Last Reviewed: November 19th, 2024

Best Records Software Of 2024

What is Records Software?

Records software, also known as records management software or digital archiving software, is instrumental in organizing, securing, and managing an organization's vital records. It provides a much-needed solution for businesses mired in physical or digital documentation, where pertinent data risks getting lost or overlooked. Its key benefits include increased productivity, improved compliance, and risk reduction. Essential functionalities encompass retrieval capabilities through advanced search options, automated lifecycle management and vital end-to-end security features. New dazzling additions to the software sphere include AI-powered predictive coding, which expedites search times and enhances accuracy. Typically, health care, financial services, and government entities are among the most ardent users due to enduring heavy regulation. But realistically, any record-heavy enterprise can benefit from its capabilities. Its limitations, however, can span from lacking customizability to high installation and setup costs for more advanced versions. In summary, records software is a critical tool for systematic and efficient records management, firmly posing as an asset to any organization eager to optimize operations and ensure compliance.

What Are The Key Benefits of Records Software?

  • Increases data security
  • Improves compliance management
  • Reduces risk of data loss
  • Automates record lifecycle management
  • Enhances organizational productivity
  • Provides efficient data retrieval
  • Streamlines auditing processes
  • Fosters informed decision-making
  • Supports business continuity planning
  • Decreases physical storage needs
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Overall

Based on the latest available data collected by SelectHub for 31 solutions, we determined the following solutions are the best Records Software overall:

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Why We Picked WordPress

Is WordPress still the word on the street for website creation this year? While starting as a humble blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into a robust content management system (CMS) powering a significant portion of the internet. Users praise its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem, which allows for a high degree of customization and scalability, making it suitable for simple blogs and complex e-commerce sites. This adaptability is further enhanced by the availability of thousands of themes and the ability to modify the platform's code directly, giving developers granular control over the final product.

However, this strength can also be a weakness, as the learning curve for WordPress can be steep for beginners unfamiliar with web development. Managing security and updates can also be challenging without technical knowledge, potentially leading to security vulnerabilities or site downtime. Users often point to the need for additional plugins, even for basic functionality, which can lead to performance issues if not carefully managed. Despite these drawbacks, WordPress remains a popular choice for businesses and individuals seeking a powerful and adaptable platform to build their online presence, particularly those with some technical expertise or the resources to hire a developer.

Pros & Cons

  • Flexibility: WordPress is known for being highly customizable, allowing users to tailor their websites to their specific needs, from blogs to e-commerce sites.
  • Plugin Ecosystem: Users consistently praise the extensive plugin library available, which extends the functionality of WordPress websites, offering solutions for various business needs.
  • Community Support: A strong and active community provides ample resources, tutorials, and support forums, making it easier for users to find solutions and get help when needed.
  • Theme Availability: A vast selection of themes allows users to easily change the design and layout of their website, offering both free and paid options to suit different budgets.
  • User-Friendly Interface: WordPress is often commended for its intuitive interface, making it relatively easy for users to manage content, even without extensive technical expertise.
  • Technical Issues: WordPress' reliance on plugins and themes can lead to technical difficulties, especially for users without technical expertise. Troubleshooting plugin conflicts, theme compatibility, and website errors can be time-consuming and require additional support.
  • Security Vulnerabilities: The open-source nature of WordPress and its reliance on third-party plugins can create security vulnerabilities if not properly maintained. Regular updates, security plugins, and strong passwords are essential to mitigate these risks.
  • Website Maintenance: WordPress requires ongoing maintenance, including updating plugins, themes, and the core software. Neglecting these updates can lead to security risks, performance issues, and compatibility problems, potentially disrupting business operations.

Key Features

  • Content Publishing: Share content with a click of a button. Insert content from Google Drive while maintaining formatting or type it in directly to the content editor, place images and then simply publish the content to make it go live on the web. 
  • Plug-ins: Customize tools by choosing from over 55,000 downloadable plugins. SEO optimization, anti-spam protection, site-building features and more are available for download. Browse product descriptions, ratings and support content on the vendor’s site. 
  • Themes: Choose from over 8,000 different, preset themes or customize your own theme, utilizing the Theme Developer Handbook to assist in the development process. 
  • Mobile App: Draft, edit, publish and more from anywhere via the mobile app, available on both iOS and Android devices. Activate push notifications to keep in-the-know with the site’s activity and follower communications. 
  • Security: Keep your content and site safe with a dedicated security team made up of approximately 50 experts that use sophisticated security tools to continuously monitor common security issues identified by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). Report potential security breaches using WordPress HackerOne. 
  • Versatility: Create a blog or website of any kind, from photo blogs to business sites, a magazine site and more. 
  • Search Engine Optimization: Comes with built-in search engine optimization (SEO), encouraging search engines to gather information included in the content to increase traffic. SEO plug-ins are also available. 
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Why We Picked Prezi

User reviews from the last year suggest that while Prezi has a steeper learning curve than traditional presentation software, its unique features make it a compelling choice for those seeking to make a lasting impression. Prezi's standout strength lies in its visually engaging, non-linear presentation style. Unlike the rigid, slide-based format of PowerPoint, Prezi allows users to create dynamic presentations where they can zoom in and out of different topics, creating a more captivating and memorable experience for the audience. One user lauded Prezi's ability to "grab students' attention more than the typical slideshow" due to its "moving element and ability to...embed videos." However, this innovative approach comes at a cost – literally. Several users have pointed out that Prezi's pricing can be a bit hard to swallow, especially when compared to free alternatives like Google Slides or Canva.

Another common gripe is Prezi's occasional performance hiccups, with users reporting instances of lag or crashes, particularly when working with complex presentations packed with multimedia elements. This can be a deal-breaker for some, especially in high-stakes presentation scenarios where a smooth delivery is paramount. Despite these drawbacks, Prezi's ability to create immersive and visually captivating presentations makes it a favorite among users who want to break away from the monotony of traditional slide-based presentations. Its collaborative features, allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, further sweeten the deal for teams.

In a nutshell, Prezi is best suited for individuals and teams who prioritize visual storytelling and engagement over a simple, linear presentation style. If you're willing to invest the time to master its unique interface and are looking for a presentation tool that can help you deliver a truly memorable experience, Prezi might just be the perfect fit. However, if budget is a concern or you're short on time, sticking to more traditional presentation software might be a more pragmatic approach.

Pros & Cons

  • Visually Appealing: Prezi's zooming user interface and customizable templates bring life and energy to presentations, making a great first impression.
  • Engaging Delivery: The non-linear format allows for dynamic transitions between topics, facilitating storytelling and boosting audience engagement.
  • Collaborative Creation: Multiple users can contribute to a Prezi presentation concurrently, which is a big help for teams working together.
  • Learning Curve: Prezi's unique zooming interface, while visually appealing, can pose a challenge for new users who may need extra time to familiarize themselves with the platform.
  • Performance Issues: Complex presentations with numerous elements and transitions can sometimes lead to lag or crashes within Prezi, potentially disrupting the flow of a presentation.
  • Cost: Prezi's pricing structure, while offering various tiers, may be considered expensive by some business users, especially when compared to free alternatives or more established presentation software.

Key Features

  • Present: Present information for lectures, demonstrations and more in an interactive, engaging way. 
    • Reveal:  Create a unique experience by revealing content during presentations via seamless “zoom reveal” transitions. 
    • Templates: Jump-start by utilizing ready-to-go templates or preexisting, reusable presentations. Or, upload a PowerPoint. 
    • Visuals: Drag-and-drop story blocks, text, graphs, charts and to quickly create and customize presentations. Create a reusable color theme that matches company branding. 
    • Accessibility: Access presentations anywhere, anytime via the cloud, or download for offline presenting via the desktop app. Use a mobile device as a remote presentation clicker. 
    • Presenter Tools: Presenter view allows hosts to see upcoming slides on a separate display, create presenter notes for key point reminders and share PDF documents of presentations. 
  • Video: Present in real time or record meetings and training to save and send at a later time. Appear alongside content as it’s presented to maintain an engaging, personal connection. Easily share the recordings by sending a link via Slack, Google Chat or other messaging apps. 
  • Design: Create and edit interactive visuals that are easily shareable and customizable via a drag-and-drop editor. Personalize presentations by including interactive designs such as infographics, dashboards, maps, charts and more. 
    • Animations: Add animated GIFs, graphs and eye-catching transitions to keep users engaged. 
    • Design Tools: Choose from thousands of high-quality images, videos, gifs and more or upload existing content from a personal device. Enhance visuals by editing image brightness, contrast and more. Image masking allows users to choose patterns or stencils to lay on top of images. 
    • Data: Display data via easy-to-read graphs and charts, insert maps from personal files or choose from the vendor’s map library. Utilize tooltips or callouts to give additional context to data points within the presentation. Embed CSV, XLX and XLXS files and integrate with Amazon Redshift, MySQL and more. 
    • Sharing: Download in various file formats, including JPG, PNG and PDF, for web sharing or printing. Share designs as a link. 
  • Integrations: Connect with popular enterprise tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and more to create an integrated workspace. 
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Why We Picked SharePoint

Can you pinpoint a time when SharePoint didn't live up to expectations? SharePoint receives generally positive feedback from users, who praise its robust document management, version control, and seamless integration with other Microsoft products. These features are highly valued because they streamline workflows and boost productivity for teams. Users particularly appreciate the centralized platform for document storage, collaborative features like team sites and discussion boards, and automation capabilities through Power Automate. The robust search functionality and customization options, including web parts and site templates, further enhance its appeal.

However, some users have reported synchronization issues when co-authoring large Excel files, which can be a major drawback for teams heavily reliant on Excel collaboration. Additionally, some users find the user interface outdated, although still relatively user-friendly.

Overall, SharePoint is best suited for teams and organizations seeking a comprehensive platform for document management, collaboration, and automation. Its tight integration with the Microsoft ecosystem makes it a natural choice for organizations already invested in Microsoft products. However, teams heavily reliant on real-time collaboration in Excel might need to consider workarounds or alternative solutions to mitigate the synchronization issues.

Pros & Cons

  • Centralized Platform: SharePoint provides a unified hub for teams to store, organize, and access files, fostering seamless collaboration and eliminating data silos.
  • Version Control: The platform's robust version history feature allows users to track changes, revert to previous versions, and maintain document integrity, which is crucial for collaborative work.
  • Integration with Microsoft Suite: SharePoint's tight integration with familiar tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint streamlines workflows, allowing users to co-author documents and collaborate in real-time.
  • Workflow Automation: Through Power Automate integration, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, such as approvals and notifications, saving time and reducing manual effort.
  • Co-Authoring Large Files: Syncing issues can arise when multiple users simultaneously edit large Excel files, leading to potential data loss or version control problems.
  • Outdated User Interface: Some users find the interface outdated compared to more modern collaboration platforms, which can lead to a steeper learning curve, especially for new users.

Key Features

  • Seamless Collaboration: Accelerate teamwork with dynamic team sites for every project, division and department. Easily share resources, files, news and data across teams. Streamline team tasks by customizing the site. Collaborate securely and effortlessly with people inside and outside the organization using any internet-connected device. 
  • Information Sharing: Improve transparency and cohesion by informing employees throughout the intranet. Share common applications and resources on home portals and enhance efficiency. Share organizational stories with communication sites and use apps to share targeted news items. 
  • Harness Knowledge: Discover insights, information and expertise with a powerful search engine to make informed decisions. Maximize knowledge velocity with valuable conversations and connections. 
  • Business Process Transformation: Transform business processes like approvals, notifications and complex workflows to enhance productivity. Use workflows, forms and custom apps to enhance the digital experience. 
  • Insights:  Display data on a site by leveraging SQL and Excel servers and integrate with Microsoft Access. Leverage dashboards and KPIs to convert raw data into actionable insights to make smart business decisions. 
  • Customizations: Configure master pages and customize apps to enhance the look of the company’s web page. Customize pre-built templates or create fresh templates to create in-depth branding while maintaining consistency. 
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Why We Picked Webflow

Webflow has been making waves in the website creation scene, garnering a bunch of positive buzz from users over the past year. Folks are raving about how easy it is to use, even if you're not a coding whiz. They love the drag-and-drop interface and the huge library of templates that make designing a website a breeze. Plus, Webflow packs a punch with features like a built-in CMS, e-commerce tools, and SEO optimization, which means you can build a website that looks slick and functions like a dream. However, some users have mentioned that Webflow's pricing can be a bit steep compared to other website builders like Wix or Squarespace, and it might have a steeper learning curve for complete beginners. But, if you're looking for a platform that gives you more control and flexibility over your website's design and functionality, Webflow is definitely worth checking out.

So, who's Webflow's ideal user? It's perfect for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses who want a professional-looking website without having to hire a developer. It's also a great choice for designers who want more creative freedom and control over their projects. Webflow's powerful features and flexibility make it a solid option for anyone who's serious about building a website that stands out from the crowd. Ready to dive in? Webflow: Where design flows freely.

Pros & Cons

  • Visually build and manage content: Webflow's Editor provides a visual interface for content management, allowing users to easily create and update website content without needing to code. This is particularly helpful for users with limited technical expertise or those who prefer a more intuitive approach to content management.
  • Design freedom and customization: Webflow offers a high degree of design flexibility, empowering users to create custom websites that align with their brand and vision. The platform provides a wide range of design tools and features, enabling users to control the look and feel of their website without limitations.
  • SEO features and integrations: Webflow includes built-in SEO tools and integrations to help users optimize their websites for search engines. These features can assist in improving website visibility and organic search rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find the website.
  • Limited Content Management: While Webflow excels in design, its content management capabilities might feel restrictive for users accustomed to traditional CMS platforms like Wordpress. Content editors may find the interface less intuitive and the content organization less flexible.
  • Ecommerce Limitations: Webflow's built-in ecommerce functionality, while constantly improving, may not be as robust or feature-rich as dedicated ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Users with complex online stores might encounter limitations in areas such as product variations, shipping options, and payment gateways.
  • Pricing Structure: Webflow's pricing structure, particularly for ecommerce plans, can be a deterrent for some users, especially when compared to open-source CMS options or platforms with more affordable ecommerce plans. The cost can escalate as your website's needs grow.
  • Learning Curve: Webflow's powerful design tools come with a steeper learning curve compared to simpler website builders. Users without prior web design experience may need to invest time in learning the platform's interface and functionalities.

Key Features

  • E-Commerce: Create a new revenue stream and build a business around any product. Enhance customer experience with a no-code approach. Feature the most popular products and highlight specific attributes, images and other information. Attain complete control over designing and customizing elements like the logo and colors. Create a blog and feature products in it to drive sales. 
  • Boost Integration: Integrate with Zapier, Printful, Shippo, QuickBooks, Mailchimp and more to streamline, manage and execute the shipping process, accounting activities and operations. 
  • Manage Leads: Connect forms to preferred email platforms to grow audience and advertise and promote new items, deals and special offers. 
  • Content Management System: Create content structure, add necessary content and design it visually. It works well for editors, designers and developers. 
    • Flexible layout: Easily add all the elements required and pull data from the CMS without any layout restrictions. 
    • Sort and Filter: Hide unrequired content, conditionally display content and divvy up based on a given field. 
    • Customized Search Experience: Design the search experience from scratch. Manage and control the content that visitors discover on the site. 
    • Seamless Editing: Get rid of chunky and disconnected dashboards. Add and edit on the live website and publish with a click. Make edits and allow the changes to appear across the site consistently. 
    • Real-Time Collaboration: Give access to teammates and clients to work on the website to make necessary edits and additions to the content. 
    • Structured Content: Build the schema and connect it to the desired design rather than restricting it to inflexible templates, complex codes or blog-centric content structures. 
    • Content Migration: Import content from a spreadsheet or CMS and export it to use anywhere. 
    • Custom Webhooks: Fire actions when an item is updated, added or deleted. 
  • SEO Support: Employ fine-tuned controls, high-performance hosting and content management tools to optimize the website SEO. Use codes that search engine indexing bots can analyze. Employ visual development tools to satisfy developers. Manage SEO settings with Open Graph. Optimize meta descriptions, page titles and alt texts without using external plugins. 
  • Scalable Hosting: Offer a hosting platform when a project is ready to be published. Ensure quick website loading and accessibility, and handle high traffic rates. 
  • Interactions and Animations: Empower designers to develop rich and complex animations without any code. Achieve precise reveal animations, progress bars, parallax and other effects. Catch visitors’ attention by linking animations and movement to cursor positions. Create rich hover animations and choose from 20 built-in animations and interactions. 
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Key Features

  • Video CMS: Access and stream video from anywhere, anytime without having to limit file sizes or convert to a specific video file format. Includes a robust video editing tool to facilitate accessibility and in-video quizzes. 
    • Video Cloud: Host private, internal videos securely in one place where administrators and employees can upload, share and view an unlimited number of them. Mirrored storage and recordings prevent data loss in case of outages and system failures. 
    • Drag-and-Drop Upload: Upload one or hundreds of videos at a time by simply dragging and dropping from a desktop, iOS or Android device. 
    • Video Transcoding: Import videos in virtually any format including AVI, MP4, ASF, WMV and much more, all viewable on any desktop, tablet or mobile device using HTML5.  
    • Mobile Apps: Accessible on iOS and Android, record videos, browse through video libraries, schedule new recordings, share videos and more. ;
    • In-Video Quizzing: Create and add multiple choice, checkbox and true-false questions to appear directly on recordings. Choose whether viewers can retake quizzes or view correct answers, then review quiz results to learn more about the test-takers’ abilities.  
    • Captioning: Add captions to videos to meet federal accessibility requirements. Edit how and where captions appear once a video is captioned and utilize variable speed playback (VSP) to allow viewers to speed up or slow down videos based on their personal needs. 
    • Brand Customization: Personalize video portals and video player controls by uploading a brand logo and accent colors.  
  • Video Recording: Record video presentations and messages in high definition alongside visuals from a computer screen, browser or another recording device. 
    • Accessibility: Record both online and offline from virtually anywhere on any recording device that can connect to a computer, including camcorders, webcams and more. 
    • Interactive Video Player: Create a table of contents for video recordings using Smart Chapters, which allow viewers to browse and select specific topics in videos. Customize video views, speed playback, notes and captioning.  
    • Smart Camera: Transform any webcam into a smart camera with AI technology that follows customers around a room by zooming and panning. Record videos with blurred or virtual backgrounds for a professional and unique backdrop. 
    • Video Editing: Trim and clip videos, embed videos from outside sources such as YouTube, combine existing video content and more. 
    • Live Stream: Instantly turn a video presentation into a live stream video. 
    • Video Conferencing: Store, manage and share recorded meetings from video conferencing solutions such as Zoom, Webex Meetings, GoToMeeting and BlueJeans in one easy-to-access location. 
    • Virtual Reality: Allow viewers to see virtual simulations, demonstrations, tours and more using 360-degree virtual reality technology on the platform’s mobile platform or any VR headset. 
  • Live Streaming: Create a high-quality, live webcast that can be instantly viewed on-demand once recording has ended. Share the webcast with an unlimited number of viewers or customize who has access to view it by requiring viewers to log in first. Viewers can add closed-captioning, pause, rewind, replay and more with DVR controls, as well as add comments and questions in a discussion thread alongside the webcast.  
  • Analytics: Receive comprehensive reports on audience engagement by seeing which videos are viewed the most and when viewers tend to stop watching. Analyze performance of live stream videos in real time to assist with troubleshooting. Integrate analytical tools such as Google Analytics to get reports on live and historical data. 
  • Security: Keep files secure with single sign-on (SSO) ID management solutions such as Google Apps, SAML, Active Directory and more. Also provides LMS authentication systems for both desktop and mobile customers. Customize access and sharing permissions for entire video libraries or individual videos. 
  • Smart Search: Browse through the content that’s actually in videos, thanks to automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology that captures every word spoken in uploaded videos and optical character recognition (OCR) that indexes every word that appears in videos. Search through slides shown by presenters and digital notes taken by viewers during a video presentation. Supports search for up to 15 different languages. 
  • Integrations: Connect the platform with other popular tools and technologies, as well as internal infrastructures and processes. 
    • LMS: Record, view, search and manage videos without leaving popular LMS applications such as Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace and more. 
  • Collaboration: Share information from meetings, automate workflows and create a seamless communication experience by integrating with popular communication apps. 
  • Video Capture Hardware: Utilize pre-existing hardware used for video recording to manage remote recordings, live stream, publish videos and more.  
  • Hive Insights: Track video and event performance through live data such as quality of experience, quality of service, total viewers and more. 
  • Inplayer: Monetize premium video assets behind a secure paywall, allowing pay-per-view or subscription payments, worldwide. 
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Why We Picked Drupal

Don't "drupal" the ball when it comes to choosing the right content management system (CMS) for your needs. Drupal has been around for over two decades and has garnered a reputation for being a powerful and flexible platform, but it's not without its quirks. User reviews from the past year paint a picture of a CMS that's a bit of a mixed bag, with some folks singing its praises and others scratching their heads in frustration.

Drupal's biggest strength is its flexibility. It's like a chameleon, able to adapt to a wide range of website needs, from simple blogs to complex e-commerce platforms. This is largely thanks to its extensive library of modules and themes, which allow users to add all sorts of bells and whistles to their sites. However, this flexibility comes at a cost: complexity. Drupal has a steeper learning curve than some other CMS options like WordPress, and it can be a bit overwhelming for beginners. It's like trying to assemble a piece of furniture from IKEA without the instructions – doable, but definitely not a walk in the park.

So, who is Drupal best suited for? It's a great choice for organizations with complex website needs and the technical know-how to navigate its intricacies. If you're looking for a CMS that you can truly make your own and are willing to put in the time to learn the ropes, Drupal could be your perfect match. However, if you're a beginner or need a quick and easy solution, you might want to consider a more user-friendly option. Remember, the CMS landscape is constantly evolving, so it's always a good idea to check out the latest reviews and comparisons before making a decision.

Pros & Cons

  • Highly Customizable: Drupal is known for its flexibility, allowing users to create highly customized websites without extensive coding knowledge. The availability of numerous modules and themes empowers users to tailor their sites to specific needs and preferences.
  • Scalability: Drupal's architecture is designed to handle websites of all sizes, from small personal blogs to large enterprise applications. Its ability to scale efficiently makes it a suitable choice for projects with growth potential.
  • Strong Security: Drupal has a reputation for robust security features and a dedicated security team. Regular updates and security patches help protect websites from vulnerabilities and potential threats.
  • Active Community: Drupal boasts a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development, provide support, and share knowledge. This vibrant community fosters collaboration and innovation within the Drupal ecosystem.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Drupal's robust features and flexibility come at the cost of complexity, making it challenging for beginners to grasp. The learning curve can be daunting for users accustomed to more intuitive content management systems.
  • Module Dependency Issues: Drupal's modular architecture, while offering extensive customization, can lead to compatibility issues between modules. Resolving these conflicts often requires technical expertise, causing frustration for users seeking a seamless experience.
  • Performance Overhead: Drupal's feature-rich nature can impact website performance, especially on shared hosting environments or with numerous modules enabled. Optimization may be necessary to ensure smooth operation and fast loading times.

Key Features

  • Content Authoring: Publish and deploy content across multiple platforms from one place. Connect marketing tools such as marketing automation, CRM, analytics and more to build and manage sites, build multichannel digital experiences and customize mobile web browsers and apps. 
  • Security: Keep data secure with access controls, database encryption, Denial of Service (DoS) and more. Prevent security failures with its strong coding standards and community code review process, continuously monitored by a team of security experts. Prevent malicious data entry, resolve issues before exploitation and share information via security reports. 
  • Performance: Ensure websites keep up with high traffic volumes by working with an advanced CDN provider, guaranteeing uptime without server outages. Run over a million performance checks per day and implement technology that scales across server clusters, providing customers with quick availability. 
  • Multilingual: Automated translation for over 100 languages makes every aspect of content accessible to viewers across the globe. Detect a site visitor’s preferred language based on information such as IP address, browser settings and more. 
  • Accessibility: Allow customers with disabilities to create, access and consume content, following the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines. Utilize structured metadata that is intelligible by screen readers and provide editorial tools to apply accessible content creation capabilities.  
  • Marketing Automation: Integrate marketing automation platforms to assign rules for tasks such as sending prospects email offers, assigning them to particular lists or using AI such as chat bots to deliver information. Refine marketing processes with no licensing costs by streamlining workflows, creating real-time sales alerts, managing data in bulk and more. 
  • Personalization: Deliver a personalized customer experience by analyzing site visitor’s clicks and decisions at each data point to create a profile for them. Leverage information such as geolocation, browser history, device type and behaviors to deliver tailored marketing messages, recommended products and more. 
  • Content as a Service: Manage and deploy content for a variety of websites and services from one location in a preconfigured development environment. Design reusable content, deliver content in various layouts, scale regardless of size and more using the platform’s unbarred infrastructure and APIs. 
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Why We Picked Joomla

Joomla's open-source CMS platform has been making waves in the web development world, but what are users saying about it? Let's dive into the nitty-gritty of Joomla's strengths, weaknesses, and unique features based on recent user feedback.

Joomla shines with its user-friendly interface and extensive customization options. Users appreciate the intuitive layout and ease of navigation, making it a great choice for beginners and experienced developers alike. The platform's flexibility allows for creating diverse websites, from simple blogs to complex e-commerce platforms, thanks to its vast library of extensions and templates. Joomla's multilingual capabilities also make it a popular choice for international audiences. However, some users find the abundance of options overwhelming and the learning curve steeper compared to simpler CMS platforms like Wix or Squarespace.

One of Joomla's key strengths is its active and supportive community. Users can access numerous forums, tutorials, and documentation, making troubleshooting and learning a breeze. Additionally, Joomla's open-source nature fosters continuous development and improvement, ensuring the platform stays up-to-date with the latest web technologies. However, some users express concerns about security vulnerabilities and the need for regular updates to maintain a secure website. Compared to WordPress, Joomla offers more built-in features, reducing the reliance on third-party extensions, which can be a double-edged sword as it limits the platform's extensibility to some degree.

So, who is Joomla best suited for? Joomla is an excellent choice for users who value flexibility, customization, and a supportive community. It's perfect for small to medium-sized businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals who want to create professional-looking websites without extensive coding knowledge. However, for users seeking a simple drag-and-drop website builder or those with limited technical skills, simpler platforms might be a better fit. Ultimately, Joomla's versatility and powerful features make it a compelling option for those who want to take their web development game to the next level.

Pros & Cons

  • Extensive Extensions: A vast library of extensions is available to expand Joomla's core functionality, catering to diverse needs such as e-commerce, social networking, and SEO optimization.
  • Multilingual Capabilities: Joomla's built-in multilingual support simplifies website creation and management in multiple languages, eliminating the need for extensions or complex workarounds.
  • Active Community: A large and active community of users and developers provides support, resources, and extensions, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.
  • Extensions Can Be Pricey: While Joomla offers a wide array of extensions, many of the most useful ones require a financial investment, which can be a deterrent for budget-conscious users or those just starting out.
  • Learning Curve: Joomla has a steeper learning curve compared to some other content management systems, especially for users without prior experience. The interface can feel overwhelming at first, and understanding the extension ecosystem takes time.
  • SEO Challenges: Optimizing a Joomla website for search engines can be more complex than with other platforms. Achieving good SEO often requires additional extensions and a deeper understanding of technical SEO principles.

Key Features

  • Extensions: Choose from over 80,000 extensions to personalize sites and create unlimited menus and menu items while maintaining site speed with caching capabilities.
  • Access Controls: Produce business sites, blogs, community websites and more with the free-to-use platform.Have full management capabilities over what customers can view and do with an access control list (ACL).
  • Multilingual: Create sites in over 70 different languages.
  • Web Design: Build custom designs and templates to control the website’s look and feel through customizable attributes such as color scheme, images and effects, fonts and more. Choose from external template frameworks and add them to the designated pages. Provide HTML from objects and an array of data. Produce responsive designs with LESS CSS and Bootstrap.
  • Content Editing and Publishing: Create content with a WYSIWYG editor tool, edit while browsing sites and add to content with one click. Manage articles, choose publishing start and finish dates and create new versions of the content every time a change is made while preserving the old ones. Drag and drop images directly from a computer and use the media management tool to upload and consolidate images and files.
  • Core Website Functionality: Enhance websites with banners and ads, contacts and departments, including contact forms and external news feeds.
  • Tags: Attach tags to various content types and create up to 15 custom fields to keep content, users and contacts organized for customer search.
  • Messaging: Communicate with administrators via private messaging on the site’s back-end.
  • Backend Management: Update core software and extensions with one click and install extensions and plug-ins from the site’s back end. Permit visitors to register and access additional resources on the site.
  • Development Tools: Access developer documentation and secure coding guidelines for assistance. Integrate microdata into extensions and sites, write web and command line applications and utilize Model-View-Controller design patterns. Runs on PHP support.
Start Price
$39
Monthly
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android

Why We Picked Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a collaboration platform that handles various tasks such as communications, notifications, subscriptions, reporting, workflow management and more. Automation, customization and integrations are a few noteworthy features. However, reviews noted that there are too many features and that the platform isn’t user-friendly. In addition, users found customer support unhelpful. Overall, it has all the basic CRM features along with extras like project management not always found in CRMs. That, along with a free subscription, makes it a good choice for companies on a tight budget.

Pros & Cons

  • Budget-Friendly: 87% of users mentioning this aspect suggested that the software is inexpensive and fits well for any size organizations, providing good value for the price.
  • Workflows: It automates many tasks to make work easier, according to 88% of reviews about workflows.
  • Report Generation: 64% of user reviews referencing this feature indicated the reporting tool is useful.
  • Integration: The platform integrates all the necessary applications that users need, as observed by 67% of reviewers mentioning integration.
  • Customization: Users can customize Bitrix24 based on their needs, according to 66% of reviews mentioning customization.
  • Device Compatibility: It works well on all kinds of devices and various digital networks, according to 75% of users who reference compatibility.
  • User Interface: 57% of users mentioning the UI said it was difficult to understand and use for daily operational tasks.
  • Customer Support: 100% of users who talked about support remarked that it wasn’t prompt and supportive in solving product-related queries.
  • Unnecessary Features: 50% of the users referring to capabilities noted the platform has many unnecessary features that never come to use.

Key Features

  • Pipeline Management: A kanban layout provides a visual view of your pipeline. The software supports custom deal stages and multiple pipelines. 
  • Campaign Management: This feature lets you build dynamic or static audience segments, run advertising campaigns on social networks, and set up campaigns across channels such as bulk mail and instant messaging. It includes campaign templates and metrics. 
  • Call Center Capabilities: Features include: 
    • PBX (private branch exchange) functionality for routing, queueing, voicemail, call transfers and forwarding, employee extensions, and recording.
    • Telemarketing features such as voice or SMS broadcasting, automatic call transcribing and callback requests.
    • Local numbers across more than 50 countries.
    • Integration with RingCentral and other VoIP tools.
  • Customer Support Tools: Post business hours, send canned replies, route and transfer conversations, and view client and supervisor ratings with a live support widget. A helpdesk feature provides tickets, SLAs, statuses and case priority. A multichannel contact center lets service teams provide email and telephone support, live chat, social media support and more. 
  • Document Management: Manage quotes and invoices, create custom documents, set up recurring invoices and build a product catalog. Documents support e-signature, and the kanban layout shows what stage invoices are at. Includes multi-currency support and tax capabilities, with accounting achieved via integrations with Xero and QuickBooks. 
  • Mobile Apps: Free iOS and Android apps are available. 
  • Self-Hosted Solution: The on-premise solution is a scalable platform offering: 
    • LDAP and Active Directory support.
    • Web clustering.
    • Multiple single sign-on (SSO) options and robust security features such as two-factor authentication and RSA encryption.
    • Modules for eLearning, a helpdesk and idea management, which aren’t available in the cloud version.
    • Access to the source code for full customization.
    • Deployment on any major server, including readiness for AWS deployment
    • 30-day trial.
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android

Key Features

  • Commerce:
    • Hybrid Delivery: Sell products and services on multiple platforms online, in person or a mixture of the two.
    • Update Operations: Update product catalogs, marketing strategies, prices and more. Ensure orders, revenue and invoices are in sync using a single data model.
    • Process Management: Use multichannel support, guided selling, asset-based ordering and more to streamline the selling process.
  • Documents:
    • Design: Build on-brand document templates to create error-free forms to send to customers based on Salesforce data.
    • Customize: Personalize documents by adding charts, videos, fonts and more.
    • Notifications: Receive alerts when a document is opened, read and signed by a customer and then review analytics to track sales pipelines.
    • Share: Send documents in any format or share them as a secure link accessible on any device.
  • Contract Management:  
    • Store: House contracts in a central repository, set up a clause library and design contract templates to ensure no crucial documents are lost. Keep contracts up to date by giving ownership of contracts to specific members. 
    • Process Flows: Keep up to date on contract processes with a built-in process flow chart, dashboard and configurable notifications. 
    • Search: Browse through documents and metadata for specific words and topics with optical character recognition. 
    • E-Signature: Allow customers to sign documents from any device. 
    • Approvals: View and manage approvals from one central location. Access and approve documents on mobile devices. 
  • Revenue:  
    • Automated Billing:  
      •  Create blended billing for one-time plans, subscriptions and more. 
      •  Customize billing based on invoice preferences by dividing them up into multiple bills. 
      •  Provide a billing forecast to allow customers to view invoices. 
    • Order Management: View the entire customer order history, including shipping dates, costs, taxes and more. Update subscriptions and quickly change orders in-flight.  
    • Promotions: Create omnichannel promotions with codes and rules to track distribution and define eligibility. Sync with approval workflows and utilize analytical tools to track promotion performance. 
Start Price
$2,000
Monthly
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
Mac Windows Linux Chromebook Android

Why We Picked Alfresco

Alfresco is a popular CMS software that has received mixed reviews from users in the past year. Some users praise its strengths, such as its robust security features, user-friendly interface, and extensive customization options. These strengths are important because they allow users to create and manage content securely, easily, and in a way that meets their specific needs. For example, Alfresco's granular permissions system allows administrators to control who has access to what content, while its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for users to create and edit content.

However, other users have criticized Alfresco for its weaknesses, such as its high cost, limited scalability, and lack of certain features that are found in competing products. These weaknesses are important because they can make Alfresco a less attractive option for some users. For example, Alfresco's high cost may be prohibitive for some organizations, while its limited scalability may not be suitable for organizations that need to manage large amounts of content. Additionally, Alfresco lacks certain features that are found in competing products, such as e-commerce functionality and social media integration.

Overall, Alfresco is a solid CMS software with a number of strengths and weaknesses. It is best suited for organizations that need a secure, user-friendly, and customizable CMS. However, organizations that need a low-cost, highly scalable, or feature-rich CMS may want to consider other options.

Pros & Cons

  • Intuitive User Interface: Alfresco's user-friendly interface simplifies content management, making it easy for users to navigate and find what they need quickly.
  • Robust Document Management: Alfresco excels in managing large volumes of documents, providing efficient storage, retrieval, and collaboration features.
  • Seamless Collaboration: Alfresco fosters collaboration by allowing multiple users to work on documents simultaneously, track changes, and share feedback.
  • Advanced Security: Alfresco prioritizes data security with robust encryption, access controls, and audit trails to protect sensitive information.
  • Scalability and Flexibility: Alfresco adapts to growing business needs, supporting large-scale deployments and integrations with other systems.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Alfresco's complex interface and extensive feature set can be overwhelming for new users, requiring significant training and support.
  • Limited Customization Options: While Alfresco offers some customization capabilities, they are often limited compared to other CMS platforms, restricting the ability to tailor the system to specific business needs.
  • Performance Issues: Alfresco can experience performance bottlenecks, especially when handling large volumes of content or complex workflows, leading to slow loading times and user frustration.
  • Costly Licensing: Alfresco's licensing fees can be substantial, particularly for enterprise-level deployments, making it a less cost-effective option for budget-conscious organizations.
  • Lack of Mobile Optimization: Alfresco's mobile capabilities are limited, making it challenging to access and manage content effectively on smartphones and tablets.

Key Features

  • Document Management: Search, access, store and organize content on any device with search suggestions and smart folders. Use built-in workflows and rich metadata models to improve the review and approval processes, move documents and automate repetitive tasks. Keep content secure by creating access permissions, maintaining document versioning and keeping a single database of all records in compliance with information governance policies.
  • Document Capture and Scanning: Scan and process documents and data of any kind utilizing optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Store and classify scanned documents in a centralized location to keep files organized and easily accessible. Allow customers to capture, share and edit content on the go with the Mobile Content and Process Services.
  • Collaboration: Store, edit, co-author and share documents in one location by integrating popular applications such as Microsoft 365 and Google Docs. Invite external members to work on content via public links. Allow viewer collaboration to produce real-time annotations, replies to changes made and chat capabilities within documents.
  • Artificial Intelligence: Implement Amazon Web Services to analyze and extract essential data from documents with Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Rekognition and Amazon Textract. Find specific keywords within bodies of text, retrieve textual context from images and videos to store as document metadata and more.
  • Analytics: Customize reports and dashboards, generate real-time reports on content and metadata and easily search for data with the platform’s internal data warehouse and open source search platform Solr 6. Optimize search indexing with multi-instance clustering and Solr sharding. Prevent data leaks with permissions, ACLs and SSL encryption protection.
  • Process Management: Build process models utilizing graphical tools such as the step editor guide and share with point-and-click forms. Manage internal processes by creating, assigning and dividing tasks amongst individuals and team members. Integrate tools using the platform’s Java-based process engine, API support and rest-based architecture, accessible on any iOS and Android device.

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All Records Software (31 found)

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Buyer's Guide

Records Software Is All About Protecting Your Business 

Records Software BG Intro

In an age of ever-increasing demands for compliance with complex rules and regulations, records management has become a crucial part of running a business. But records management tasks are often tedious and prone to human error, especially without a strong system of organization.

That’s where records software comes in. It provides a central location to store and organize all documents and records pertinent to your business, reducing the risk of lost or mismanaged data and other liabilities.

In this detailed buyer’s guide, we’ll go over the benefits and features of records software and help you choose the best solution for your organization.

Executive Summary

  • Records software allows users to define policies to ensure consistency in business practices and protect valuable information.
  • Key features include content management, digitization and classification tools.
  • Be sure to ask potential vendors any questions you may have about the software before committing to a purchase.
What This Guide Covers:

What Is Records Software?

Records software, also known as records management software, is a program that stores, organizes and safeguards official or sensitive business documents. These include financial statements, legal papers, contracts with clients and employees, and more.

While records software is similar to other content management systems, it’s more focused on maintaining particular files, like those related to third-party audits, taxes, legal matters and internal company reviews, rather than on general file storage.

Records are often essential to prove compliance with laws and regulations. A lack of accurate records exposes your company to increased liability and, at worst, legal trouble. For instance, if your organization fails to show updated records during audits, it could lead to heavy fines.

Records Software Categories

By giving users systematic control over creating, sharing and maintaining records, records software helps ensure that businesses meet all relevant legal requirements and regulations, and supports business growth.

Primary Benefits

Records software has numerous perks. Let’s look at how it can be advantageous for your organization:

Primary Benefits of Records Software

1. Reduced Costs

Save money spent on storage space for paper documents and physical filing systems by digitizing your records. You can also reduce the need for staff to maintain filing systems, as well as the risk of lost or misplaced documents.

Making sure you’re in compliance with the laws and regulations of your industry, and on top of your tax obligations, also protects your business from financial losses due to fines.

2. Record Preservation

Accurately maintaining company data not only keeps you in compliance with regulators, but also allows you to track company performance, which helps you make more informed decisions and better future plans.

Records software also allows you to store data securely, ensuring that your valuable information won’t be tampered with.

3. Better Organization

With a digital repository, you can upload all your physical documents to one accessible, centralized digital location. Employees can access documents as needed for reference or in the event of legal issues with clients and vendors.

Metadata and intelligent search tools allow you to organize records for faster retrieval, eliminating the time-consuming task of sorting and classifying paper documents that can be easily shuffled out of order.

Key Features & Functionality

Classification Tools

Automate the organization, storage and retrieval of records by assigning records to different groups and classifying them based on their purpose.

Content Management

Supplement your company’s records with different types of media like audio, video and pictures. You can also create digital templates for use in document creation.

Search Tools

Search according to criteria like keywords, date of origin, subject and file owner, enabling employees to locate records quickly when they’re needed.

Digitization

Automatically scan or manually enter physical documents into your company’s digital system. Putting all records in one searchable database eliminates the possibility of misplacing important documents.

Multiple Versions

Employees can save multiple versions of the same record. If changes are made to other versions, the master copy immediately reflects them. Track all changes, including which users made them and who owns the record.

Compliance Tracking

Ensure company records are updated according to changing policies. Get regular alerts to modify or replace records in accordance with laws and regulations.

Software Comparison Strategy

Now that you have a sense of what records software does, how do you find the right solution for your company?

The first step is to clarify your needs and goals. What challenges does your company face with its current record-keeping? How does the software address those issues?

You might also want to consider how you’ve kept records over your company’s history, and what you intend to do with your documents. For example, if your company has large amounts of paper records, and you want to digitize your files, go with a solution that has integrated scanning to make the digitization process easier.

Another point to consider is your vendor. You generally want a vendor who provides sufficient support for your employees, and who maintains the software. Ask potential vendors if they offer 24/7 technical assistance and software updates to ensure your employees don’t encounter any workflow interruptions. If the vendor offers a free trial, you can test the software to see how well it integrates with your business.

Cost & Pricing Considerations

Most records software providers offer a monthly subscription plan, while some offer a one-time perpetual license option. The main determiner of cost is the amount of records your company has, with factors like your number of users, level of security, level of support and required features also having an impact.

Before you commit to a purchase, ask your vendor if there are any additional costs for installation and customization, and if there is an annual maintenance contract available. Don’t forget to request for a free demo or trial.

The Most Popular Records Software

To help narrow down your search, we’ve curated a list of some of the most popular records software. Check out our picks below!

Oracle WebCenter Content

Oracle WebCenter Content is a one-stop solution for managing company content. It organizes information found in reports, memos, emails, presentations and more, enabling employees to easily locate what they need. The platform saves all files in one unified content repository and allows users to collaborate on multiple versions of documents.

Oracle WebCenter Content

Detailed summary of a scanned document.

OnBase

OnBase is an enterprise information solution ideal for businesses of all sizes. It offers features like enterprise search, advanced document capture, application development and unified document management. The solution provides mobile applications for Android and iOS.

OnBase

Viewing reporting analytics on the dashboard. Source

M-Files

M-Files is a document management platform that allows employees to access essential company information easily. It offers key capabilities like content management, project management, technology integrations, document management and more. The solution is ideal for mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations. It aims at increasing collaboration, reducing errors and eliminating risks.

M-Files

User creating new assignments. Source

 

 

Questions To Ask

To help clarify what your business needs, ask yourself guiding questions like:

  • What’s our budget?
  • What type of records do we need to manage?
  • Do we have the technical resources we need to support implementing and maintaining a new system?
  • What features does our business need?
  • Is the software appropriate for our company size?
  • Can our employees use the software easily?

Records Software Key Questions To Ask

Use these questions to learn more about potential vendors and the software:

  • How fast is the software?
  • What pricing plans do you offer?
  • How many years of expertise do you have in the industry?
  • Does the solution eliminate the need for manual data entry?
  • Do you provide 24/7 technical support?

Next Steps

Picking a records software isn’t something that happens overnight. An ideal solution will help your business organize, store and share records better, leading to increased efficiency.

Ready to get started with your product search? You can check out our free software comparison report to get insights into the top records software available on the market. Good luck!

Product Comparisons

About The Contributors

The following expert team members are responsible for creating, reviewing, and fact checking the accuracy of this content.

Technical Content Writer
Ashita works as a Technical Writer at SelectHub specializing in VOIP, Business Phones, LMS, CMS and more. She is also a published author. When not writing articles, she enjoys watching rom-coms, listening to music and cooking. She loves collecting stationery, cannot still get the hang of riding a bicycle and suffers from acrophobia.
Technical Research By Vidhi Kanodia
Senior Analyst
Vidhi Kanodia joined SelectHub after graduating from Osmania University in Hyderabad. Building on the hands-on experience she gained there, she expertly reviews peer research work in categories like procurement, PLM, eCommerce, insurance, hotel management, risk management and legal software.
Technical Review By Shashank K K
Principal Analyst
After graduating with a Masters in Finance from Trinity College Dublin, K K Shashank's research and detail-oriented skills led them to SelectHub. He has diverse knowledge across various software categories like Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Ecommerce, Risk Management, PLM, Insurance and more since 2020.
Content Editor
As an editor, Dianna Dragonetti leads a team of five writers in writing about a variety of software, with an emphasis on how these tools empower businesses. Categories include accounting, learning management systems, content management systems, supply chain management, and electronic data interchange.