--- title: HCL Notes Reviews meta\_title: 'HCL Notes Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 188 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how HCL Notes works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 3.2 review\_count: 188 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-07' parent\_category: name: Collaboration & Productivity url: https://www.g2.com/categories/collaboration-productivity --- # HCL Notes Reviews & Product Details Claimed ###### Profile Status This profile is currently managed by HCL Notes but has limited features. Are you part of the HCL Notes team? [Upgrade your plan](https://sell.g2.com) to enhance your branding and engage with visitors to your profile! HCL Notes is an enterprise email client that integrates social collaboration, messaging and business applications into a single workspace * * * Seller [HCL Technologies](https://www.g2.com/sellers/hcl-technologies) Discussions [HCL Notes Community](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/discuss) Solution Type All-in-One Overview by Rebecca Bauer (Content Director) Show More ## Value at a Glance Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 3 months ### Return on Investment 16 months [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/pricing) ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![Microsoft Outlook](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Microsoft Outlook") Microsoft Outlook 4.5/5(3,522) ](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-outlook/reviews) [ ![Thunderbird](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Thunderbird") Thunderbird 4.3/5(340) ](https://www.g2.com/products/thunderbird/reviews) [ ![Front](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Front") Front 4.7/5(2,507) ](https://www.g2.com/products/front/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/competitors/alternatives) ## User Insights Average based on 188 real user reviews. Implementation Time 3 months Perceived Cost $$$$$ [Log in to unlock pricing and user insights](/login) ![Richard P.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Richard P.") RP Richard P. Product Manager Computer Software Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 6/18/2020 "Absolutely not" 0/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? Nothing.I do not like anything about this. Reasons colleagues have told me to use (thick client) for notes instead of verse: 1.) manage a calendar. send invited on behalf of 2.) access underlying databases or requests Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? 1.) Often requires downgrade in version of java to even open, introducing security holes. 2.) What kind of modern email client requires the user to identify a database or server? Is this a joke?! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Dont. Use anything else. Verse if you have to, outlook or g-suite if you can. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? Intended for email, a-synchronous communication and calendaring - I almost always use verse instead - I would much rather use outlook or gsuite if I could. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Our network of Icons are G2 members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions and commitment to helping others through their expertise. G2 Icon 5/20/2024 Validated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Verified User in Airlines/Aviation](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Airlines/Aviation") UA Verified User in Airlines/Aviation Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 10/5/2019 "Outdated" 0/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? This is an opinion from an end user, I'm not an IT guy, I have no idea how stuff works on the background, but honestly, it all seems outdated It feels like I'm using a software from '90s. I don't really like anything about it besides the instant messages from our contact's list, which is useful Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? Outdated interface, which is ugly to me at least Everything takes too much time to load Small inbox size (it might be related our IT team limiting it though) Not enough integration with other tools Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Avoid it. We are moving away from it for a reason. It is outdated and we have better options in the market today. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? I'm a basic user and I basically use it as my email and scheduler. It's a basic, outdated and slow Office 365 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Accounting](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Accounting") UA Verified User in Accounting Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 9/29/2019 "Notes belongs back in 1999" 1/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? Email can easily be encrypted for sending secured documents and messages Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? The interface appears as if it hasn’t changed since 1999, HTML editors are horrific and offer little functionality, no warning when sending messages without subjects or attachments when words like attached are in the body of the email. Clunky interface and not widely used elsewhere so unable to attach emails to send to others when necessary. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? IBM Notes does contain many database features that tie in automatic approval routing based on a user-defined matrix, which does help reduce the amount of paper documentation throughout the business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Computer Software](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Computer Software") UC Verified User in Computer Software Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 2/19/2019 "Run Away, Even IBM Is" 0/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? It sends emails and files to people who are not me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? IBM Notes is a mess and there's numerous reasons as to why IBM is leaving this business behind. The interface is from the 90's and early 2000s. I worked at IBM while using the product, and even our implementation lacked commonplace things such as: seamless syncing between web and desktop apps, conference room integrations, and unified mobile app. We used another IBM product called Verse for mobile email, and some people used Verse as their replacement for Notes mobile. We still had to use Notes for ticketing requests, which makes no sense for an email product and became a pain when Mac users would request Windows users to raise tickets for them since Notes didn't install properly on their machines. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Just don't do it. This product is going to the graveyard in a couple of years. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? IBM Notes didn't really solve any problems except for the ability to send someone who is not you information from across the web. It's usefulness literally stops after that one capability. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Miłosz P.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Miłosz P.") MP Miłosz P. Starszy Specjalista ds. PLM Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 2/19/2019 "Desktop workflow application that is quite outdated" 1/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? I like ability to create discussion groups, custom applications and business workflows. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? I do not like the lack of development of this application by the creators. There are more modern solutions on the market. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: - Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? Mostly using this software as a e-mail client and for custom applications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Food & Beverages](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Food & Beverages") UF Verified User in Food & Beverages Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 8/22/2018 "The worst piece of software I have ever come across" 0/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? Absolutely nothing... actually let me be fair... it's quite useful being able to put attachments at relevant points in an email and the room booking system via calendar is good. Apart from that it's shocking. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? Where to start? User interface would have been out of date in 1995. Absolutely incomprehensible error messages. Terrible archiving. Awful search. Hopeless at handling attachments. Meeting invite system very poor and doesn't integrate well with other programmes. Nightmare to add people to your address book. IBM Verse (the phone app) is not good at all. Takes up a massive space to run. It's slow, bloated, and massively reduces productivity. It has no redeeming features at all. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Don't! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? None. IBM Notes has caused many more problems that it has solved and fortunately a new IT director has seen the light and is in the process of binning it. My recommendation to anyone thinking of using it is to sack whoever had the idea, and revert to typewriters and sending letters as that will be much more effective than Notes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Verified User in Telecommunications](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Telecommunications") UT Verified User in Telecommunications Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 2/20/2019 "IBM NOTES" 0/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? The organization of my contacts is nice and balanced. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? The main inbox and instant messenger feature are lacking. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: I would strongly recommend Outlook over Notes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? Currently no benefits, but this is an internal software we're required to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Nate H.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Nate H.") NH Nate H. Advisory Architect Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 10/9/2017 "Basic email and calendar app and that's about it" 0.5/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? IBM Notes gets the job done when it comes to email and calendaring. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? Notes has fallen way behind even most of the free consumer email platforms not to mention the enterprise platforms it competes with. From an end user perspective here are some issues that Notes has: \*\* Notes can't search well. The default search option looks only in a single field (subject, email sender, etc.) instead of across all text in the email like you'd expect it to. Consequently it's more difficult to find something you need to. \*\* Composition tools are basic. Notes doesn't fully undo some actions when composing email. So often you find yourself having to start from scratch because there was some composition feature used that can't be undone. It's typography is fairly poor (almost nonexistent leading/kerning and list/bullet management) so more lengthy emails look rather unprofessional. \*\* Fit and finish of the desktop client shows age. Notes just looks and feels old. Icons are often small and outdated. Spellcheck has no way to ignore words that start with capital letters (like names) so it's constantly asking about first names of people I email which is annoying. Dialogues like the "Add new calendar entry" leave a lot of white space and have small difficult to use fields for important information like start/end times. \*\* Calendar is more difficult than other systems. For some mystifying reason Notes will not allow you to forward a calendar invite you've accepted to a colleague making it more challenging to collaborate with a dynamic team. Notes calendar doesn't play well with other systems so most often a separate verification needs to be sent to ensure the individual received the meeting invite (this is especially true of meeting updates). \*\* It lacks integration. It's rare these days to see any new app or system integrate with Notes so it stays very siloed where other email platforms are doing deep line of business integration (CRM, video conferencing, etc.) and social integration (facebook, twitter, slack, etc.). \*\* Mobile and desktop syncing issues. There are some well know issues that involve reading email ,calendar invites especially, on the mobile client (IBM Traveler) that cause them to be removed from the default views of the desktop client. Basically important email can "disappear" when using the mobile client. The mobile client also doesn't allow integration with other mobile apps so calendars, for example, can't be unified on a smart phone; the Notes calendar won't feed into any other mobile calendaring app. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? At want point I think IBM Notes was an innovative product. Not anymore. It does email and calendaring. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More 10/12/2017 Current UserValidated ReviewerSource: Organic ![Verified User in Management Consulting](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Management Consulting") UM Verified User in Management Consulting Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 11/9/2017 "Notes is dinosaur of email" 0.5/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? Enables tight integration with organization tools and templates e.g., file sharing, messenger. Notes is also generally reliable and a stable software with very few instances of crashes/ bugs. It also provides good calendar functionality in general (excl. the fact that I cannot forward invites). The calendar views are easy to view and manage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? Not designed for modern collaboration. You cant even forward an invite!! To invite additional attendees, when you dont own the invite, you need to create a duplicate calendar invite, and obviously if the original invite moves around, you will need to move the duplicate invite manually. Very painful. Another problem is that its replication function (i.e. email sync) is very slow and infrequent. I need to manually press Replicate and Sync several times to send an email in my outbox or to receive and email on notes which I already see on my iphone mailbox (both the devices are connected to the same network, so its not an issue with network speed) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Dont even think about it! You will instantly move back 20 years in time if you switch to Notes. I recommend using other tools such as Outlook, slack etc. for your business. While the software is stable and reliable, it simply not user friendly enough and its design and features are out of sync with the needs of the modern professional. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? IBM notes has been our primary email client for several decades. Benefits are cross-firm familiarity with the platform, and seamless support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Government Administration](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Government Administration") UG Verified User in Government Administration Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 12/18/2017 "Supposed to be more of a collaboration environment than a mail client but fails to deliver" 1/5 What do you like best about HCL Notes? Honestly, there is absolutely no feature that I like and that I will miss if I move to another similar software. The only decent feature is the calendar Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about HCL Notes? Extremely slow search inside mailbox. After a year of keeping e-mails in your mailbox the search becomes practically unusable. Bad search on contacts. Sometimes you have to search with the correct order of first/last name etc. Very unintuitive menu. Even for the simplest settings you don't really know where to navigate to find them. Google is your friend. Ununtuitive UI, there are times that actual objects (such as contacts) appear as plain text items but when you right click on them there is more functionality). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes: Try before you buy. It can be really challenging for people used to Microsoft products. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you? e-mail, Calendar, simple business applications Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More 1/17/2018 Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ## Questions about HCL Notes? Ask real users or explore answers from the community Get practical answers, real workflows, and honest pros and cons from the G2 community or share your insights. [ Ask about HCL Notes ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/discussions/new) GU Guest User What is HCL Notes used for? 0 Upvotes 0 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-hcl-notes-used-for) ![Muhammad Q.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Muhammad Q.") MQ Muhammad Qasim • Last activity over 6 years ago In what industries is IBM Notes mostly used? 1 Upvote 1 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/in-what-industries-is-ibm-notes-mostly-used) [ View all Discussions ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/discuss) ## Pricing Insights Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 3 months ### Return on Investment 16 months ### Perceived Cost $$$$$ [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/pricing) HCL Notes Comparisons ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_69054bc7d40597b06fc3905720ccc914/microsoft-outlook.png "Product Avatar Image") Outlook 4.5/5(3,522) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/hcl-notes-vs-microsoft-outlook) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_6ca5b57b63c45814e9ef66a64ca43c19/thunderbird.png "Product Avatar Image") Thunderbird 4.3/5(340) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/hcl-notes-vs-thunderbird) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_148d4e88c759e4a7a984a0f3f056fd39/zimbra-collaboration-enterprise-collaboration.png "Product Avatar Image") Zimbra Collaboration... 3.6/5(140) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/hcl-notes-vs-zimbra-collaboration-enterprise-collaboration) ##### ##### HCL Notes Features Inbox Tools Unified Inbox Filters Reminders Coordination Tools Calendar Contacts Task Management Software Options Desktop Application Mobile Application [ View More Features ](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/features) ##### Categories on G2 [Email Client](https://www.g2.com/categories/email-client) ##### Explore More [Where can I find the best influencer marketing platform](https://www.g2.com/discussions/where-can-i-find-the-best-influencer-marketing-platform)[What cloud security monitoring platforms actually cut down the manual checks security teams have to do across multiple cloud services every week?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-cloud-security-monitoring-platforms-actually-cut-down-the-manual-checks-security-teams-have-to-do-across-multiple-cloud-services-every-week)[Top AP and spend analysis tools for finance teams](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-top-ap-and-spend-analysis-tools-for-finance-teams) [Which antivirus gives the strongest ransomware protection for a small home office setup where losing files would be genuinely catastrophic?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-antivirus-gives-the-strongest-ransomware-protection-for-a-small-home-office-setup-where-losing-files-would-be-genuinely-catastrophic)[Which app monetization platforms are most trusted by ad operations managers at online media companies?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-app-monetization-platforms-are-most-trusted-by-ad-operations-managers-at-online-media-companies)[Which AR content management systems let designers filter and search for specific model types quickly?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-ar-content-management-systems-let-designers-filter-and-search-for-specific-model-types-quickly) [Show MoreShow Less](javascript:void(0);)