10 Best Document Management Software in the UK [2024 REVIEW]

Bad data is costing you millions.

Without a proper data management strategy for your UK-based business, information gets locked inside unsearchable paper stacks and legacy systems. Consequently, you remain unaware of inefficient processes. 

In turn, your business endures poor business intelligence due to bad data quality, with wasteful and inefficient processes going undetected. 

These inefficiencies eventually add up to massive revenue losses.

In fact, UK businesses are each hemorrhaging $15 million every year due to poor data quality, according to a Gartner survey. These losses are down to wasted labor time, missed sales opportunities, and resource wastages.

By leveraging the right tools, you can gain insights across your business to plug your inefficiencies. 

In this guide, I’ll take you through the best document management software in the UK that’ll help you clean your data and improve your business intelligence to make you more profitable.

Quick summary: 

1. FileCenter – Best for holistic file management.

2. DocuPhase – Best for creating web forms.  

3. NetDocuments – Best for legal document management. 

4. Egnyte – Best for regulatory data compliance.

5. DynaFile – Best for HR document management. 

Let’s get started. 

How to Choose a Document Management Software for the UK 

a) Consider integration with Office 

When you can integrate the software with your Office applications, you can streamline your document management workflows to improve efficiency.

In fact, I rank Microsoft 365 integration among key document management features as you’ll be able to edit Office files within the platform to boost your productivity. 

b) Examine file approval features 

What’s more, you want to go for a software with document approval functions as these allow you to prevent errors that become legal and financial liabilities.

So when choosing a document management system, prioritize its approval features as they will help you comply with regulations and uphold your business’s standards.

c)  Prioritize password protection

With a software that offers password protection, you can restrict external access to sensitive information to prevent data breaches for your small business in the UK.

Moreover, by password-protecting your documents, you can protect data from unauthorized internal access by staff to safeguard your business’s intellectual property.

d) Go for cloud-based systems

It’s prudent to consider cloud features when choosing a file management system for your UK based business, as this will give your team remote access to data to boost collaboration. 

Furthermore, with cloud document storage, you’ll minimize the amount of on-premise IT infrastructure you need, thereby lowering your hardware expenses. 

e) Examine search functionalities 

Your file management software should have a full-text search feature, which will add more details to search results so that you can easily find related files. 

By helping you search for documents faster, a comprehensive search functionality will help you free up more time to focus on crucial and innovative tasks. 

1. FileCenter 

FileCenter is an excellent digitization solution. 

It allows you to build electronic filing cabinets with an advanced, Windows-explorer-like search filter that helps you retrieve information quickly. 

With one-click OCR technology, you can use FileCenter to speed up repetitive document scanning and lower your data entry work. 

You also get cloud-based document storage with SharePoint, DropBox, Google Drive, and other top cloud services. This allows you to back up data in the cloud and access your files from anywhere to work remotely. 

Furthermore, you can use a webmail account with FileCenter and send contracts as PDF attachments to prevent the recipient from altering its terms. 

Due to add-ins that accelerate your efficiency with Office, I find that this is the best document management software for the UK if your workflow runs on Windows. 

Best features: 

• It is fully compatible with most Windows applications including PowerPoint, Excel and Word so you can scan documents directly into your preferred file formats. 
• FileCenter gives you a PDF editor that you can use to create, organize and edit PDFs. This allows you to create interactive and space-efficient files.
• It also provides automatic file naming across shared networks, thereby allowing your entire team to create consistent filing patterns to eliminate dark data. 

Pricing:

• 14-day free trial. 
• Starting plan: $5/user per month. 

Verdict 

FileCenter has many useful document management features that you can leverage across any industrial vertical. Moreover, with our large list of customizable features, you can tailor-make our solution to meet the specific needs of your industry. 

2. DocuPhase 

DocuPhase helps you compartmentalize financial files. 

By leveraging the specific search feature, you can instantly find all the related files for a client. So your small business can run financial services faster and more efficiently. 

Additionally, you can use DocuPhase’s annotation tools to add rubber stamps and color overlays to files to signify your approval or emphasize crucial areas. 

Just like FileCenter, it also allows you to redact a document and blackout specific sections to safeguard trade secrets, your customer lists, and other confidential data. 

If you spend a lot of time creating inventory forms and purchase requisitions for your business in the UK, this is a must-try document management software due to its iForm feature which saves you time by providing various prefilled form templates.

Best features: 

• You can query the DocuPhase database using SQL to manually customize its data exchange service to accelerate the indexing and routing of files.
• It integrates with Active Directory so that all your existing users and groups can easily and quickly collaborate on creating, editing, and approving documents.
• DocuPhase enables you to automate the capture and management of invoice records so that you can streamline your AR and AP accounting processes. 

Pricing:

• No free trial. 
• Contact DocuPhase for pricing.

Verdict 

DocuPhase enables you to create cost-effective electronic forms that help you to capture data accurately and conveniently. That being said, I’ve noticed a considerable learning curve as you have to extensively customize the forms for each purpose.

3. NetDocuments

NetDocuments excels at legal document management. 

With its two-factor authentication and encryption features, you can protect confidential information in legal documents. In turn, you can observe compliance standards like the UK’s Data Protection Act of 2018. 

NetDocument’s collaborative document viewer allows your legal team to edit documents and discuss changes in the same place to uplift productivity. 

Furthermore, you get a margin notes feature that allows you to effortlessly seek client feedback while preventing accidental modifications. 

It also integrates with Office via the Microsoft Power Automate connector so that you can create custom workflows to manage your files and folders more effectively.

Overall, I rank it among the best legal document management software for its robust search and retrieval functions. These enable you to quickly locate case files using filters and keywords to accelerate your due diligence for cases. 

Best features: 

• It integrates with DocuSign’s esignature solution to allow your clients to digitally sign legally binding documents, such as contracts, from any location. 
• NetDocuments ndSync add-in enables two-way file synching between your business’ database and remote devices to enable your staff to work on the go.
• You can use the ndMail add-in, which integrates with Gmail and Outlook platforms, to organize your files in your email inboxes more efficiently. 

Pricing:

• No free trial. 
• Contact NetDocuments for pricing. 

Verdict 

NetDocuments has many legal-specific features that can greatly enhance productivity if you’re managing a legal workflow in the UK. Conversely, it’s not a great solution if you operate in a different field as it offers limited flexibility for other industries. 

4. Egnyte

Egynte helps to secure all your digital data. 

With its security extension add-in, you can identify and mitigate the risks that come with storing your data in third-party cloud services, helping you to shore up any vulnerabilities in your systems.

In case of ransomware attacks, you can use Egnyte’s snapshot recovery feature to recover all your corrupted files and accidentally deleted documents. 

It is also built to help you achieve regulatory compliance by providing your medium sized enterprise with a privacy control framework that has a pre-configured data enclave. This helps you to automate your data compliance strategy. 

In fact, Egnyte equips you with a generative AI assistant that you can query via natural language and get instant answers, making it one of the most popular document management software if you perform a lot of business intelligence. 

Best features: 

• It is built with a PDF annotator which lets you compress documents into high-quality yet low-space files. In turn, you can lower your data storage needs.
• Egnyte offers granular access control and content-sharing safeguards that help you protect your small business’s highly sensitive information. 
• You also get an AI-powered content classification system, to which you can delegate iterative file sorting tasks and focus on higher-value work.  

Pricing:

• 15-day free trial. 
• Starting plan: $20/user per month. 

Verdict 

With Egnyte’s many add-ons, you get an end-to-end document management solution with advanced functionalities. However, I’ve realized that you have to pay extra for each add-on, and this can inflate your initial software acquisition costs. 

5. DynaFile

DynaFile streamlines HR document management. 

Your job applicants can fill, review, and sign onboarding paperwork online, which helps your HR department speed up your employee onboarding processes. 

Better yet, you can use DynaFile’s electronic employee filing system to track staff files to ensure that they are accurate and conform to the latest standards.

What’s more, you can sync it with your HRIS, so that your UK-based business can automatically publish documents to DynaFile without having to perform redundant updates between both systems. 

Just like FileCenter, DynaFile is a top HR document management software for its batch processing feature. This enables you to process huge stacks of unrelated HR documents to quickly eliminate your backlogs.

Crucially, it also notifies you of changes to labor laws & policies in the UK so that you can observe compliance better and avoid penalties. 

Best features:

• DynaFile offers your small business a cloud storage solution with bank-grade online security, which helps you protect sensitive employee information.
• It gives you offline access to your HR database which helps you to eliminate productivity dips that occur when the web server experiences an issue. 
• You also get contract management automation that lets you track contracts so you can identify profitable opportunities for renegotiation and improvement. 

Pricing:

• No free trial. 
• Contact DynaFile for pricing.

Verdict

DynaFile’s HR-specific features can help your UK business improve employee onboarding, payroll management, and other HR duties. However, I find that it falls short if you’re keen to improve other business processes beyond HR functions. 

6. PandaDoc 

PandaDoc helps you win more business deals. 

It allows you to create custom templates for proposals and quotes so that you can create irresistible pitches that attract funding for your small business in the UK.

With PandaDoc’s suggest-edits feature, you can collaborate with clients when drafting agreements to avoid multiple revisions and shorten your sales cycle.

By leveraging its drag-and-drop blocks and variables, you can create visually striking business documents. These variables also allow you to quickly populate information such as contact details from your business’s CRM to speed up file generation. 

Due to its convenient pricing table feature for quotes, I’ve included PandaDoc in this review of the best document management software for the UK. This allows your customers to calculate their pricing without having to seek help for every new order. 

Best features:

• It offers advanced billing structures and complex pricing quotes that help your small business reduce errors and improve the accuracy of estimates. 
• PandaDoc offers fillable blocks for proposals so that your recipients can directly add signatures and dates to documents without having to print them.
• You can track document analytics like pages viewed and view duration. This data helps your small business to easily perform follow-up with your recipients. 

Pricing:

• 14-day free trial. 
• Starting plan: $19/user per month.

Verdict

PandaDoc’s templates allow your small business to generate accurate and engaging agreements, quotes, and proposals that attract more leads. But since you have to build each template from scratch, setting them up is very time-consuming.

7. Box.com

Box is a powerful document collaboration software.

In case you manage a remote team, you can use its cloud file synching features to exchange information and work seamlessly on multiple projects with your colleagues.

Likewise, Box’s comment tool allows you to centralize and track conversations around documents to make collaboration more efficient and organized. 

If you make modifications to a document that you later regret, you can even use Box’s version control to easily roll back to a previous iteration. 

Box’s advanced full-text search feature allows you to avoid haphazard and time-wasting data searches by quickly pinpointing the content you need.

On top of that, I find that the ability to set document expiration dates makes it a top-rated document management software for your UK-based business. This feature helps you to automatically clean up a file’s access control after the collaboration ends. 

Best features: 

• With Box Notes, you can co-create project plans with your team members across different devices to improve and hasten problem-solving. 
• You can sign statements of work, client contracts, and other documents electronically to avoid delays that disrupt your small business’s processes.
• Via the Box Relay feature, you can also securely collaborate with teams outside your business such as your customers, vendors, and contractors. 

Pricing:

• 14-day free trial. 
• Starting plan: $17.30/user per month. 

Verdict

Box nourishes collaboration for your small business to boost productivity for your remote teams. Notably, since its collaborative features work online, this can lock out your teammates who don’t have a stable internet connection.

8. FileHold 

FileHold simplifies document lifecycle management.

You can set watched folders that automatically collect and route files that devices like printers generate to destinations determined by their metadata. This saves you from having to manually process the files.

What’s more, FileHold’s virtual folders allow you to assemble complex documents from many different sources to centralize data and enhance your productivity. 

It also offers automatic contract event notifications, which allow you to review dates and renew contracts well ahead of their expiration dates to ensure the best outcomes.

Crucially, FileHold offers remote access options such as an offline document editing feature, which allows you to get work done on the road. It automatically synchronizes your updates with its library once you’re back online so that you don’t lose any progress. 

Best features:

• It offers document linking that helps you to organize documents by their relationships so you can have all the related data you need in one place. 
• FileHold’s URL support allows you to send documents via email as links rather than files. This helps your small business to declutter its inbox. 
• Via its document subscriptions, you can get alerts about document changes and folder edits. This helps you build accountability for your small business. 

Pricing:

• 10-day free trial. 
• Contact FileHold for pricing.

Verdict

FileHold allows you to synchronize it with your local Microsoft Windows server to enhance the performance of your existing database. However, if you lack a good understanding of SQL, you can’t use FileHold in this way.  

9. LogicalDOC 

LogicalDOC is an enterprise file management software. 

Courtesy of automated document retention schedules, you can store and discard files as per data laws in the UK so that your small business easily achieves compliance.

In addition, you can use LogialDOC’s hot folders feature to centralize data from all your PCs and automatically catalog files without performing manual data entry. 

Due to its WordPress CMS plugin, you can use LogicalDOC to secure your business’ digital content. Therefore, I find that it’s one of the best document management software in the UK if you’d like to make your website more impactful and efficient.  

Just like FileCenter, its PDF splitting feature, enables you to fragment large documents into smaller files so that you can isolate content to focus on for faster processing.  

Best features:

• It features an integrated barcode reader with OCR capabilities. You can use it to automatically populate your document’s metadata for easier file classification. 
• LogicalDOC comes with a Google Drive integration tool that allows you and your coworkers to collaborate on documents online from any location. 
• It provides full-text indexing which allows you to retrieve documents instantly by looking up document metadata as well as the content within the files. 

Pricing:

• 30-day free trial. 
• Contact LogicalDoc for pricing.

Verdict

Being an entirely web-based application, you can use LogicalDOC across multiple desktop and mobile operating systems. On the flip side, I find that this proves a double-edged sword as you get slower speed & performance compared to a native app. 

10. Square 9 

Square 9 enables intelligent document processing. 

It allows you to capture documents from all your small business’s sources, such as your network directories, web forms, email servers, and production scanners. In turn, you can unite all the information scattered across your system to achieve full data visibility.

By leveraging its AI document capture automation, you can quickly and accurately digitize and validate large volumes of documents.

With a large library of customizable web forms, it’s a UK document management software worth trying out for your business. You can automate the collection of key data, like tax and employee information, that you need to keep your business running. 

On top of that, you can improve your business’s efficiency with the business intelligence you get from Square 9’s real-time analytics for document-driven processes. 

Best features:

• It integrates with your business’s workflow suites such as Microsoft Office 365 to turbocharge their capabilities and make you even more productive. 
• Square 9’s Global Search feature allows you to store data in a permission-based repository to make it easy for you to retrieve information and work efficiently. 
• It provides audit trail logs for every document action, allowing your small business to prevent fraud and avoid regulatory compliance infractions. 

Pricing:

• No free trial. 
• Contact Square 9 for pricing.

 Verdict

Square 9 has a lot of useful and advanced functionalities that provide excellent ROI for your investment. Despite that, I find that its many technical features greatly steepen the learning curve, causing your small business significant downtime.

Conclusion

Paper-based processes are costing you a fortune. 

If your UK-based business has to print documents constantly, you’ll spend a lot of money buying paper and office equipment and maintaining them. 

Overall, your paper-based processes attract massive recurring expenses that seriously hurt your small business’s bottom line. 

Interestingly, Gartner discovered that businesses spend $725 per employee annually on printing. If you factor in your employee headcount, you get very huge revenue-sapping figures.

However, you can eliminate your printing expenditure by leveraging the best document management software for the UK. In particular, I recommend FileCenter, as you get very high-speed OCR digitization that immensely boosts your productivity. 

Click here to begin your free FileCenter trial and do away with your printing expenses to accelerate growth.

With our software, you can achieve massive cumulative cost savings of up to $7,500 per year per employee to free up funds that you can reinvest into your business.