HCL Notes vs. Igloo

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HCL Notes
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Notes from HCL (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in late 2018) is a collaboration platform based on the Lotus platform.N/A
Igloo
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
Igloo Software is a social business software company that builds digital workplaces and intranet solutions to support online communities and businesses of any size. It is a suite of content management, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools within one secure social networking platform. Online communities drive groups, teams and organizations to improve employee productivity, foster relationships and increase collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers.N/A
Pricing
HCL NotesIgloo
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL NotesIgloo
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsIgloo is free to use for up to 10 users. Paid accounts begin $12 per user per month. We also offer volume discounts for enterprise-wide intranets and external users. Contact us for details.
More Pricing Information
Features
HCL NotesIgloo
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
13% below category average
Igloo
-
Ratings
Task Management7.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Search6.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
9.2
10 Ratings
14% above category average
Igloo
-
Ratings
Chat6.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions9.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
7% below category average
Igloo
-
Ratings
Versioning9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HCL NotesIgloo
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Stackby
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Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
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Score 9.7 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 8.7 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HCL NotesIgloo
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(16 ratings)
6.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.7
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
HCL NotesIgloo
Likelihood to Recommend
HCL Technologies
I often work with teams from other country and regions, hence HCL Notes is a very useful platform for internal company management operations. It standardized organisational work standards in most of the offices worldwide. HCL Notes also enables chat with other team around the world that I find very helpful when initiating conversation or just want to have a quick update rather than sending emails and waiting for replies. However, HCL Notes is not very efficient in web browsing and user still need to use other internet service providers.
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Igloo Software
Igloo is a well-suited option for teams/companies that want to build an employee intranet with some other interesting features, like file storage and sharing, internal communications, and resource and knowledge management. All of these features may help your workers increase productivity significantly by centralizing everything in one robust and reliable platform. However, it can be less appropriate if costs are a problem for you, due to the pricing. So, if you will not be using several features and just want an intranet for you company, you may want to go with another solution.
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Pros
HCL Technologies
  • It has a really strong and robust database that's extremely scalable and holds up well to thousands of users and many different environments.
  • It has a really good enterprise-grade framework for development custom database applications
  • All of the custom database applications along with the email all have a nice uniform look and feel so their easy-to-use.
  • I really like how it's developed and supported on every client OS (Windows, OSX, Linux)! The competitors definitely do NOT offer this (M$).
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Igloo Software
  • Notifications: Igloo can push email updates to users.
  • Organization: Igloo allows for you to create pages, sub pages, and many layer deep sections. You can also organize the layout of your pages.
  • Versioning: it's super easy to reserve and edit documents for offline use. And you can see who last edited a document and when.
  • Offline access: there's a desktop version you can use very easily. It's really good for dropping a bunch of files at once.
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Cons
HCL Technologies
  • Notes' backwards compatibility sometimes gets in the way. Menus are cluttered with extraneous, outdated options and features that modern users will never use, and Preferences are often difficult to navigate for those coming from Gmail or Outlook. We have greatly simplified this via Policies, but users still find it daunting to go through all the options that are available.
  • The IBM Notes client for Windows & Mac is essentially the Eclipse Java development platform...so it is HUGE. Performance initially was very slow but IBM has done a good job of speeding things up. As IBM moves more toward cloud-delivered applications, this will not be as much of a problem.
  • Notes and Domino can be complex to manage for administrators who are more accustomed to ActiveDirectory, Group Policy, etc. Editing a notes.ini file to add a feature, or working with XML files by hand to create a SmartUpgrade kit can be daunting to those coming from more modern administrative roles.
  • Some users claim to "hate" Notes mail. While I have heard this less and less over the past 10 years, we have had 3rd party software offer plugins to Outlook and it's rare to see any for Notes.
  • The client update process should be automated more. I would like to see the Notes client update quietly and quickly more like an Adobe software update. If an update fails it should automatically try again without prompting the user over and over.
  • Notes multiple language spell checking is a downloaded add-on Java-based resource that has to be deployed in a convoluted way that is difficult for users to grasp. Therefore any foreign language spell check updates must be done individually per Notes client by IT, which is unfortunate. I would prefer to see that be a "live download" update option for users to get directly from IBM (don't make me download it and put it on my network).
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Igloo Software
  • Their UI is not used-friendly. Their use of Igloo-specific terminology made it difficult to understand how each function of the site worked. They would repeatedly say, for example, "a ___ is really a ___" vs. just calling it what the function actually is.
  • Implementation was a far cry from their sales support. After basically nickel-and-diming you for everything, they - very poorly - cap your use of their implementation support team.
  • Overall, Igloo didn't work for our organization because they do multiple things decently vs a few things excellently. The experience with Igloo was unremarkable.
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Likelihood to Renew
HCL Technologies
I've been in IT business and as a Programmer/Developer for 20+ years with too many programming languages experiences/back ground (C/C++/Visual Basic/Basic Program/Unix/COBOL/Java). Also with 18+ years with Lotus Notes/IBM Domino, I am still and always think Lotus Notes is the best RAD platform available!. When the time where resource is very limited and the expectation is very high and the turn around is too short, IBM Domino/Notes is the platform to use and it's the only choice available.
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Igloo Software
No answers on this topic
Usability
HCL Technologies
Easy to use for the user, most of the apps we developed, there is not much need for user training. Most of the times, we just do a demo to the users group and they can pick up from there.
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Igloo Software
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
HCL Technologies
I've been using the production for a very long time and very happy with it. Also, all the online resources and forums for notes is very friendly and easy/quick for getting help. I found out that compared to Microsoft or Oracle or any other platforms, IBM Notes online forum is the best I have seen.
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Igloo Software
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
HCL Technologies
Implementation is easy and smooth if the requirement is well gathered/documented. Notes is a RAD platform, all projects in Notes is simple in the implementation step.
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Igloo Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
HCL Technologies
Outlook has been considered for years as a replacement platform. Pricing and support staff made it prohibitive. Our long-time use of Microsoft Office productivity suite naturally led us to consider the adoption of Office365. A recent investigation told us that Azure Cloud services propel an O365 solution to the forefront. Early adopters in international divisions have paved the way for Azure and O365.
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Igloo Software
Easy to use, cost-effective, and benefit in organizational culture development and information sharing across various employees and from higher management. Great customer support and continuous development to make the software better for users. It allows better collaboration with a little bit of fun too and requires less resources to handle.
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Return on Investment
HCL Technologies
  • Over the years, we have lost countless hours of productivity from the thousands of crashes we have experienced.
  • One benefit of IBM Notes is that it is very simple to train a new user on. Many people prefer and are familiar with Google tools, but those that use IBM Notes have very little trouble acclimating themselves.
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Igloo Software
  • Helps with employee retention - especially in a virtual environment.
  • Costs less than a separate wiki system for storing key information.
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ScreenShots

Igloo Screenshots

Screenshot of A highly social platformScreenshot of Easy drag and drop designScreenshot of Content management systemScreenshot of Responsive design for mobile users