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HCL Domino vs ServiceNow Now Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
3.9
HCL Domino's ROI impact varies, with some organizations justifying it and others noting challenges due to recent deployments.
Sentiment score
6.4
Larger enterprises see ROI from ServiceNow via enhanced performance and AI features, but smaller companies may struggle with costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Users generally rate HCL Domino technical support positively for problem resolution, despite mixed reviews on customer service and website complexity.
Sentiment score
7.2
ServiceNow Now Platform's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, particularly at higher levels, with ratings between seven to ten.
My experience with the technical support of HCL is that they are responsive.
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
They are very good and prompt and quite knowledgeable about the internals of ServiceNow Now Platform.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
They have enough knowledge to say the right things.
Associate director at Accenture
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
HCL Domino is praised for adaptability and scalability, accommodating thousands of users while efficiently managing distributed server loads.
Sentiment score
7.8
ServiceNow Now Platform excels in scalability, customization, and integration, efficiently supporting large-scale, cloud-based business environments.
Some features are simply not really possible with standard HCL client applications, which means moving all application development to web access, adding a lot of work.
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
Users can build and modify the platform according to their needs.
Associate Director at KPMG India
You can have thousands of users using the platform very efficiently.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
It is easily scalable and very powerful in this direction.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
HCL Domino is praised for stability, with most users experiencing minimal issues, despite concerns with large databases.
Sentiment score
8.1
ServiceNow Now Platform is reliable with high availability, seamless critical app handling, and improved cloud performance, despite occasional upgrade issues.
Once we develop an application, it basically works and does not really break.
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
Overall, it achieves a 99.99% SLA on availability.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
I haven't had any situations where it would be unavailable for our calls, so I don't have complaints there.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
ServiceNow Now Platform has improved it since then.
Assistant Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

HCL Domino needs security, UI, and integration improvements, plus better performance, usability, scalability, and modern technical capabilities.
ServiceNow users face challenges with its complex licensing, unintuitive interface, integration, AI features, customization, and low-code support.
In-line editing of documents and a document viewer are functionalities that would be beneficial.
SME at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I would say that there are much better low-code platforms.
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
Historical data isn't as easily available as expected and it requires buying additional licenses for more features.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
There are many areas where ServiceNow leverages AI or machine learning to enhance the features.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
It lacks support for rollbacks in case of complex customer processes.
Associate Director at KPMG India
 

Setup Cost

HCL Domino pricing varies with usage, charging about $100 per user annually, with mixed reviews on its affordability.
ServiceNow's high licensing costs are offset by valuable functionalities, offering a good return on investment for organizations.
The Notes client is very expensive, costing around $105 per client.
SME at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
ServiceNow Now Platform is an expensive product.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

HCL Domino provides secure, versatile, and stable solutions with easy deployment, dual functionality, and cross-platform integration capabilities.
ServiceNow Now Platform offers incident management, automation, integration, low-code development, AI enhancements, and custom solutions for IT service management.
Additionally, it supports web services, enabling us to consume and expose web services.
SME at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
I would appreciate HCL Domino to have wider integration into the SAP world because SAP is not easy to use, and if we could integrate it into a HCL Domino application, we could post data more easily to SAP from the HCL Domino environment and vice versa.
CEO at hydrografix Consulting AB
You can make it do many things because it is an application server.
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
The most valuable features are the ease of use, stability, and the ability to change or upgrade seamlessly.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The text-to-code feature is particularly useful for turning natural language instructions into recognizable code on the ServiceNow platform, aiding both implementation teams and customers.
Associate Director at KPMG India
It is extremely powerful and very much customizable, which allows for quick building of solutions around it.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL Domino
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow Now Platform
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Low-Code Development Platforms (14th), No-Code Development Platforms (3rd), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of HCL Domino is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Now Platform is 2.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow Now Platform2.2%
HCL Domino0.9%
Other96.9%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

FN
Owner at Prodej a Správa Nemovitostí s.r.o.
Long-term platform has supported secure mail, custom workflows, and reliable on-premise apps
I have noticed some weak points and downsides. HCL Domino is a Swiss army knife, which is the downside as well. It does many things, which is an advantage. The biggest downside is that it is a good product, but there are not that many applications for it. There are not that many ready-made applications. When they do exist, they tend to be somewhat pricey. I have not actually used HCL Domino's low-code tools. There are no low-code tools. HCL says there are, but frankly speaking, I have tried it and I always come back to the classic, the original HCL Domino. I do not see it as truly low-code. They call it Leap. Even when you want to do something more specific or more complex, you do need programming logic and then it stops being low-code. I would say that there are much better low-code platforms. N8N, for instance, looks nice with nice diagrams, especially for workflow and automation, which is where HCL Domino is lacking. The evaluation of the security features of HCL Domino in handling sensitive business information is that it has a peculiar security model, which I view as acceptable. Sometimes it may get in your way, but sometimes it simplifies things. It depends.
Vishal Savajiani - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
Low-code workflows have transformed how we automate processes and build enterprise apps
First and foremost, ServiceNow Now Platform allows us to do a low-code or no-code platform, which is the wonderful first feature. On top of that, if you want to do some customization along with the low-code and no-code, you can do it. Beyond that, if you write a full-fledged customized code and make your functionality, you can do it. Workflow is there, and we can automate our workflows. Flow is there as an option. Apart from workflow and flow, we have many business rules and script includes. These are all the technical components and features of ServiceNow Now Platform that allow us to achieve our objective. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a very easy feature that we call workflow or flow. Using workflow or flow, we can customize industry workflows. The development on that flow is very simple, and you can use drag and drop functionality. If you want to do some scripting, you can do it. This is an awesome feature of ServiceNow Now Platform that allows us to develop or automate any flow in quick time. Internally, ServiceNow Now Platform uses a lot of AI features and machine learning features. This makes it more wonderful. AI and machine learning are the core of ServiceNow Now Platform, and they are using it heavily. It is making a lot of impact on deliverables. You can develop anything whatever you want on ServiceNow Now Platform. If you understand ServiceNow Now Platform capabilities, you can develop a full-fledged application on ServiceNow Now Platform easily. You don't have to write scratch code or do any database operations. You just need to create tables and forms, which are very easy to develop if you are familiar with ServiceNow. Everything is on one platform, so it is a single source of data that you can find on ServiceNow itself for the overall enterprise. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a reporting feature very well. Along with the reporting, they are offering workspace and dashboard. All these UI interfaces you can use to extract precise information for your customer. This is really helping the customer make decisions with the precise and versatile reports. You can have a list report view, a graph report view, or a pie chart. All these features can be developed quickly and used in ServiceNow. This is where ServiceNow Now Platform makes a lot of difference.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise36
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HCL Domino?
The Notes client is very expensive, costing around $105 per client. Overall, HCL Domino is a costly product.
What needs improvement with HCL Domino?
I am not missing anything significant from HCL Domino at the moment. There are some smaller things that can be improved, but these have already been posted on the HCL website where we can submit ou...
What is your primary use case for HCL Domino?
I have been using HCL Domino products since 1992, when it was known as Lotus Notes. I use it myself and also work as a consultant. We are an IBM Business Partner and HCL Business Partner. We are no...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Now Platform?
I do not know the setup cost details. I am not at that level where I make decisions on the cost.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Now Platform?
There are many areas where ServiceNow leverages AI or machine learning to enhance the features, and they are already doing it. In every area, there is a scope for learning and improvement. ServiceN...
What is your primary use case for ServiceNow Now Platform?
ServiceNow Now Platform has many use cases available. It allows significant customization and integration capabilities with many internal features that we use. Basically, we can digitize, automate,...
 

Also Known As

IBM Lotus Domino, Lotus Domino
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

A1 Telekom, Acubiz, Afrisam, E. A. Juffali & Brothers, Fiducia & GAD, and Pakistan State Oil
experian, beachbody, health partners
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Domino vs. ServiceNow Now Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.