--- 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: '2026-07-12' parent_category: name: Collaboration & Productivity url: https://www.g2.com/categories/collaboration-productivity --- # HCL Notes Reviews **Vendor:** HCL Technologies **Category:** [Email Client Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/email-client) **Average Rating:** 3.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 188 ## About HCL Notes HCL Notes is an enterprise email client that integrates social collaboration, messaging and business applications into a single workspace ## HCL Notes Reviews ### 1. Old style and Strong Secure Email Collaborative Suite **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nam V. | COO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Calendar and Scheduling are extremely mature and implemented well. IBM Notes is good for user management, database management and server management Workspaces were easy to set up and manipulate. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Weak user interface Email integration was sometimes difficult Lot of functions unknown to users **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** IBM Notes is a collaboration platform based on the Lotus platform. For a small IT team with higher turn around and higher expectation, Notes is the best platform that I see so far. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Suites small, medium and large companies equally. High security standards. Need to solve wide rage of problems through custom developed applications. ### 2. Integration of various business functions **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 06, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It has facilities such as calender email, contact lists and messaging. It has file sharing facility, can be able to interfaces with server of organizationand **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** It doesn't have android app to use it, user interface is not as outlook or other email tools. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Try it and you will be worry free from missing meetings due to its notification functionality **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** On time email notification, calendar, workspace, contacts can be accesible from unique interface. ### 3. Easy mail interface, workspaces helpful **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Our company utilizes the workspace function to create databases in which all employees can access essential files. This is an alternative to SharePoint and we've found it to be more organized. Also access control is a key factor in our choice. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The program itself always seems to run slowly. Whether it's loading mail or accessing a workspace/database, it frequently becomes stuck on the loading screen. May be Windows' fault, but regardless, i wouldn't call it perfectly compatible. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** If you're looking for an alternative to SharePoint or just for a way to organize files and give your employees a centralized location in which they may access those files, IBM Notes gets the job done. It is as organized as you make it. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use this to organize our safety records database, as well as procedural documents and training records. The shared workspaces allow access to essential documents. ### 4. Swiss Army Knife of Collaboration Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Milan M. | System Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 06, 2018 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Its a reliable and most stable Server Software I have ever came across, it lets you tackle the every possible Challenge you might have. Rapid Application Development, E-Mail, Collaboration, Directory Server, CRM.... You name it.. All in All low cost to maintain and administrate. Easy to Administrate. Low System Requirements. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Full Notes Client had has been the most modern E-Mail Client for years, but that has changed, it needs a complete Design Overhaul. There are other Domino Clients, and a Notes Client will change completely with Version 11 which is going to be released in 2019. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** E-Mail, Calendaring, Pushing the Mail and Calendar Data to Mobile Devices, Directory Services, CRM, Custom Applications, Custom Applications for Mobile Devices..... Just to name a few. ### 5. Good but Not user friendly **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kelly S. | Officer , Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 13, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I like the protection it offers my organization **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** It is not user friendly. It’s hard to find what you are looking for and to adjust settings **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have secure email. I use the calendar function ### 6. After all these years: Still nothing compares to it **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David H. | Principal, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2018 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** - Security is refined, mature, and rock solid. Far better than any browser-based software. - Replication is mature and efficient, giving a built-in means for backing up app data to a server and allows working offline seamlessly. - a single, consistent environment for all our business apps including email. Learn how to use the Notes software once and it is the same for all apps across the board. Deployment of apps is brilliantly simple and manageable centrally by I.T. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The client software is a bit large and sometimes runs slowly. In the earliest versions of Notes, users could create their own apps easily in Notes. I wish users still had this ability built into the standard Notes client without a separate developer client installation. IBM is horrible at marketing, so people tend to believe the hype of competitors like Microsoft. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** There is a reason why this software has been so successful in spite of IBM's horrible marketing. I recommend getting started with a skilled IBM business partner who is already an expert at development and learn from them how to do your own development. Use the sample apps and explore the free apps at OpenNTF.org for tools, ideas, and sample code to take and customize for your own use. Email is great, but it's the apps where you'll see the ROI. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** - Billable timesheet tracking - I.T. Change Control management with approval workflow, user notifications, and history - Team collaboration for sharing files, meetings, tasks, having online discussions and a centralized calendar of team activities - Company website and blog - scheduler application used by our customers to use to give their clients the ability to schedule their own appointments online ### 7. Great for Centralized Database **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Our team utilizes IBM notes to centralize any files we need to share within the team in a database. It allows us to work together better as a team and easily collaborate with one another in a central location. It’s easy to communicate with others and schedule meetings and organize a centralized task list. It is our replacement to a Sharepoint site which we used to utilize before moving to this solution. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The main thing I dislike about IBM notes is it doesn’t integrate well with the suite of softwares we do have and it’s also one of the lesser known softwares out there. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** If you already use OneNote in the Microsoft suite it may not be worth it to use both. It’s a little outdated not the most well known software. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ease of use allows our team to work better together. We use it in place of a sharepoint site/dashboard to share information and collaborate better together. We use this to gather requests from our business users for any projects that we need to work on. We also complete any business requirement documents using this software. ### 8. Run Away, Even IBM Is **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It sends emails and files to people who are not me. **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. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Just don't do it. This product is going to the graveyard in a couple of years. **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. ### 9. IBM Notes is a basic scheduling and communication tools **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Avanish R. | Intern, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM Notes is good at doing scheduling and does great job as a calendar. It is a user friendly tool. It has a very simple user interface which makes it easy to use. Workspaces were easy to set up and manipulate. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Email integration was sometimes difficult. Compared to other chat tools and calendars, IBM Notes looks like it is from the 90s. It has an issues of chat crashing sometime. Overall the performance is not that much bad but still there are some issues regarding compatibility in email. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM Notes integrate well with IBM Same time which is the main reason of using this tool over any other. ### 10. IBM Lotus Notes, the best email tool used so far **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kratika N. | Graduate Student, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I have used Lotus Notes in office for 4 years. Besides regular email, this has so many useful features, one of it is the inbuilt messanger. I would say if you get a heck of it, it is one of the best email tools so far. I have also worked towards implementation of auto-email, where any of application (non IBM) could send email via lotus notes. Hence I can say that any form of customization is very simple ams quick in this application. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Only drawback is the capacity of attachment which we could send over email. Sometimes that becomes a limitation in communication. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Internal and external business communication ### 11. Great! but could use some slight changes! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food & Beverages | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** * IBM Notes does a great job as a calendar and scheduling tool. * The features available on mobile are comparable to that found on a desktop. * Very simple user interface keeps distractions to a minimum and makes it easy to use. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** * Domino Server updates sometimes did more harm than good and needed to be rolled back. * SSL handling. * There aren't a lot of integrations with IBM Notes and other applications we regularly use. Notes seems to have been left behind by many. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Be sure to take your time and not to try to rush through learning it or you will struggle with it. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** A problem it is solving is cost reduction, due to the fact that it is reducing user training. Also, it is enhancing capability by workflow and integration between applications. ### 12. The IBM Note collaborative platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alex M. | COUNTY ICT COORDINATOR , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** What I like in IBM note is grouping my emails according to dates and some times which is a great as to have gone through all the emails on a page scroll which is too tiresome work. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Nothing can be disliked in IBM note, I say. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** My opinion is IBM Notes is the best recommended for you. Go for it, get it easy. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves very many issues, like sorting emails by instant search, I can reach my contact without no hassle, pap!. I still can use instant messaging and its a nice user directive. Thank you, IBM. ### 13. Effective but Clunky **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM notes organizes the data we need effectively but can be clunky to use sometimes **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The software is not extremely user friendly **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** It’s been great for Documenting changes and tracking events ### 14. use this daily for email and meeting scheduling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Legal Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I love that I can set recurring appointments on the calendar, invite others to meetings and get notification of acceptance, and search through old emails easily to find a needed message or document **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The email search feature is slow, although that is potentially just my machine **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** I like being able to schedule recurring meetings or appointments with ease, so I don't forget to put something on the calendar, and also using the group chat feature to coordinate a meeting on short notice or even deal with an issue while using the chat ### 15. Either you want to share information or you don't. If you do, read on, if not, nothing can help you. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Keith B. | Chief Executive Officer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2018 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Security. Yes, users like Single Sign on but it is not a secure option. Security is where this wins against everyone. Granular to the field and macro to an entire server or network. In an age of privacy failures, how anyone can choose to not leverage Domino is unbelievable. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Public misconceptions. Many times people understand and use it better once they are trained on it or helped when they need it. Ignorance breeds contempt. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Less server failures and more options for your development teams to extend and not be a silo like Sharepoint **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have used it to sell online products, run our web sites, manage security IDs, handle onboarding, manage support tickets and even run as a CRM. ### 16. Using application of desktop workflow **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Euna I. | Senior Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 06, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It is capable of customizing the applications to work according to the need, designing groups for discussion of staff and other workflows of a business. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The creators should think on the development of the application because it is quite outdated and application with modern features are available for the people to use. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** The best use of it is you can email your clients/customers and customize the apps. ### 17. Email management software that improves workflow for our call center reps **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM Notes integrates over our email system so our call center and sales people can better manage their clients and day to day activities. It gets the job done and it's sold by a large, trusted organization. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** I think one of my issues is with price. IBM notes isn't cheap but for small companies it can be manageable. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM allows our salespeople to better manage their clients and day to day activities in a manner consistent with our needs to securely transform email into an operational center. ### 18. MS Office/ Outlook is a better choice **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Quite frankly there is really nothing that comes to mind that I like about this software. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Cumbersome interface, less intuitive than MS Office. Doesn't integrate well with mobile phones. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** From a user standpoint this product has not aged well since it's early days as Lotus Notes. Since most companies use MS Office already, I don't see any good reason to use IBM notes along side it. My company is transfering us to MS Office 365 in the coming months and I couldn't be happier. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** From a user standpoint, I really haven't seen any benefits over over using Outlook ### 19. Simple and practical communication and collaboration system **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ely O. | Asistente a la Presidencia, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 09, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It is easy to use it to communicate with other colleagues, schedule meetings and send your electronic mail, use the calendar to organize your weekly tasks, you can use shared storage, and integrate very well with other IBM applications **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** They are useful tools but little known by people, IBM must renew its image and show that it can still do well, even better **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ease of use of the tool has made my day-to-day work much easier and more flexible, it was very helpful to use this software I highly recommend it. ### 20. Simple, cheap and trustful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 25, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM Domino is a great platform for building business applications and e-mail as well. It offers a full range of on-board features like included encryption, inplace deep security and simple end user friendly deployment of apps. It is the cheapest way of doing business apps. It is 5 to 10 times cheaper than Microsoft offerings. It can be used on-premises, in a private cloud (e.g. Docker) or on a SaaS cloud. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** There is not much marketing by IBM for Domino anymore (if ever was). But with the switch to HCL it will be much more prominent and visible to the business decision makers. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is perfect for businesses who want to solve core business requirements like erp, crm oder project management. And it INCLUDES a full featured mail client including full mobile support for all major platforms. ### 21. IBM notes **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Katie A. | Katie August student , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM notes provides so many business functions such as instant messaging, blogs, calendars etc. Its helpful, and can really help when you have business meetings in progress or scheduled in the future **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** I think that it isn’t widely known about throughout other businesses. So it’s hard to transfer notes or schedules through the software. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** When using IBM notes, we are solving the issue of miscommunication because meeting or notes, has been transferred over to the software. It’s easily accessed by everyone who is involved. ### 22. Routinely usage of IBM notes **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Annalena A. | Php Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 06, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Its advantages are that it allows to do filing and also works well with my gateway system. Moreover, it keeps record of files and databases. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Very time consuming and stuck frequently on loading in the system. Completion of work remains delayed. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am currently getting no benefit from it as it is time consuming and does not have any advanced features ### 23. It is quite useful **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM Notes is great as a calendar and scheduling tool. What is more, features available on mobile are similar to that found on a desktop. Very simple user interface keeps distractions to a minimum and makes it easy to use. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** They haven't done a great job updating it, it looks like it's from the 90s. Moreover, there are not many integrations with IBM Notes and other applications people often use. Notes seems to have been left behind by many. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since it's very simple, I don't get troubles when trying to use my notes. I don't waste time trying to understand how it works . Very simple user interface keeps distractions to a minimum and makes it easy to use. ### 24. A dawn to the new era of Notes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Paul S. | Lead Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2018 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Cleaner UI, snappier responsiveness, increased capacity on databases and lookups, invite forwarding, forwarding emails as attachments, responsiveness by HCL to customer requests, roadmap for future versions, Office integration. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The email client should adapt some design aspects from Verse as users really seem like that and those who don't like Notes mail for not being Outlook simply can't let that go. We will start steering new hires directly to Verse to help with that. Search could be better/easier for users. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We primarily use it for legacy workflow applications and email. Trying to reinvigorate Notes in the enterprise by optimizing older apps built by citizen developers and then recasting them with the new mobile and web front ends. ### 25. Great Email Client **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Federico O. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 12, 2018 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I've been using the Notes client for over ten years and I'm convinced it's a great client for managing email, calendar and contacts but above all for collaborating in teams. In particular, my favorite feature is the possibility to develop customized applications (databases) that help daily productivity **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The only feature that could be improved is the graphical interface. In fact, while I find it excellent, the opinion of the majority of users is that it is "ugly". By comparing it to other mail clients, users do not put it as the first choice for that reason. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** There are no recommendations that I deem particularly necessary. It is an excellent product for the purposes for which it is born. In daily use it allows you to work without interruptions, both online and offline, using its excellent replication mechanism. It has a great integrated chat for instant communications and its client on Android and iOS works very well. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM Notes allows me to collaborate better with my colleagues, allows me to collaborate with them especially at a distance with a speed and immediacy that I can not find in any other product. ### 26. IBM of UPS **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dianne M. | Residence COUNSELOR, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I like IBM that helps makes the scanning efficient and good with the Clerks, Marketing Sales Representatives in the Packaging and Conmon Goods Department. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** IBM has minor glitches that will not affect the belt line operations of packages going through the system **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** The business problems UPS encounters daily are numerous mislabeling from the scanning system on the packages if the productivity is not coinciding with the volume layout. ### 27. IBM notes is difficult to setup, not user-friendly, and has a dated interface. **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 04, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** There are many settings to tweak and the software is highly customizable based on your preferences. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The search function is very hard to use. Search results almost never yield what I want them to. In addition, scheduling meetings and finding available times should be much more accessible; you have to click through multiple different tabs just to see all invitees availability. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Flow of communication such as meetings and email. Sharing of files, sharing of calendars. The other functions within IBM notes are not worth figuring out how to use. ### 28. IBM notes formerly Lotus notes **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** A rich client application. It also acts as a web client and mobile email client. Renowned and complete with other products such as Sharepoint , Zimbra It is used as an email and can be used with IBM same time messenger **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Support not so good. Tough to configure and issues with resetting ID file. It should be improvised in way that it should not be easily replaced by Outllook **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using as a email client to exchange emails within the organization. Also using messenger and in addition developing environment to integrate applications such as approval workflow ### 29. Software includes messaging applications etc **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Contact management Notes can be considered a Standard **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Instant issues with chat crashing There aren’t a lot of integration with notes **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Does a. Great job as a calendar and scheduling tool ### 30. Twenty Years of Domino **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Plastics | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Probably the best part of using Domino is the ease of creating databases. You can create a database from scratch in under an hour. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** I receive the most complaints about the Notes client interface. It is just worlds away from the standard Windows development model. New users struggle to find what they need. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Trial the product in a non-production environment, using Domino / Notes client / Traveler. Determine if this is a good fit for your organization, its end users and those who will be administering it. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use Domino for our corporate email, databases to track quality trends, maintenance work orders, machine setups, etc. (dozens of databases). ### 31. One stop for Everything **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I have used IBM Lotus Notes as default email client after switching from outlook and since then I can not imagine even single day in my office without it. it does a great job as a calendar and scheduling tool. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Sometimes, I observed constant issues with chat crashing. There aren't a lot of integrations with IBM Notes and other applications that I regularly use. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Security is top notch. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Notes security is top notch. I use it day to day communication with my team, management and Client ### 32. Avereage, not great, nothing terrible **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM Notes is very reliable and easy to set up.The ability to create databases is also very helpful. And security is top notch, which is one of our big concerns. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** There is a lack of customer support, and we can't turn off read receipts on email. This is especially troubling when opening spam email. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Check out Slack. It's much easier to use. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM Notes allows us to collaborate better and streamline the communication process. We've used it to coordinate on multiple projects and track progress. ### 33. Desktop workflow application that is quite outdated **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Miłosz P. | Starszy Specjalista ds. PLM, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I like ability to create discussion groups, custom applications and business workflows. **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. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** - **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. ### 34. The worst piece of software I have ever come across **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food & Beverages | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 22, 2018 **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. **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. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** Don't! **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. ### 35. IBM notes review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM notes allows myself and colleagues to be able to switch between emails, calendar events, and notes and it's all accessible by a mobile app for on the go. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The app sometimes has some glitches or it takes awhile to update information from other colleagues. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are having the capability to be able to access information from one persons notes from anothers. This us very helpful in the event that a person is unavailable to talk with, their notes are accessible. ### 36. IBM notes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Its an email and social platform that has A LOT more options and freedom than your standard email service like yahoo **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The customization isnt quite there yet. I understand it's more formal for networking and business but I enjoy a large amount of customization in any interface. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its awesome cause it's like if you combined Google plus with linked in. Its nice having all of my networking needs in one space which frees up time. ### 37. IBM Notes review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I really like the simplicity of use. I’m not tech friendly by any stretch of imagination so being able to just use software without problems is great **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Personally I don’t like to complain if the job is done and I didn’t Notes did the job. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having stuff organized is important when you have 50 different things to do in a day and ibm notes helped me and my team to keep everything nice and organized ### 38. Love this!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amber W. | English Teacher, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I like that it comes up with cool designs and logos. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** There's nothing about it I dislike at all. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We've been able to share project wide and work simultaneously on the same documents. ### 39. Manager **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** bretrand h. | sales advisor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** How I can use it and how it let's me do what I need to do **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Nothing right now but if anything else can let you know **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Spread sheets and notes to employees ### 40. Perfect interface and very easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Syed R. | Assistant General Manager, Financial Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Its very convenient email and meeting scheduling. it is very useful for everyday office purpose **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Wish to have more features in future. Lack of feature. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Emailing and scheduling solution for a organization ### 41. Amazing application **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Individual & Family Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** My organization is a small IBM Business Partner. We use Notes for email and application development. It provides us secure access and storage of our mail data. Since we are small, it's used across the organization. We can also do team scheduling through calendaring and/or custom applications. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** I do not have any dislikes. I love everything about it. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** We write business-critical applications in Notes and Domino for our customers. ### 42. What IBM Notes can do? **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** IBM notes is good in User Management, Server Management and also in database management **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** For not so big websites or webpages This Technology dont have a lighter version. IBM needs to come up with a better solution. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** With IBM Notes it has easy web services development and deployment. And also it easy to connect with other database like SQL, Oracle and other. ### 43. I use IBM notes daily **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Executive Office | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Its filing capabilities and how it works with our Gateway system. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Freezes up frequently and takes a long time to load **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** No problem solving in my position ### 44. Nice Email Client and Collaboration Tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Atanu R. | Lead Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It provides a very good email client, collaboration features. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** More dependent of IBM softwares and can be enhanced to integrate with external systems more easily. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Emails, Calendars, Schedules ### 45. Solid but probably not worth Cost **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** It’s secure and you can share. It’s also Convenient to schedule through Calendar or other applications. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Cost is expensive. There’s some bugs, which is always going to be a people’s eith technonlogy. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Can provide secure access and storage to data. It’s nice to be able to work together throughout company. ### 46. IBM Notes is great for teams to work with content management capabilities on other IBM apps **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** I like how IBM integrates with other IBM applications and collaboration tools **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The search capabilities with IBM tools re not necessarily the most secure from a compliance perspective **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** I worked with a client using this tool as a part of the general IBM applications integrated into their business ### 47. It serves its purpose **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Health, Wellness and Fitness | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Workspaces were easy to set up and manipulate. The notes has top notch security . **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** We have had alot of issues with chat crashing. Which is why we no longer use notes. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** IBM Notes did a great job as a calendar and scheduling tool for our office. ### 48. IBM NOTES **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** The organization of my contacts is nice and balanced. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** The main inbox and instant messenger feature are lacking. **Recommendations to others considering HCL Notes:** I would strongly recommend Outlook over Notes. **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. ### 49. Good collaboration too **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Easy to use user interface. Best when entire team is using. **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Limited across other platforms and speed gets laggy at random times. **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Best for collaboration among large groups. Even better for cross functions and global connections. ### 50. Lotus is nice **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 16, 2019 **What do you like best about HCL Notes?** Lotus is very useful and I really like the emoji options **What do you dislike about HCL Notes?** Notes feels a bit outdated and I think it requires an upgrade **What problems is HCL Notes solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication is key with IBM noted very helpful in that ## HCL Notes Discussions - [In what industries is IBM Notes mostly used?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/in-what-industries-is-ibm-notes-mostly-used) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View HCL Notes pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/hcl-notes/reviews?page=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-15+08%3A38%3A52+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c12dc2f1-2aee-4383-bd53-c657bab7d728&secure%5Btoken%5D=12456f44688a4e063410c1e29b6a93a41baaa4edc54af1d443bceaea7ecabe10&format=llm_user) ## HCL Notes Features **Inbox Tools** - Unified Inbox - Filters - Reminders - Notifications **Coordination Tools** - Calendar - Contacts - Task Management **Software Options** - Desktop Application - Mobile Application **Email Client - Agentic AI** - Autonomous Task Execution - Cross-system Integration ## Top HCL Notes Alternatives - [Microsoft Outlook](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-outlook/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (3,423 reviews) - [Thunderbird](https://www.g2.com/products/thunderbird/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (334 reviews) - [Front](https://www.g2.com/products/front/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (2,443 reviews)