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HCL Notes pros and cons

Vendor: HCLSoftware

3.8 out of 5

19 reviews
80% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

HCL Notes is a stable and scalable solution offering strong security with field-level protection and encryption. Setup is easy, and it features offline access and excellent workflow for document approvals. However, it consumes more resources than typical email clients, struggles with non-Domino client integration, needs an updated web interface, and performs poorly with large databases, hampering tech integration. Additionally, the chat component is unreliable, requiring distinct passwords for different services.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

HCL Notes offers outstanding security, including field-level protection and secure encryption.

HCL Notes provides robust workflow capabilities, effectively managing decisional processes.

HCL Notes has excellent built-in security features, enabling secure communication and data management.

HCL Notes includes a strong offline access feature, facilitating seamless replication of information.

HCL Notes is highly stable and scalable, making it easy to integrate with other services.

CONS

Notes uses more resources than expected for an email client.

The chat component does not function properly.

Connecting Notes to databases like Microsoft can be problematic and slow.

Web support and functionality are outdated and need upgrading.

Performance issues arise with large databases and slow integration of new technologies.

HCL Notes Pros review quotes

reviewer1419795

Sr. Analyst at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 14, 2020

The product is very stable and scalable.

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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.

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NB

Administration & Technical Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Jan 5, 2022

Its security is absolutely stratospheric. In an application, you can lock down to field-level security. For example, I could log in and see a field in an HR database with salaries. When you log in, you see exactly the same database, but the field with the salary just isn't there. So, you can literally have field-level security on it, and you can also have secure encryption. For example, I could give you that database allowing you to see the salary, but a calculation that shows how much they get per month in another field is encrypted. So, you won't be able to see that because you don't have the encryption key. You can implement high-level security very simply.

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Chiheb Charmiti

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.

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reviewer2035941

Senior Associate at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

May 27, 2024

Notes is a perfectly adequate front end. It's clear and straightforward.

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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.

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Bogdan Chechlowski

Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA

Feb 22, 2022

The most valuable feature is the access that it provides to documents. This offers us an easy way to make changes.

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Bogdan Chechlowski

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.

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TA

COE at Asia Pacific Computer Services

Dec 27, 2024

It offers unique capabilities, excellent security, and replication features.

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reviewer2261757

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.

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HCL Notes Cons review quotes

reviewer1419795

Sr. Analyst at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 14, 2020

Notes needs a major upgrade for the UI.

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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.

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NB

Administration & Technical Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Jan 5, 2022

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.

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Free Report: HCL Notes Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about HCL Notes. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2025.

864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Chiheb Charmiti

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.

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reviewer2035941

Senior Associate at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

May 27, 2024

Some people complain that they want something more modern and jazzy.

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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.

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Bogdan Chechlowski

Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA

Feb 22, 2022

We had trouble connecting this solution to the database from Microsoft. We have done it, although it can be easier.

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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.

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Bogdan Chechlowski

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.

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TA

COE at Asia Pacific Computer Services

Dec 27, 2024

While HCL has made significant advances in the user interface and diverse platform compatibility, some improvements could be made in user-friendliness and graphical interface enhancements.

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Show 7 more reviews (out of 17)

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