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it_user211962 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Central Applications at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Far fewer office files are now sent around - the availability of information has helped our organization function better

What is most valuable?

Configurability, modern web application, and the large community.

How has it helped my organization?

Thorough tracking and logging of actions (Nothing gets lost), far fewer office files sent around by collaborating online, instant availability of information.

What needs improvement?

  • A lot of bugs already reported to Atlassian are not addressed.
  • Avatars must be square.
  • Status lozenges must offer more than three colors.

For how long have I used the solution?

5 years.

Buyer's Guide
Atlassian Confluence
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Atlassian Confluence. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Yes. Both applications do not recover from loss of database server connection. Even if DB server is back online, applications need a restart.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Up to now it performs ok. We are at 300,000 issues. Getting the impression that it will get tight now.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

As an Enterprise Customer the service is not sufficient. Our concerns are not being addressed. Active visits at our site would be appreciated to explain our issues.

Technical Support:

Did not need it yet.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched because it was the better product for a lesser price.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

In-house team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

At the time it was $8000 one off and $4000 yearly maintenance. Atlassian forced to switch to Enterprise licenses which doubled the cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Mantis.

What other advice do I have?

Be prepared that functionality of today might be changed or removed or charged separately without being asked. Bugs can be reported but are often not addressed for years. Atlassian may make major design decisions not considering their customers needs and requirements.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user165711 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Reduces redundant communication. Working with 3rd party content can be improved.

What is most valuable?

Content creation and sharing, collaboration

How has it helped my organization?

Reduced redundant communication and overall better communication among knowledge workers

What needs improvement?

Working with 3rd party content i.e. MS office, PDF files, email integration

For how long have I used the solution?

6 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Social adoption - it is always tricky to change current way-of-doing things you are bringing a new culture of collaboration and working with information.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Haven't had any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Haven't had any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

9/10

Technical Support:

9/10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Filesystem and email, we switched because it was not a effective way of collaborating in teams.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward

What about the implementation team?

In-house

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Initial 50K USD, cloud-based infrastructure cost + maintenance = 30k / year

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes - all wiki and collaboration platforms available

What other advice do I have?

Just do it, it will give you quick benefits and will change the overall atmosphere when doing things together in one place. Here's an example of ours:

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're an Atlassian Confluence expert partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Atlassian Confluence
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Atlassian Confluence. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Quality Assurance Team Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
The solution has definitely improved our organization
Pros and Cons
  • "We have found limiting permissions and history very valuable."
  • "The roadmap feature should be made easier to work with and modify. It's not really scalable."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for all kinds of documentation that are part of the testing, product, and development phases and for taking meeting notes. 

How has it helped my organization?

Atlassian Confluence has definitely improved our organization. Before Confluence, we only had documentation on JIRA. Now, the requirements are routinely documented. We use the solution for test planning and documentation-related testing. It is also extremely useful for technical documentation. You can create different spaces for the different teams. Atlassian Confluence has helped the company a lot.

What is most valuable?

We have found limiting permissions and history very valuable. History tracking is good, and so is commenting and tagging somebody when commenting. Other valuable features include linking Confluence and JIRA and having a Confluence cloud on Slack. The roadmap feature in Confluence is very good.

What needs improvement?

The comparing history versions feature could be improved. It's messy and not useful. I remember that it was much better initially. 

The roadmap feature should be made easier to work with and modify. It's not really scalable. Confluence is hard to work with as well. Specifically, you cannot set the dates or choose shorter periods of time, like one day or two days. It looks a bit messy. I kept getting questions about it, so I added a note advising people not to pay too much attention to the inaccurate dates.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for more than two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product has really great performance. There are no issues with that at all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The team more than doubled in the last couple of years, and we didn't have any issues with scalability. It was very smooth.

How are customer service and support?

I never had any problems, so I never had any experience with customer service and support, and I don't believe anybody did, or they would've shared it on the channel. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used JIRA, but it didn't work because the tickets became old, and it wasn't easy to tag where the documentation was. So that's why we switched to Confluence.

There were no other options on the table before we went for Confluence because I wasn't on the committee that selected it. But using JIRA as an adapting product probably made the team choose Confluence faster. And some of the team had used it before. I had used a very simple version around five years before. So I had some experience with it. Of course, in five years, the tool had changed a lot.

What was our ROI?

Our ROI is more like something that helps us save money and share knowledge when onboarding new people or introducing existing employees to new processes, products and services and planning, but it doesn't really generate revenue. You could say that our ROI from this product is a monetary and quality-of-life improvement.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Confluence eight on a scale of one to 10.

I'm not sure whether all our applications are available on the same cloud. But one of the clouds we use is AWS. And since the product is on the cloud, we don't usually have any issues. You don't need to maintain it or make backups because you can contact the cloud provider and ask for whatever backup you need if anything is lost.

I never encountered any problem with the solution that required help from support. So I never reported any issue to management, and I don't believe anybody else did, or it would've been shared on the channel. 

It took us some time to benefit from Confluence because we had to create a documentation process, which meant adopting a document mindset to get into the habit of documenting, which was a real challenge. At first, we allocated around two hours a day for documenting, which didn't work. But as the QA team grew, we started documenting their processes, which greatly benefited us. We don't benefit much from the dev documentation, but the product and the QA team do. Though it took us a while to get into that state.

I would say we use about 60 percent of the product's features 

We currently have more than 30 people using Confluence in our company.

My advice to anyone thinking about using or implementing Confluence is to start small and use it more and more as you get used to it. Start using it as part of your process. It's very important not to dedicate all your resources to it. Start bit by bit, and you'll benefit from it the most. That's how your employees get used to it. Start incorporating it into their processes, but don't enforce it, or it won't work properly. Like everything in life, you have to start small, and as you get used to it, you'll know exactly what you want from it and the best way to get it.

Pioneering team members should start using Confluence, showcasing how it benefits the company. They should encourage colleagues and peers to use it. First users should also add articles and documentation so others can use the tool more easily. Without this encouragement, team members will completely ignore the tool, and it will be put down as lost expenses that didn't benefit the company.

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
RPA Business Consultant at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It has tremendously improved our organisational culture

What is our primary use case?

Implementing Confluence in documenting functional specifical documents and preparing RTMs, product requirements.

How has it helped my organization?

It has tremendously improved our organisational culture, as it is a more streamlined way of handling customer issues/responses/queries and for documenting.

What is most valuable?

Integration with JIRA, draw.io, Creately, and other mockups tools is a boon to Confluence's usage in handling complex problems.

What needs improvement?

Confluence textual editor could be improved and integrated with MS Word for easy usage and better formatting of documents.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is indeed a stable and error-free application, as it is a mature application running for decades.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It can be easily scaled up to different levels if used wisely.

How are customer service and technical support?

Quick support with an easy resolution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

N/A.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What was our ROI?

N/A.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

  • It's easy to set up, as it gives a quick guide for the same process.
  • Costing and pricing may vary depending on usage.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

N/A.

What other advice do I have?

N/A.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user577887 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager & Application Engineer at a tech vendor
Vendor
It is one repository for all the information and is easily searchable.

What is most valuable?

It is easy and simple to implement. Some of the valuable features are its ability to customize via add-ons and the collaborative environment.

How has it helped my organization?

For many of my clients, we use Confluence as a shared collaborative knowledge management tool. It helps them as it is one repository for all the information and is easily searchable .

What needs improvement?

Rich text could always be better but it is nice to have.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this product for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not encountered any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not encountered any scalability issues, i.e., if you have enough IT resources.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give the technical support a 8/10 rating.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

My customers were previously using a different solution. The reason they switched is because Confluence is a simple wiki-based solution, compared to the other wiki tools.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

You should do it. It is so simple and can give so much added value rapidly.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are Atlassian business partners.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Project Manager with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
You can move pages around and it integrates with JIRA.

What is most valuable?

The valuable features are:

  • It is easy to use.
  • It is easy for newcomers to start using it.
  • It has the “what you see is what you get” functionality of MS Word.
  • It is easy to move pages around. There is no excuse for not doing documentation just because you do not know where to add it.
  • It has good integration with JIRA. You can really do great things with the two products.

What needs improvement?

The license part is too flexible.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution since 2008.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have not been any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There have not been many scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give technical support a rating of 9 out of 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used SharePoint a long time ago, and we will never go back to it.

How was the initial setup?

The installation can be quite complex. You need to know what you are doing in order to install it on your own. The cloud version is very easy to install.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You need to buy a full license for your entire organization, even though you only need a plugin for two people.

What other advice do I have?

There needs to be an owner of the installation, in terms of the system and the infrastructure.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Systems/Applications Specialist with 201-500 employees
Vendor
I like that we don't need to wait until a document is 100% ready, we can start with a draft and develop in progress.

What is most valuable?

  • Easy import and creation of new documents
  • Notifications of the updated content
  • Version history changes
  • Cross team changing

How has it helped my organization?

Before using Confluence we have had the documentation spread across multiple shared drives and emails. Confluence gave us a chance to re-arrange the documents into a single repository and group the information logically in home page(s). I have called our home page a one-stop-shop for all team related links. Furthermore, other teams have created their own home pages and we are able to access each other spaces, sharing knowledge and know-how. When we do project work we can share the progress and develop documentation on the go while everyone has access to the latest version in real time. Talking about this, the thing I love about Confluence is that every document becomes a living document and we don't need to wait until it is 100% ready, but start with a draft and develop in progress.

What needs improvement?

Surprisingly enough the text editor is very limited in its functionality and given the fact that so many forum platforms and web sites have mastered this tool I believe Atlassian have no excuse to keep it this way. It lacks basics such as text highlighting, and adjusting the text size and working with tables is a nightmare. Text formatting and working with numbers and bullet points is time consuming. I would like to see more plugins and additional functionality such as embedding of other pages, drop down menus, insert buttons, and page templates.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for over two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues faced with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The software has been running as expected. We have faced an issue where the hard disk ran out of space and the application continued working, putting all the changes in the memory. We have identified this fact after a server restart and as a result the changes made in the last few weeks were lost (the current RAM setups are huge enough to store plenty of text based information). I believe a simple space utilisations could be implemented in the app to warn or stop it from working if there is no space. In my opinion, the impact of losing the work is bigger than having the app down until fixed.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As above plus the available users are based on license.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I find the customer sevice limited.

Technical Support:

Technically speaking they have just enough resources to confirm bugs and lack of functionality but no people to follow on fixing and improving.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

First of its kind in this environment.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward install and setup.

What about the implementation team?

Implemented in-house. Quick and painless.

What was our ROI?

Confluence has saved time in finding information, reduced the on-boarding time, improved provisioning of repeatable scripted operational process, provided a central point for knowledge sharing and supplied better retention of Intellectual Property.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not sure about the initial cost but the application itself needs little computing and some disk space.

What other advice do I have?

Go fast, cheap and dirty when creating new documents and improve in progress - this tool concentrates on the sharing, arranging and collaboration part but doesn't aim too high about how the content looks like. If you are after some serious functionality such as a table of contents, body styles and track changes I would recommend using Word and attach as a doc file. Index your content in home pages and sub-home pages for better logical arrangement of the information and fast navigation. Research additional modules like Confluence Questions. You can use the spaces for team building management like having a section for photos from events, out of work activities or sharing industry related links.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Customer Communication Specialist at a media company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Easy to use, but tough time importing Word.

Valuable Features:

It is very easy to use and setup. The Word import works well (except for styling issues). Users can collaborate and you can allow certain users to see certain content dynamically. Many plugins are offered. The most useful one is to generate PDF on the fly. You also have send this page, print, etc. If you do not require log ins (only allow anonymous users), I would highly recommend Confluence.

Room for Improvement:

I had a tough time importing Word and allowing use of an external style sheet (and not import hard coded). Also, the pricing module needs to be adjusted. We want all our customers to be able to view Confluence as anonymous users. However, all our customers require a log in to our platform. And, to integrate with Confluence would require user licenses for every one of our users (over 10,000). It is not affordable.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user