HCL Notes vs. Miro

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
Miro
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Miro empowers cross-functional teams to flow from early discovery through final delivery on a shared, AI-first canvas. With the canvas as the prompt, Miro’s AI capabilities keep teams in the flow of work, and scale shifts in ways of working.
$0
Pricing
HCL NotesMiro
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
1. Free - To discover what Miro can do. Always free
$0
2. Starter - Unlimited and private boards with essential features
$8
per month (billed annually) per user
3. Business - Scales collaboration with advanced features and security
$16
per month (billed annually) per user
4. Enterprise - For work across the entire organization, with support, security and control, to scale
contact sales
annual billing per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL NotesMiro
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsMonthly billing also available at $10 per month for the Starter plan, or $20 for the Business plan.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HCL NotesMiro
Considered Both Products
HCL Notes
Chose HCL Notes
It helps in organizing work by just speaking to it, and you don't have to specifically type in the data and use it. It has a better UI and also is faster.
Chose HCL Notes
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 …
Chose HCL Notes
It had a simple user interface. It can be altered and modified to any database.
Chose HCL Notes
Our organization used IBM Notes before I started working there and is a legacy system that some teams still use. Many others in our company have switched to Slack and Google Hangouts as well as Google calendar. Slack and Google Hangouts offer a much better chat experience that …
Chose HCL Notes
As I stated previously, mail is mail. Notes is a fantastic option as a frontend for mail. On top of that, a business can be built from the custom applications that can be developed in it. We do have gmail as an option, but the vast majority of users are on Notes. We also choose …
Chose HCL Notes
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 …
Chose HCL Notes
Exchange is too resource hungry and cumbersome to restore granular. It requires several other Microsoft Servers to integrate just to meet IBM Notes in terms of features. As someone once described, doing an apple to apple [comparison] is difficult. If Exchange were taken as an …
Chose HCL Notes
We've looked at Exchange a few times. However, for more costly licensing and about the same amount of administrative support required, Exchange only does mail, calendar and contacts.

We do all that with Notes already, plus dozens of custom applications, and for less costly …
Chose HCL Notes
We originally selected Notes for it's ease of use, and ability to be customized. As the industry has progressed we have had to move on to a more progressive path.
Chose HCL Notes
I selected IBM Notes, because of its security features.
Chose HCL Notes
We are a small IT team and always had to deal with very high expectation, faster turn around time from users. Every application we've developed has very short turn around time and less resources. In the past 15 years, we can provide more application and doing it faster than …
Chose HCL Notes
Database development capabilities. Document management orientation.
Miro
Chose Miro
Miro is the more collaborative option, offering the ability for many individuals to work on the same item real-time. Though it does create some duplicate entry, we've found this added cost is minimal compared to the opportunity cost of lost collaboration.
Chose Miro
Mural is too simple figjam is too much for designers and devs only, not for broader business
Chose Miro
Earlier we were using different products for different requirements, such as Microsoft whiteboard, lucidcharts for diagrams. But as Miro has all these features and other additional features which makes it "all in one place" and enable us to save out time which earlier was …
Chose Miro
Miro is great for collaborating. I think it definitely is better than Mural and Jamboard because it has more features and it's easier to use. Compared to FigJam, as a designer I would probably choose Figjam to have everything in the same product. However, in my opinion, Miro …
Chose Miro
We ran a business case analysis for these, and they didn't come close. Visual omnipresent collaboration is a must; list of different features is way longer in Miro; Kanban and its views is less clunky and requires less fiddling out of the box — Trello needed to be set up …
Chose Miro
Miro was a big hit with all the teams involved, it was easy to stand up and start using, easy to license, and easy to manage. Other tools offered stronger connections to tools in their product suite without the freedom and ease of use that Miro did.
Chose Miro
Miro has more integrations than Marq and the brand templating that Marq excels in was less relevant to our work.
Chose Miro
I was a while ago that I use Mural. At that stage the features where similar. However, Miro has developed at a very quick pace and is always adding features to improve the product, so I have had no reason to look elsewhere.
Chose Miro
I think they all have very good features and are similar to a certain extent, however, Miro includes all the interactive features and allows you to create without limitations on format or page sizes, or oversaturation of users within the same session, which is why I appreciate …
Chose Miro
I used a bit Microsoft Whiteboard some years ago, but at this time it was far behind Miro
Chose Miro
Miro basically cover the needs of all the other tools. I started using Miro extensively during the pandemic and at that point only Jamboard provided similar options and was free when collaborating in a bigger group and when not everyone had a license. This is still the main …
Chose Miro
Miro is a perfect match for organizations looking to enhance productivity and a single stop solution for collaboration.
Chose Miro
As I've mentioned, I've used Figjam before. Figjam is better for more detailed and design based ideation workshops. But Miro is better for people without much tech ability.
Chose Miro
We assessed these tools to gain a better understanding because they are excellent and have certain unique features. But in the end, we chose Miro since it offers all the features that ClickUp, Stormboard, and Conceptboard do. Additionally, it has a special feature that lets you …
Chose Miro
We tested every product, but the biggest problem we encountered was that most of them required plugins in order to centralize all of our work. Other problems included the products' excessive price, which was higher than Miro's. Last but not least, Miro offered us an all-in-one …
Chose Miro
In my opinion, Microsoft White Board does not compare. So much lag, much more limited functionality (ability to customize visuals and text), no ability to lock content, etc. Mural I haven't used as much. Probably closer in competition to Miro - felt pretty similar. Miro I …
Chose Miro
That's harder as Miro is a corporate tool so I can use it - I have searched the web but not really tried any others
Chose Miro
I had to select Miro because of its superior integration, which works effortlessly, and its better functionality.
Chose Miro
Providing better templates and customization options, also real time collaboration tools.
Chose Miro
FigJam is particularly tailored for design led product teams so lack the versatility which Miro provides
Better for workshop facilitation but clucky UI
Chose Miro
Jira is actively used in conjunction with Miro to track activities, and it offers functionalities that differ from Miro. However, it is much easier to create tables and diagrams in Miro. The advantage of Jira is that it enables the management of digital projects more …
Chose Miro
I find Miro to be more user-friendly than Figma, where we had a very steep learning curve trying to achieve real-time collaboration with both tech and non-tech users. I haven't personally spent a lot of time using that tool or others, however. At this point, I have a strong …
Features
HCL NotesMiro
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
6.9
Ratings
11% below category average
Miro
-
Ratings
Task Management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Search6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
9.2
Ratings
15% above category average
Miro
-
Ratings
Chat6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
HCL Notes
7.6
Ratings
4% below category average
Miro
-
Ratings
Versioning9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HCL NotesMiro
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HCL NotesMiro
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.7
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.5
(0 ratings)
Online Training
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
5.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
HCL NotesMiro
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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I remember a project where all our different teams were involved in it. I created a board with timelines, KPIs, and customer journey stages, and each team added their input live. We were all able to work together in real time, view the entire project, and leave comments without switching apps, which is why it worked fantastically for us. Everyone benefited from the hours of time it saved, and we made a good profit on that project, for which I was named employee of the month.
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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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  • Especially useful project planning with functions like whiteboard and great collaboration features.
  • Miros presentation mode is great for walking people through and explaining a concept.
  • If someone can’t join a meeting, we record a Talktrack. Its like a mini-presentation that people can watch later. Can be extremely useful at times.
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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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  • When using the find functionality to locate an item in a Miro board, I do not like that it keeps my previous searched term. Other programs, like Excel, do this but they have it so that you can easily overwrite the previously-searched term.
  • It would be helpful if you could search by a particular frame, instead of the entire board. For our quarterly backlog review, we often have items that carry over, so there are duplicates on the board. Being able to search by a frame would make this easier.
  • Understanding who can access a board is not always clear to me.
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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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I have advocate for the renew of Miro quite few times, however, it is not under my control as the decision is made in another team with their own budget. I would buy for my own entrepreneur projects (1-2 members) as I do know the value and work there 100%. So, I would pay out of my own pocket to get the value. However, If I wouldn't know the value it provides, it would be hard to decide with the current freemium features
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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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The platform is flexible, easy to use, and simple because Miro is a great visualization tool that makes it easy to collaborate on creating charts. It helps in creating workflows and other designs easily and securely. It supports integrations with major cloud storage solutions and office suites. On top of that, it provides a decent free plan, which is sufficient for basic usage.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I only give a 9/10 because of the speed at which it loads. I have never experienced issues with Miro logging me out early, or some other technical issue causing the program to crash, or even it just loading in perpetuity without ever actually coming up (unlike other programs such as SFDC). It take a minute for all of my boards to come up after I click on it in my favorites, but besides that, it's all good.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Sometimes it gets quite slow and there is a correlation between this and the size of the board. Hence we are trying to segment the boards based on product stages or projects so that the size doesn't go big. When you go from discovery to delivery on a simple board, it will get large and difficult to load, even crash or go white screen
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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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We have never reached out to or contacted support because Miro's platform has been incredibly intuitive and user-friendly. The comprehensive resources available, such as tutorials, documentation, and community forums, have provided all the guidance we needed. The seamless integration with our existing tools and the reliability of the platform have ensured that we rarely encounter issues that require external assistance. This self-sufficiency has allowed us to focus more on our projects and collaboration without interruptions. Overall, our experience with Miro has been smooth and efficient, eliminating the need for additional support
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
There was a series of webinars which Miro hosted with our organization that went over the basics, then progressively became more advanced with additional sections. The instructors were knowledgeable, and provided examples throughout the sessions, as well as answered peoples' questions. There was ample time and experience on the calls to cover a range of topics. The instructors were also very friendly and sociable, as well as honest. Of course Miro isn't a "God-tool" that does absolutely everything, but the instructors were aware and emphasized the strengths where Miro had them and sincerely accepted feedback.
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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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Easy to learn, Miro has a series of videos on YouTube that effectively taught this program to my team members and me. The program is drag-and-drop and works excellently. People pick up on how to use it efficiently, and it's great for organizing ideas more freely. This product is more challenging for some older audiences who are not accustomed to using a touchpad, but for most, it was very easy to use.
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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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Miro is the more collaborative option, offering the ability for many individuals to work on the same item real-time. Though it does create some duplicate entry, we've found this added cost is minimal compared to the opportunity cost of lost collaboration.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
Miro is great for scaling. In every department and subdivision across my entire organization, there is someone using it. From Sales to marketing, to manufacturing and operations; and even in legal and finance, there isn't a process or a department that is not using Miro, and if they aren't, they're missing out! Even at the highest to the lowest levels of the organization, it is essential for virtual collaboration.
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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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  • We reduced the number of tools needed by consolidating planning, brainstorming, and documentation in Miro.
  • It improved knowledge retention by creating a single visual source of truth for projects.
  • Miro improved stakeholder engagement, leading to faster approvals and fewer project delays.
  • It accelerated project delivery by enabling faster decision-making in remote workshops.
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ScreenShots

Miro Screenshots

Screenshot of Miro's design sprint templates, used to solve big challenges, create new products or improve existing ones.Screenshot of the Sprint Planning features in Miro, that assists Development Teams in creating a transparent understanding of what can be built and how. Users can run sprints and turn a team into creative and active participants. Today, many organizations use Agile tools to manage software development and other non-IT projects.Screenshot of the PI Planning Template that brings teams toward one vision of what stories to develop. Used to manage a backlog, increase productivity, and build the foundation for a successful PI Planning event. Miro’s PI Planning Template helps to get an overview of any PI Planning event, with step-by-step frames to guide the process.Screenshot of diagrams, concept maps, and system mapping templates used to communicate complex flows and create a shared understanding. Users can check off all the essential steps of the diagramming process and gain a complete overview of operations with Miro's diagramming templates collection.