HCL Domino vs Oracle Application Express (APEX) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

HCL Domino
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
17th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Application Express ...
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (1st), Low-Code Development Platforms (3rd)
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the market share of HCL Domino is 0.6% and it increased by 68.5% compared to the previous year. The market share of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 10.9% and it increased by 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
Low-Code Development Platforms
14.8%
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Jul 5, 2021
Stable with good security and great integration capabilities
It is a wonderful tool. It offers a very stable environment. The security is very good. The integration capabilities are great. It is a beautiful platform for low-code and no-code developments and offers comprehensive solution development. The pricing is excellent. HCL is doing a wonderful job. I appreciate HCL. Whatever they are introducing in terms of new features has been great. I've got 20 years of experience on Notes and Domino and I love their way of working. They are improving the product continuously. That's the reason I'm trying my best to get approval from our regulator to keep the product intact.
Kamal Deep - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 13, 2023
Strong database feature but not very flexible in app development
The most important thing, in my opinion, is that it should allow end-users to create their own custom fields. For example, if you are my customer and you want to create custom fields, you should be able to do that yourself. Secondly, it should be easy to map fields with other objects like CRM. If you are creating custom fields in the lead and want to create a few custom fields going further on the account contact opportunity, the end customer should be able to do this themselves rather than depending on us every time. In the next release, we would like to see easy integration with third-party applications. Currently, Oracle is lacking big time in the marketplace. If you look at Salesforce, they have more than four thousand applications that you can easily download and configure with their platform. On the other hand, Oracle Apex has a limited marketplace, with only a few companies offering basic applications. Moreover, the existing marketplace applications are not fancy or AI-based. AI is a big thing, and Oracle is currently working on it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most important benefit is security. The security architecture is very good. It's the best part of the solution."
"It is an excellent solution."
"For workflow applications or general applications, the rapid development capability is what we value most."
"I like that HCL Domino is stable. It's a great product. I also like that HCL Domino is a mature product under IBM, which is why many companies use it."
"The full-text searching capabilities are great."
"This solution can be used for workflow application so that applications can be easily developed."
"We have been able to set up a portal using a special XPage application that gives our customers access to this system."
"I find the HCL Domino server scalable."
"One standout feature of Oracle APEX is its seamless integration with backend procedures, allowing for quick updates without changing the front-end interface."
"It helps us create web pages quickly."
"You don't have to know a lot of PL because it's built on PL/SQL. You don't need developers. You only need to design a good application that resolves a problem, or many problems, for companies and you're ready to go."
"I like how we can actively develop and customize APEX because it's on the same database."
"Personally, I would say that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a powerful tool...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"I particularly enjoy the web builder capabilities, especially the Page Designer. It offers so many elements or components to choose from, which is a major plus for me."
"You can customize the solution to create a console where only business users can access and download files if they want to extract the data."
"Oracle APEX's reporting features are simple yet powerful. The ability to quickly create CRUD screens has simplified many RAD discovery processes, while the APEX environment allows the product owners and dev teams to quickly understand the complex solutions and employ usage statistics to identify areas requiring improvement. The option to add external JavaScript tools in screen development enables the development of complicated mobile or web usage scenarios in rare cases where the APEX UX is not enough."
 

Cons

"HCL Domino could have a better interface."
"The solution could improve Kubernetes or Dockers migration to new environments in the cloud."
"Recently, IBM sold the product to HCL. Since Pakistan and India have some problems on a domestic level, we were actually considering replacing it with Indian products from the organization. We're just facing some regulatory issues."
"An area for improvement in HCL Domino is security. New enhancements in the IT industry mean that security should be improved. The HCL Domino GUI also needs improvement."
"They should provide its integration with other AI applications."
"Scalability is also an issue. We have problems with large databases."
"For me, the one thing missing is a really good reporting engine."
"The client version of this solution could be faster and be made simpler for non-IT users. You will need to have some knowledge of Notes to correctly install this solution."
"Occasionally when trying to un a page, I would be faced with an error number; however, not much information would be provided on the error itself outside of the programming language. It would be nice if more information could be provided."
"There is not a lot of Wiki help or in Google, but there is some."
"I don't like the URL syntax."
"It would be beneficial to include WebSockets so that you can see real-time updates."
"It would be highly beneficial if APEX were an all-in-one platform capable of handling all aspects of application development."
"The solution’s pricing is high if you use it on the OCA platform. It’s also a little bit costly. However, if we use it on an on-premises Oracle database, the pricing is cheaper."
"The solution does not include a default or custom template like other products."
"Being able to only design with HTML and CSS can be limiting as to what can be accomplished."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is less expensive compared to other vendors."
"For 30 licenses, we pay $1,500 every year. It is not an expensive product."
"We pay annually for the use of this solution and it is only a standard fee."
"HCL Domino's pricing depends on the number of users, but its license is not cheap."
"HCL Domino has reasonable pricing. It's not expensive."
"The pricing is individually determined. For us, in our current deployment, we pay $12.50 Canadian per month per user."
"The license for Domino is yearly. The price is high."
"My company's customers need to make monthly or yearly payments towards the license charges of the product."
"To my understanding, my organization is using the free version of Oracle Application Express (APEX), but I'm unsure because I haven't checked the pricing or licensing cost for it."
"Pricing is expensive, overall on an enterprise system but we consider that it gives corresponding value in the product."
"The pricing is very good and less expensive than Mendix or OutSystems."
"When you have a licensed database in an Oracle environment, APEX is free."
"Oracle Express comes with the Oracle license, it is a bundle."
"We have an Oracle basic product license, and then we can use Oracle APEX for free. We have many licenses for Oracle for approximately 20 processors."
"I would rate it around an eight in terms of price, with one being low and ten being high."
"I believe APEX comes bundled with the database, including autonomous database and other related database products, so the pricing is quite reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
27%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HCL Domino?
The most valuable features of the solution are security and integration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HCL Domino?
The pricing is individually determined. HCL has a simple pricing model: per user per year. We pay $100 US per user per year. But "guest" users are permitted without any licence requirement. And any...
What needs improvement with HCL Domino?
There are small areas of improvement. HCL has taken over from IBM, and is making rapid improvements. IBM sat on it for almost 20 years and did nothing, whereas HCL is making a big effort, and we ar...
 

Also Known As

IBM Lotus Domino, Lotus Domino
Oracle APEX
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

A1 Telekom, Acubiz, Afrisam, E. A. Juffali & Brothers, Fiducia & GAD, and Pakistan State Oil
Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Domino vs. Oracle Application Express (APEX) and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
787,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.