IBM FileNet vs SharePoint comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the Enterprise Content Management category. IBM is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.9, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 6.5% mindshare in ECM, compared to Microsoft’s 11.8% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM FileNet

Read 105 IBM FileNet reviews

4,015 Views
3,694 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

SharePoint

Read 164 SharePoint reviews

9,522 Views
4,856 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

IBM FileNet

SharePoint

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

SharePoint and IBM FileNet are key players in the document management and enterprise content management markets. SharePoint holds an edge in collaboration features and Office integration, while IBM FileNet leads in scalability and workflow automation.

Features: SharePoint offers valuable features such as co-authoring, powerful search capabilities, and seamless integration with Microsoft Office. Users appreciate its ability to create a shared workspace conducive to collaboration. IBM FileNet stands out with robust document management, scalability, and strong workflow automation that support enterprise-level operations.

Room for Improvement: SharePoint requires enhancements in real-time co-authoring, more intuitive permission settings, and often relies on third-party tools for full functionality. FileNet users desire more streamlined deployment processes, better integration features, and reduced system complexity to enhance usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SharePoint's flexible deployment options include public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises solutions. Customer service quality depends on the support package selected. IBM FileNet focuses on on-premises deployment for heightened security, though this can complicate setup. Its customer service is consistent but heavily relies on the technical expertise of representatives.

Pricing and ROI: SharePoint’s cost is variable, often bundled with Office 365, offering cost-effectiveness that can increase with additional requirements. Its ROI benefits from Microsoft product integration. IBM FileNet, while more costly, is advantageous for enterprises needing comprehensive document governance and flexible content management, providing significant ROI in compliance-driven environments.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM FileNet vs. SharePoint Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet vs. SharePoint

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

4.3

IBM FileNet improved efficiency, reduced errors and costs, saving clients up to $30,000 annually with enhanced automation and accuracy.

Sentiment score

5.1

SharePoint reduces costs and enhances efficiency with centralized document management and improved collaboration, benefiting organizations significantly.

Cost savings come from re-engineering the business processes using IBM FileNet and related strategies.

Shankar-Kambhampaty

Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees

There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.

Shoichiro Takeshita

Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.0

IBM FileNet customer service is praised for responsiveness but faces challenges with time zones and specific expertise issues.

Sentiment score

5.6

Customer service varies widely, from responsive to inefficient, depending on purchase options, support type, and regional effectiveness.

People come from all over the world, and they have specialists at the other end of the world to help if needed.

reviewer2585457

Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

IBM has a different division that provides consultation to end users, and most customers utilize consultation from IBM, which costs approximately $100k USD to $200k USD.

Shoichiro Takeshita

Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN

The consulting experts that IBM provides sometimes do not understand the tool very well.

ARTHUR BRUNO

Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

There is a lack of detailed and timely responses, and support is not always transparent with the solutions.

Martin Rubens

Practice Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

The quality of Microsoft's technical support is very high.

BorisKaluža

Consultant/Administrator O365 solutions at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

It's also difficult sometimes to get the right information because we speak at first to a generalist and they have to go to a specialist.

Yves De St-Riquier

Supervisor at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

IBM FileNet excels in scalability and adaptability, effortlessly handling growth, integration, and large-scale operations, meeting diverse business needs.

Sentiment score

6.5

SharePoint is scalable with proper configuration and resources, enhanced by SQL integration, requiring IT expertise for optimal management.

The bigger products like IBM FileNet can handle billions of documents and thousands of users.

reviewer2585457

Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

With Kubernetes, we can simply add instances of the worker, CPU, or memory without needing deployment.

Shoichiro Takeshita

Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN

We have about 80 transactional systems connected to IBM FileNet.

ARTHUR BRUNO

Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

Making it easy to scale from a load-balancing and infrastructure perspective.

Ram-Krish

Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

SharePoint is massively scalable and I would rate it as 8.5 out of ten.

RajatWadhwa

Cloud Architect at Freelance

SharePoint allows multiple teams to work at the same time, making it adaptable for large data volumes.

Aurora Gualtieri

PM at EUIPO - European Union Intellectual Property Office

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.0

IBM FileNet is praised for stability and reliability, though some clients face issues with high-volume ingestion or outdated APIs.

Sentiment score

7.5

SharePoint is stable with proper setup and maintenance, though issues can arise with large datasets and specific integrations.

I have never encountered a problem of data corruption, losing data files, insecure access, or anything of that nature.

Shankar-Kambhampaty

Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees

FileNet was restricted to DB2's enterprise edition instead of the standard edition, causing complications.

Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet.

reviewer2585457

Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

The stability of SharePoint is high; it is quite stable and resilient.

Ram-Krish

Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Everything runs smoothly, and I have no problems with its stability.

Cobus Prinsloo

Financial Director at Est

SharePoint is a stable product.

SomnathKand

Works

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Room For Improvement

IBM FileNet users seek improved cloud integration, enhanced usability, automation, analytics, modern interface, and better integration with existing systems.

SharePoint needs improvements in co-authoring, permissions, search, synchronization, mobile experience, cost-effectiveness, integration, complexity, and performance.

Ease of use with IBM FileNet is a disadvantage of this tool. It is complex and hard to use.

ARTHUR BRUNO

Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement.

reviewer2141718

Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.

Shoichiro Takeshita

Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

Microsoft forces users to upgrade their license to access proper auditing information, which is essential and should be included in any license.

Martin Rubens

Practice Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

The rights management aspect can be particularly challenging, which may affect the overall user-friendliness of the product.

Madhur D'silva

Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Expansion of scalability is needed, specifically the threshold limits for site items should be increased beyond the current 5,000 items.

SomnathKand

Works

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Setup Cost

IBM FileNet is costly, with high licensing and setup fees; negotiation can reduce prices, yet remains expensive for smaller enterprises.

Enterprise SharePoint pricing varies widely; careful planning and professional guidance are essential for cost-effective, tailored solutions.

We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs anywhere from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand US dollars.

Shankar-Kambhampaty

Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees

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

Emad Rizki

System integrator at Indépendant

The price is high, with yearly subscriptions increasing day by day.

reviewer2141718

Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

Unlike Drupal, all necessary applications are included in the Microsoft license, making it cost-effective.

Aurora Gualtieri

PM at EUIPO - European Union Intellectual Property Office

Microsoft offers bundled pricing for Office, SharePoint, and Exchange, making it cost-effective.

Ram-Krish

Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Enterprise licensing is generally cost-effective compared to individual purchases.

Madhur D'silva

Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Valuable Features

IBM FileNet offers scalable document management, seamless integration, automation, strong security, and high performance for efficient business processes.

SharePoint offers document management, collaboration, Office integration, and security, enhancing processes with workflows and adaptable cross-device accessibility.

There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.

Shoichiro Takeshita

Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN

The impact when using IBM FileNet is the faster retrieval of documents and how end users are happy with the ability to retrieve documents faster than before in an easier way.

Mohamed-AbdelAziz

Development Lead at Public Authority for Civil Information

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

reviewer2141718

Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM FileNet report

Additionally, SharePoint acts as a version control system, allowing easy recovery of past document versions.

RajatWadhwa

Cloud Architect at Freelance

Its rights management capabilities and ability to restrict access to certain people are also very useful.

Madhur D'silva

Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable feature of SharePoint is the ability to collaborate on documents without having multiple versions.

Cobus Prinsloo

Financial Director at Est

For more quotes and insights, download the SharePoint report

Categories and Ranking

IBM FileNet

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SharePoint

Ranking in Enterprise Content Management

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

164

Ranking in other categories

Web Content Management (2nd), Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (1st), Enterprise Intranet (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of IBM FileNet is 6.5%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 11.8%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Content Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SharePoint	11.8%
IBM FileNet	6.5%
Other	81.7%

Enterprise Content Management

Featured Reviews

Shankar-Kambhampaty

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.

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AnjneyBhardwaj

Senior Market Research Analyst at IDC Corporate

Collaboration has improved through simplified document access and controlled sharing

SharePoint is definitely used to keep a record of our files and data. The capability is quite good because it is time-saving. I have used it only four or five times, but it has been very helpful to keep all my information in a consolidated manner. The search feature is one of the most beneficial factors that we use to filter out the latest data or the latest file as per our convenience and use case. When you have a large repository, this feature is particularly valuable. Role-based access control has been helpful while developing the knowledge platform. The roles were defined clearly, which made it easy for the four or five of us to work simultaneously and collaborate on our project in a similar manner.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	74

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	80
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	81

Questions from the Community

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?

From the company's perspective, the licensing cost for IBM FileNet is still affordable. Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?

We almost do not utilize the automation capabilities of IBM FileNet to streamline our business processes. The process automation and business automation features are barely used. Currently, we prim...

See all answers

What do you like most about SharePoint?

The search feature is valuable.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SharePoint?

It is not really better; we use the same solution as before with Google Drive and the Google App solution. Sometimes I have to refresh pages more than with Google, but it does not charge; the page ...

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Content Management vs SharePoint

Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Content Manager vs SharePoint

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet

January 2026

Download IBM FileNet product report

Buyer's Guide

SharePoint

December 2025

Download SharePoint product report

Also Known As

No data available

SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010

Overview

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

SharePoint is a Microsoft-based platform for building web applications. It covers a widerange of capabilities and while it is appropriate for experienced webdevelopers, even non-technical minded users can easily navigate through thesystem and execute functions such as collaborating data, managing documents andfiles, creating websites, managing social networking solutions, and automatingworkflow.

Major areas that SharePoint deals with are websites,communities, content, search, insights, and composites. The purpose is to give usersthe ability to create or develop these key business components on their owneven without technical knowledge of, for example, how to build a website or howto integrate coding. Configuring SharePoint into a business's system is meantto cut out all of the complicated steps, and pave the way for easierimplementation all around.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

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.

Buyer's Guide

IBM FileNet vs. SharePoint

December 2025

Free Report: IBM FileNet vs. SharePoint

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM FileNet vs. SharePoint and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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