Confluence Reviews

Confluence is a very famous product for project management.

Comments: If you're new to it, you need to adapt. You also have a reluctance to tools that you haven't used before. But for effective projects and business management, you now have to use collaborative tools. You can get a better work environment by adapting quickly to the initial inconvenience.

Pros:

Project management, output, work-specific human resources management, sharing and collaboration with all participants are important, and Confluence solves all these things at once. There are many services and solutions for efficient project management, but we always use Confluence.

Cons:

Perhaps because it is mainly used for necessary functions, there are no disadvantages yet.

Robust Content Management Tool with lots of potential

Comments: Overall, it is a great tool with really great features and different capabilities that have allowed my team to really lean into content management. Would recommend this to other companies!

Pros:

Confluence is our go-to content management and knowledge based tool. The ability to create spaces by team or departments is really useful and my favorite feature is the ability to give permission by page instead of just by space. We have a main team focused on maintaining our knowledge base, but it's helpful that we can also assign unique individuals who are subject matter experts to also help that team update the content.

Cons:

At times it feels like Confluence may be a bit too robust. It's a great content management system, but can sometimes over complicate a search for a particular page. It can take some time to locate the page you are looking because so many results pop up. You have to weed through the results to find the one you're seeking.

Confluence - July 2024

Pros:

Confluence has a wide use-case. We use Confluence as a knowledge sharing platform and there is a lot of potential in that. I like how confluence shows you "related articles" when you are reading something because this helps me to find the information I am looking for faster.

Cons:

I find this platform way too hard to navigate. I find that when I do not know exactly what I am looking for, I am very unlikely to find it. In addition, I don't find that the search function always picks up what I am looking for; it seems to be very specific.

Knowledge Base as root

Comments: It has a learning curve at the beginning. Still, later on, and not so long after, you will find yourself putting everything on confluence because it is easy, well-managed, and perfect for a platform where people can find documentation and information in a well-presented format.

Pros:

Confluence is part of an already well-positioned and easy-to-implement ecosystem where multiple tools perform a specific job in a workflow. This makes it easy and friendly to set up and run; using information from other platforms like JIRA and Bitbucket, everything comes together in an excellent and organized way without much effort.

Cons:

It might be overwhelming at first; there are plenty of options and personalization elements you can include, so you might think, "It is too much for me." But by watching a couple of YouTube videos, you will see how you can customize it to suit your needs and start using its powerful features.

Alternatives Considered: Slack

Reasons for Choosing Confluence: We used to have documentation inside our bitbucket repositories, but we required a well-defined and easy-to-access platform where the team could both collaborate and access the information for a particular part of the application without needing to go through the code to find it

Switched From: Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to Confluence: We found that Confluence integrated naturally with JIRA and our Bitbucket repositories, giving us an organic way to set up all our workflows in a single platform. While we could use Slack or any other messaging platform to communicate, Confluence worked perfectly for our documentation needs.

One of the best

Pros:

The ease of use makes it one of the best team work management platforms out there. We are a development team that uses Jira and the integration with Confluence makes our work seamless.

Cons:

As of now, nothing really. We still don't use the Database functionality as it is in alpha.

User review

Comments: Confluence is a powerful tool that can enhance team collaboration and project management.

Pros:

Excellent for creating, organizing, and sharing documentation within teams. Helps to serve as a single source of the information project. Helps with collaboration features, editing, adding comments, and notifications, which improves the communication of the team. Provides templates for several types of documents, makes it easier to get started. It easy integrates with other Atlassian products (like Jira). Very user-friendly interface make it accessible for users of all technical levels.

Cons:

using the documents is easy, but navigating within it requires a training, and might take some time to get use to it. The paid plans can be expensive, for big teams

Confluence Cloud continues to impress our company

Pros:

Cloud-based, intuitive text editor, and an assortment of built-in macros for formatting text, embedding content, and linking other pages. The mobile application for Confluence lets our users access data while on-the-go and not in front of their computers.

Cons:

Visibility to other data requires permissions to that data as well as the current data. It would occasionally be useful to be able to embed a view of other content that is locked behind restrictions on view/edit.

A great tool for keep corporate documentation

Comments: All the documentation is in a single system available for all our employees.
We can search for any information required at any time.

Pros:

We use Atalassian Confluence as our documentation tool / WIKI We like to had all the information in a single source that is searchable and easy to access.

Cons:

The Migration process from On premises Confluence to Cloud confluence was complicated and must be more easy. Apart of that I can't fine something else to complain.

Best tool for project documentation and management

Comments: excellent
simple and easy blogging, documentation, project notes and project planning can be done

Pros:

Proper structure, Main page and child pages structure is very good Inbuilt search option is very helpful

Cons:

nothing as of now, it is really very helpful in terms of secure data exchange across teams and team members

Great tool for technical documentation

Pros:

Ease of use and sharing of documents within the organization.

Cons:

Search engine not showing really what I'm looking for usually.

Confluence For the (Easy) Win

Pros:

Confluence has become the defacto wiki tool for most of the companies that I've worked with. The barrier to entry is super simple and VERY easy to setup (either Enterprise deployment or in the Cloud). Either way, most engineers I know these days are very familiar with Confluence. There are also a ton of plugins and enhanced features that you can bolt onto Confluence which make it robust and scalable.

Cons:

There are a few things I don't like about Confluence: 1. The search functionality is a bit... wonky (?) to use... they try to load predictive results, which don't open in a new page automatically, it takes too long to load sometimes and if you press 'enter' and don't wait for the predictive results to load it takes you to entirely new page where the results have to load again. Also if you try to search before the JS has fully loaded the search doesn't work, takes your focus away. This means I have to be very slow when using the search feature and it easily frustrates me. 2. They advertise all these awesome plugins and support widgets, which cost a ton of money, but they only apply at the space level, not an individual account level. I'd be more inclined to buy stuff if I could also apply it to my personal Confluence account and take it with me. There are features like enhanced project management, and task management, and charting, and RTF features that I want, but the last two organizations LOCK THIS DOWN and getting a plugin installed is like moving heaven and earth. 3. Im a web dev and an embedded systems engineer. I like to touch things. Confluence can be a bit locked down sometimes and regid in the HTML5 layouts and JS run on page. I wish I could be an 'advanced user' and just make the changes within page. But I cannot. Im stuck with the one size fits all. All of that said, they are gripes of a dev, but otherwise the wiki space is pretty fantastic. I use it daily!

Alternatives Considered: Microsoft SharePoint, Google Sites, Google Docs and Azure DevOps Services

Reasons for Switching to Confluence: The price + feature set met the needs of everyone.

One stop tool for documenting almost anything

Comments: Overall, the feature is a good to have and can make life easy by providing a single stop platform for all the documentation and giving a knowledge hub.

Pros:

Collaboration with numerous tools already in use by our company like Asana, Slack, Miro Board, Google Sheets, etc. , Ease of use and sharing documents just by a click, and Permission handling of users.

Cons:

Struggle to share snippets of code and adhering to syntax, and not having a flowchart builder feature.

Alternatives Considered: Notion

Reasons for Choosing Confluence: To incorporate a range of features that confluence offers and docs don't. Most important being integration with tools and Miro board.

Switched From: Google Docs

Reasons for Switching to Confluence: Confluence has better integrations with other softwares and is a dedicated platform for documentation. Also, we wanted to have a platform where a Knowledge Library can be created and managed easily which confluence gave us.

Great Tool for Content Organization and Management

Comments: We have been using Confluence as a main software for content management. We use it for all our project related documentation like high level business requirements, enhancement requests, technical specs, meeting notes, project roadmaps etc. It seamlessly integrates with JIRA, which makes it such a great tool to be used by AGILE teams. Overall, Confluence is a very robust and powerful tool and it provides a central place for all your documentation.

Pros:

Confluence is a great tool for having all your documentation and knowledge in one place. You can create wiki pages for each topic and group these pages under 'Spaces'. Multiple team members can work on one page simultaneously. It captures a detailed audit trail on the changes made at a page level. You can have strong control on the content publishing by defining a robust review and approval process. It has a robust search functionality and it seamlessly integrates with JIRA, MS Teams and other third party tools.

Cons:

One major issue with Confluence is that when multiple people are working on one page simultaneously, then you need to refresh the page in order to see the changes made by others. Also, the access control can be complex and glitchy sometimes.I would love if the user interface for Confluence is improved.

Confluence emerges as a versatile collaboration tool with distinguishing features

Comments: Structured content creation has transformed the way our team gathers and disseminates information. Our workflow has been unified due to the smooth integration with our existing products, which has increased efficiency and reduced the need for continual context switching. The adaptability of Confluence is extremely empowering.

Pros:

Confluence is a dynamic collaboration tool that enables teams to easily create, share, and interact. Its capabilities for structured content development and integration improve productivity and knowledge sharing. While improving its learning curve and multimedia features would enhance the experience, Confluence's overall benefits make it a valuable asset for companies seeking to improve collaboration. For starters, its dynamic and structured approach to content production enables teams to develop, organize, and share material in real-time. This encourages knowledge sharing and speeds up project progress. Confluence's integration features help to streamline workflows by connecting with a wide range of applications, resulting in a more cohesive and efficient work environment.

Cons:

The platform's sophistication may present a minor learning curve for novices, particularly those unfamiliar with collaborative software. Furthermore, while Confluence excels at text-based material, its multimedia embedding and formatting choices may be improved to provide a more aesthetically engaging experience.

Alternatives Considered: Notion

Reasons for Choosing Confluence: The requirement for a complete collaboration platform motivated our decision to use Confluence. We previously relied on disparate documentation tools, which hampered effective communication and information retrieval. Confluence's organized content foundation made this process more accessible, and its interaction with the products we already use made the transfer smooth and productive.

Switched From: Basecamp

Reasons for Switching to Confluence: Confluence was chosen because of its capacity to improve cooperation and knowledge exchange. We were able to develop extensive documentation and resources using the structured content strategy, which aided in the seamless execution of the project. Furthermore, the platform's integration features ensure that our work ecology remains coherent, avoiding data silos and increasing overall efficiency.

One of the greatest tools to collaborate and build project knowledge base

Pros:

A great collaboration tool where all project documents (from major project plan to reports to release cycle to simple meeting notes) can be organized and shared in one centralized location. The confluence editor feature makes it easier for me to create documents, review and share feedback and changes can be tracked thru page histories. Spaces are well organized and structured. There are page shortcuts, page trees, breadcrumb trails that aid users to navigate between pages and information. It is easy to build links within pages by adding an anchor. You don't need to remember which part of the page you have read a certain information and do page scroll. I like the gliffy plugin. Whenever I need to embed a workflow diagram, adding gliffy makes it easier to attach flowchart, it's dynamic as changes in the diagram is reflected in the page. I can highlight people in my reports or meeting notes by tagging them Documenting a test report is easier with the JIRA integration - JIRA issues highlighted and linked and JIRA issue filters can be embedded and since these two (JIRA and Confluence) work hand in hand, it makes delivering software in agile approach a lot easier.

Cons:

To beautify your confluence page, you need to know which macros and plugins you need to add but by doing these, one needs to have very basic knowledge in html or programming which could be a learning curve to most people. But lots of how to videos are shared by Atlassian and lots of documented procedures are out there shared by experienced users. One just need to be resourceful. The challenges in embedding spreadsheet with macros and formatting tables are not a challenge anymore if you know what macro or plugin to use. Another issue is sometimes finding the information you are seeking is not successful and sometimes the information search for spans to multiple pages - but information actually can be managed by adding labels which again boils down to the user having the knowledge that this feature exists.

Perfect solution for interaction within our dev team and also for interaction between us & customers

Comments: I absolutely love the product. It is awesome. When your con list is made up of feature requests, you know the product is intensely used and you are looking for "more" or adjusting how things are done to help enable you to do your task, plus add functionality that would provide value for the product. This product is a 10 of 10 if you are using it right.

Pros:

The widgets. I love the team calendars, the roadmap functionality for time lines, decision tracking and criteria, tasks/action items and the ease of defining them, status bars, and the flexibility for meeting notes, how to articles, blogs, file lists, product requirements, retrospectives, task reports, and troubleshooting articles from one source. It has really improved our interaction with customers for projects and documentation.

Cons:

From time to time I see issues with editing pages. It does not make the bold or color changes to changes even though the toolbar indicates it is made, it does not display correctly. I also see this display issue with tasks, where the tool bar indicates a task is inserted, but it is not displaying correctly. And also see this issue with bullets. It will display no bullet, or even worse, it displays additional bullets that I don't want. I would also love to be able to sync widgets between pages (ie a status bar on one page to a parent of that page for a summary. And also be able to sync components/pieces of a page between two Confluence instances. For an example of the use case, we have a time line that we maintain on an internal instance, and I want to sync parts of that timeline to an external instance that we share with customers. This would allow me to have internal only deliverables mapped, but provide a customer facing doc without maintaining two versions

An excellent documentation service that has saved me on many occasions

Comments: My coworker and I use confluence extensively to document all of the work that we perform. As IT staff many issues that we come across will be repeated ad-infinitum. As such to simply be able to look up the fix from any location with internet access increases efficiency many times over. The notification ability helps all users to see what has been changed, when, and by whom providing an excellent level of accountability.

Pros:

It is extremely easy to create a large number of documents, it is possible to reference other documents within them to facilitate ease of research, and documents can all be put into sub-folders to contain them within separate trees to aid with organisation. The mobile app is extremely useful for reading documentation whilst on the go - an example would be that we keep Video Conference details on one page that I have favorited, as such when I set up a VC from any location I am able to rapidly find the correct details to dial. The search functionality allows for extremely quick location of relevant documents. On many occasions I have not been able to find what I need looking through the lists, only to immediately find it on the first search. Indeed I no longer look through the list as the search is so efficient. When changes are made to documents it is possible to set it up to notify other members of the team so that they are able to see what has been done.

Cons:

The only minor issue I have discovered with confluence is that when creating new documents setting the location is not as smooth as I would like. Specifically I need to begin creating the document, then select "Move" and finally put it into the desired place. This does not really cause issues as it is still a quick process, however a one click setup would be appreciated.

Best documentation tool I ever used

Comments: I use this almos daily and I think it is a great tool for team performance. It allows to create and view all the info in no time and pretty well structured.

Pros:

The main advantage about Confluence is that is part of the Atlassian Suite which involves Jira and Bitbucket among others. This makes pretty easy to integrate them and add quick references to a jira issue with just write the reference number. The text editor in Confluence is pretty complete, allowing to create really decent pages for any kind of documentation desired. The possibility of create nested pages makes really easy to organize the information in "chapters" "sub-chapters" and so on, giving your documentation a really neat look. This feature also allows to segregate the information, so you can have your product's documentation on one place, perfectly organized and set another "Chapter" for your team info, where you could store info about code conventions, timetables about overtime or availability, and so on. Confluence is also useful in order to create software designs, since it allows to create pages where you can paste your diagrams and so on and allows to discuss on them by adding comments or remarks. And the Watch utility keep you posted via e-mail whenever a page you're watching is modified in any way so you can keep track of a discussion or whatever.

Cons:

So far didn't find any big issue with confluence. Maybe for beginners it has a bit of learning curve and some option like the page nesting and so on is a bit difficult to learn. Besides that, I think is a pretty complete software. Something I miss is the possibility of "downloading" a page with all nested ones into a pdf. That would be a great feature in order to generate documentation files.

I highly recommend this product for all corporate companies.

Comments: Overall I'm very happy with this product, without confluence it's impossible to maintain the knowledge article in our team.
It helps everyone across the team. Thanks to the confluence team for such a wonderful product.

Pros:

It comes with rich features, below are a few features which I personally liked: 1. Documentation: When there are some important knowledge articles that need to be shared with the team, we use this tool. It comes with multiple options to make the page feels catchy and rich, it also allows us to attach the images. 2. Search Functionality: When there are 1000s of confluence pages, and if I want to access the page containing a specific word or a line, the search engine works like a champ it finds the pages almost immediately, this feature really helps me in easing my office work. 3. It displays the name of the person who had created the page and last modified person name, this helps to know whom to reach out to when we need additional info pertaining to the details as written on the page. And if required we can add the approvals, thus whenever someone edits the document without your consent changes won't reflect others until you approve the updates. 4. Like and Comments: Similar to social media, readers can either hit like if they like the content or they can mention their feedback in the comment section, this feature really helped me while suggesting something to the author or express my thanks via a LIKE.

Cons:

There should've been an option to keep the page in draft before publishing it. But unfortunately, there is no such feature in confluence. Apart from this, I didn't find any other flaws in the software.

Documentation Resource and Sharing

Comments: Confluence is a nice tool to keep documentation organized as long as you remember where you're putting it (bookmarks). The tool is not sophisticated enough to provide ease of mind but it does provide a place to store documentation and the ability to share it or set permissions to intend on the correct people to view the items. Overall I as well as others use it but its also not the best and we all know it can be loads better in terms of features and formatting.

Pros:

The rich text central location of document storage and the ability to share based on permissions is a nice-to-have tool for large companies or groups. Utilization is tricky as every team or group will use it in their own way and organize their own way so even if you implement this in your company and you're browsing another department's documentation, you will find essentially that it is just their own internal documentation which requires a little bit of a lucky search to find what you're looking for. Essentially this is a glorified document cloud storage which allows version control, permissions, and sharing.

Cons:

It is not much different than say any other software or tool available in this category. It has some nice features like version control and seeing a complete history of who made changes to what along with comments and a social feature to it where you can subscribe but honestly there is so much more potential here especially from a company like Atlassian. I just feel they really dropped the ball here by not implementing better integration with some other apps which are already available. Example is that their spreadsheet implementation is a nightmare. The formatting almost always behaves irradicably and it has the bare minimum when it comes to these spreadsheets. Why not implement at least at the base of other offerings? For a paid product, the level of quality is expected to be much more.

Practical Option for Atlassian Users

Comments: When paired directly with JIRA, the Confluence platform can be a very powerful tool in terms of organizing project documentation with active or archived projects. Unlike other JIRA add-ons, the ability to activate or deactivate the product at the individual user level makes it much more affordable and a solid value option. As a standalone product, however, Confluence falls shorts in terms of features and user interface when compared to other word processors or document cloud storage systems.

Pros:

Confluence is a great option for existing Atlassian users looking to seamless integrate an active knowledge base into their project workflow. With direct connection to the JIRA project management platform, Confluence allows you to connect existing users directly to relevant project documentation. Its base functionality is fairly intuitive for novice users, and its advances permissions schemes allow you to create a variety of admin tiers that can restrict access to relevant users only. The integration between Confluence and JIRA is as simple as checking a box in the user admin panel.

Cons:

As a general word processor, Confluence can be a little clunky when compared to the UX of similar processors such as Word of Google Docs. While its advanced features can be very useful for more experienced users, available tutorials can be difficult to come by and are often outdated. Like most Atlassian products, the bounty of features, settings, and schemes can be very overwhelming to the average user and are not overtly intuitive. Document organization can also be very confusing, as there are a variety of options to choose from when creating parent and child pages.

Alternatives Considered: Google Docs, Trello, Microsoft 365 and Basecamp

Reasons for Choosing Confluence: Direct integration with JIRA.

Switched From: Google Docs

Reasons for Switching to Confluence: Direct integration with JIRA.

Content and document management are made easier using this tool

Comments: New employees and colleagues in the same department can use Confluence to learn about specific procedures. As a result, it may not be the most efficient method for distributing information between departments. It's better suited to those who have a wide range of knowledge.

Pros:

Confluence has been used extensively by my team to keep track of and add new information to the knowledge base. It appears that we have done a good job of creating pages that provide the information new employees require. Small businesses can use the tool, but I believe it is better suited to larger ones. It's quick and easy to set up a wiki for your team. Real-time collaboration, complete version history, and automated change logs and diffs are all included. You can move and drop documents in the document tree with ease because each document has a unique URL. This is one of the most convenient methods for obtaining such a combination. Confluence integrates seamlessly with the other Atlassian products, making project and product management as simple as possible. This year has seen an explosion in the number of templates that are available to help you keep your documentation organized and easy to fill out. Useful, but sometimes you must look up exactly how to use macros. Confluence's macro documentation is extremely helpful.

Cons:

If you don't have a lot of experience with wiki software, the editor can be difficult to work with. When it comes to macros and formatting settings, it can be difficult to know which tool is best for your project. It's difficult to organize a collection of articles, but that's to be expected. With the help of the software, you can organize your pages in a predetermined way. This is effective, but it necessitates a great deal of self-control as your familiarity with the software increases.

Best Documents Management Tool

Comments: I've found that Confluence offers some great benefits for teams working together. The collaboration features are top-notch, allowing multiple people to work on the same document simultaneously. I also appreciate the customization options, which let you tailor the platform to your needs. The document management capabilities are also beneficial, making it easy to organize and find important files. Plus, integrating other tools is seamless, saving you time and effort. Finally, the knowledge management functionality is a nice touch, letting you store and access important information in one place. All in all, Confluence is an excellent tool for team collaboration and productivity.

Pros:

Confluence is an excellent tool for document management. It offers many features, including version control, access controls, and document organization. This makes it much easier to keep track of changes to important documents and manage them effectively. With Confluence, you can be sure that all your documents are stored securely and have complete control over who can access them. Whether you are working on a project or need to keep your records organized, Confluence is the perfect solution.

Cons:

I've heard from some users that Confluence is lacking in some formatting and customization options. Specifically, some have reported that the platform lacks more advanced formatting capabilities, such as the ability to create multi-column layouts. Additionally, while Confluence allows for customization, it seems that the platform's options are somewhat limited compared to other document management tools.

Confluence is a robust collaboration and knowledge management tool

Comments: Confluence is a powerful collaboration and knowledge management tool that empowers teams to work efficiently and share knowledge effectively. Its robust features, integrations, and search capabilities make it an ideal choice for organizations seeking a centralized platform for team collaboration. While there may be a learning curve and customization requirements, Confluence remains a valuable asset for fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and streamlined project management.

Pros:

Confluence is a robust collaboration and knowledge management tool that empowers teams to work together efficiently and share information seamlessly. Having utilized Confluence extensively, here is my review highlighting its key strengths and areas for improvement.Confluence excels in fostering collaboration within teams. Its intuitive interface and easy-to-navigate structure allow users to create, organize, and collaborate on content effortlessly. Teams can collaborate on projects, share documents, create knowledge bases, and track progress all within a centralized platform.The platform offers a wide range of features that enhance team productivity. Rich text editing, page linking, and embedding multimedia content enable users to create visually appealing and informative pages. The ability to comment, mention team members, and receive notifications keeps discussions organized and ensures that important information is not overlooked.One of Confluence's standout features is its powerful search functionality. With a robust search engine, users can quickly find relevant information across the vast content repository. This becomes especially valuable as the knowledge base grows and serves as a valuable resource for team members to access critical information.Confluence's integration capabilities make it even more powerful. Integration with other popular tools such as Jira, Trello, and Slack allows for seamless workflow management and real-time updates.

Cons:

While Confluence offers numerous benefits, it can be overwhelming for new users who are not familiar with its interface and features. The learning curve can be steep initially, but Atlassian's comprehensive documentation and support resources help users navigate the platform effectively.Another consideration is that Confluence might require additional customization to meet specific team requirements. Although it offers extensive functionality out of the box, teams with unique needs may find themselves relying on third-party apps or custom development to fully tailor Confluence to their workflows.

Very efficient tool for team collaboration and having a centralized workspace.

Comments: Since the adoption of Confluence, our departments have communicated more efficiently, and file sharing and feedback have made project management easier. It is more helpful for me to open up the criteria and duties for each environment to simply perform and manage on a platform like Confluence with a lot of security. Whatever papers we want to share/create throughout the company, they will assist us, and if we want to share something outside of it, it has the option to export as PDF, so we don't have to allow third party access.

Pros:

Atlassian has created a really well-designed solution that allows teams to share information in a single workspace. The user interface is simple to use not only for users but also for administrators; the program is simple to use and versatile for users. Templates allow you to write papers more faster, exchange comments, track progress, establish deadlines, and manage files smoothly. Confluence is highly beneficial for maintaining notes and modules for a very specific environment, and it is the most secure way to get the rights required to acquire that correct document, as well as the easiest way to manage the work accordingly and quickly share.

Cons:

Confluence, in my opinion, needs a better way to search, and it has recently become a little slower for regular usage. When we try to move to other Confluence-like systems, it takes a long time to export our files, regardless of whether we use HTML/PDF or XML, thus if this improves, consumers will benefit greatly. Confluence may be sluggish and complicated when switching between pages and contexts; it would be preferable to have some type of option to make it easier to use and comprehend.