Confluence

Overview

Confluence is Atlassian’s workspace for team knowledge and project collaboration, best suited to organizations that want documentation closely connected to Jira work. Its mix of pages, whiteboards, databases and Loom video messaging supports more than a conventional wiki, but the free tier’s quotas and the higher plans’ controls make plan choice important.

Teams can co-edit in real time, comment on pages or inline, and get notifications when tagged or assigned tasks. Whiteboards can turn ideas into Jira work, which makes Confluence a practical fit for teams that plan and track projects in Atlassian’s ecosystem. Rovo can reshape content into timelines, charts, maps, slides and prototypes; its Connectors bring knowledge from Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, GitHub, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint into AI-powered search, chat and workflows.

Key features

Pages, whiteboards and databases: Teams can keep written knowledge and idea development together. Free users get up to three active whiteboards each, while Premium removes that whiteboard cap.

Team collaboration: Real-time editing, comments, task assignments, notifications and version history support shared work and continuity as content changes.

Jira connection: Documentation planning can sit alongside Jira project tracking, and whiteboard ideas can become Jira work. This is a particularly useful distinction for project-centered teams.

AI and external knowledge: Rovo can transform content into several visual and planning formats, while Connectors can bring information from six named services into search, chat and workflows.

Apps and sharing: Confluence has hundreds of apps for 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: 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.

Pricing

Confluence is freemium, with a seven-day trial and paid plans starting at $5.42 per user per month. The free tier lasts indefinitely, but its user, storage, whiteboard and automation ceilings are meaningful constraints for growing teams.

Free — free, free forever: Up to 10 users, 2 GB of file storage, three active whiteboards per user and 50 automation steps per subscription per month. It suits a small team evaluating shared documentation, but the storage and subscription-wide automation allowance can limit ongoing use.

Standard — $5.42 per user per month: Adds up to 250,000 users per site, 250 GB of storage, 100 automation steps per user per month and regional business-hours support. It is the practical step up when the free tier’s 10-seat, storage or automation caps no longer fit; it does not include the unlimited storage and whiteboards or round-the-clock critical support of Premium.

Premium — $10.44 per user per month: Adds unlimited storage and whiteboards, 250 automation steps per user per month, 24/7 critical-issue support and a 99.9% uptime SLA. Teams with substantial shared content or a need for continuous critical support have a clear reason to pay more.

Enterprise — custom pricing, billed annually: Includes multiple sites up to 150, 500 automation steps per user per month, 24/7 support and a 99.95% uptime SLA. It also supports centralized visibility and identity management with Guard Standard, advanced analytics and compliance controls; its scale and control set are aimed at larger organizations.

Monthly subscriptions qualify for a refund within the first paid month; annual subscriptions qualify within 30 days of payment. Enterprise adds advanced encryption and Shadow IT controls, and supports IdPs, SCIM and enforced SSO. Premium and Enterprise support 24/7, while Enterprise specifies a 30-minute critical-issue response time; Atlassian Guard adds organization audit logs and CASB integration.

Platforms

Confluence is available on the web and on Android and iOS, with a self-hosted option. Cloud products provide a complete SaaS solution; Data Center products can be deployed on infrastructure of the organization’s choice. The Cloud mobile app syncs published work across smartphones, tablets and desktop web. Custom domains and SSO support are also available.

Who it's for

Confluence is a strong choice for teams that need a shared knowledge base tied to project planning, especially those already using Jira or drawing on several of the services Rovo Connectors support. Its range of content types and Marketplace apps suit organizations that want documentation, idea work and collaboration in one workspace. A small group with modest needs can start free; larger teams should account for per-user pricing and the tier-specific storage, automation and support terms. Teams seeking only a lightweight wiki may not need this broader collaboration setup.

Pros and cons

Pro: Pages, whiteboards, databases and Loom video messaging bring several forms of team knowledge and project work into one workspace.

Pro: The Jira connection can carry ideas from whiteboards into tracked work, which is valuable for teams already planning and managing projects there.

Pro: Cloud and self-managed deployment options let organizations choose between SaaS and infrastructure they control.

Con: Free is capped at 10 users and 2 GB of storage, with only three active whiteboards per user and 50 automation steps per subscription monthly.

Con: Unlimited storage and whiteboards, 24/7 critical support and a 99.9% uptime SLA begin at Premium, which costs $10.44 per user per month.

Alternatives

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

TiddlyWiki is a free and open-source option with Android, iOS, desktop and self-hosted platform support.

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is free, libre and open source, with a self-hosted installation.

Foswiki is a free, community-supported self-hosted option.

PmWiki is free, open source and self-hosted, and requires PHP.

MoinMoin is free software licensed under the GNU GPL.

TWiki is free GPL software that requires web server administration.

Wiki.js is a free, AGPL-licensed self-hosted option.

BlueSpice offers a free distribution with business features including a visual editor, performance search, templates and PDF export.

Verdict

Choose Confluence if your organization needs a shared home for documentation and collaboration that connects naturally to Jira and can scale from a small free team to self-managed or enterprise deployments. Its breadth is the main reason to choose it; the free tier’s caps and the cost of Premium’s uncapped storage and whiteboards are reasons to look elsewhere if your needs are simpler or your budget is tight.