Alfresco vs Box vs SharePoint comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alfresco, Box, and SharePoint based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, Box and others in Enterprise Content Management.
To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Content Management Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Karthi Keyan
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata.""The product allows engineering teams and developers to introduce new things in a seamless and easy way.""I like the ease of use, sections, and calendar.""Document repository."

More Alfresco Pros →

"It is a very user-friendly product.""The ability to collaborate around data anywhere, anytime is the most powerful features of Box.""Simple file sharing and sync for internal and external customers.""Box is very realistic when it comes to sharing capabilities.""The interface is very good.""It is really easy to load files to and from this solution.""File sharing, authorization on the back, its ease of use and reliable uptime performance are valuable features of this solution.""The system's performance is impressive, and file sharing is notably straightforward."

More Box Pros →

"It's stable. It's very widely used by companies. Also, the knowledge of the product has improved over the years, and by other companies that support it or are Microsoft SharePoint partners. So if there are problems, there's always a user or company that knows the information or can help you; even with very uncommon problems.""Its configuration management ability is critical for document-based systems.""It improved transparency around work products.""For SharePoint, I believe the most valuable feature is the customization and allowing you to share and edit files and documents. Being able to share externally and the precise administration of the files in terms of giving permissions and controlling who has access to what is a very good feature.""It allows for simultaneous users to be on it.""It offers ease of use, which is crucial.""​Combined reports and data with timeline tracking.""SharePoint enabled the staff to share documents and work on a document simultaneously."

More SharePoint Pros →

Cons
"I would like them to consider document capture functionality.""I think the presentation layer could be improved - currently, it's too complex, and there are too many features cluttered all over the screen.""Alfresco has a very steep learning curve, and unfortunately, during the learning process, it's very easy to make errors, which often are unforgiving.""Metadata, auto class, disposition log, and legal hold."

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"The room for improvement is in the area of integrations. They need to establish more integrations, especially with Office 365 and Outlook.""The integration with other products should be improved.""Like all cloud platforms, there are always areas of improvement around sync to local devices.""If there was a plugin that added some sort of toolbar in Office, that would be great.""It could be cheaper.""With OneDrive, you can continuously save your files over a Box folder. That is something I wish we could have.""They could integrate better with other platforms.""One thing that Box would benefit from is a records management component."

More Box Cons →

"The limitations and boundaries must be extended.""The initial setup process is not intuitive.""​The support is the worst. It is bad when Microsoft support does not even know what to do and you have to tell them. Also, they take too long to solve a problem.​""Too many versions being released in a short time period. Too much time being devoted to migration planning.""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 a simpler, more cost-effective solution for connecting data sources with workflows and BI tools, or data mining tools.""The initial setup was very complex."

More SharePoint Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is cheaper compared to head-to-head competitors."
  • "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."
  • More Alfresco Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing may seem steep at first, but delve into the features and you'll soon realize it is incredible value for what you get."
  • "It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
  • "Better sign a full year's contract to get a discount."
  • "I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
  • "A business account has a minimum of three users. If you are more than three people in-house, go for the Enterprise version. All the external users are free of charge."
  • "Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
  • "I believe Box is cheaper than SharePoint."
  • "They are very price competitive when pushed. Initially, they come out with a standard list price, but they are willing to be very competitive. The Box price was pretty much equal to or lower than the Citrix price, and Box has more features."
  • More Box Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "It is very expensive.​"
  • "The data classification and search elements are cheap."
  • "The replacement costs for it are cheaper if you use only SharePoint."
  • "We have purchased add-ons to handle multiple site collections, form creation, and design."
  • "The cost is expensive, but worthwhile."
  • "The pricing works for us."
  • More SharePoint Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    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 round-up of a couple of the more well known platforms and compare their products to Drupal. In this roundup we will be comparing Jive, Sharepoint and Drupal Commons. Drupal Commons is a popular distribution created by Acquia to compete with some of these other proprietary platforms. There are many other options out there, commercial and otherwise, to compare with Drupal but I want to focus on Jive and Sharepoint for a couple of reasons. I chose Jive because it is one of the leading competitors in this space in respect to market share. Next, I chose Sharepoint because I have some history with Sharepoint. This experience dates back to when I built www.adhe.edu with Sharepoint 2007 a few years ago. I subsequently wrote this blog entry about my experience shortly after joining Mediacurrent. This roundup will also act as a refresher for those who read my original “Drupal vs. Sharepoint” blog. Yammer, which was recently bought by Microsoft and is the tool we currently use for office communication will also get some mentions throughout this article. As I went through and tested each of these tools I used three main criteria in my evaluation Cost Ability to Customize Overall features… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Alfresco scores are high on all features of an ECM solution and tools.   Back office processing, rated as 3.36 good.… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the searching elements of the metadata.
    Top Answer:The license for Alfresco is expensive - not the maximum, but close. There are also extra costs once you start building… more »
    Top Answer:The solution is used for data storage and any kind of visualization.
    Top Answer:The solution does not have the feature to retrieve deleted data. The solution's data security should be improved. While… more »
    Top Answer:The pricing is competitive. That's why almost all the companies are using SharePoint. I rate the pricing a ten out of… more »
    Top Answer:SharePoint should not provide frequent updates.
    Ranking
    Views
    3,092
    Comparisons
    2,494
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    378
    Rating
    6.0
    Views
    4,012
    Comparisons
    2,273
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    366
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    8,328
    Comparisons
    6,692
    Reviews
    17
    Average Words per Review
    562
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Hyland OnBase logo
    Compared 20% of the time.
    OpenText Extended ECM logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    OpenText Documentum logo
    Compared 8% of the time.
    IBM FileNet logo
    Compared 8% of the time.
    Microsoft OneDrive logo
    Compared 2% of the time.
    Microsoft OneDrive logo
    Compared 17% of the time.
    Citrix ShareFile logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Office 365 logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    IBM FileNet logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Backblaze logo
    Compared 2% of the time.
    Citrix ShareFile logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    Microsoft OneDrive logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Dropbox logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    WordPress logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    OpenText Extended ECM logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Also Known As
    SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
    Learn More
    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.

    Box is a Modern Content Management Platform for companies of all sizes and industries. The difference that Box brings is that it offers the security and controls admins need with the sharing and collaboration capabilities end users want. Box has made it easier for people to securely share ideas, collaborate and get work done faster. Today, more than 62,000 businesses, including 59% of the Fortune 500, trust Box to manage content in the cloud.

    The Box platform provides HIPAA, FINRA, FedRAMP, and many other compliances to go with granular access permissions and advanced security capabilities.

    By using Box you can sync, share, and collaborate on all types of files, anywhere, on any device - but that's just the beginning. You can choose where to store your data, to manage your own encryption keys, and set workflows to automate content-based processes. You can also assign custom metadata tags to content, watermark sensitive content, and set file retention or legal hold policies.

    Box has deep, native integrations with Microsoft Office and Outlook, Google Apps for Work, Salesforce, Netsuite, Docusign, Adobe, and many other best-of-breed solutions you may already be using.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    Over 1,300 companies from 180 different countries. Including EuroStar, Saks Fifth Avenue, NASA Langley Research Center, and KLM.
    GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
    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.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Government14%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Insurance Company11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    REVIEWERS
    Non Tech Company26%
    Construction Company10%
    University10%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization48%
    Computer Software Company7%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Energy/Utilities Company8%
    University8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Government12%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business80%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise54%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise52%
    Large Enterprise34%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Enterprise Content Management
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, OpenText, Box and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.