Sharepoint vs Alfreso - When no need for office integration

[derekthegeek]

I am looking to compare Alfresco vs. Sharepoint for a small development group that does not use Microsoft Office and has no need of the integration between Sharepoint and MS office. Primarily we want a portal for storing various resources that can be accessed by the entire development group. The interaction between the portal and development team will always be via a web browser, this includes editing content. We really like some of the features of Sharepoint such as web parts however the Sharepoint setup is such a bear, we would really like to stay clear of it. If you remove the Office integration, how does Alfresco compare to Sharepoint (MOSS 2007)?

Thanks …

- DTG

[jbarmash]

Can you please provide more context.  It sounds like you need to use Web Content Management piece - the distinction  you make between dev and portal team seems to point in that direction.

SharePoint locks you into the whole microsoft stack - SQL Server, ASP.NET, Active Directory, Windows, Office (although not in your case).   With Server+ CAL licensing and all the additional server licenses, it can be expensive. 

That said, if you need some light collaboration and portal capabilities, SharePoint may be a better fit. 

If you need a true content management or Web Content Management system, Alfresco is built from the ground up to support that use case.   SharePoint has some capabilities there, but those are pretty nascent (just introduced in MOSS 2007).

Alfresco does not lock you into a specific platform - even though we are written in Java, through our web scripts interface you can easily build solutions in eny platform - .NET, PHP, Rails, etc. 

We also do have an office integration that while probably not quite as good at SharePoint, is quite good on its own right.