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Alfresco vs OpenKM
March 08, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
15★
Alfresco is a Free enterprise content management system for Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems. Alfresco includes a content repository, an out-of-the-box web portal framework for managing and using standard portal content, a CIFS interface that provides file system compatibility on Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems, a web content management system capable of virtualizing webapps and static sites via Apache Tomcat, Lucene indexing, and Activiti workflow. The Alfresco system is developed using Java technology.
13★
OpenKM is a web base document management application that uses standards and Open Source technologies. OpenKM provides full document management capabilities including version control and file history, metadata, scanning, workflow, search, and more. It also allows the social activities around content to be used to connect people to other people, information to information, and people to information; helping to manage, more efficiently, the collective intelligence of the human resources of the company.
Alfresco and OpenKM are, at first glance, remarkably similar. Both exist to bring order to the swirling chaos of digital documents, offering version control so no one loses their sanity, workflow automation so things actually get done and APIs so they can be forcibly introduced to other systems that may or may not want to talk to them. They also have web-based interfaces, which means that, theoretically, people can access their documents from anywhere, though in practice this often means from a slightly different chair in the same office. Permissions management is included too, allowing companies to ensure that no one, not even the CEO, can ever find the files they need.
Alfresco, birthed in the UK in 2005, is the posh, enterprise-focused elder sibling in this tale. Designed for massive organizations with compliance woes, it offers records management so thorough it could probably track down Atlantis. It was acquired by Hyland in 2020, which, depending on who you ask, either means exciting new possibilities or a slow descent into licensing doom. To keep up with the times, Alfresco has also thrown AI into the mix, presumably so it can misunderstand your document searches with even greater efficiency.
Meanwhile, OpenKM, hailing from Spain and also launched in 2005, is the scrappy underdog aimed at mid-sized companies that just want to organize their files without a degree in advanced ECM studies. It offers built-in email archiving, meaning your inbox can finally breathe and has an obsession with multilingual support, ensuring that no matter what language you curse in, the system will understand. OpenKM also boasts low-code workflow creation, which is another way of saying, "We know you don’t want to call IT every time you need to automate something."
See also: Top 10 ECM software
Alfresco, birthed in the UK in 2005, is the posh, enterprise-focused elder sibling in this tale. Designed for massive organizations with compliance woes, it offers records management so thorough it could probably track down Atlantis. It was acquired by Hyland in 2020, which, depending on who you ask, either means exciting new possibilities or a slow descent into licensing doom. To keep up with the times, Alfresco has also thrown AI into the mix, presumably so it can misunderstand your document searches with even greater efficiency.
Meanwhile, OpenKM, hailing from Spain and also launched in 2005, is the scrappy underdog aimed at mid-sized companies that just want to organize their files without a degree in advanced ECM studies. It offers built-in email archiving, meaning your inbox can finally breathe and has an obsession with multilingual support, ensuring that no matter what language you curse in, the system will understand. OpenKM also boasts low-code workflow creation, which is another way of saying, "We know you don’t want to call IT every time you need to automate something."
See also: Top 10 ECM software
