved."

"A little bit of background knowledge of coding and website structure is required."

"The licenses are very expensive."

"The latest trend is to render everything in the client-side framework. For example, SPA or single page application. This is a feature that needs improvement. The cloud deployment pipeline needs to be improved as well."

"Adobe Experience Manager could improve by allowing the reuse of components like a progress bar across multiple pages to make the development process more efficient."

More Adobe Experience Manager cons

"Simplifying both training and maintenance would be an improvement."

"FileNet and similar enterprise-level tools require substantial costs, starting in the millions, which limits their use to large enterprises."

"What I would like to see is more integration."

"I would like IBM to improve with each release, continue moving towards a continual, tighter integration, and build solutions that take advantage of all the different modules the platform has from one place."

"The most valuable features of IBM File Manager are workflow, content, and process capabilities."

"The only downside is that it takes a dedicated staff to maintain it and the learning curve is pretty steep."

"The usability is fair. It could be a bit better. It could be better designed. They could put more effort into the user experience and do a better job of integrating other components, like Datacap, to be a bit more seamless."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

More IBM FileNet cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's really costly."

"There's a free trial for one month for Adobe Experience Manager, which you can use for learning purposes, then, after the trial period, you'll need to purchase the license. Adobe offers a few plans for Adobe Experience Manager, but I'm unaware of how much my company is paying."

"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced."

"It's a costly solution. I would rate the price at two out of five on a scale from one to five, where one is the most expensive and five is the most competitive."

"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."

"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."

"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."

"FileNet is not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for. "

"FileNet is quite expensive, although Documentum is expensive too."

"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 cost is about $40,000, plus yearly maintenance."

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

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Content Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

50%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adobe Experience Manager?

It is easy to learn. You don't need to be an advanced Java developer.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Adobe Experience Manager?

While there are many aspects that could be improved, discussing them would require more time. The licensing model is opaque, and technical support could be improved, especially for smaller companies.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Adobe Experience Manager?

I've worked with all major content management systems. Currently, I work with the leaders such as Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Acquia.

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.

See all answers

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

It depends on the business partner providing the solution to the customer. We have an ESA contract with IBM which allows us to offer the solution at a competitive price, providing added value when ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

The setup process is very complex, and I would prefer if it were easier. A modern interface would also be an enhancement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Adobe CQ5 vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Liferay Digital Experience Platform vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 9% of the time

SDL Tridion DX vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Content Management vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 7% of the time

Drupal vs Adobe Experience Manager

Compared 6% of the time

More Adobe Experience Manager Competitors

OpenText Extended ECM vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

OpenText Documentum vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 9% of the time

Alfresco vs IBM FileNet

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager

February 2025

Download Adobe Experience Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

February 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Also Known As

Adobe Day CQ5, Ektron Social Marketing, Episerver Content Cloud

No data available

Overview

Adobe Communique 5 (Adobe CQ5), currently manifested as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), is a web-based content management system which is developed to help businesses in offering high-end digital experience to their customers.

Adobe

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

Metra

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

Buyer's Guide

Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet

January 2025

Free Report: Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet

Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Adobe Experience Manager vs. IBM FileNet report.

See our list of best Enterprise Content Management vendors.

We monitor all Enterprise Content Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.