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Alfresco vs OpenText Extended ECM 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 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 OpenText Extended ECM is 11.5%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 16.7%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Karthi Keyan - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Jaideep MS - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Sanil Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined collaboration through seamless integration and customization
I have been an administrator for SharePoint and have used it as an end-user for document storage. Predominantly, I've been involved in administration SharePoint helps a lot since we've moved from using it directly to using it as a backend for Teams, which makes collaboration easier. It supports…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Document repository."
"I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar."
"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."
"Alfresco's technical support is very fast and professional."
"The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way."
"The digitalization of workflow, forms, operations, and business processes is also significant."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The integration of a document management platform with many other applications, e.g. SAP, SuccessFactors, Salesforce, SharePoint, etc."
"WebReports has a lot of capabilities that offer good opportunities to customize the applications the way we want to."
"The version controls and the business workspace part integrate well with SAP and OpenText, providing granular level control over who accesses the workspace."
"Smart Viewing videos are most valuable for the end users. The end users like the look and feel of Smart View. It's similar to SharePoint, with the latest HTML5 features, filters, and everything. It's like online shopping."
"The workflow feature is valuable because it enables us to cascade responsibilities."
"No code and low code, scalable, and stable collaboration platform. Straightforward to set up. Its support system is good and offers fast issue resolution."
"The most valuable features are the Integrations, web site, and search."
"It is well supported by Microsoft."
"It keeps our company organized and everything is in one place."
"​Combined reports and data with timeline tracking."
"It has helped us with storing all the documents, which means that people are not going to intervene. There is a way of extracting knowledge within documentation and tracking it. There are knowledge assets for where documentation is stored, indexed and searchable through SharePoint."
"The metadata services, the WCF service integration and the Voxel feature are three most valuable elements of this solution."
 

Cons

"Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk."
"I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen."
"Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold."
"The configuration of Alfresco is a big challenge."
"Alfresco could improve workflow digitalization and enhance artificial intelligence capabilities."
"The setup process for Alfresco was complex."
"Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving."
"I would like them to consider document capture functionality."
"The tool's documentation is not proper and has missing information like steps."
"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."
"OpenText Extended ECM's user interface could be improved."
"The solution's performance, stability, and consistency could be improved."
"The response time is not effective, and the staff lacks adequate knowledge."
"Pricing could be improved and the stability or the performance needs improvement, which is very important."
"The annotation tool needs improvement. In other tools, such as Hyland OnBase, you can easily do annotation. You can easily merge documents. You can easily compare documents, whereas with OpenText, it seems to be a challenge."
"I have not used it enough to start running into issues. Some of my technical guys could name a couple of things, but in terms of support, we did have challenges getting good responses from them."
"Emails stored now do not display metadata in native format."
"SharePoint designer workflows can be buggy sometimes without any apparent reason."
"We would like more security features, like automating."
"I understand that some functions are lost when you store the information in a file system, so maybe that's a way SharePoint can improve."
"No good process to import emails from several users into a single comprehensive SP repository."
"It has worked very well for me. It seems like they've improved everything. I don't have any cons about it as such, but I don't think they have a talk-to-text, speech-to-text, or speech-to-type. That would be cool for accessibility."
"I would like it to be more compliant with global regulations. There are certain features which could be included that currently are not there, such as compliance and record management capabilities."
"It should have a Google-caliber search ability and a model-based GUI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"If you buy Alfresco through a partner, there is usually a OEM licensing option."
"There are costs for any upgrade or additional functions."
"It is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."
"OpenText Extended ECM is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is costly. It's costly to integrate with Office 365 and to go back and forth with the sales team."
"The licensing is not that complex for the core products, but it becomes more complicated for some additional modules."
"The total cost of the product will vary on the capabilities required"
"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."
"OpenText Extended ECM's pricing and licensing are aggressive and confusing for the end customer."
"The tool's pricing is confusing to the end customer."
"The solution is expensive."
"The platform has medium pricing."
"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."
"Licensing can be by server or by seat."
"The replacement costs for it are cheaper if you use only SharePoint."
"It is pretty reasonable. It is $5 per month per user. We have 12 users now, so it is about $60 per month."
"For this type of solution, it is not wise to buy it without Software Assurance."
"SharePoint is included with our Microsoft license."
"It comes bundled with the Microsoft 365 pricing plans."
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Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
15%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Insurance Company
10%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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...
What needs improvement with Alfresco?
Currently, documents in Alfresco are stored on a file server, which, while good for performance, is a security risk. ...
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...
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...
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.
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
With SharePoint, we save by not needing multiple external licenses. Unlike Drupal ( /products/drupal-reviews ), all n...
What needs improvement with SharePoint?
When working on a website with SharePoint Online, not many people can edit simultaneously. If I am editing one sectio...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenText Content Suite Platform, OpenText Core Share
SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
ATCO Australia, MSIG Asia, Orica, Salt River Project
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, OpenText, IBM and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: March 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.