A document management system is bought for the parts a shared drive cannot do: metadata, versions, retention and an audit trail that survives an inspection.
This guide ranks on what the first ninety days cost in hours, whether you can buy it without a partner, what the licence hides, and whether documents leave with their metadata attached.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What document management software does
Document management software stores files with metadata and version history, controls who may see or change them, applies retention rules, and records every access for audit.
Each document management tool was put through the same five questions, in sequence: how hard is setup, what does it really cost, how does data come back out, can you leave, and who is it for. On top of them sits one rule. The top three places are for challengers, which means vendors outside the big names, where the category has any, and the household brands come in from fourth place. For why these five were chosen, and why nothing here gets a numeric score, see how we work.
Published plans with users and storage bundled, bought without a partner
Ranked #1 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingEurope
Folderit is what most small organisations actually need: files with versions and an audit trail, searchable by their contents, bought at a published price that bundles users and storage.
Mini covers 5 users; approvals, automated retention and custom metadata arrive with Medium at 10 users, and anything larger moves to the configurable Tailor plan. The ceiling is real. Complex approval chains, deep integrations and very large repositories belong elsewhere, and the vendor is small enough that its future is a fair question to ask.
What stands out
Published pricing
Users bundled per plan
Cloud or on-premises
Where it costs you
Workflows and retention start on Medium; API and single sign-on need Tailor
A small vendor, with the concentration risk that implies
Right for
Small organisations that want document control without hiring a consultant
Wrong for
Enterprises integrating documents with ERP and line-of-business systems
EstoniaPer month by plan, published: Mini EUR 45 for 5 users, Medium EUR 85 for 10 users, Tailor from EUR 113
Cloud document management with published per-user licence tiers
Ranked #2 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Revver, known for years as eFileCabinet, is document management a small organisation can buy on a Tuesday: published licence tiers, a 14-day trial, folder templates that impose structure, retention rules, simple workflow and a client portal for collecting documents.
Mixing licence types keeps occasional users cheap. The limits are those of a mid-sized Utah vendor. Integrations are narrower than DocuWare's, records management is basic, and the per-user sum plus onboarding needs modelling against Folderit's bundled plans.
What stands out
Published pricing
Direct purchase
Client portals
Where it costs you
Per-user tiers and separate onboarding fees need modelling before you buy
Records management and integrations are lighter than enterprise suites
Right for
Accounting firms and small service businesses that want to buy without a partner
Wrong for
Enterprises needing ERP integration and formal records management
United StatesPer user per month by licence tier, published, from USD 25; volume discounts; onboarding charged separately
OpenKM gives a small technical team a full document system for nothing: metadata, workflow, retention and search, running on your own server under your own rules.
The caution is about direction rather than capability, because the community edition has moved towards binary-only distribution, which changes what you can rely on if the company changes course. Treat it as free software with a vendor attached, and budget for the professional edition if audit requirements harden.
What stands out
Community edition
Self-hostable
Records management
Where it costs you
Recent community releases are distributed without published source
Professional and cloud editions have no published price
Right for
Technical teams wanting a self-hosted system with no licence cost
Wrong for
Organisations with no one to run Java applications and databases
SpainFree community edition; professional and cloud editions quoted
Finds documents by what they are, not where they sit
Ranked #4 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingEurope
M-Files replaces the folder tree with properties, so the same quality manual appears under the project, the customer and the standard it belongs to without being copied three times. Where that model is designed carefully, people stop losing documents.
Where it is not, staff invent workarounds and you have paid for a filing system nobody understands. That design work is the project, and it is the part vendors underplay when they demonstrate search on a prepared dataset.
What stands out
Metadata driven
No folder tree
Essentials price published
Where it costs you
Value depends on a metadata design that someone has to do well
Only Essentials has a listed price; Enterprise is priced on request
Right for
Document-heavy organisations willing to design and maintain a metadata model
Wrong for
Teams that want something working next week without design work
FinlandEssentials per seat per month, published at EUR 65, billed annually; Enterprise priced on request
German archiving and invoice capture, sold through partners
Ranked #5 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
DocuWare is bought to make an auditor's visit uneventful: incoming invoices captured and indexed, records kept unalterable for the statutory period, and a trail showing who saw what. It does that job as well as anything in its market.
The purchase itself is old-fashioned, since the partner channel controls scoping and pricing, and two companies with identical requirements can be quoted very differently depending on who they called first.
What stands out
Audit-proof archiving
Invoice capture
Partner channel
Where it costs you
The price depends on which partner you approached
Implementation is scoped and billed separately from the licence
Right for
Mid-sized German companies that must archive invoices and statutory records
Wrong for
Buyers who want to sign up and start the same afternoon
GermanyQuoted through partners; cloud plans bundle a set number of users and storage
Austrian capture-first document system, part-owned by Canon and sold through partners
Ranked #6 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestEurope
Therefore is a capture-first system: paper arrives, gets scanned and indexed, and becomes a record with retention attached. Canon, which holds 49% of the Austrian vendor, often sells it alongside the hardware that feeds it, which makes the bundle convenient and the pricing opaque, since the document system is one line in a wider office equipment relationship.
Technically it assumes a Microsoft estate, so a Linux-based or fully cloud organisation is fighting the design from the first day.
What stands out
Scanning workflow
Partner channel
On-premises option
Where it costs you
Sold through partners, Canon dealers among them, rather than directly
Closely tied to Windows and SQL Server infrastructure
Right for
Organisations digitising large volumes of incoming paper into searchable records
Wrong for
Cloud-first companies with no scanners and no Windows servers
AustriaQuoted through partners; on-premises or cloud (Therefore Online)
German public sector archiving with the compliance built in
Ranked #7 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
d.velop is built around German record-keeping obligations, including the retention periods and unalterability rules that decide whether an archive is acceptable at all. Public bodies use it for electronic files with the formality that implies.
The trade is reach: outside the German-speaking market the support, documentation and implementation partners thin out quickly, and the product assumes processes shaped by German administrative practice rather than by whatever your organisation does.
What stands out
GoBD retention
Public sector
DACH focus
Where it costs you
German-first in product, documentation and partner network
Timelines depend on partner availability rather than your plan
Right for
German public authorities and companies with strict statutory retention duties
Wrong for
International teams needing English documentation and local support
GermanyQuoted per organisation; partner implementation
Certified document cloud with data kept in Austria, Germany or Switzerland
Ranked #8 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Fabasoft is a listed Austrian software company, and Fabasoft Cloud is its answer to the residency question: data held only in audited centres in Austria, Germany or Switzerland, with BSI C5, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 attestations.
Workspaces are designed for work across company boundaries, which suits auditors, construction and public bodies. What goes against it is clarity. The product range is wide, pricing comes by quote, and a clean setup needs more design work than Folderit.
What stands out
DACH data residency
BSI C5 attested
Cross-company workspaces
Where it costs you
Product family is broad and hard to map to a single need
No published price to budget against
Right for
Regulated DACH organisations sharing documents with outside parties under audit
Wrong for
Small firms wanting a document system switched on this week
Modular DACH archiving that grows one module at a time
Ranked #9 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
ELO is a suite assembled from modules, which suits an organisation that starts with invoice archiving and adds contracts and personnel files later. It also means the demo shows capabilities that are not in the base quote, and the real number appears after a scoping workshop.
The partner network is large and uneven, so the implementer you get matters as much as the software, and references from your own sector are worth more than the vendor's.
What stands out
Modular suite
Archiving
Partner channel
Where it costs you
Modules are priced individually and add up during scoping
Implementation quality varies across a large partner network
Right for
DACH companies expanding document management one process at a time
Wrong for
Buyers who need a single predictable price up front
GermanyQuoted per organisation; modules priced separately
Open source content platform for developers to build on
Ranked #10 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingNorth America
Alfresco is a platform first, which makes it the right base for an organisation whose document requirements are unusual enough that no product fits. The records management module is serious, and the APIs are the reason integrators keep choosing it.
Running it is an engineering commitment: tuning, upgrades and search indexes are your problem, and the community edition's slower pace under Hyland ownership is a real consideration for a ten-year archive.
What stands out
Community edition
Developer platform
Records management
Where it costs you
The community edition receives less attention since the acquisition
Operating it well requires Java and infrastructure skills
Right for
Development teams building document handling into their own applications and systems
Wrong for
Business teams expecting a finished application out of the box
United StatesFree community edition; enterprise quoted
Cloud document management for law firms and advisers
Ranked #11 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
NetDocuments organises everything around the matter, with workspaces, ethical walls and security profiles that map to how professional firms are obliged to work. Firms that adopt it properly stop keeping shadow copies in email.
The commitments are clear: it is cloud only, so data residency is a contract question rather than an architecture choice, and the price comes from a negotiation rather than a page, which makes budgeting awkward for a small firm.
What stands out
Professional services
Matter-centric
Cloud only
Where it costs you
Cloud only, with no on-premises option
Priced per user after a sales conversation
Right for
Law firms and advisers organising work by client and matter
Wrong for
Organisations needing documents to stay on their own infrastructure
The document system large law firms already standardise on
Ranked #12 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
iManage is the default in large legal practice, and defaults have value: lawyers arriving from another firm already know it, integrations exist for everything a firm uses, and email filing at scale genuinely works.
The cost is the shape of the purchase. Nothing is self-service, implementation runs through iManage consulting or partners who specialise in it, and the security model that makes it right for a law firm is overhead for anyone else.
What stands out
Law firm standard
Email filing
Partner implementation
Where it costs you
Negotiated pricing with specialist implementation partners
More system than a non-legal organisation will ever use
Right for
Law firms where email filing and matter security are non-negotiable
Wrong for
Companies outside professional services with simple filing needs
United StatesQuoted per organisation; implementation priced separately
Records retention and process automation for public bodies
Ranked #13 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Laserfiche is two products in one: a records system with retention schedules and disposition, and a workflow engine that turns forms into processes. Local government buys both, because the same system that files the permit also routes it.
For that buyer it works well. For a company of forty people it is a large answer to a small question, and the partner-led scoping means the quote reflects ambition rather than need.
What stands out
Records management
Process automation
Public sector
Where it costs you
Partner-led scoping determines both modules and price
Assumes a records manager most small organisations do not employ
Right for
Public bodies that combine records retention with forms-driven process automation
Wrong for
Small teams that only need shared files with version history
United StatesQuoted per organisation; partner-led implementation
Enterprise content platform for hospitals, insurers and public bodies
Ranked #14 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
OnBase is where a large American organisation puts the paper that surrounds its core systems: scanned claims beside the policy system, clinical documents beside the health record, case files beside the student system.
Capture, workflow and retention are mature and configured rather than coded. The objections are size and dependence. Licensing is quoted across a long module list, a first deployment takes months, and Hyland's portfolio, which includes Alfresco, pulls roadmap attention in several directions.
What stands out
Healthcare records
Case and process
Enterprise scale
Where it costs you
Licensing spans many modules and is quoted
Implementations run for months, often with a partner
Right for
Hospitals, insurers and public bodies tying documents to core systems
Wrong for
Small organisations wanting document control without a project
United StatesQuoted per organisation; direct or partner implementation
The document system most companies already own through Microsoft 365
Ranked #15 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
SharePoint is the document system most companies already own, and the honest comparison for every other product here. Versioning, metadata, Office co-authoring and Purview retention are all there.
What is missing is the finished shape: it does nothing until someone designs libraries, content types and permissions, and left alone it drifts into folders nobody understands. Records management at the level of M-Files or Laserfiche needs higher licences, and Microsoft remains subject to American law.
What stands out
Bundled with Microsoft 365
Office co-authoring
Purview retention
Where it costs you
Needs deliberate design of sites, content types and permissions
Advanced retention and records features need higher Microsoft licences
Right for
Microsoft 365 organisations with someone willing to design the structure
Wrong for
Firms without an administrator or with strict EU jurisdiction needs
United StatesPer user per month, published; included in most Microsoft 365 plans
Enterprise content management for large organisations built around SAP
Ranked #16 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
OpenText is where enterprise content governance ends up when documents must live beside transactions in SAP and be retained under policy across dozens of countries. At that scale the alternatives run out.
Everything about the relationship reflects it: negotiated multi-year terms, a licence structure that specialists interpret, and upgrade cycles managed as projects. Independence is the lowest on this page, and leaving is a programme rather than an export.
What stands out
Enterprise scale
SAP integration
Long implementations
Where it costs you
Multi-year agreements and licensing that needs interpretation
Upgrades turn into projects with their own budgets
Right for
Large enterprises governing documents alongside SAP and other core systems
Wrong for
Any organisation without a dedicated content management team
CanadaQuoted per organisation; multi-year enterprise agreements
Community-run, self-hosted system to scan, index and archive documents
Ranked #17 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
The repository describes Paperless-ngx as a community-supported document management system to scan, index and archive all your documents. It is licensed GPL-3.0 and installed on your own infrastructure.
The repository names Docker Compose as the easiest way to deploy it and provides an install script that sets up a Docker Compose environment. No vendor, plans or prices are listed, and no country is stated.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hosted
Community-supported
Where it costs you
You install, update and back it up yourself, with no hosted version from a vendor.
Support comes from the community, and the pages read name no company, country or commercial support contract.
Right for
Technical users or small offices wanting to archive scanned documents on their own server
Wrong for
Organisations needing a vendor contract, support agreement or hosted service
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under GPL-3.0 with no vendor plans or price list; you host it yourself
Document management from Carpi, deployable on-premises, in cloud or managed
Ranked #18 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePublished pricingEurope
The company page lists several ways to run the system: Windows or Linux servers, private cloud on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, a fully managed LogicalDOC Cloud, or hybrid, plus Docker on Synology or QNAP NAS.
Capture uses structured metadata, OCR templates and barcode recognition, and search includes OCR-processed scans. Workflows cover review, approval, tasks and notifications. The AI features are classification, keyword extraction, summarisation and semantic search.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hostable
Italian vendor
Where it costs you
Commercial prices are quoted per edition, user count and deployment, so budgeting needs a conversation with the vendor.
The page does not name the Community edition licence or say which features it omits.
Right for
Organisations wanting flexible hosting choices and OCR capture without committing to a large suite
Wrong for
Buyers who need published prices or a ready-made partner ecosystem
ItalyQuoted by edition, users and deployment; Community edition free; 30-day trial of commercial editions
Open source document system with per-version permissions and rule-based linking
Ranked #19 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
The site presents the product as a scalable, mature open source document management system. Permissions can be set per individual operation, and each document version has its own access control.
Workflows track the current state and the next possible states, smart links relate documents automatically by rule, and a REST API is available. The professional services on offer are basic, advanced and SLA support, migration help and training. No pricing page exists, and the pricing URL returned 404.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hostable
REST API
Where it costs you
The site does not name the licence, so legal review needs the repository rather than the website.
Support, migration and training are paid services with no published prices, and the company is based in the United States.
Right for
Technical teams wanting a self-run document system with fine-grained permissions and an API
Wrong for
Organisations needing a European vendor or a polished hosted service
United StatesSoftware free to adopt with donations requested; paid support and services without published prices
Cloud archive for invoices and contracts, stored on EU infrastructure
Ranked #20 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingEurope
The team subscription is billed monthly or yearly, with two months free on the yearly plan, and includes three seats and 100 GB. Extra seats and extra storage are priced as add-ons.
The 14-day trial covers up to 15 members, 1,000 documents or 5 GB and needs a card, with a small amount reserved and released. Records can be tagged by supplier, amount, project and due date, with retention rules, version history and an audit trail that cannot be edited.
What stands out
GoBD records
Hosted in EU
Published prices
Where it costs you
The pages describe a cloud service, and they name no licence or hosting alternatives.
Extra seats and storage are paid add-ons, and the Impressum does not state the legal form.
Right for
Small German-speaking businesses needing tax-compliant storage of invoices and contracts without IT staff
Wrong for
Teams wanting to self-host or run large multi-department deployments
GermanyMonthly or yearly team subscription with paid add-ons for seats and storage, published; 14-day trial
Open source document archive with OCR and search, from Lyon
Ranked #21 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Open sourceSelf-hostablePricing on requestEurope
Teedy runs as a Docker image on port 8080, with PostgreSQL recommended for production and embedded H2 only for testing.
The repository lists full text search across PDF, DOCX, PPTX, ODT and images, OCR, versioning, tags, groups, two-factor authentication, an audit log and per-user quotas. LDAP, a REST API, webhooks and email import round it out, and it is said to be tested to one million documents.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hostable
Made in France
Where it costs you
The hosted plan names and prices are not readable on the site, so budgeting for the managed option needs a conversation with the vendor.
The feature list names search, tags and permissions but no approval workflow or records retention rules, which larger compliance teams usually expect.
Right for
Small teams wanting a searchable self-hosted archive with OCR and an API
Wrong for
Regulated organisations needing workflow, retention rules and vendor-backed support
FranceSelf-hosted without licence cost; hosted subscriptions offered, plans not readable on the site
Dutch employee platform for frontline teams, with a 15-day go-live after signature
Ranked #22 of 22 in Best Document Management Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Speakap sizes a quote on two inputs, the tier and the number of licensed users. The vendor says go-live takes as little as 15 days after signature, which keeps the first ninety days light.
The tier is the real decision: the branded apps staff download, HR sync, translation into over 100 languages and single sign-on sit in Premium, while tasks, journeys and the API need Premium Plus. Contracts are annual, and data stays in an EU or US data centre.
What stands out
Frontline
ISO 27001
EU or US hosting
Where it costs you
Branded mobile apps, HR sync and automatic translation begin at the second tier
Task management, journeys and the open API are held for the top tier, and no prices are shown
Right for
Retail, hospitality and logistics teams wanting a branded app on a tiered contract
Wrong for
Buyers who need a published price or a rolling monthly term
NetherlandsQuoted per organisation by tier and licensed users; demo and offer, no price list
Document management software stores files with metadata and version history, controls who may see or change them, applies retention rules, and records every access for audit. Rather than compare features, settle the following points one after another.
01
Start with pricing transparency
The split is 9 published against 13 quoted. If you want to compare numbers first, start with Folderit, Revver, OpenKM, M-Files, Alfresco, Microsoft SharePoint, LogicalDOC, Mayan EDMS, Papermerge.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
3 regions are represented (Europe 12, North America 9, Elsewhere 1). A vendor outside your own legal area is not a problem as such, but it changes who can compel it to hand over data.
03
Decide if open source matters
Source code is available for OpenKM, Alfresco, Paperless-ngx, LogicalDOC, Mayan EDMS, Teedy. Running it yourself swaps the licence fee for your own upkeep.
You are buying a search index, not a folder tree
The reason a shared drive stops working is not storage, it is retrieval: nobody agrees where a document belongs, so it ends up in three places under two names. Document management systems answer that with metadata and full-text search. M-Files takes the idea furthest by removing folders altogether, so a document is described by what it is and appears wherever that description is relevant.
Folderit and OpenKM keep folders but index the contents, which is a gentler change for staff. Whichever you pick, the work is not installation, it is deciding which properties every document must carry and who fills them in. Get that wrong and you have paid for a slower shared drive with an audit trail. Design the metadata before you compare interfaces, because the design determines which product suits you.
Write down the five questions you most often ask to find a document.
Decide which metadata is mandatory, and who supplies it at the moment of filing.
Test search in the trial with your own documents, not the vendor's demo set.
Retention is where the country you operate in shows up
Storage is generic, retention is local. German companies keep commercial books and invoices for statutory periods and must show that archived records cannot be altered, which is why DocuWare, d.velop and ELO Digital Office lead with archiving rather than collaboration. Dutch businesses face a seven-year fiscal retention duty. Public bodies need retention schedules and evidence of disposal, which is Laserfiche's territory.
None of this is a feature you can add afterwards, because it constrains how the system stores and deletes. Ask each vendor which national requirement their archiving is certified or audited against, and ask what happens on the day retention expires. A product that can keep documents forever but cannot prove it deleted them on schedule has solved only half the problem.
List the retention periods your sector actually imposes, with the rule beside each one.
Ask what evidence the system produces that a record was not altered.
Check that scheduled deletion is automatic and logged, not a manual annual chore.
The licence is the small half of the bill
Document management remains one of the last categories where most vendors will not sell to you directly. DocuWare, ELO Digital Office, Therefore, d.velop and Laserfiche are all bought through partners who scope the project, and the implementation, capture configuration and integrations usually cost more than the first year of licences. That is not automatically bad, because a good partner brings experience of your sector.
It does mean the number in the brochure is not the number you will pay, and two quotes for the same requirement can differ enormously. Folderit, Revver and OpenKM are the exceptions here, two with published pricing and one with no licence at all, and M-Files now lists its Essentials plan at a published per-seat price, which is exactly why they rank where they do on a page that rewards buying without an intermediary.
Ask for licence, implementation and first-year support as three separate figures.
Get a second partner quote for the same product before signing anything.
Confirm who owns the configuration afterwards, and what changing it costs.
Exit means the documents and the metadata, together
Every vendor will confirm you can export your documents, and most mean a folder tree of files with the properties left behind. That is the difference between an archive and a pile. Before signing, ask for an export of a hundred real documents and check three things: the files open, the metadata arrives in a readable file that maps to them, and version history and audit records are included rather than summarised.
OpenKM and Alfresco give you database and file store access because you run them, which is the strongest possible answer. iManage and OpenText Content Management require a migration project to leave, and firms budget for it accordingly. The exit test is worth doing early, because it tells you how the vendor thinks about ownership.
Export a hundred documents during the trial and open the metadata file yourself.
Confirm version history and audit trails are part of the export, not a separate request.
Put the export format and its cost in the contract, before the relationship is good.
What goes wrong most often when buying document management software
Buying storage when the problem is retrieval. Another drive with more space changes nothing if nobody can agree where a document belongs or what it is called.
Letting the partner design the metadata model alone. They will finish the project and leave; the people filing documents every day have to live with the structure.
Treating retention as a legal formality to configure later. It determines how the system stores and deletes, so it belongs in the selection, not in the rollout.
Migrating the entire shared drive on day one. Bring in what is still used and what the law requires you to keep, and archive the rest somewhere cheaper before anyone indexes it.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best document management in 2026?
First of 22 on this page is Folderit. Wins its position on terms rather than depth. The price is on the website and each plan bundles a set number of users and storage: Mini covers 5 users with versioning, OCR search and audit trails, Medium covers 10 and adds approval workflows, automated retention and custom metadata, all without a consultant.
It is a small vendor with a small product: the workflow engine is simple, API access and single sign-on need the Tailor plan, and an organisation with thousands of users and an ERP to integrate will outgrow it.
Which document management tools publish their pricing?
9 of the 22, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Folderit: Per month by plan, published: Mini EUR 45 for 5 users, Medium EUR 85 for 10 users, Tailor from EUR 113.
Revver: Per user per month by licence tier, published, from USD 25; volume discounts; onboarding charged separately.
OpenKM: Free community edition; professional and cloud editions quoted.
M-Files: Essentials per seat per month, published at EUR 65, billed annually; Enterprise priced on request.
Alfresco: Free community edition; enterprise quoted.
Microsoft SharePoint: Per user per month, published; included in most Microsoft 365 plans.
LogicalDOC: Quoted by edition, users and deployment; Community edition free; 30-day trial of commercial editions.
Mayan EDMS: Software free to adopt with donations requested; paid support and services without published prices.
Papermerge: Monthly or yearly team subscription with paid add-ons for seats and storage, published; 14-day trial.
Everything else on the list is priced on request.
Is there a free document management tool?
OpenKM, Alfresco have a free plan or free self-hosted edition.
Where are these document management vendors established?
Across 11 countries (Europe 12, North America 9, Elsewhere 1):
Which document management tools can you host yourself?
Folderit, OpenKM, M-Files, Therefore, Paperless-ngx, LogicalDOC, Mayan EDMS, Papermerge, Teedy. The remaining 13 run only on the vendor's servers.
What should you use instead of Folderit?
Look at Revver (made for Accounting firms and small service businesses that want to buy without a partner) and OpenKM (made for Technical teams wanting a self-hosted system with no licence cost), which hold places two and three.
Who should not buy Folderit?
Enterprises integrating documents with ERP and line-of-business systems. Workflows and retention start on Medium; API and single sign-on need Tailor.
Missing from this document management ranking? Contact us with a short description of the product and its users. Adding it is an editorial choice, and software advice explains what a listing does and does not involve.
