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HCL Notes pros and cons

Vendor: HCLSoftware
3.9 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HCL Notes is very stable and scalable, with excellent integration capabilities.
It provides stratospheric security, including field-level security and secure encryption.
It excels in workflow applications, managing approvals and tracking with ease.
It offers unique capabilities with strong replication features for offline access.
HCL Notes is easy to manage, set up, and migrate, standing out against other platforms.

CONS

Notes uses more resources than an email client should and needs improved performance.
Some features and integrations with other solutions are lacking or need enhancement.
The loading time is excessive, affecting efficiency.
Upgrading web support and implementing modern features could greatly benefit users.
HCL needs more market visibility as many companies prefer Exchange or Outlook over Notes.
 

HCL Notes Pros review quotes

AT
IT Director at ATOS
Oct 27, 2025
I prefer to work with HCL and not with Exchange because it's easy to manage, easy to set up, and easy to migrate.
AM
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
May 14, 2025
Office 365 offers a better interface and categorization of emails, along with options such as mail suggestions and AI features.
PB
Architect at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 23, 2025
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.
Learn what your peers think about HCL Notes. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.
NB
Administration & Technical Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Jul 9, 2025
HCL Notes is easy to customize as it is simple and fast, making it cost-effective for development.
reviewer2035941 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
May 27, 2024
Notes is a perfectly adequate front end. It's clear and straightforward.
Herad Howell - PeerSpot reviewer
Military Officer at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Nov 12, 2024
The software's secure communication is particularly useful when dealing with professional entities.
reviewer2261757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager assistant at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 1, 2023
The security and performance of the solution are good even though our platform is variable, except for the mail services.
Chiheb Charmiti - PeerSpot reviewer
IS Manager & Consultant HCL Domino at JACOB & ASSOCIATES
May 18, 2022
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.
Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Jun 4, 2024
The most valuable feature is security. It's very easy to manage security on records, views, and tables.
TA
COE at Asia Pacific Computer Services
May 19, 2022
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.
 

HCL Notes Cons review quotes

AT
IT Director at ATOS
Oct 27, 2025
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.
AM
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
May 14, 2025
My overall experience with HCL Notes is not good.
PB
Architect at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
Jul 23, 2025
One minor issue was that using Notes to connect to clients not running on Domino, such as Gmail or Outlook, is not particularly great.
Learn what your peers think about HCL Notes. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.
NB
Administration & Technical Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Jul 9, 2025
Regarding additional functions, the front end of the databases on the home screen looks somewhat old-fashioned. It could be modernized by the development team.
reviewer2035941 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
May 27, 2024
Some people complain that they want something more modern and jazzy.
Herad Howell - PeerSpot reviewer
Military Officer at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Nov 12, 2024
One area for improvement would be making the interface more user-friendly.
reviewer2261757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager assistant at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 1, 2023
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.
Chiheb Charmiti - PeerSpot reviewer
IS Manager & Consultant HCL Domino at JACOB & ASSOCIATES
May 18, 2022
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.
Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Jun 4, 2024
The performance was terrible because we have a very large database with around three million records, including attachments and scanned comments. It was slow, and integrating new technologies or designs was also slow.
TA
COE at Asia Pacific Computer Services
May 19, 2022
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.