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Anh-Tôn Duong Gheude - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Reseller
Top 20
Simple to set up, effective, capable of storing and sharing data
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very popular tool."

    What is our primary use case?

    We mostly use Atlassian Confluence to store information and share knowledge with a colleague.

    What is most valuable?

    It is a very popular tool.

    What needs improvement?

    Making integration with other tools easier would be beneficial. 

    I have found, for example, that Confluence and Teams may be integrated. It's a Microsoft tool, and I was having trouble integrating it the last time.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been with the company for one month.

    I have been working with Atlassian Confluence for one month.

    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 do I think about the stability of the solution?

    In my opinion, Atlassian Confluence is very stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Atlassian Confluence appears to be quite scalable based on the applications that I have seen.

    It is difficult to estimate since we are an international company with, I believe, 2,000 employees in Belgium. It is possible that we have 100 users.

    How are customer service and support?

    I have not had any contact with technical support.

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

    I am familiar with New Relic and Dynatrace.

    I am quite junior at Dynatrace, but this is the tool we use at work.

    We use Dynatrace, Azure DevOps, and SharePoint. I'm considering all of my options. At the present, we largely use the tools I stated.

    I did automate SharePoint, but it was in a previous mission.  It was a previous job; it is not my present employment.

    I don't use GitLab or BitBucket personally, but it's possible that in the future, we will have to implement those tools for the clients.

    We are an Atlassian partner, BitBucket is an Atlassian product.

    I'm also involved with DevOps. It depends on what the client requests, and we are highly likely to use such products.

    We also work with JIRA. Some of our colleagues are JIRA administrators.

    We used to store using text editors before, but nothing compared to Confluence.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is very simple.

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

    I am not aware of the pricing.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    My organization has a partnership with Dynatrace, and I have created a small project to compare New Relic with Dynatrace. I downloaded a report, which was helpful in this regard.

    What other advice do I have?

    I recommend it to all developers as well as students. because I used it as a student in a team. 

    We are able to store all of the necessary information for all of the students,  developers, and architects.  All the individuals involved in our software projects.

    Also, it is functional.

    I believe we are a reseller and a partner, but I'm not sure since it's largely my colleagues. 

    For the implementation of Atlassian, some of them are already certified, and with the certification, they are a partner. They work with a limited number of Atlassian-certified individuals.

    I would rate Atlassian Confluence an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer1431804 - PeerSpot reviewer
    System Engineer at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Easy to use and set up, includes Wiki software, the support is good, but the need better third-party integration
    Pros and Cons
    • "What I like the most is the Wiki software that comes with Atlassian Confluence."
    • "I would like to see integration with Slack."

    What is our primary use case?

    In multiple organizations, we have been using Atlassian Confluence as a knowledge base, and for development. Our developers use it alongside Jira.

    What is most valuable?

    What I like the most is the Wiki software that comes with Atlassian Confluence.

    The interface is good and it's pretty easy to use. Most developers have some experience with Jira, which makes it pretty easy for people to pick up. We don't usually need to provide them a string.

    What needs improvement?

    They can easily take on some of the features from Slack. 

    They could try and copy Slack more and bring them into the market a bit quicker. That would be helpful for them.

    I would like to see integration with Slack.

    There could be improvements with the app ecosystem. For example, if we look at Teams, there is now an entire ecosystem. With Teams, you can essentially install any apps and do any integrations. Third-party, similar to Microsoft.

    It's more about integrations with third parties. That is also something that could be better.

    I think it can be more competitive, considering the competition they are now going to get from Slack and Teams. For example, if you look at Microsoft Teams, Microsoft is providing 365 for free with Slack.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for approximately seven years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We have not had any issues.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have 1100 users.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The customer support is pretty good. If you reach out to them, they are very helpful.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is pretty straightforward, I have never had any issues.

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

    When you purchase this solution you get some support.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Jira and Confluence go hand in hand. If it's for development, and if people have money to pay for one product only, they usually end up purchasing Jira, and not Confluence. 

    But at the end of the day, it's an ecosystem. It really depends on how much you want to integrate and how much you want to dive into it.

    What other advice do I have?

    It really depends on what ecosystem they invest in and what they're looking for.

    You have to look at the use case and if you already have an application in your ecosystem which is fit for purpose, you have to ask yourself, why you want to go out and pay for another product?

    I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    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.
    it_user204948 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior IT Operations Manager at a recreational facilities/services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor
    Ease at which employees can curate content and people can discover meaningful and important info are valuable features.

    What is most valuable?

    The ease at which any employee can curate content and the ease in which people can discover meaningful and important information to get their job done.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We are hard core users so there are a lot of examples: At HomeAway we have product development teams for our sites, they use confluence both to document product roadmaps, and for the integration with JIRA to relay to stakeholders the updated status. It is the only place people go at HomeAway to get information.

    What needs improvement?

    The ability to delegate administrative roles, very difficult to give someone delegated administrative ability – almost all or nothing.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    My company has been working with Atlassian for 6 years.

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    Not really, I wasn’t there when it was originally deployed but I have been thru major upgrades.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Not really, I wasn’t there when it was originally deployed but I have been thru major upgrades.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    No. We were having issues but that was because we hadn’t configured properly.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    Very high – responsive and very thorough.

    Technical Support:

    Very high – responsive and very thorough.

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

    Formerly used Sharepoint – we like that Confluence has higher usability for the user so we can democratize content creation.

    How was the initial setup?

    I was not here for the initial setup, but the upgrades setup is complex for us mainly because cloning the environment for testing is complex.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would definitely not just purchase and install – engage with an expert, there is a lot of power in using Confluence and you need expert guidance to use it all properly.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Mass Spectometry Specialist at a pharma/biotech company with 11-50 employees
    Real User
    Top 10Leaderboard
    Provides fast communication with great shareable and co-editing features
    Pros and Cons
    • "Great shareable and co-editing features."
    • "RAM usage seems to be higher than it should be."

    What is our primary use case?

    This solution is for sharing records. We are customers of Confluence. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    Confluence has helped us by providing faster communication.

    What is most valuable?

    I like the shareable and co-editing features.

    What needs improvement?

    If there are multiple links on one page, the usage of RAM is extremely high. I'd like to see an improvement in the way they optimize the preview of the link because it feels like too much RAM is being used.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using this solution for about a year. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    There are occasionally some glitches and the system crashes, but not too often.

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup is fairly simple, it's just a website that you login to use. There's nothing to install. Just register an account and use it. 

    What was our ROI?

    We've saved time by using this product. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I use this solution all the time for record keeping. I suggest to anyone using this solution to be creative. It's a platform so its use is really up to the user. 

    I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Human Resources Executive at Sticky IO
    Real User
    A solution that is straightforward to set up and has good scalability, but needs a more flexible pricing model
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution helped us to see where we were going wrong and where we were doing good, and that helped us to make proper decisions"
    • "There needs to be a flexible pricing model, where we can pick and choose services and customize our pricing model."

    What is our primary use case?

    We were developing an eCommerce platform and wanted to capture all of the metrics that were coming across. We chose Confluent, which is a ready-to-use solution. The use case was to track all of the traffic that was coming from across the globe, and create metrics out of it.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We used the solution for monitoring and alerting. It was purely for internal processes so we could monitor the status of services and see if something was happening, like an order not getting through, or the customer dropping, or a problem within the system itself. The ability to capture those kind of metrics helped the business.

    What needs improvement?

    The solution does have tons of features, but sometimes we don't want every feature to be there, we just want a basic solution. They don't offer the option to customize the package, so you get everything with the one bundle price. Maybe we're only using 10% of it, but we have to pay for everything. There needs to be a flexible pricing model, where we can pick and choose services and customize our pricing model.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I used this solution for about a year as an integrator for a previous program.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Overall, we had a good experience with this solution. I'm pretty satisfied because we were able to quickly achieve what we wanted to do.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of the solution is pretty good. I would rate the scalability as a seven or eight out of nine. 

    How are customer service and support?

    The solution has good support.

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

    We used open source Kafka or other solutions where you can deploy the open source version in your infrastructure and you don't have to pay anything, but you have to manage the solution by yourself.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was straightforward and quick. 

    What about the implementation team?

    We used CodeFish for deployment. 

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

    The pricing depends on traffic, like how much input and output is happening and how many messages you're handling. For example, you have a bundle package that has a limit. If you go beyond that, there's a different price attached to it, but if you are within that limit, it's a fixed price.

    What other advice do I have?

    Overall, the solution helped us to see where we were going wrong and where we were doing good, and that helped us to make proper decisions.

    Confluent is a very good product, but only if you are using it to the fullest. If you want to use all the features offered by Confluent, there's no competitor for that, but if you're only looking for basic capabilities, then I wouldn't suggest Confluent. MSK has less capability as compared to Confluent, but since we were not using all of the capabilities, MSK is cheaper for me because I just want the basic features.

    Confluent is a classic product. There's no doubt that they're leading the market and their offerings are excellent. I would rate them as a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    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
    Manager Ops ID Solutions at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
    Consultant
    It gives near WYSIWYG editing. The low threshold to use makes it accessible for all users.

    What is most valuable?

    The fact that Confluence is a wiki that allows near WYSIWYG editing. Having an “easy to use” product means that users have a “low threshold” to use it. This is very important, as the value of any information store is that of the data that is put in to it.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The ease of use makes it accessible for all users. Users are able to insert/edit information without having to have wiki knowledge. We can put any “static” information in Confluence. “Static” meaning that the information does not change on a daily basis. The strong search function let’s us find stored information rapidly.
    We store customer information, work processes, to do’s, best practices, etc.

    What needs improvement?

    Some things like:

    • Being able to (default) sort comments on pages with the last comment first.
    • Being able to require “restricted access” permission to view Confluence pages (like JSD).
    • The Atlassian cloud pricing model is pretty steep. Confluence should be accessible by a relatively large audience, but the pricing model prohibits this. For example, we like to grant our customers access.
    • Inheritable permissions. This enables a “tree” of pages to share the same permissions. Currently, permissions can be set on a space, and altered per page. This is not very handy, as it is easy to forget setting permissions where it is needed or desired.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Confluence for five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We have not noticed any stability issues.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The pricing model is too steep for us to really use it for everything.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is generally very good. I must say though, that Atlassian’s success has made the company less flexible with respect to responding to users wishes and requirements. I have had several issues/demands that I found I was not alone in. On most occasions, there where one or more support issues in the Atlassian support portal and more and more, people complain about not being heard.

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

    I have not used another solution before.

    How was the initial setup?

    Having a cloud solution, setup is easy. Being somewhat of an expert from using Atlassian products for years, I know where to look. For novice users, I’ve been told that not everything is easy to find.

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

    My advise to Atlassian is to offer a less steep model and also offer “read-only access” for non-paying users. We currently are looking for a second product to use in a situation where we need to offer access to 40-50 read-only customers.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I started using Confluence when we started with JIRA. Therefore, I did not evaluate other products.

    What other advice do I have?

    Confluence Cloud is especially easy to get started with. With $10 a month for 10 users, it is pretty cheap. You have to keep in mind, however, that the pricing changes dramatically when the user count goes up. New users should think about what they may need later, when they start.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Cuneyt Gurses - PeerSpot reviewer
    Solution Architect, DevOps Engineer at sonne technology
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    An easy-to-use and efficient tool for collaborating from anywhere
    Pros and Cons
    • "Collaboration is most valuable. You can upload or create your documents on Confluence and share them with your team members. Your team members also can share documents."
    • "They can improve the table feature of Confluence. It is currently not adequate."

    What is our primary use case?

    It is a collaboration tool. All of our company documentation is on Confluence.

    I am using its latest version. It is a cloud solution. Atlassian is the cloud provider.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It is very useful for companies that want to deploy their documents in a private cloud repository. Companies don't need to store their documents on some servers on their premises. This document collaboration platform makes it flexible to reach your documents at any time. There is no time or location limitation. You can reach your documents whenever you want and wherever you want. For that reason, it is a very useful tool.

    What is most valuable?

    Collaboration is most valuable. You can upload or create your documents on Confluence and share them with your team members. Your team members also can share documents. 

    Confluence can integrate with draw.io and some of the other third-party tools as well. For that reason, it is joyful to use.

    What needs improvement?

    It has good integrations, but its integration capabilities can be improved.

    They can improve the table feature of Confluence. It is currently not adequate.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for three months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is a stable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It can be used by as many team members as you want to collaborate. It is no problem.

    How are customer service and support?

    You don't need any technical support. It is easy to use.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is just for document collaboration. There is no deployment period. You are just creating your documents on Confluence.

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

    I am using the paid version. My company has purchased it for company employees. We are using Confluence as a company. I don't know how much it costs, but its price is good enough. Its price is not so high.

    What other advice do I have?

    It is a collaboration tool for document development. You can create, improve, and share your documents through Confluence. It is quite an efficient tool to collaborate with your team members. I would strongly recommend it. 

    I would rate it a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

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

    Other
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Operations Support Specialist at Heartland Payment Systems
    Real User
    Improved our communication and collaboration allowing everyone relevant to the discussion to provide their feedback

    What is our primary use case?

    We used Confluence to coordinate products with our engineering and marketing teams. This allowed us to easily convey project details across our worldwide development and marketing teams.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Confluence improved our communication and collaboration allowing everyone relevant to the discussion to provide their feedback while allowing managers to easily sift through the conversation to make strategic decisions.

    What is most valuable?

    The ability to customize fields to allow for both qualitative and quantitative data discussions allowed us to back up our "gut feelings" with data collected from the industry and our customers.

    What needs improvement?

    We let some data fields get out of control as well as some product submissions, so some type of mass maintenance capability to easily reset or restart the system without losing all configuration options would be helpful.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    More than five years.
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user