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HCL Notes vs IceWarp comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL Notes
Ranking in Email Applications
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IceWarp
Ranking in Email Applications
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of HCL Notes is 3.2%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IceWarp is 4.9%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL Notes3.2%
IceWarp4.9%
Other91.9%
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

AM
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Challenges with efficiency and interface lead to transition while offering some useful organization features
Office 365 has advantages over HCL Notes, offering a better interface and better categorization of emails. We get different kinds of options, including mail suggestions and AI options that can help users. Meetings, calendars, everything is in one place, making it more efficient. Office 365 offers a better interface and categorization of emails, along with options such as mail suggestions and AI features. Meetings and calendars are all integrated in one place.
AvinashLotke - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Head at Team Computers
Useful for collaboration and storage but improvement is needed in API integration
The solution has traditional SSL integration, SAML, and Federation Services. In its latest version, it added SAML integration. However, it needs to work on API integration, especially for dashboards or integration with SAP for log and data system management. It doesn't yet have the kind of API that Google and Microsoft provide for synchronizing users with Active Directory. I think IceWarp needs to improve in a few areas. They have two types of admin consoles - a web-based one and a remote one. I'd like to see these combined into a single web-based admin console. The log reading and information system also needs improvement. The current way of showing incoming and outgoing logs isn't very clear. For new users, it's hard to understand these logs, especially compared to Office 365 and other systems with easier-to-read logs. They should also add an export option to get all logs with a single click whenever we need them.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Office 365 offers a better interface and categorization of emails, along with options such as mail suggestions and AI features."
"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."
"With HCL Notes, my organization has been able to do a little more in that regard, as they have built in and integrated with other systems like the leave management so I do not have a separate HR portal where I have to go in and apply for leave, and all of that is managed through my email client."
"Office 365 offers a better interface and categorization of emails, along with options such as mail suggestions and AI features."
"People criticize Notes because its appearance is outdated, and I agree, but behind that lackluster look is an extremely substantial platform for knowledge management, information sharing, monitoring, workflow, etc."
"In summary, this is a good product but there are always some areas for improvement."
"It offers unique capabilities, excellent security, and replication features."
"HCL Notes is stable most of the time."
"The solution is inexpensive which is its main benefit."
"The solution has a very good log-in to the UI when compared to other solutions."
"It's scalable and stable."
"The most valuable feature of IceWarp is the chat rooms and file-sharing, they are useful. It is convenient that everything is in one place. You can easily share and collaborate documents, making the program's unity a significant advantage."
"An effective, functional, very good tool for controlling resources."
"IceWarp offers very extended cross-platform communication solutions."
"Its price is the most valuable. It is definitely one of the lowest price solutions."
"With all of the features that are available for the users included with the license, it is reasonably priced."
 

Cons

"We are actually in process of shifting away from this software; I can not really think of any pros to talk about when it comes to this solution that make it better than something else."
"I would like to see integration with other solutions."
"One area for improvement would be making the interface more user-friendly."
"The problem with Lotus Domino is that there are no new versions of the product."
"It is a heavy program and uses more resources than an email client should."
"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."
"The loading time can be excessive."
"The solution could improve by adding some more features."
"I would like to have a trial for mobile applications and more documentation similar to Google Drive with mobile applications."
"It is difficult to disable user rights on the console so some users accidentally delete their documents or user details."
"Support should be improved. Most of the time, the queries are not resolved within the SLA."
"Our customers sometimes have problems receiving mail."
"Although the documentation is extensive and in depth, you must familiarize yourself with it before taking full advantage of the product."
"The Exchange compatibility mode is rather limited."
"Customer service is not always helpful."
"Our customers sometimes have problems receiving mail."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't remember how much we paid when we first bought the Domino license, but now, we pay only for the passport. For 30 client licenses, we pay about $1,500 per year, and we don't consider it very expensive for the quality of the product. In our case, we need 30 client licenses. So, we buy 30 client licenses independently of the server. It is very easy for us to choose and maintain this kind of license and get the passport advantage."
"We pay licensing fees on a yearly basis."
"The price is reasonable."
"We pay annually for the use of the solution."
"The solution is expensive. There are many components or features which make the price very high."
"It was reasonably priced, but the product itself was not worth the cost."
"It is far cheaper to license. It is a third of the cost of our Microsoft license for 10 times the amount of usage. Developing applications cost a fraction of anything else. There are two reasons for that. First of all, applications are very fast to build. All the security is already built into the platform, so you don't have to worry about security at all. The other thing is that because fewer people use it than, for example, Microsoft SharePoint, the salary commanded by programmers is slightly lower. So, it is not only faster; you also get cheaper programmers. So, you really win-win-win on it."
"Pricing and licensing is very competitive and in some cases, cheap."
"Price-wise, it's a cheaper solution, without a doubt. Price is the reason we are still using the tool."
"The license is based on the number of users."
"I would rate the pricing and eight out of ten."
"I don't see any challenges for the Indian market. For example, 1 GB is available for around 399 INR, and 2 GB for 499 INR. They offer a range of plans, from basic to professional and enterprise, with multiple features. IceWarp's aggressive pricing is competitive compared to other market solutions like Zoho and Microsoft. One significant advantage is that IceWarp does not impose user capping like Google and Microsoft, which allows for substantial cost savings and flexibility in user conversion."
"The solution is priced well."
"Our licensing is on a yearly basis. There were no additional costs."
"There are various licensing plans available based on geographic zone."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Notes?
We don't use team workspace with HCL Notes; we use only Microsoft because it's incorporated with the Microsoft license. Based on my extensive experience with HCL Notes, I think HCL can make its pro...
What is your primary use case for HCL Notes?
We use HCL Notes as an email system. We currently only use it as an email application, though in the past we used it for additional applications.
What advice do you have for others considering HCL Notes?
Regarding HCL Notes supporting various business processes such as CRM, I don't use it, but if I have an issue, I contact the support and we are satisfied with that. I would rate HCL Notes 10 out of...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IceWarp?
IceWarp was very cost-effective, offering services at a significantly lower cost than Google, which was appealing for our organization.
What needs improvement with IceWarp?
The solution needs improvements in security, particularly regarding document management. Users currently have the rights to delete smart documents, which poses a challenge for administrators. A mor...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

IBM Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Connect2Cloud, Hansgrohe, Sauk County, Blue Water Shipping, FDBR, ibml, Multivac, Aarhus University Hospital, Hendricks Regional Health, Asian Paints, Integra Legal, Sunplus Technology, S¾SS, The Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports, Nicrometal, Doncasters Group, Practice Plan, Barr, RACV, Neotechnik, Deutsche Notes User Group
Marriott, Toyota, Sony, Wendy's, Canon
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Notes vs. IceWarp and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
885,837 professionals have used our research since 2012.