HCL Notes vs. Notion

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HCL Notes
Score 3.5 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.
$0
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
Ratings
11% below category average
Notion
9.9
Ratings
25% above category average
Task Management7.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Scheduling8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation5.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Search6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
9.2
Ratings
15% above category average
Notion
9.6
Ratings
19% above category average
Chat6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Notifications9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Discussions9.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Surveys9.10 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
Ratings
3% below category average
Notion
9.9
Ratings
23% above category average
Versioning9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Video files6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Audio files6.00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Document collaboration8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Access control6.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive10.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Device sync8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HCL NotesNotion
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
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
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HCL NotesNotion
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
HCL NotesNotion
Likelihood to Recommend
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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At the company I work for, we use Notion as an organizational base for all sectors and projects. For example, we use it for the marketing team, customer support team, among others. And for each one, we can create pipelines, tasks, due dates, execution time, tags with different colors. It's something very versatile that helps with everything around here. We've even created a sales funnel in Notion.
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Pros
  • Data sharing via small database format is valuable as they are quickly deployed, easily managed and distributed on backend email servers.
  • Integrated messaging allows quick communications between geographical sites reducing long distance costs.
  • Policy documents for registering new users, setting initial security levels, assigning default database access is managed easily with the admin client.
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  • 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
  • The simple user experience can be touted as a positive, but it is also a negative in some ways. Compared to other calendars, email and chat tools, IBM Notes looks like it is from the 90s.
  • We have constant issues with chat crashing. This is the main reason so many people in our organization chose to switch away from Notes.
  • There aren't a lot of integrations with IBM Notes and other applications we regularly use. Notes seems to have been left behind by many.
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  • 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
Since companies started to moved their email systems to the Exchange platform and the cloud, we are unable to find any new projects with IBM Notes, the marketing share and software price is another issue, so we have to move to another platform.
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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
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 addresses most of our needs and help teams to organize their tasks, track their progresses and then archive for future reference. The company uses Notion to share announcement, holiday schedules, employee contact information and organizational structures. Everyone finds it useful and helpful. The notifications are instant. Reminders are on time.
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Support Rating
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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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I've already answered this question in the previous questions however to sum it up IBM Notes stacks up VERY WELL! It has a LOT of really good business/enterprise features like enterprise-grade Dropbox-like storage, synced email/calendar/contacts, it supports a LOT of third-party add-ins, easy-to-use and friendly, very strong and robust, and most importantly it's a LOT more secure in my opinion than the competition.
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Notion is much more robust than Google Tasks, which I find very limited. Notion is far more customizable and affordable than Asana, which is more of a turnkey solution for teams that want to work within a pre-defined structure. Notion and ClickUp are comparable, in my opinion, in terms of task management and affordability, however Notion is the more customizable and expansive option whereas ClickUp is mostly just for task management.
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Return on Investment
  • ROI for us has been extreme. In the late 1990's we automated dozens and dozens of paper-based processes and created workflows for activities that had never been formalized before. Additionally all those forms with their comments, etc. have been captured in a central place to serve as audit trails.
  • Whenever we need faster access to data (mail or otherwise), it's quick and easy to deploy a new Domino server somewhere, setup replication of appropriate databases, and get the local Notes clients pointed to those resources. So that to me is positive ROI because it represents time savings based on user need.
  • Tech. Support would claim a negative ROI in terms of supporting the Notes client, Notes updates, peculiar Notes issues, and users who complain about Notes. That is certainly true to a point. The Notes client is a much more complex piece of software than, say, Outlook. But we have to remember that Notes deployments are not just for Mail but many, many applications as well. In the end I'd say we might have 1 or 2 user complaints per month, typically around Calendar issues more than anything else.
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  • 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