GUIDE 2025

Best Document Management Software 2025: Reviews and Pricing

Whether running a small business or a large enterprise, electronic document management software (EDMS) can help you manage all your documents and go paperless.

This article reviews various document management software solutions available on the market. We have selected the best document management software for various industrial and commercial sectors.

Quick Note: Pricing for some reviewed document management systems is not listed on their websites. If you need a quote, you will have to contact them directly.

1. Microsoft SharePoint Online: Best Overall

Microsoft Sharepoint

Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based enterprise document management system. It helps with content management, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, find information quickly, and collaborate seamlessly across the organization.

Sharepoint supports seamless integration with Microsoft Office to enhance productivity for teams of all sizes.

The Sharepoint mobile app is available for iOS and Android. Users can access documents and collaborate from the office, home, and on the move.

Key Features

  • Comprehensive document management features for all types of businesses: collaboration tools, file sharing, version control, access control, and security.
  • Team sites for project teams, departments, and divisions.
  • Powerful search and intelligent ways to discover information, expertise, and insights to inform decisions and guide action.
  • With Power Automate, you can implement automation for business processes through complex automated workflows.
  • Power Apps, a suite of apps, services, and connectors, provides an environment to build custom apps for your business needs.
  • A rich set of tools to help you create and maintain your organization’s intranet.
  • Seamless integration with the entire suite of Microsoft business applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The solution also supports compatibility with key web browsers such as Firefox, Edge, Chrome, and Safari.

Pricing

  • Plan 1: $5.00 user/month, paid yearly
  • Plan 2: $12.50 user/month, paid yearly
  • Plan 3 (part of Office 365 E3 plan): $30.00 user/month, paid yearly

2. Github: Best for Software Document Management

Git

GitHub is a platform that hosts public and private software code and provides software development and collaboration tools. Features include version control, issue tracking, code review, team management, and syntax highlighting.

Git

Git is free and open-source software that tracks changes in any set of files. It keeps track of every modification to the files in a unique database. Git is usually used to coordinate work among programmers who are working to develop source code for software.

GitHub uses the version control and source code management functionality provided by Git and offers several additional features.

Key Features

  • You can iteratively improve the software and its documentation at the same time. Github document management does not only manage version control for your source code, it also manages version control for the documentation so that you can always access previous versions if needed.
  • With tools such as GitHub Pages, you can easily publish the documentation to the web, which will be accessible to all users.
  • Collaboration tools that allow multiple team members to work on documentation simultaneously.
  • Mobile apps enable development and collaboration on the go.

Pricing

GitHub offers three pricing plans:

  • Free: a basic plan for individuals and organizations, with 500 MB of storage and community support.
  • Team: $4 per user/month.
  • Enterprise: $21 per user/month.

3. Alfresco: Best for Healthcare Document Management

Alfresco

Alfresco is a commercial, open-source software company whose mission is to provide a better way for people to work. The Alfresco Digital Business Platform is a modern, enterprise-class, cloud-native platform that enables organizations to build digital operations to deliver instant services with exceptional experiences.

Users working in the healthcare sector have to deal with a lot of paperwork, such as numerous medical history records, insurance cards, and test results. Therefore, easy document digitization and fast document retrieval in case of emergency are the primary needs of any medical institution.

One of the critical reasons healthcare organizations require document management software is regulatory compliance. Lack of compliance can lead to revocation of licenses, fines, and loss of customer trust. The document management system must ensure compliance by providing a secure repository for data storage, permissions, and version control.

Alfresco helps healthcare providers consolidate patient data from any source into a single patient view—so you can see your patients more clearly than ever.

It transforms how patient information is managed, shared, and processed across the continuum of care – empowering you to become paperless and mobile while removing barriers to more collaborative working.

Alfresco is an easy-to-integrate platform that complements and extends your existing electronic medical records (EMRs), helping you better manage patient data and automate clinical processes, allowing clinicians to focus on their patients.

Key Features

  • Consolidate all data – including structured and unstructured data and EMR – into a single patient view.
  • Easy query, search, and retrieval of patient imaging, regardless of source or format.
  • Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS) enabled, allowing health information exchange between different systems.
  • The vendor-neutral archive consolidates all Connect Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) and non-DICOM clinical imagery from any vendor. This makes sharing information between multiple Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) easy.
  • Healthcare professionals can easily create e-forms and optimize workflow processes with minimal IT involvement.
  • Secure collaboration for access to up-to-date patient information.
  • Secure availability of critical information on any device.
  • HIPAA compliant: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law requiring national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.

Pricing

Alfresco offers three plans for clients:

  • Starter Edition: up to 100 users, with additional modules, including Microsoft Outlook client.
  • Business Edition: up to 300 users, with support for all modules included in Starter Edition, plus additional modules, including Document Transformation Engine.
  • Enterprise Edition: up to 1,000 users, with support for all modules included in Business Edition, plus additional modules, including Alfresco Index Engine.

Contact Alfresco for a custom quote.

4. ProLaw: Best for Legal Document Management

ProLaw

ProLaw is a Law Practice Management (LPM) software suite. It helps you simplify your practice and enhance productivity across your organization.

ProLaw provides instant access to essential information you need to collaborate with clients and colleagues.

Reporting and business intelligence tools enable quick data analysis and standard and customized report generation.

ProLaw provides extensive integration support for several applications, including Microsoft Outlook, Word, Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Intuit® QuickPayroll, and more.

ProLaw is server/desktop-based software. You can run it either

  • On your firm’s in-house servers, or
  • Host it on a Private Cloud.

Key Features

  • Advanced document management, including full-text search, document storage, document tagging & profiling, and version management.
  • Streamlined case and matter management through immediate access to critical case and matter information.
  • Streamlined processes for managing all accounting, time and expenses, invoicing, and payables.
  • ProLaw Workspace provides simplified web-based access to the ProLaw database for power users.
  • Paperless Proforma replaces or supplements time-consuming paper-based proforma distribution and mark-up procedures.
  • A central database for storing client, court, and other contact information.
  • Tracks billable hours and expenses for clients.
  • Remote access.
  • Intuitive user interface.

Pricing

ProLaw is modular software. You can purchase the necessary modules, including law practice management, document management, billing, and accounting.

ProLaw offers a free demo.

For pricing information, contact Thomson Reuters.

5. Rubex by eFileCabinet: Best for Government Document Management

Rubex

Rublex by eFileCabinet is a cloud-based document management software that can help you manage, store, and protect documents related to the operation of government agencies.

Government agencies are legally required to store and manage substantial amounts of data. From meeting agendas to maps, drawings, and permits, storage space is at a premium, and immediate document access is imperative. Rublex provides a simple-to-use, cost-effective system to streamline document storage and management challenges. Paper documents are scanned, stored, and managed digitally, dramatically reducing costs and improving service.

Key Features

  • Workflow automation to program the system to perform specific tasks when specified conditions are met. You can create approval workflows based on different factors.
  • eSignature is the fastest way to sign documents online to indicate consent or approval for digital documents.
  • A dual-screen preview allows you to view different documents or versions of the same document side by side.
  • When combined with workflow automation, email import adds a new dimension to process automation for the document management system.
  • eFileCabinet has partnered with SecureDrawer for the encryption of files up to 1GB in size. All documents are encrypted in transmission.
  • Version control for documents and maintenance of each document version.
  • Custom templates for quick generation of common document types.
  • OCR is used for image digitization, document search, and keyword extraction in the metadata fields.

Pricing

Rubex by eFileCabinet offers three plans that differ in storage space and supported features. The plans are billed annually. Monthly billing is available at a slightly higher price point.

  • Advantage – $55 per user, per month (3-user minimum).
  • Business – $99 per user, per month.
  • Unlimited – $199 per user, per month.

6. PeopleDoc: Best for HR Document Management

PeopleDoc

PeopleDoc is a cloud-based human resource (HR) management software that enables businesses to manage administrative workflows and facilitate employee onboarding processes.

Primary features include case management, HR process automation, file management, employee management, and onboarding.

The advanced analytics module allows supervisors to monitor key performance indicators (KPI), document expiration dates, and service level agreements (SLA) on a dashboard.

With PeopleDoc HR, you can perform efficient HR document management. You can create, sign, store, access, share, and delete employee files in one secure place. The file types are accessible on any device and available wherever you are.

Key Features

  • Create simple and complex documents using the information in PeopleDoc or your other HR system.
  • Create, sign, manage, store, and secure all your documents associated with an employee-generated from any of your systems in a centralized employee file folder.
  • Perform an advanced search using multiple criteria, such as document type, employee, dates, or other metadata.
  • Control access to files based on document type and user role.
  • Securely share files with managers, employees, or external third parties via online sharing spaces rather than email or paper.
  • Quickly view missing documents or documents about to expire and request these from your employees.
  • Place documents under litigation hold with an easy click of a button.
  • Set retention schedules by document type and geography to ensure documents are retained in compliance with legal requirements and company policy.
  • Cloud storage to keep HR documents safe and secure.
  • HR case management and portal for gaining insight into organizational HR policies.
  • Easy search, such as by file name.

Pricing

For pricing information, contact PeopleDoc.

7. Document Locator: Best for Financial Services Document Management

Document Locator

Document Locator is available as on-premises software or hosted in the cloud. ColumbiaSoft offers cloud hosting services using Microsoft Azure.

Key Features

  • Centralized document repository with high-level security.
  • Standard and custom workflows that include forms routed for approval as per requirements.
  • Regulatory and compliance requirements are omnipresent in the financial services industry. Effective control and management of documents within the scope of regulatory requirements is essential to avoiding penalties and potentially severe economic consequences—Document Locator’s document control capabilities, including security, workflow, and records management.
  • Audit logging of document activities.
  • Annotations, redactions, and digital signatures.

Pricing

The subscription fees for the on-site and hosted versions of Document Locator are:

  • On-premise: $260 per user, per year (15-user minimum).
  • Cloud: $633 per user, per year (15-user minimum).

8. OpenKM: Best Free Document Management Software

OpenKM Software

OpenKM is a document management solution available on-premise or on the cloud, which helps businesses manage documents by capturing, processing, and securing data from various digital sources.

The solution includes a content repository, Lucene indexing, and jBPM workflow. The OpenKM system was developed using open technology (Java, Tomcat, Lucene, Hibernate, Spring).

OpenKM is available to the open-source community under the GNU General Public Licence version 2. The OpenKM source code is available for the community and is free to use, modify, and redistribute under the premises of such license. The source code is available on GitHub.

Key Features

  • With automatic cataloging, you can automatically set business logic. You can set rules based on events for e.g. move documents to a new destination, change security, and apply document transformations.
  • With version control, you can manage document changes, track timestamps and the user creating the change. You can compare modifications graphically and restore previous document versions.
  • With complete and configurable audit trails, you have documentary evidence of the sequence of activities that have affected everything in the system at any time, including a specific operation, procedure, or event.
  • With OCR, you can convert various documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files, or images captured by a digital camera, into editable and searchable data. OpenKM supports integration with open-source and commercial OCR engines.
  • Automatic metadata capture: you can perform data capture and document processing with OCR. The feature allows the transformation of streams of documents of any structure into business-ready data. Thanks to OpenKM architecture, it is possible to integrate with commercial technology like Abby Flexicapture, Kofax, and Cognitive Forms, among others.
  • OpenKM supports integration with third-party applications. Integrations are available for Bonitasoft BPM, Microsoft Office, and Vtiger, among others.

Pricing

There are three editions of the software:

  • A free Community Edition.
  • Cloud Edition.
  • Professional Edition.
Josh Fechter
Josh is the founder of Technical Writer HQ and Squibler, a writing software. He had his first job in technical writing for a video editing software company in 2014. Since then, he has written several books on software documentation, personal branding, and computer hacking. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.