Confluence Software

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Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace for knowledge management and project collaboration that enables the smooth access and flow of information. Teams can organize documents and maintain updates using a single platform, then easily share that knowledge and manage communications for the entire organization by adjusting various permissions and settings for contributor content and user feedback.

Confluence Review: Features and Strengths

Intuitive Structure

Confluence provides a simple structure of pages and spaces. Confluence’s pages are dynamic documents where users can create, edit, and discuss work information and processes. A space is a flexible area that contains pages for teams, departments, and projects. Macros allow users to add interactivity to pages for extra functionality.

The platform includes a structured page tree to help organize and find content quickly. It also has an advanced search and labels. Users can build pages from scratch or they can access a best practice template library. Over 75 ready-to-use, customizable templates ranging from project planning and brainstorming, to how-to articles and product roadmaps are available.

Confluence

Collaboration and Communication

Confluence allows real-time co-authoring and editing. Built-in page versioning tracks the history of changes to each page, so users can view changes, compare versions, or revert changes. Users can post in-line and page comments to enhance communication. They can also show ‘likes’ or add images, GIFs, and emojis.

Users are automatically notified when tagged or assigned a task by others. The platform also supports archiving and unarchiving of files. Teams can archive outdated information but still have access to archived files at any time. The software also has a space for announcements and blogs. Users can make a Confluence site accessible to guests outside of the organization.

Atlassian Product Integration

Confluence integrates seamlessly with Atlassian’s other products including Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Trello. The integration creates a comprehensive business solution for users where Confluence’s knowledge management capabilities complement the other tools’ more technically focused features such as bug tracking, incident management, and task management.

For instance, customers that use Jira Software and Confluence together are able to organize and manage agile projects better and ship products faster with an integrated documentation management for software development. Similarly, teams using Jira Service Management are managing service requests more efficiently with a collaborative knowledge base from Confluence. Organizations are creating high-level visions in Confluence and breaking it down to manageable tasks using Trello.

Personalized Feeds, Permissions, Integrations, and More

Confluence lets users set their default homepage. The homepage lets them get back quickly to recent spaces, work pages, and drafts. They can also get quick updates from a personalized feed of activities. Admins can set up space and page permissions for individual users, groups, and external or anonymous users. This ensures that sensitive content is shareable but protected.

The software also works well with third-party apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. Its Atlassian Marketplace includes categories of apps such as design tools, charts and diagrams, CRM, code review, document management, email, helpdesk, messaging, and project management. Other features include page insights, data residency, and team calendars.

Confluence Pricing

Confluence pricing is available in several cloud-based SaaS plans priced per user per month. Customers can opt to pay monthly or annually. A free 7-day trial for the paid plans is also offered.

  • A Free plan for up to 10 users include unlimited spaces and pages, macros, a structured page tree, page versioning, and access to a best practice template library, as well as apps and integrations. It has 2GB file storage and community support.
  • The Standard plan at $5.75 /user /month (or $580 /user /year for 1-10 user tier) is ideal for growing teams. It includes all Free plan features in addition to page and space permissions, page archive/unarchive, page insights, anonymous access, and audit logs. It comes with 250GB storage and local business hours support.
  • The Premium plan at $11 /user /month includes all Standard plan features plus analytics, inspect permissions, bulk archive, team calendars, advanced admin controls, full security and compliance features, unlimited storage, and 24/7 premium support.
  • An Enterprise plan is also available for organizations with more than 800 users. It has all features including 24/7 enterprise support.
  • The Data Center product is for teams that need a self-managed solution. Interested users can download and try it free for 30 days.

Who Uses Confluence?

Confluence is for teams and companies of all sizes in need of robust knowledge management and project collaboration software. Many midsize companies and large enterprises use it to document their project planning, software development, IT processes, product management, marketing, and sales processes. Customers include HubSpot, Blend, Audi, Illumina, LinkedIn, Docker, Morningstar, Twilio, and Mind Candy.

Confluence Supported Languages

Confluence comes with the following languages installed and ready to use: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (US), English (UK), Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish.

Case Studies

Simon Thorpe is Director of Product Management/Marketing for a cloud communication company based in San Francisco. The company has grown fast, from a few hundred employees to a large company, with multiple engineering teams. It needed a central team workspace to store knowledge so that team members who are moving to a new project or working with a new team can get up to speed in a short time.

With Confluence, all teams, from development teams to business teams and HR teams, can communicate smoothly. The collaboration software removes all barriers and makes it easy for distributed teams across the globe to connect and thereby increase their productivity.

Michael Acton Smith is the founder and CEO of a company that produces games and stories for children in both online and offline environments. Before using Confluence, the company was using different software that was not particularly user-friendly.

Switching over to Confluence along with Jira, the company gained a tool that does not just track and record data but adds true value to the company’s processes. Teams can publish reports on a Confluence page that allows developers, testers, marketing, and other business teams in different countries to get updated in real time. This enables the teams to focus on delivering instead of spending more time on how they communicate updates.

Why Choose Confluence?

Confluence is intuitive, centralized, and structured, which is ideal for knowledge management and project collaboration among remote and hybrid teams. It provides an open but securely connected team workspace that simplifies information sharing regardless of user location or work setup. It is also flexible to accommodate a wide range of documents and communication, so users can get the right context and find the relevant conversation to accomplish their work.

Company Info

Confluence is a product of Atlassian Pty Ltd, a software company with its global headquarters in Sydney, Australia and offices across Asia, Europe, and North America. It was co-founded in 2002 by Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes. Confluence is the second product built by the company after Jira. Launched in 2003, the company continues to develop Confluence to provide teams a secure and reliable workspace to collaborate on projects.

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