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Box - Intelligent Content Management vs M-Files comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 12, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Box - Intelligent Content M...
Ranking in Document Management Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (9th), Cloud Storage (10th), Digital Asset Management (2nd), Content Collaboration Platforms (8th)
M-Files
Ranking in Document Management Software
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Document Management Software category, the mindshare of Box - Intelligent Content Management is 6.7%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of M-Files is 3.5%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Document Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Box - Intelligent Content Management6.7%
M-Files3.5%
Other89.8%
Document Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jeremey Kenney - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Technology & Integration at GlobalMac IT
Secure file governance has improved collaboration and automation for client document workflows
The best features are around security, being able to set up different groups, and the governance features are really great. The new AI functionality that they released has been pretty handy. For governance and security, the audit trail capability is excellent. We are able to see when people interact or change files or if something was deleted, and we can go through and review that audit trail. The AI has been great for creating different workflows that we are able to execute. When a form gets submitted into Box - Intelligent Content Management or a file is uploaded, there are certain automations that we can put in place to where it can essentially generate tickets in our system for new users or other tasks.
LN
Director of IT at JH Kelly
Good workflows, and it is easy to use with a dashboard that improves contract visibility
My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing this product is to do a pilot first. After you do your research, do an actual pilot before you commit because everyone has nuances and you might find out that it is not what you want, or that it doesn't really do what you think it's going to do. It is not the simplest product to use but because of the robustness of its feature set in the ability with the workflows, and the APIs, to do just about anything you can imagine with it, that's very valuable. I wish it was a little easier to use because we have to spend more time than I'd like with new users, teaching them how it works. We try to hide all that from them but the setup time to get everything the way we wanted was probably two months. That is two months in one resource working on it half time a week, but it just took a lot of work to get the metadata set up, to get the workflows set up, and to get all the documents added to the repository. Now we've got versioning and we know where everything's at, the dashboard is great, but don't assume when they tell you that you'll be up and running in two weeks, that that is the truth. It takes much longer than you think. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use Box as a cloud-based storage service for our employees to share documents, such as presentations, between people, and some of our customers have many gigabytes in files and we set up shared access to them using Box."
"We use Box for collaboration with files or folders, and our use is mostly for collaboration, especially on the documentation."
"Box is very user-friendly; more so than SharePoint."
"Governance and ease of use are why I think a lot of people like Box, including ourselves. Basically, we're concerned about what information is being sent to Box, so we use a lot of the Box governance features to make sure that what is being sent to Box is appropriate. If it is not appropriate, it is not allowed to be sent. It is also pretty easy to use. It is the easiest to use for customers and for technologists."
"The best features of Box for me include the structured file organizing, which is the most important part I found, and apart from that, secure sharing and integration with automation platforms, along with its smooth integration and usage in automations, is a very big plus for me."
"Box - Intelligent Content Management has positively impacted my organization by being really great and helpful for the past two years I have been using it."
"Box - Intelligent Content Management has positively impacted my organization by making it easier for us to receive assets, allowing bulk sending instead of having assets sent to us one at a time."
"We can provide controlled access to documents using the product."
"Using M-Files means anybody on the executive team to go in and immediately look at a dashboard and know the status of a contract."
"M-Files licence model is very flexible. You have the choice of Named User, Concurrent, or SaaS. This gives the business so much room and flexibility to implement new projects whilst maintaining costs and maximizing production."
 

Cons

"There are still some management features I would like to see improved, giving more control to IT."
"Box is extremely user friendly, however our clients have been having a hard time adjusting and understanding Box."
"In future releases, there could be encryption, to have better security."
"The room for improvement is in the area of integrations. They need to establish more integrations, especially with Office 365 and Outlook."
"I haven't really come across a case where we're not able to use it for what it is, so I don't really have anything holding us up or any customers holding us up at this point that I know of. There are always some limitations, but as a technologist, I just live with them, and there is always room for improvement, but I don't have anything quantifiable."
"One aspect of Box - Intelligent Content Management that could be improved is the search functionality, which can occasionally be slow or less intuitive when locating specific files with large repositories."
"I would like to see the below additional features: Disposition features, record management and retention policies in this application."
"I truly believe that Box should have a box consulting division which would really enable customers who do not necessarily want to work with ISVs."
"The integration with other products needs to be improved."
"Technical support is probably the weakest part. We had a number of authentication issues and support has been very slow to respond and get us solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm in Higher Ed, so we purchase through Internet2-Net+. I absolutely recommend going that route for Higher Ed customers."
"Our pricing and licensing is excellent. I'd tell all Higher Ed customers to talk with Internet2 for excellent pricing and support."
"There's a free version that allows you to use it with almost full-feature access. Even in the free version, it gives you all you need."
"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."
"I have to pay for Box. It could be a little cheaper. On a scale from one to ten, I would give the pricing a five."
"It is expensive per head, as you need the enterprise license to get full security and tools. So negotiate a discount!"
"We are using the free version of the solution. There is a free version and monthly and yearly subscriptions available."
"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."
"They have an Optical Character Scanning module but we didn't buy it because it's ridiculously expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise35
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Box?
Box - Intelligent Content Management has fairly good pricing for licenses, especially if you do an annual plan. We always suggest our clients do a month-to-month plan so that they have flexibility ...
What needs improvement with Box?
I would suggest more out-of-the-box integrations as far as the automations go. Box - Intelligent Content Management has many templates, and you can customize some things, but there appear to be som...
What is your primary use case for Box?
Box - Intelligent Content Management is used for file storage for clients and provides a secure way to share files with other people as well as internally with our team. Box - Intelligent Content M...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

GE, Toyota, P&G, Caterpillar, Flex, Schneider Electric, Sally Beauty, Eurostar, AstraZeneca, AirBnB, Whirlpool, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nationwide, Aeropostale etc
Crowe UK, Stearns Bank, Head Energy, OMV, TK Elevator
Find out what your peers are saying about Box - Intelligent Content Management vs. M-Files and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.