Atlassian Confluence Reviews

The most valuable features are the collaboration and sharing of information.
The ability to crowdsource the gathering of information and have anyone edit and correct it instantly.

Quite simply, information is king. We have been able to share effectively and reduce our reliance on the usual Word docs and shared drives.

The WYSIWYG editor is great, but there are some problems with formatting. Tables and fonts are not always rendered correctly, especially when CCS is used to customize them. It is useful to understand Wiki Markup language to get around these problems.

The use of CSS can be a challenge, making customization difficult for new starters who have little experience of creating/editing CSS.

We have used this solution since the very early versions created in 2003 (or thereabouts).

There have been no major stability issues. There have been a few outages, but nothing which suggests that the product/version is inherently unstable.

I’m not aware of any scalability issues, but then I’m a “user” of the service and I no longer run an instance.

My questions have always been around the use of the product. It’s more effective to ask the community via the on-line forum, or to reach out via other websites. In most cases, a general search for answers via Google tends to provide answers.

I’ve played with MediaWiki, but not in detail and therefore I can’t compare it with Confluence.

I installed version 4 from scratch. That was very straightforward. I connected it to Postgres (PostgreSQL), and that was trouble free and straightforward.

I haven't had the need to install more recent versions or manage installations that service a large number of concurrent users.

This is a good product which beds itself into the enterprise very quickly. It soon becomes indispensable. It is worth getting a limited, license-free version first.

We provide this solution to customers and also use it in our company. It's often used as an intranet and then for collaboration or communication. It enables you to have project spaces or team internal spaces and different types of documentation. We are platinum partners with Atlassian and I'm a principal consultant. 

I think the structuring of information into spaces and the search functionality are really powerful features. The solution is user-friendly and anyone can comment or write documentation related to a customer's project. The main value is that Confluence makes communication easier. It has a very unique feature in that it has a marketplace of apps which means you can extend Confluence by installing apps into it and make it work differently.

I'd like to see easier integration.

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

The stability is very good. 

The solution is scalable, we have around 600 users. We'll probably expand usage to new areas. 

Customer support has deteriorated because the company has grown so much. They can't provide the same level of service. We provide consultancy services so it works to our benefit.

Positive

I've also used Sharepoint and in comparing the two, Confluence makes communication much easier. SharePoint is more difficult to use and a complex solution.

The initial setup requires some planning. To get Confluence up and running took a day but it took close to a year before everyone felt comfortable with the solution. Following the initial setup, it required user management and security settings. And then build the data structure or space structure and install plugins. Following that there is a training process for users. We deployed internally because we have experience providing that type of consultancy to other companies. Half of the companies we deploy to use some external help and half do it by themselves. It takes longer if you do it without assistance.

Maintenance requires less than one man month per year because you don't have to install updates. But still there's some maintenance, cleaning up data and fixing the permits and things like that.

The ROI is both in terms of time as well as financial. 

Confluence used to be really affordable but they've been increasing their prices. It's not super expensive but more expensive than it used to be. We pay an annual licensing fee which includes some essential plugins. 

Spend some time planning the structure and how you're going to use Confluence and provide some initial training. It makes the deployment easier.

I rate this solution nine out of 10.

My primary use case is for documentation.

The most valuable feature is the accessibility from different sites for different colleagues and the search option. 

I would like to see the text editor upgraded from its current limited abilities.

I have been using Atlassian Confluence for the past ten years.

When it comes to stability I have not seen the solution go down in the past couple of years so it is good.

When it comes to scalability you can add as many documents and sites as you like. We currently have around two thousand users 

I can recommend Atlassian Confluence for any company that requires document management and documenting ongoing processes, Of course, it is not a very intuitive or very comprehensive management tool because you cannot track the requirement object changes with it, but you can use it for general documentation purposes. I would rate Atlassian Confluence an eight out of ten.

We used this solution to create and manage shared documentation, as well as managing the team details and giving visibility of attendance and absence to all team members.

This solution allowed us to easily input details beyond just text, such as creating basic data charts to monitor team performance. 

The document creation features of this solution are also very impressive.

We would like there to be more advanced data manipulation features available in this solution, such as creating more complex charts, and a column freezing option.

We always found this solution to be stable.

I would advise new users of this product, to begin by creating simple documentation, and then move on to using macros and the different features provided, once they know how the solution works.

I would rate this solution as 10 out of 10.

Our company is using Atlassian Confluence for all work related to documentation, calendars, notes, organization of processes, and workflows.

For example, if we have a new process, or we are updating a current process, we use Confluence Project and share it across the entire team. If we need to calendar a vacation, or an event, we use Confluence. The solution is also used to share best practices and release notes relating to the product.

The solution is valuable based on our company policy. It is easy to use. The interface is basic, with everything linkable. We also use JIRA, so Confluence can link any ticket or task from JIRA to be included on the Confluence page.

The way Atlassian Confluence handles tickets could be improved. This process should be easier, more flexible and more useable, such as the ease of creating a table. 

I have been working with Atlassian Confluence for two years.

The product is stable. 

Atlassian Confluence is a scalable tool. We use the solution across lots of teams, not only on-premise but through remote access. We currently have approximately 100 users in the organization. 

Anytime we need to update or add something, we reach out to our administration team. That team can contact the maintenance team for any attention required to fix and close the ticket in a short period of time.

The initial setup of Atlassian Confluence is straightforward. 

I would recommend Atlassian Confluence to anyone considering the implementation of the solution into their organization.

Overall, I would rate Confluence a seven out of 10.

Our different business units use it for different purposes. We have analysts, developers, DevOps team members, project managers and product managers using it. All these roles use it for artifacts for the jobs they need to do. 

The best feature is the automatic tagging of information in documents. The automatic algorithm highlights irrelevant information that conflict with the actual documents.

You can add different tables and text and format it for different purposes. The integration with JIRA and other tools is quite useful. The different plugins for different purposes are also great. 

The flexibility and simplicity of this solution could be improved. We would also like the ability to add plugins. 

I have used this solution for eight years.

This is a stable solution. We have not experienced any cases of instability.

You need extra time and money to make it useful for a large number of people.

The initial setup is rather straightforward. 

If you are looking for a simple solution to generate documents and artifacts in one place and a simple tool for rules of privacy of this information, I would recommend Confluence. 

If you have a large number of employees or complex processes, you need to have extra time and money to develop tools for Confluence. It doesn't have a pre-built solution for difficult cases for cross functional teams and connections of subjects.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. Confluence is a good collaborative tool for work with artifacts of documents, but it has room for improvement. That's why I would rate it a seven and not eight or nine.

Our primary use case is for documentation. We used to maintain other documents in another location, but we moved to Confluence. We use it for the design documentation perspective, not for the analytics perspective. 

The most valuable feature is its design documentation abilities. 

Some aspects of the drawing perspective could be improved. When we upgrade a design and make technical architecture drawings to publish, we still use Visio first and then copy and paste it. If this feature were available on Confluence, it would be a useful tool. 

I have been using this solution for more than two years. 

This solution is stable and well-integrated with Jira. 

This solution is scalable. 

I have never directly contacted Atlassian technical support. 

I use SharePoint as well, mainly for the version control because I still need to prepare the document in Word and Visio and then load it to SharePoint. 

The initial setup, the installation, was managed by someone else. 

I implemented through an in-house team of three developers and engineers. They maintain both Confluence and Jira. 

I believe we have the Enterprise license with Confluence. 

I recommend Confluence to others. There are about 400 people in my company using this solution. However, if you are doing extensive drawings or looking for the version-control perspective, then I would caution you and suggest looking at another solution. 

I would rate Confluence a seven out of ten. 

We use Atlassian Confluence for project documentation. It works as a repository of documents. We can write documents, including tutorial information, technical manuals, and other company procedures.

The product has a valuable feature for quick verification of documents.

There could be an option to collaborate with other users while editing the documents. We have to wait for other users to edit and release the document to make further changes or updates.

We have been using Atlassian Confluence for one and a half years.

The product is very stable. I rate its stability a ten out of ten.

We have 125 Atlassian Confluence users in our organization. We use the tool every day. I rate its scalability a seven out of ten. The lack of a collaboration feature affects the scalability level.

I have used SharePoint before.

I rate Atlassian Confluence a six out of ten. I advise others to look for other tools if they want a feature for collaboration.