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Atlassian Confluence vs HCL Connections comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Atlassian Confluence
Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
2nd
Ranking in Enterprise Social Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Knowledge Management Software (1st)
HCL Connections
Ranking in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
6th
Ranking in Enterprise Social Software
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) category, the mindshare of Atlassian Confluence is 16.5%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL Connections is 2.8%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
 

Featured Reviews

Massimo Banzi - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible, efficient, allows the concurrent development of documentation and lets you add comments offline
An area for improvement in Atlassian Confluence is encouraging more vital interaction among the project members or users involved. I was researching a tool, but I forgot the exact name of the tool, and that tool could be used for better interactions offline among users on a specific topic, development, or discussion. I want that feature to be present in Atlassian Confluence. If there's a possibility to integrate Atlassian Confluence, Jira, and that other tool, that will make Atlassian Confluence better. My team had problems accessing Atlassian Confluence a couple of times, but I wonder if that was due to a network, server, or tool issue. I have to say that I've been working with Atlassian Confluence for years, and it has been improving its functionalities, so I feel that as a tool, it's working very well, but some features could still be improved. For example, the search engine should allow you to define some keywords you could use when searching, though I wonder if it's staff-related or setup-related, or lacking in the search engine function itself. I also want artificial intelligence added to Atlassian Confluence where you're working on a specific issue or argument, and Atlassian Confluence, through its AI, can propose some improvements based on what has been done on the same topic by different teams or different projects within the same infrastructure, similar to an internal reference, which can be helpful. Through AI, it would also be great if Atlassian Confluence could advise you on what has been done outside your specific project, and maybe there's the possibility of an installation where you have several projects installed and working together. Another feature that would be good to have in the next release of Atlassian Confluence is the tool recognizing a keyword or two that's fully developed in project B, which you can use in project A, for example.
Hasnain Zahid - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I think that it is one of the best products on the market from my experience."
"Great shareable and co-editing features."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from its document-controlling feature. In Atlassian Confluence, controlled documents cannot be edited by anyone else."
"It is stable and reliable."
"The solution offers a lot of freedom when drafting directly online."
"The product has a valuable feature for quick verification of documents."
"The most valuable features are hyper-linking, the Drawing Tool, and enhanced tables."
"The most valuable features is its design documentation abilities."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is the Activity flow that is used to catch new activities."
 

Cons

"Some elements of the user interface could be more user-friendly, including embedding diagrams."
"There is a significant difference between the data center version and the cloud version of Confluence. Providing the same features in both versions would be beneficial."
"When we have a project that we don't want to share with everybody but want people to know that it exists, there is no way to do this in Confluence. When a project is not shared, people cannot see that it exits."
"They can improve the table feature of Confluence. It is currently not adequate."
"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 a couple of different pipelines that I work with. However, I'd like to see them displayed differently on the same dashboard. So, I would like to have a unified dashboard to view the different pipelines."
"The user interface is a little bit stale. The file attachments and how they work could be improved. There is also room for improvement when it comes to CDNs."
"Atlassian Confluence is not really a community-friendly solution."
"The inclusion of a file plugin for Windows Explorer would make it easier to use."
"The support is an area where the product can improve...If you are having an issue on a Monday, the support personnel will contact you next Monday."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"To my knowledge, Atlassian Confluence had a pricing approach which is a commercial open-source solution, so that if you are a company, you had to pay an amount. This fee was not huge compared to other traditional solutions, and it was free for personal use or if you were an individual."
"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."
"There is a license needed to use Atlassian Confluence."
"In my opinion, it's worth the investment"
"The Confluence pricing is good. The only challenge we have experienced is with Jira and the add ons we use that need to be paid for separately."
"When you purchase this solution you get some support."
"There is an annual license."
"The product is neither cheap nor expensive, meaning its price falls somewhere in the mid-range zone."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
72%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Computer Software Company
4%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Educational Organization
38%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Atlassian Confluence?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from its document-controlling feature. In Atlassian Confluence, controlled documents cannot be edited by anyone else.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlassian Confluence?
The product is neither cheap nor expensive, meaning its price falls somewhere in the mid-range zone. I am not sure about the price of the product, but I know that the pricing-related information is...
What needs improvement with Atlassian Confluence?
The discoverability of documents could be improved. In scenarios where documents are managed by another department or we are looking for specific documents, the process could be enhanced for easier...
What do you like most about HCL Connections?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with HCL Connections?
The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team ...
What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?
I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.
 

Also Known As

Confluence
IBM Connections, Lotus Connections
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Skype, Microsoft, NASA, Netflix, Adobe, Bonobos, LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Yamato Financial Co. Ltd., University of Zurich, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., Telus, Rabobank, Christian Brothers Services, Grupo Financiero Banorte, The Loft Group, Dow Water & Process Solutions, JGC Corporation, College of Medicine, Swansea University, solvito GmbH, Loft Group, Hamm-Reno Group GmbH, Geno SA
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian Confluence vs. HCL Connections and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.