We performed a comparison between HCL Domino and HCL Notes based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both of these HCL products are very stable, robust, and reliable. HCL Domino slightly nudges ahead of HCL Notes in this comparison. HCL Domino is very mature and makes collaboration easier during application development, saving time and keeping teams productive. HCL Notes was originally developed as an email application solution, with the added benefit of workflow and application development as added features. Currently, the savviest of users are able to truly utilize HCL Notes for all of its application building and development capabilities, making it a very complete solution.
"HCL Domino is an application development and collaboration platform with strong stability and security. Deployment of this platform is easy and takes only 10 minutes."
"I find the HCL Domino server scalable."
"This solution can be used for workflow application so that applications can be easily developed."
"The full-text searching capabilities are great."
"We can scale it if we want to."
"The pricing is excellent."
"HCL Domino is the best product from a security point of view."
"The most valuable features of the solution are security and integration."
"It is easy to integrate the product with other services."
"The most valuable feature is the access that it provides to documents. This offers us an easy way to make changes."
"HCL Notes is stable most of the time."
"The product is very stable and scalable."
"It is one of the best products in the world for workflow applications. It works very well for workflows or decisional processes where a task needs to be first approved by someone. After that, the task moves to the next or final stage where another person approves it with some notes or attached documents."
"The initial setup was easy for me."
"The security and performance of the solution are good even though our platform is variable, except for the mail services."
"HCL Notes has fantastic built-in security. The email and personal communication components are excellent, but they are some applications provided by HCL that Notes previously provided when it was under IBM and Lotus. Everyone wants email, so that's just part of the product. However, more savvy users can build their own solutions for managing information, and that's the great thing about it."
"The product's user interface is one of its shortcomings since it is outdated, making it an area for improvement."
"When you compare with Microsoft Exchange, the UI could be more user-friendly."
"The client version of this solution could be faster and be made simpler for non-IT users. You will need to have some knowledge of Notes to correctly install this solution."
"Recently, IBM sold the product to HCL. Since Pakistan and India have some problems on a domestic level, we were actually considering replacing it with Indian products from the organization. We're just facing some regulatory issues."
"The solution is expensive."
"HCL Domino needs to be more user-friendly."
"Designing a new template could provide a refreshed visual experience for users without significant changes to the underlying functionality."
"It would be advantageous if the web server could seamlessly pick up configuration changes without the need for a complete restart."
"I love this product. I have used it for many years, and I have been a developer for it. If anything, it can be faster in the client version. The client version is a little bit hard. It is not fast. This is the only problem I see. Otherwise, it is a very good product."
"Web support is very old and needs an upgrade. We can handle a different password for the client to access the mail services, compared to the web services. We need to implement many other components to get access to the web access. There could be a feature to interpret if the web access is available from any end-user equipment."
"I would like to HCL update Notes' development tool and make it more attractive like Microsoft Visual Studio and similar products. For example, there's a programming language that I used for my product Woodpecker called LotusScript. LotusScript has been available since around 1995. When LotusScript was released, it was like the original Visual Basic, but it has improved since then."
"GUI and replication can be improved."
"The only improvement that we're planning to do is that all our applications are still designed in the layout and format of Notes version 4, and our plan over the coming years is to modernize their look. One of the things they're developing or considering deploying is a program to automatically upgrade the look and feel of databases. If they deploy that, that will be revolutionary. In other words, we decide on a corporate look and feel for our database and press a button. We've probably got 50 different applications in Notes, and it would just go through the whole lot and upgrade all of them to look the same."
"The interface could be more user-friendly. Some additional trainings could be added as well."
"It is a heavy program and uses more resources than an email client should."
"We had trouble connecting this solution to the database from Microsoft. We have done it, although it can be easier."
HCL Domino is ranked 17th in Rapid Application Development Software with 17 reviews while HCL Notes is ranked 7th in Email Applications with 12 reviews. HCL Domino is rated 8.0, while HCL Notes is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of HCL Domino writes "A stable and versatile enterprise solution consolidating various functions like email, collaboration, and application development in a user-friendly manner". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HCL Notes writes "Accessible from any device, good support, and works very well for emails, document sharing, and workflows". HCL Domino is most compared with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Power Apps, Zimbra Collaboration, Microsoft Exchange Online and HCL Verse, whereas HCL Notes is most compared with HCL Verse, Microsoft Exchange, Google Workspace, Zimbra Collaboration and Microsoft Exchange Online.
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