One of the attractions of the Rohloff is its near total reliability, which I am not sure that the Alfine can match.
Probably not, but IMO recent Shimano 8-speed hubs are reasonably reliable. The older ones reportedly had problems with inadequate seals that let water in and corroded the innards if used a lot for winter commuting.
I currently have 5 in use on the family bikes, for about 13,000 kms without any trouble so far. Mine are the slightly cheaper Nexus 8 Premium version, which has nearly the same internals as the Alfine version (with needle roller bearings in the planet gears, so supposed to be more efficient than the standard Nexus version), but in a less pretty shell and with roller-brake compatibilty rather than disc brake.
Two are on my wife's bikes, so are used very gently as my wife only weighs about 42 Kg.
Two are on our visitor bikes, so do relatively little mileage, but they get abused by people that don't take any care with the gear changes.
The fifth is on one of my utility bikes that I regularly use for hauling up to about 30kg of groceries in panniers, also for towing trailer loads with typical all-up weights from 140 to 170 kg.
I don't notice much difference between Rohloff and Nexus 8 Premium for local use, the range of the 8-speed is generally sufficient and I only notice the relatively big jump between 5th and 6th gear on longer rides. The Rohloff is supposed to be more efficient, but again I don't really notice the difference, perhaps partly because I run my Nexus hubs with oil lubrication rather than the factory grease.
The Rohloff beats the 8-speed hub on long rides where I appreciate the closer and more regular gear steps. The very wide range is useful in really hilly areas, especially on long climbs at the end of the day.
Another advantage of the Nexus 8 Premium over the Rohloff is that it is relatively inexpensive, so I am less bothered about leaving the bike locked up outside the supermarket.
