The best document management software of 2026, expert-tested

ZDNET's expert-tested roundup, "The best document management software of 2026: Expert tested," names Notion its top pick for document management and compares Notion, DocuWare, Google Workspace, Microsoft SharePoint and Adobe Acrobat Studio. The review says the evaluator prioritized security, compliance and discoverability, and ran hands-on tests of real-world usability, integrations and collaboration features by setting up trial accounts and simulating onboarding and approval workflows.

Notion is highlighted for flexibility and custom document workflows, combining storage, project management, databases and wikis; the review notes real-time collaboration, permission controls, and that setup time and performance on very large databases can be downsides. Notion’s listed starting cost is $10/user/month.

DocuWare is recommended for regulated environments because of audit trails, intelligent capture with OCR and AI, and conditional approval routing, but the review cautions it is costly, complex and requires substantial training; DocuWare’s listed starting cost is $25/user/month. Google Workspace is praised for seamless integration of Gmail, Drive and Docs, strong collaboration and version recovery, with a listed starting cost of $6/user/month, though the review notes limitations in metadata/tagging and potential storage limits.

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