What is the difference between MS Outlook and Lotus Notes?

Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook offer almost the same functions as both are email client apps used by businesses and corporate individuals to ensure successful and secure business interactions and connections with other individuals.

However, one of the major differences between the two is that; though both come with options and tools to ensure a successful chatting experience, but Microsoft Outlook comes with an easy-to-use and better graphical user interface, while Lotus Notes will require that you have a technical understanding of the app before you can use it.

Another difference is that the implementation of Domino and Exchange for Outlook is not very difficult compared to the high cost of the implementation of /Domino and Exchange for Lotus Notes. While Lotus Notes stores its information using NSF file format, Microsoft Outlook stores its information using either PST or OST file format. Out of the two, Lotus Notes requires regular maintenance making it expensive to maintain.

When it comes to a business, the email host is one of the fundamental choices that a person can make. People often choose their email host before they have a logo or a physical storefront. Two of the most common type of mails that are used are Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.

One of the differences between them is who they are hosted by. Microsoft Outlook is hosted by Microsoft, while Lotus Notes is hosted by IBM. Another difference between them is in regards to how the data is stored. Outlook stores the data as files, in PST, while Lotus stores it in the format of NSF

One of the ways to differentiate between MS Outlook and Lotus Notes is by comparing the companies that hosted the two servers. While Lotus Notes belongs to IBM, MS Outlook belongs to Microsoft. Both can be installed on a computer so that users can have access to their mail files at any time.

Both MS Outlook and Lotus Notes store information on their separate data files, but different formats are used to store these files; while MS Outlook uses PST format, Lotus Notes uses NSF format. Before you can have the Lotus Notes application installed on your computer, it must be bought, whereas MS Outlook can be installed freely, but it will require that you have some applications installed.

Another difference is that Lotus Notes needs constant maintenance. These are the reasons why Lotus Notes is quite expensive compared to MS Outlook. The fact that Lotus Notes supports more operating systems than MS Outlook is another difference between the two.