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HCL Notes vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL Notes
Ranking in Email Applications
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zimbra Collaboration
Ranking in Email Applications
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of HCL Notes is 3.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 6.7%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zimbra Collaboration6.7%
HCL Notes3.3%
Other90.0%
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

AT
IT Director at ATOS
Has improved email security through built-in encryption and supported offline work effectively
We don't use team workspace with HCL Notes; we use only Microsoft because it's incorporated with the Microsoft license. Based on my extensive experience with HCL Notes, I think HCL can make its product better by being more visible on the market because most companies don't support or use HCL anymore, and most integrators work with Exchange or Outlook rather than HCL Notes. Inside HCL Notes functionality, they have to be more visible in the market, which is very important.
Vidya Shree - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at Molecular Connections Private Limited
Deploys quickly and has a good web interface
Zimbra Collaboration has a good web interface When it comes to administration tasks like configuring specific filters or group signatures, I have to dig into the configuration since there's nothing in the graphical or web interface. The solution’s forums don't have much information or…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"HCL Notes is stable most of the time."
"Lotus Domino is an excellent platform for making groupware applications that are natively integrated with email."
"The initial setup was easy for me."
"In summary, this is a good product but there are always some areas for improvement."
"It is easy to integrate the product with other services."
"The most valuable feature is the UI."
"Security is the most valuable feature, better than you get in 365."
"The offline access feature in HCL Notes helps me significantly due to its strong replication mechanism, allowing me to work wherever I am, and when I connect, it facilitates two-way replication of information."
"For an SMB, it is a recommendable email solution."
"The most valuable feature of Zimbra Collaboration is the cost."
"I think Zimbra is more reliable and competitive than Microsoft because they offer an open-source version."
"Zimbra Collaboration has a good web interface."
"One of the premium features was customized rooms tailored to the collaboration needs. Many of the clients customize features such as organization logos and scanners."
"Zimbra Collaboration is a good tool for video calls...Zimbra Collaboration's initial setup phase was easy."
"This is a good email solution and it's open-source which is great and the most important feature for us."
"The product is easy to set up."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve by adding some more features."
"One minor issue was that using Notes to connect to clients not running on Domino, such as Gmail or Outlook, is not particularly great."
"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."
"The interface could be more user-friendly. Some additional trainings could be added as well."
"The user interface is very old, and there are a lot of small things that make me angry when using this solution."
"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."
"Based on my extensive experience with HCL Notes, I think HCL can make its product better by being more visible on the market because most companies don't support or use HCL anymore, and most integrators work with Exchange or Outlook rather than HCL Notes."
"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."
"The new patches are, at times, not so good, so we don't install them, causing the tool to be not so stable overall."
"There are security and performance issues which is one of the concerns of using an open-source product."
"Some issues cause the solution not to function correctly or to cause downtime once a month."
"In the next release, Zimbra Collaboration should include a security feature to allow access for mobile device administrators."
"There are some bugs we found that could be fixed."
"The solution’s forums don't have much information or documentation on administration tasks."
"Because of the lack of this functionality, we are planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange."
"It does have a few bugs. However, they are small and can be worked around."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was reasonably priced, but the product itself was not worth the cost."
"It is far cheaper to license. It is a third of the cost of our Microsoft license for 10 times the amount of usage. Developing applications cost a fraction of anything else. There are two reasons for that. First of all, applications are very fast to build. All the security is already built into the platform, so you don't have to worry about security at all. The other thing is that because fewer people use it than, for example, Microsoft SharePoint, the salary commanded by programmers is slightly lower. So, it is not only faster; you also get cheaper programmers. So, you really win-win-win on it."
"We pay annually for the use of the solution."
"I don't remember how much we paid when we first bought the Domino license, but now, we pay only for the passport. For 30 client licenses, we pay about $1,500 per year, and we don't consider it very expensive for the quality of the product. In our case, we need 30 client licenses. So, we buy 30 client licenses independently of the server. It is very easy for us to choose and maintain this kind of license and get the passport advantage."
"The price is reasonable."
"We pay licensing fees on a yearly basis."
"The solution is expensive. There are many components or features which make the price very high."
"I use Zimbra Collaboration's community version. We may move to the enterprise version since prices are affordable."
"If you choose the network edition, it is a little pricier. They have the open-source edition too which is only community supported."
"Zimbra Collaboration offers a good price-to-feature ratio."
"Zimbra Collaboration is expensive, and there is no perpetual license option."
"We are using perpetual licenses. We have deployed it in our local data center, and we buy perpetual licenses on a per-user basis."
"The solution is competitively priced."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the price a four"
"We pay yearly licenses for Zimbra Collaboration."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Notes?
We don't use team workspace with HCL Notes; we use only Microsoft because it's incorporated with the Microsoft license. Based on my extensive experience with HCL Notes, I think HCL can make its pro...
What is your primary use case for HCL Notes?
We use HCL Notes as an email system. We currently only use it as an email application, though in the past we used it for additional applications.
What advice do you have for others considering HCL Notes?
Regarding HCL Notes supporting various business processes such as CRM, I don't use it, but if I have an issue, I contact the support and we are satisfied with that. I would rate HCL Notes 10 out of...
How does Zimbra Collaboration compare with Microsoft Exchange?
Zimbra is a free, open source collaborative software suite. The features I like best are the ease of integration and the email, calendar, and collaboration server with web interface. In addition, I...
What needs improvement with Zimbra Collaboration?
When it comes to administration tasks like configuring specific filters or group signatures, I have to dig into the configuration since there's nothing in the graphical or web interface. The soluti...
 

Also Known As

IBM Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Connect2Cloud, Hansgrohe, Sauk County, Blue Water Shipping, FDBR, ibml, Multivac, Aarhus University Hospital, Hendricks Regional Health, Asian Paints, Integra Legal, Sunplus Technology, S¾SS, The Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports, Nicrometal, Doncasters Group, Practice Plan, Barr, RACV, Neotechnik, Deutsche Notes User Group
NEC Biglobe, City of Ventura, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Hola Publishing, BIG, Sleepwell, LaFayette College, Xmission, DNA, Ring Line, Future Group, TIGC
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Notes vs. Zimbra Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
896,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.