Confluence

Overview

Confluence is Atlassian’s workspace for shared knowledge and project collaboration, best suited to teams that want documentation closely connected to Jira work. Its combination of pages, whiteboards, databases, and video messaging gives teams room to plan and record work together; the trade-off is a tightly capped free tier and a broadest set of controls reserved for higher plans.

Teams can edit together in real time, comment on pages or passages, and get notifications when tagged or assigned tasks. Jira connections make it possible to turn whiteboard ideas into tracked work, which gives Confluence a practical advantage for project-centered documentation over a wiki used in isolation.

Key features

• Pages, whiteboards, databases, and Loom video messaging: Multiple content formats let teams keep written knowledge and developing ideas in a shared workspace. Free users get up to three active whiteboards per user; Premium removes that cap.
• Real-time collaboration and history: Co-editing, comments, tags, task assignments, notifications, and version history support ongoing team work and preserve changes.
• Jira connection: Documentation planning sits alongside project tracking, and whiteboards can turn ideas into Jira work. This is most useful for teams already organizing delivery in Jira.
• Rovo and external connectors: Rovo can turn content into timelines, charts, maps, slides, and prototypes. Connectors bring material from Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, GitHub, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint into AI-powered search, chat, and workflows.
• Integrations and sharing: Atlassian says hundreds of Confluence apps cover theming, diagramming, and workflow management, with thousands of Marketplace apps overall. Paid plans allow up to five free guests per paid user; view-only pages can also be shared through public links.
• Security and service: Data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2 or later and at rest with AES-256 full-disk encryption. Atlassian’s compliance program includes SOC 2, SOC 3, PCI DSS, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27018, and GDPR. Premium Cloud includes a 99.9% uptime SLA; Enterprise adds advanced encryption and Shadow IT controls, among other organization-level controls.

Pricing

Confluence uses a freemium model with a seven-day trial. The paid prices below are per user per month; the Enterprise plan is billed annually with custom pricing.

The free plan’s 10-user and 2 GB limits make it a starting point rather than a roomy long-term home for a growing team. Standard lifts the site limit substantially and storage to 250 GB, but still caps storage and whiteboards; Premium removes those two limits and adds stronger support and an SLA. Enterprise is the step up for multi-site governance and a 99.95% SLA, but requires an annual commitment and custom pricing.

Monthly subscriptions qualify for a refund within the first paid month; annual subscriptions qualify within 30 days of payment. Standard provides regional business-hours support, while Premium and Enterprise provide round-the-clock support; Enterprise specifies a 30-minute critical-issue response time. Confluence supports SSO; Enterprise supports identity providers, SCIM, and enforced SSO.

Platforms

Confluence is available on the web, Android, iOS, and as self-hosted software. The Cloud option is a SaaS service, while Data Center can be deployed on infrastructure of the organization’s choice. The Cloud mobile app syncs published work across smartphones, tablets, and desktop web, giving teams a way to keep up with published material across devices.

Who it's for

Confluence suits organizations that want a shared knowledge workspace tied to project planning, especially teams already using Jira. It also fits teams that need varied formats, real-time collaboration, guest access, or connections to a broad set of workplace apps. Small groups can start free, but the storage, user, whiteboard, and automation caps make that tier a constrained choice as work expands. Teams that do not need Jira-connected collaboration or prefer a no-cost self-hosted wiki may find a simpler fit elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Pages, whiteboards, databases, and Loom messaging bring several collaboration formats into one workspace.
• Pro: Jira integration connects planning and documentation with project tracking, including a route from whiteboard ideas to Jira work.
• Pro: Paid guest access, public view-only links, integrations, and external connectors help teams share and gather knowledge across tools.
• Pro: Cloud Premium and Enterprise provide stated uptime SLAs, while Enterprise adds centralized identity and compliance controls.
• Con: Free is limited to 10 users and 2 GB, with only three active whiteboards per user and 50 monthly automation steps per subscription.
• Con: Standard still limits storage to 250 GB and does not include unlimited whiteboards or Premium’s 24/7 critical-issue support and SLA.
• Con: The highest-scale controls and 99.95% uptime commitment require Enterprise’s annual, custom-priced plan.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, see Wiki Software, Knowledge base software, Knowledge Management Software, Internal Knowledge Base Software, Document Collaboration Software, and Team Collaboration Software.

• MediaWiki is a free, self-hosted option under GNU GPL version 2 or later, suited to readers who want a wiki they can host without a subscription.
• TiddlyWiki is a free alternative available on web, desktop, and mobile platforms.
• Wiki.js offers a free-forever, AGPL-licensed self-hosted edition for readers seeking that deployment model.
• Slab has a free plan for up to 10 users with unlimited posts and topics, but attachments are limited to 10MB and version history to 90 days.
• BookStack is a no-cost, MIT-licensed self-hosted option for readers who want to install their own instance.
• Docmost offers an open-source Community edition with real-time collaboration, spaces, full-text search, page history and restore, and public sharing.
• MoinMoin is a free alternative licensed under the GNU GPL.
• PmWiki is a free alternative available on web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Verdict

Choose Confluence if your organization wants shared documentation and flexible collaboration formats connected to Jira, with room to scale into paid storage, support, and governance options. Its free tier is useful for a small group, but the caps are restrictive; teams that prioritize a no-cost self-hosted wiki over Jira-connected planning should look at the free alternatives instead.