Alfresco vs IBM FileNet vs OpenText Extended ECM comparison

Hyland and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. Hyland is ranked #9 with an average rating of 5.5, while IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. Hyland holds a 7.7% mindshare in ECM, compared to IBM’s 10.5% mindshare. Additionally, 77% of Hyland users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Alfresco

Read 13 Alfresco reviews

2,235 Views
1,806 Comparison Views

77% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

Read 101 IBM FileNet reviews

3,501 Views
2,225 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

OpenText Extended ECM

Read 21 OpenText Extended ECM reviews

3,195 Views
2,455 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Alfresco

IBM FileNet

OpenText Extended ECM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, IBM FileNet, and OpenText Extended ECM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

March 2025

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Helped 849,335 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Alfresco is 7.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 10.5%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Extended ECM is 11.5%, up from 10.4% 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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Jaideep MS

Practice Director at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Enables effective document control yet requires better affordability and clarity

I use extended ECM for procurement, sales, engineering documents, and sometimes invoices and accounts payable or receivable The version controls and the business workspace part integrate well with SAP and OpenText, providing granular level control over who accesses the workspace. The seamless…

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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 digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."

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

"Document repository."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"The main features we find impactful are the workflow and document management along with FileNet file stores."

"It saves our customers time by 30 to 40 percent by eliminating the time to process paper."

"In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet, which is a difference compared to smaller products."

"Stability is really good. We fairly recently upgraded a version of it and have not been having any problems. The resources seem to be really good with this version; it is a little easier to troubleshoot issues."

"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."

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

"It puts governance in place around the content and processes. Access levels can be set to certain parts of the document based on role level."

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

More IBM FileNet pros

"We use Core Share to share documents with external auditors or with vendors, and that prevents them from being able to get into the whole system. It is useful."

"OpenText Extended ECM's most valuable features include permissions and security models. I also like the tool's ability to add metadata and use it to categorize information."

"Simplicity to roll out, features available, customization options."

"WebReports has a lot of capabilities that offer good opportunities to customize the applications the way we want to."

"The integration of a document management platform with many other applications, e.g. SAP, SuccessFactors, Salesforce, SharePoint, etc."

"The solution's automatic document numbering, state management, and process flow are very useful features to go through the full cycle of the document."

"We also have a module on top of the Content Server called WebReports that has been one of the things that helped us facilitate the workflow and give managers good reporting and visibility into where everything is. Being able to use that on top of the Content Server was a big help."

"The seamless integration between SAP and OpenText offers a 360-degree view of documents, facilitating a full-text search capability."

More OpenText Extended ECM pros

Cons

"I would like them to consider document capture functionality."

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

"I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen."

"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."

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

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

"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."

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

"Programmers have to translate user needs into IBM FileNet, which causes misinterpretations."

"I would like to have an offline DR deployment. If that is doable, then it would be a big win."

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

"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."

"If there was more AI capability, into Watson, that would be a benefit."

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

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

"The area of migrations to new versions must be made easier. It's quite good that they have now begun to improve the API area, to modernize the interfaces, but there's always a very big investment involved in migrating from one version to another. That prohibits rolling out new functionalities to customers. It's not so easy.... In that area, they really must improve."

More IBM FileNet cons

"The architecture needs improvement, as it's complex."

"A dashboard with information would be nice to see."

"The solution needs to improve the user interface."

"The solution should work better with partners and be more developer-friendly."

"The initial setup can get really complicated, and it takes time."

"Initially there can be stability issues due to unknown factors such as usage of the system, quantity of documents ingested, load during peak hours."

"Pricing could be improved and the stability or the performance needs improvement, which is very important."

"There are no additional features that I would like to see. I am pretty happy with it, but their support could be a bit better."

More OpenText Extended ECM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."

"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."

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

"Yearly, we pay for the maintenance, which is $20,000."

"IBM FileNet is an expensive solution."

"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 licensing cost of FileNet is comparable."

"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."

"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."

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

"For the medium scale or large scale, I would recommend FileNet. FileNet is free of licensing expenses, thus good for the money. It is not expensive, but worth for the money, especially for medium scale and large scale industries."

More IBM FileNet pricing and cost advice

"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."

"The pricing is costly. It's costly to integrate with Office 365 and to go back and forth with the sales team."

"Both Open Text ECM and IBM File share are expensive."

"The licensing is not that complex for the core products, but it becomes more complicated for some additional modules."

"It is a little more expensive than our previous solution, but because of the fact that it has become a rallying point for different groups to come under, it might end up paying off better in the long run by not having seven siloed solutions. Even though this one solution is a little pricey, it might eliminate other ones."

"The solution is expensive."

"OpenText Extended ECM is an expensive solution."

"The total cost of the product will vary on the capabilities required"

More OpenText Extended ECM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Insurance Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Insurance Company

Government

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing 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 fr...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Alfresco?

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

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Alfresco?

Mostly, the primary use case is to store documents related to transactions in our company. These documents could be s...

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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?

The product has become more expensive and requires significant investment for enterprise solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

FileNet needs improvement in pricing as it has become very expensive. Also, in comparison to local solutions, the nee...

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What do you like most about OpenText Content Suite Platform?

We also have a module on top of the Content Server called WebReports that has been one of the things that helped us f...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenText Content Suite Platform?

The cost is a significant factor that may deter medium-sized businesses from using OpenText extended ECM.

See all answers

What needs improvement with OpenText Content Suite Platform?

The cost of the product could be improved. Currently, there are certain snags in document viewing, and communication ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Hyland OnBase vs Alfresco

Compared 19% of the time

OpenText Documentum vs Alfresco

Compared 18% of the time

SharePoint vs Alfresco

Compared 11% of the time

Nuxeo vs Alfresco

Compared 7% of the time

DocuWare vs Alfresco

Compared 6% of the time

More Alfresco Competitors

OpenText Documentum vs IBM FileNet

Compared 16% of the time

SharePoint vs IBM FileNet

Compared 15% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet

Compared 8% of the time

IBM ECM vs IBM FileNet

Compared 6% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs IBM FileNet

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM FileNet Competitors

OpenText Documentum vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 21% of the time

SharePoint vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 18% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 7% of the time

Hyland OnBase vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 6% of the time

Newgen OmniDocs vs OpenText Extended ECM

Compared 5% of the time

More OpenText Extended ECM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alfresco

April 2025

Download Alfresco product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

April 2025

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenText Extended ECM

April 2025

Download OpenText Extended ECM product report

Also Known As

No data available

OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share

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

OpenText Extended ECM (formerly OpenText Content Suite Platform) is an enterprise content management platform that securely governs the information lifecycle by integrating with leading enterprise applications, such as SAP, Microsoft 365, Salesforce and SAP SuccessFactors. Bringing content and processes together, Extended ECM provides access to information when and where it’s needed, improves decision-making and drives operational effectiveness.

OpenText

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.

ATCO Australia, MSIG Asia, Orica, Salt River Project

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Content Management

March 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: March 2025.

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