HCL Notes vs. Notion

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HCL Notes
Score 8.4 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
Notion
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Notion aims to present users with an all-in-one workspace — for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases, from Notion Labs in San Francisco.
$5
per month per user
Pricing
HCL NotesNotion
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
Plus
$12
per month per user
Business
$24
per month per user
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL NotesNotion
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HCL NotesNotion
Features
HCL NotesNotion
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
6.9
10 Ratings
11% below category average
Notion
7.4
79 Ratings
4% below category average
Task Management7.09 Ratings8.174 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.03 Ratings6.846 Ratings
Scheduling8.09 Ratings7.057 Ratings
Workflow Automation5.06 Ratings6.455 Ratings
Mobile Access8.010 Ratings7.372 Ratings
Search6.09 Ratings8.075 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.03 Ratings7.968 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
9.2
10 Ratings
14% above category average
Notion
7.8
76 Ratings
2% below category average
Chat6.010 Ratings6.329 Ratings
Notifications9.010 Ratings7.568 Ratings
Discussions9.57 Ratings7.349 Ratings
Surveys9.14 Ratings6.820 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase10.06 Ratings8.869 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.02 Ratings8.98 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook10.05 Ratings9.02 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
9 Ratings
5% below category average
Notion
8.1
76 Ratings
2% above category average
Versioning9.04 Ratings7.657 Ratings
Video files6.05 Ratings7.649 Ratings
Audio files6.05 Ratings7.443 Ratings
Document collaboration8.08 Ratings8.571 Ratings
Access control6.08 Ratings8.271 Ratings
Advanced security features8.08 Ratings7.351 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive10.02 Ratings9.213 Ratings
Device sync8.05 Ratings9.253 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HCL NotesNotion
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Troop Messenger
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Score 9.8 out of 10
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
HCL NotesNotion
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(16 ratings)
8.6
(85 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.7
(5 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.4
(55 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 NotesNotion
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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Notion Labs, Inc
If you want a customizable solution that can be adapted for just about any scenario, I recommend using Notion. If you need a solution that's easy to share with people outside your organization, Notion is great and allows individual or team permission-setting. If you want a turnkey solution, Notion might not be the best since it requires a fair bit of set-up. There are templates that can be purchased to handle this, but I haven't found them very helpful.
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
  • I love that you can create nested pages, allowing for separate sections to organize information as needed.
  • I appreciate the convenience of effortlessly uploading images to any section.
  • I appreciate that when adding links, you can embed them so the website displays directly on the page.
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
  • I use Notion on my personal tablet, and unlike on the computer, I have a lot of difficulty editing backgrounds, GIFs, and page dividers. It's not as user-friendly, and often the elements end up cut off or misaligned, which is frustrating.
  • While the current calendar feature is helpful, I'd love to see more customization options. The Google Calendar style isn't always ideal, especially for tasks without specific times or for ongoing projects that require daily maintenance.
  • It would be fantastic to have more flexibility in customizing Notion pages. For example, I'd love to create planners with the freedom to add illustration boxes, stickers, or GIFs without being restricted to a fixed layout.
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
We're too settled in the ecosystem and we have no major complaints with it. No reason to move unless you have a burning pain point
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
Very easy to use (I learned how to use everything on my own) and I was able to set up an entire ecosystem without any courses or other tools. I often say that Notion is like Lego for adults, because there we can use all the available tools to create a multitude of things, from funnels to projects with calculated deadlines and tags.
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
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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Notion Labs, Inc
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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Notion Labs, Inc
The company uses both Notion and Trello within the company. Notion is more for North America employees while Trello is used between Operation team overseas and in North America. Sometimes it's a preference of how the tools look like for project management. I would say both Notion and Trello are nice tools and serves our needs.
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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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Notion Labs, Inc
  • It has streamlined our processes across various teams to all work from a signle source of truth
  • Maintaining this source of truth is a full time job
  • It has reduced our overall tool set by completely eliminating two other softwares we were paying for
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ScreenShots