Product Editions
M-Files Online comes in four different product editions:
Core
An entry-level offering for smaller and simpler workloads on customers’ servers. Leverage the power of M-Files’ unique metadata architecture, workflows and permission management.
Standard
Provides comprehensive feature set for building intelligent content management solutions leveraging M-Files Intelligent Metadata Layer® in the cloud or on-premises.
Professional
Extends the standard functionality with integrations to multiple line-of-business applications and office productivity suites and enables implementation of more advanced document control solutions.
Enterprise
Designed for managing business-critical workloads in compliance with different industry regulations.
Features
User Interfaces
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| M-Files Desktop for Windows |  |
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| M-Files Mobile for Android and iOS | |
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| M-Files Classic Web | |
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| M-Files New Web | |
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| Embedded UI for Microsoft SharePoint Online & Teams |  |
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| Embedded UI for Salesforce | |
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| Chrome Extension for Gmail and Google Drive | |
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| GANTT Chart View | |
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| Browse M-Files views via Microsoft Outlook desktop client using the Advanced Outlook Add-in. |
Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Solution Templates for Common Use Cases
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Generic Document Management (Sample Vault) | |
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| CM vault template for contract management (Adobe Sign and DocuSign integrations are supported in the Professional and Enterprise editions) |
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| Back Office vault (Adobe Sign and DocuSign integrations are supported in the Professional and Enterprise editions) |
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| HR vault template for employee records management | |
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| Project Document Management vault template for managing documents related to projects, cases, and engagements. |
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| GDPR vault template for managing PII data requests and privacy policies. |
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| QMS vault template for SOP and audit management. | |
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Version Control
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Prevent inadvertent simultaneous and conflicting edits with the Check Out and Check In features. |
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| Capture all changes in file content and metadata though the enforced version control feature. Previous versions can be accessed via the object history window. |
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| Use the Version Control Lite module to configure multiple versioning schemes including major and minor versioning and manage working copies and published versions of documents separately. |
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| Use the Advanced Version Control module to manage multiple published versions and translations per document simultaneously. |
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| Use the Change Request module to initiate version updates via formal change request objects |
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Collaboration and sharing
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Share documents as email attachments. | |
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| Share objects and documents with other M-Files users with M-Files URLs. |
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| Share files to external users with Public Links. | |
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| Use co-authoring to let multiple users edit Microsoft Office files simultaneously. |
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| Use the M-Files for Google Workspace module to enable editing and co-authoring of native Google documents. |
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| Enable optimal collaboration and productivity with Hubshare – a complete Digital Client Experience and Collaborative Workspace solution. |
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Add-on | Add-on |
File manipulation and control
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Show a file preview for common file types. | |
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| Show a file preview for native Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. |
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| Annotate and redline files without modifying the original file. |
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| Convert files to PDF in workflows, while importing files, while sharing files, and when adding documents from a scanner to M-Files. |
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| Use the PDF Processor module for advanced document rendering. |
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| Track and manage printouts of official documents with the Controlled Printing module. |
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| Print and Download Prevention – prevent users from taking local copies and printing sensitive documents. |
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| Compare two different file versions of the same Microsoft Word document. |
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| Use the Advanced Document Compare feature to compare two different file versions, two different documents, and multiple file types. |
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Filing content
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Save content based on what it is and apply metadata properties for better discoverability. |
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| Leverage AI-powered metadata suggestions for more efficient and accurate filing. |
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| Save documents from any Windows application directly to M-Files’ virtual M drive. |
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| Save emails and email attachments from Microsoft Outlook to M-Files. |
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| Automate filing of email correspondence from Microsoft Outlook using the Advanced Outlook Add-in. |
Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| Save email messages from Gmail to M-Files. | |
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| Save email attachments from Gmail to M-Files. | |
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| Assign documents to workflows automatically based on metadata. |
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| Set permissions individually for each document and object manually or automatically via metadata. |
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| Organize files with dynamic views and virtual folders. | |
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| Detect duplicate files based on the file content | |
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Search
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Use full-text search from M-Files repository (file content and metadata). |
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| Use full-text search from connected external repositories (file content and metadata). |
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| Use fuzzy search for searching for spelling variations of the search term. |
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| Use proximity search to find two words or phrases within certain distance from one another. |
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| Save searches (dynamic views) for later use. | |
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| Use faceted search to provide additional search filters in the user interface. | |
(Requires IDOL implementation) |
(Requires IDOL or Smart Search implementation) |
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| Maximum full-text search index size | 1 million objects |
Unlimited (Requires IDOL or Smart Search implementation) |
Unlimited (Requires IDOL or Smart Search implementation) |
Unlimited (Requires IDOL or Smart Search implementation) |
| IDOL Search – run full-text search indexing services on separate servers and implement multi-server search index cluster to support large search indexes with millions of indexed files. |
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| Smart Search – memory-based search technology to allow an instant search experience for M-Files Online customers. The new search engine is hosted by M-Files in the cloud but on-premises vaults can connect to this cloud service too |
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Workflows, Processes and Audit Trail
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Build workflows with graphical workflow designer. | |
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| Send assignments to other users. | |
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| Implement advanced automated processes without scripting or API using the Configuration Accelerators utility. |
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| Use the Advanced Notifications module to log send notification messages better and for more advanced features for notification message templates. |
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| Use the Periodic Tasks module in the Advanced Workflows add-on to automatically create recurring periodic tasks, such as periodic document reviews in workflows. |
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| Automate sending of learning requirement assignments of controlled documents with the Training Management module. |
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| Enable automatic progression of parent or child workflows with the Hierarchy Manager module in the Advanced Workflows add-on. |
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Reporting and Analytics
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Reporting module – export M-Files metadata to a reporting database for data insights. Use your favorite data visualization tools such as Microsoft Power BI to create dashboards of document metadata. |
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| M-Files Information Extractor – suggests metadata tags for documents based on text analytics.Suggestions are either based on matches with other metadata in the vault (such as synchronized account names from CRM) or based on text analytic rules, such as pattern matching or data libraries. |
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| Smart Metadata – uses machine learning to learn and suggest metadata for new or existing documents. Its machine learning is based on the documents and metadata already in the vault. |
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| Image Analysis – provides metadata suggestions for images based on the Computer Vision API of Microsoft Cognitive Services. Requires Microsoft Computer Vision API subscription that needs to be purchased separately. |
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| M-Files Smart Classifier – offers automatic document categorization suggestions for documents. |
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| M-Files Discovery – finds business critical information such as agreements and sensitive data within M-Files and any connected external repository. |
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| Use Log Exporter to export M-Files vault event log entries out from the M-Files Server to be stored, analyzed and, and archived elsewhere. This allows managing the vault database size better and also allows analyzing M-Files vault event logs with third party tools, such as Splunk. |
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| Enable User Action Log to have more visibility on actions performed by individual M-Files Desktop users in a given vault. |
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Email management
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Standard add-in for Microsoft Outlook – save emails and attachments from Outlook to M-Files |
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| Advanced Outlook Add-in – automate archiving emails to M-Files and browse M-Files directly via the Outlook UI. |
Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| Chrome Plugin for Gmail – save email messages and attachments from Gmail to M-Files for long-term preservation. |
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Electronic Signing
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Capture content approvals via workflows in M-Files event log, |
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| Digitize signature processes with M-Files for Adobe Sign. Requires Adobe Sign subscription. |
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| Digitize signature processes with DocuSign integration. Requires DocuSign subscription. |
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| Digitize signature processes with Visma Sign integration. Requires Visma Sign subscription. |
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| Electronic signatures – require additional verification of workflow state transition in M-Files to fulfill technical requirements for electronic signing in highly regulated environments. This feature is designed for use cases where documents are approved internally in M-Files. |
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| Trusted Digital Signatures – Ideal for use cases where documents are approved internally within M-Files and signed documents must be digitally signed for authenticity. This module is designed for use cases where two or more organizations share official records as PDF files and the receiving party wants to ensure that the digitally signed PDF document was signed by the other party.Requires a hardware-based digital signature certificate that must be obtained separately. The feature is not compatible with M-Files cloud repositories. |
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| Smart Card Signatures – enforce Smart Card authentication for workflow state transitions in M-Files Desktop. |
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File migration, Capture, and OCR
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Import files and folders | |
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| Client-side scanning | |
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| Hot folder monitoring | |
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| M-Files OCR Lite module – Convert scanned images to searchable PDFs and use zonal OCR to capture metadata attributes from within certain area on the scanned page. |
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| M-Files OCR module – Use barcode recognition to capture barcode values as metadata attributes and use hyper-compression to reduce the file size of the scanned images without compromising the image quality. |
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| M-Files Importer tool to mass-import documents from file systems and data objects from Excel files to M-Files. |
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Multi-repository support
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Network folder connector | |
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| SharePoint Online connector | |
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| Google Drive connector | |
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| Connectors for other repositories | |
Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
Connections to external data sources
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Connections to External Databases – Synchronize data objects from external databases and map them with M-Files metadata structure. |
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| Use Ground Link to establish secure network connections between different network domains or between M-Files Cloud and local on-premises resources, such as network folders. |
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| M-Files for Salesforce – Synchronize Salesforce data objects to M-Files and tag documents to Salesforce accounts, opportunities and other objects. |
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| M-Files Plugin for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365 – Synchronize data objects from Microsoft Dynamics to M-Files and tag documents accounts, opportunities and other data objects. |
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Extensibility and Programmability
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| M-Files API | |
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| M-Files Web Service API | |
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| M-Files UI Extensibility Framework | |
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| Developer Portal | |
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Authentication, User management and Permissions
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| M-Files Authentication | |
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| Windows Kerberos Authentication for on-premises vaults | |
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| Azure Active Directory Authentication | |
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| Create and Manage user groups and named access control lists in M-Files Admin. |
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| Manage administrator roles and privileges. | |
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| AD FS Authentication | |
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| OKTA authentication | |
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| Google Authentication | |
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Data Encryption
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| File data encryption at rest. This feature is enforced for all cloud repositories and can be enabled for all onpremises vaults. |
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| Metadata encryption at rest – enabled in the cloud but requires additional configuration for local deployments. |
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| Encryption of data in transit | |
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| Azure Key Vault integration – manage encryption keys independently. | |
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Deployment Options and Included Volume
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Included cloud volume | |
150,000 objects per subscription + 10,000 objects per each named and concurrent user license |
150,000 objects per subscription + 10,000 objects per each named and concurrent user license |
150,000 objects per subscription + 10,000 objects per each named and concurrent user license |
| Included cloud file storage | |
1 MB per object | 1 MB per object | 1 MB per object |
| Additional cloud volume available | |
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| Support for multiple M-Files cloud vaults | |
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| Included on-premises volume | 1 million objects | 1 million objects* | 1 million objects* | 1 million objects* |
| Support for multiple on-premises vaults on each M-Files Server |
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| Support for multiple on-premises servers | |
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| Additional on-premises volume available | |
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| Use Multi-Server Mode to build fault-tolerant onpremises implementations with multiple application servers instances that attach to the same vault database(s). |
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Restrictions for M-Files Cloud Vaults
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Maximum volume per M-Files vault | N/A | 40 million objects |
40 million objects |
40 million objects |
| Max. average metadata database consumption per object |
N/A | 50 KB | 50 KB | 50 KB |
| Max. average search index consumption per object | N/A | 20 KB | 20 KB | 20 KB |
| Max. # of database calls per second | N/A | 100 | 100 | 500 |
Product Support and SLA
| Core | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
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| Community support | |
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| User Guide and M-Files Knowledge Base | |
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| M-Files Academy | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| Guaranteed uptime (99.5%) in the cloud | |
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| Email support | |
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| Phone support | |
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8/5 | 24/7 |
| Initial response times | No SLA | Standard SLA | Standard SLA | 24/7 SLA |
| Fix or workaround times | No SLA | Standard SLA | Standard SLA | 24/7 SLA |
Additional volume
Each Standard, Professional and Enterprise edition subscription includes volume of 150,000 objects per subscription plus 10,000 additional objects per each named and concurrent user license. This volume can be used across as many cloud and on-premises M-Files vaults as needed and additional volume can be purchased separately. Customers can purchase multiple different additional volume products within one subscription.
For example, if a subscription includes 100 Standard Edition Named User Licenses and 35 Standard Edition Concurrent User licenses, then the included volume is 150,000 + (100 + 35) x 10,000 = 1,500,000 objects. If customers wants to manage for example 1.5 million active data objects in the cloud and additionally archive 10 million objects in the cloud and then implement an on-premises solution for 5 million objects, the customer can purchase 10 million objects additional archive volume and 5 million objects additional on-premises volume. The supported features are different in each additional volume product type:
| Feature | Additional Volume (CV-AV-XXX) |
Archive Volume (CV-AAV-XXX) |
Additional On-premises Volume (CV-AOV-XXX) |
Additional Premium On-premises Volume (CV-AOP-XXX) (Coming soon) |
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| Maximum volume per M-Files vault | 40 million objects | 40 million objects | 40 million objects* | 40 million objects* |
| Volume can be used for cloud implementations | |
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| Volume can be used for on-premises implementations | |
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| Max. number of database calls per second (for cloud repositories) | 100 | 5 | N/A | N/A |
| Included cloud file storage per one million objects | 1 TB | 1 TB | N/A | N/A |
| Additional cloud file storage available | |
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N/A | N/A |
| Indexing of metadata for search | |
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| Indexing of filedata for search | |
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| Max. average metadata database consumption per object | 50 KB | 30 KB | N/A | N/A |
| Max. average search index consumption per object | 20 KB | 5 KB | N/A | 20 KB |
*Refer to the System Requirements and consult your M-Files representative for architectural guidance and best practices. M-Files Software Service is designed to support typical information management use cases.
To provide excellent customer experience to all M-Files customers, M-Files has the right to restrict the usage of the Software Service if the use results in Customer significantly exceeding the restrictions specified in the table above
Documents and (Data) Objects in M-Files
Number of objects is a key metric to measure M-Files service consumption. As M-Files architecture is primarily metadata-based, the object count is more relevant metric than the number of files or pages, for example. Objects can have zero, one or multiple files and the metadata as well as file contents are indexed for full-text search and changes to object metadata and file data are automatically captured in version history.
An object in M-Files is a document or other object and typical object types include: documents, document collections, customers, projects, and assignment. Objects can be created in M-Files or synchronized from an external databases and systems, such as CRM and ERP. Cloud customers can easily view their object consumption in the subscription management portal.
In most uses cases, the total object count is close to the document count but a good estimate for the total number of objects is a sum of: number of migrated documents, estimated number of new documents created in two or three years, number of external objects synchronized from external databases (for example, the total number of customer and opportunity objects to be synchronized from Salesforce to M-Files). To help you to estimate the needed volume, here are some definitions:
| Data type | Object consumption |
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| A document with 10 metadata attributes | 1 object |
| A document with 20 metadata attributes | 1 object |
| One unmanaged object in an external repository | 1 object |
| A document with 5 versions | 1 object |
| A document collection with 10 documents | 11 objects |
| A multi-file document with 10 files | 1 object |
| Assignment object | 1 object |
| One synchronized customer object from Salesforce CRM | 1 object |
| One synchronized opportunity object from Dynamics 365 | 1 object |
| One audit finding in M-Files QMS | 1 object |
| Value list item | Not an object |
Number of relationships between objects is not relevant either. If you have synchronized 10,000 customer accounts and 20,000 sales opportunities from your CRM and manage 100,000 documents related to those accounts and opportunities, your object consumption will be 130,000.
Add-Ons
You can also complement your M-Files solution with multiple add-ons for integrations and more sophisticated use cases. Contact your M-Files representative for more details.