Lotus Notes versus Outlook – Comparing two email clients

Lotus Notes versus Outlook

Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes are a renowned desktop email client. Though Both emailing applications connect corporate as well as the non-corporate world. Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft Corporation and IBM Notes developer is IBM. Both email clients include calendar, contact manager, task manager and web browsing etc. But Today a good percentage of the entire business world mostly use Microsoft Outlook.This article describes the benefits of outlook over Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes comparison with Outlook

1. Data Storage :

IBM Lotus Notes

Use Notes Storage Facility (.NSF) file format to store emails, tasks, attachments and other items.

MS Outlook
Use personal storage table (. PST ) file format to store emails, calendar events, contacts, attachments and other items on your computer, such as exchange accounts. PST files are also called as Outlook data files. PST files in earlier versions of Outlook 2000 and 2002 used ANSI format and have maximum storage size 2 GB. All the versions later use Unicode format and have a maximum storage size of 20GB (Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007) or 50GB (Outlook 2010).

Offline Outlook Data Files (.ost) is used when the user has Exchange account and user want to work offline then file format used by Outlook is OST to store emails and other items.

2. Cost

IBM Notes is expensive due to high purchasing cost. Notes have to be purchased separately
Outlook, on the other hand, is less expensive in comparison to Notes as it is included in Microsoft Office suite. It is not purchased separately.

3. Maintenance

Lotus Notes Email client maintenance is difficult and cost of maintenance involved is very high.
Outlook Email client maintenance is easy and cost of maintenance is not that high as IBM Notes.

4. Lotus Notes versus Outlook Server comparison

Lotus Emailing Application server is IBM Domino

Outlook Server is Microsoft Exchange Server 

5. User Interface :

Emailing App IBM Notes user interface is complex and the user should have technical knowledge then only he or she will be able to use it.

Emailing application Outlook has a simple user interface and the technical, as well as a non-technical person, can understand its working.

6. Sign In with Multiple accounts :

In outlook Sign in with multiple accounts simultaneously at the same place unlike in Lotus Notes for each account user has to log in separately.

Advantages of Outlook

1. Importing emails from other email clients
Outlook support importing messages from outlook express, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, PocoMail, Eudora.

2. Take Outlook Anywhere
Outlook account can be accessed in portable devices like mobile, tab.

3. Organise Inbox
keep your email organized by using automatic filtering and sorting.
Features available to organize the emails in the inbox are :
a) The sweep gives options to keep automatically only the latest emails and delete email older than 10 days from a specific sender.
b) Pin: This feature is used to highlight any message in the inbox and keep it at the top of the inbox.

4. More than just emailing application
Outlook automatically connects the user to Microsoft apps and services including One Drive, Skype, MS Office Online, One Note, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, access calendar from the inbox.

5. Features available as Outlook add-in
Outlook add-ins help a user to enjoy more features by availing some favorite apps and services.

   1. PayPal
Send money to your friends, pay electricity bills directly from your Outlook inbox using the PayPal as Outlook Add-in.
  2.Yelp
Find and suggest restaurants or coffee shops.

Note: More than 51 Add-ins available to enable the user to enjoy outlook.

6. Security
It does not automatically load images along with emails by default and includes a built-in Junk Mail filter.
Note: Helps to reduce unwanted email messages in Inbox

Lotus Notes versus Outlook market share

Outlook is a product from Microsoft Corporation. Today users are switching to Outlook because of its user-friendly interface, Add-ins, and new features. If Your email client is not user-friendly then I would recommend you to switch to outlook. According to lotus notes vs outlook, study Outlook is a better choice. To do the migration of mailbox from one email client to another use absolute solution like NSF File to PST Converter and many more converters are available nowadays.