11 Best Confluence Alternatives & Competitors in 2023

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” — Benjamin Franklin

Confluence by Atlassian is one of the most popular knowledge management software in the market today.

However, as you may have observed, it is far from the best option.

Whether your search for Confluence alternatives is price-driven, or you just want something more intuitive with more functionality, this list of 11 best confluence alternatives might have what you are looking for. 

As a CMO for the last 17 years in ProofHub, I cannot give enough credit to our knowledge management repository that has helped us survive through all the Google search algorithm changes we have faced.  

Nonetheless, I understand that every business has its unique needs, which can only be fulfilled by an equally specific solution.

Keeping that in mind, I have tried to incorporate versatile tools in this list, hoping that one of those may align with one of your specific knowledge management requirements. You can also check out my criteria for selecting these tools at the end of this list. 

It is important to note that the position of an individual tool in this list does not necessarily reflect its relative merits in comparison to others. The best confluence alternative for you is the one that perfectly aligns with your business requirements. 

11 Best Confluence Alternatives In 2023

1. ProofHub

Starting at $45/month [Flat pricing: No per-user fee] for unlimited users

ProofHub, a powerful all-in-one project management and team collaboration tool, is one of the best confluence alternatives as it facilitates knowledge management in the most intuitive and seamless way possible. 

It offers a pool of several robust features to create, store, and manage organizational data. It centralizes the flow of information in a way that is not only easy to navigate but also customizable to fit your specific business needs. 

Unlike Confluence, which has the reputation of being too technical and only offering a rigid organizational structure of page trees and spaces, ProofHub offers you a more customizable interface to set the hierarchy of your Project related information. 

It brings all your teams and projects into one single place and simplifies collaboration to a great extent.

Features that make ProofHub a better alternative to Confluence:

• A highly customizable UI, to set the right navigational approach for easy access to information.

• Custom roles to limit access to confidential or sensitive information. You can also restrict the action permission based on the role. 

• Upload files, keep them organized, share them with your teammates, and collaborate on them altogether smartly and efficiently. 

• Create personal or shared notes and notebooks to organize the information relevant to your projects, meetings, and tasks. 

• Bookmark the files, docs, and spreadsheets, that you use frequently. Jump directly to the location with a jump tube.

• With White labeling you can give your ProofHub account a custom domain name, your brand logo, brand color, etc. to set the look and feel. 
• Flat-pricing structure with no per-user fee, allowing you to scale your organization without breaking the bank.

Collaboration features worth mentioning:

In-built Chat: Apart from sharing information, seamlessly share files and docs of any size with team members or across departments with a simple drag and drop.

Proofing: Collaborate on your creative assets with an inbuilt proofing feature. Share feedback effectively using markup tools or revert to previous versions of your documents and other creative assets.

Discussions: Plan diligently on any topic related to your project with a dedicated discussion board and never miss out on any crucial conversations during the execution. 

Announcements: Share news, updates, and achievements throughout the organization in a single click. 

Comments: Collaborate with your team members by directly addressing them using @ mentions in the comment section of any collaborative space, such as discussions, notes, announcements, etc. 

What users have to say about ProofHub

Like: “Work management becomes easier and more organized at the same time” (Source: Capterra)

Dislike: “A lack of advanced notification systems, which can overwhelm some users.”  (Source: G2)

2. Document360

Starting at $149/project/month

Document 360 is another great alternative to confluence for marketing teams seeking better knowledge base management. It is also a great tool for self-service customer assistance as well as team collaboration. You can create and share standard operating procedures and project/campaign wikis with your teammates.

It is important to note that with features exclusively designed for marketing purposes, such as SEO management, article redirection, link analyzer, etc., its functionality as a knowledge base management tool may not be suitable for every team. Also, the volume-driven pricing structure seems a bit expensive for teams with basic needs. 

Features that make Document 360 a better alternative to Confluence:

• It’s easy to get started, even if you have no coding knowledge.
• It offers a very intuitive User Interface
• Maintain multiple versions of articles & get complete protection from accidental changes to content.
• In-app assistant with ticket deflector to cut down support tickets.
• Multilingual support to provide relevant information to your global clients.
• Article lifecycle management to manage updates and optimization

Other features worth mentioning:

• HTML editor for publishing SEO-friendly content.
• Markdown features for effective documentation.

What users have to say about Document 360

“User-Friendly and Great Customer Support” (Source: G2)

“The cost grows considerably with larger teams.” (Source: Capterra )

3. Nuclino

Pricing: Starts at $5/user/month

Nuclino is a suitable choice for those seeking a simpler and faster alternative to Confluence. Unlike Confluence, which eventually becomes clunky and cumbersome due to its many features, Nuclino offers a lightweight, clean, and user-friendly interface for knowledge management. It allows you to concentrate on the essential aspects without any unnecessary complexity.

Apart from being a collaborative documentation tool, Nuclino serves as a collaborative virtual workspace where you can gather all your team’s knowledge, documents, and projects in a single location. 

Features that make Nuclino a better alternative to Confluence:

• Nuclino unifies multiple collaboration tools within one workspace, allowing you to stay organized and collaborate without context-switching.
• The interface of Nuclino is clean, intuitive, and distraction-free.
• Every interaction in Nuclino is optimized for speed: no page loads, instant search, real-time sync, Markdown commands, and shortcuts.
• Nuclino comes with virtually no learning curve, even non-technical users can easily set up and use Nuclino.
• You can choose between different views based on how you prefer to organize your information.

• You can work together with other team members on the same documents.

• You can link different parts of your content together, making it simple to find related information.

• You can manage who can view and edit specific documents.

• You can leave comments on documents and mention specific people to draw their attention to important points.

What users have to say about Nuclino

“Flexible and easy formatting, easy to add and organize sections” (Source: G2)

“If the company grows and uses more space this tool suffers, we only recommend medium or small databases. Pricing can be expensive if you use it with large teams.” (Source: Software Advice)

4. Bit.ai

Starting at $8/member/month

Bit.ai is a new-age document collaboration tool that helps teams collaborate, share, track, and manage all company knowledge in one place. While not as rich as confluence in knowledge management, Bit.ai offers a visually appealing collaboration platform for teams to work together on shared documents, manage digital content, and track insights.

A great Confluence alternative, Bit is also the perfect documentation tool to host your wiki. You will be able to easily share and edit information about how-to guides, company policies procedures, methodology, code, checklists, process, training documents, process documentation, and various other workplace documents.

Features that make Bit.ai a better alternative to Confluence:

• Real-time collaboration with team members with a chat feature.
• Document tracking.
• Workspaces to keep everything organized and safe.
• A content library where you can store all your documents and files, making it easy to find and share content with others.
• Bit.ai automatically formats your documents. I can include headings, lists, and tables, saving you time and making sure your documents look consistent.
• Bit.ai offers various themes and templates that you can use to personalize your documents. You can add your logo and branding to your documents, making them look professional and consistent while promoting your brand.
• Supports over 100+ types of embeddings.

What users have to say about Bit.ai

“Collaboration in real time” (Source: G2)

“The UI could be improved to make it user-friendly and easy to use” (Source: G2)

5. Notion

Starting at $8/user/month

Notion is basically a note-taking productivity app with database management infrastructure, making it a good Knowledge Management System replacement for Confluence. You can create wikis, pages, and to-do lists, and connect related information through linked databases.

Unlike Confluence, Notion allows users the ability to create their wikis from scratch, while also having the option to tailor them to their brand’s specific style and color scheme.

It is important to note that setting up Notion to meet your exact needs comes with a huge learning curve; nevertheless, you can make use of tons of templates made available by the notion community to get started quickly.

Features that make Notion a better alternative to Confluence: 

• Notion allows you to format your documents using MarkDown, which is a simple way to make them look nice and organized.

• With Notion, you can organize your work by using a Kanban board. It lets you move cards around easily, so you can keep track of tasks and progress in different columns.
• In Notion, multiple can edit and add content simultaneously, making it easy to collaborate and stay updated in real time. 
• Notion also supports syntax highlighting for various programming and markup languages. 
• Notion allows you to embed docs and videos from the internet into the page.

What users have to say about Notion:

“A drawer with everything for anything” (Source: G2 )

“What I like least about the product is that it slows down considerably as more and more data or information are stored within.” (Source: Capterra)

💡Read More: Everything you need to know about Notion

6. Wiki.js

A free open-source software

If you are looking for an open-source and self-hosted Confluence replacement, Wiki.js is a suitable option to try. Vividly famous for its customizable and modular wiki engine, this tool is mainly designed for developers to write technical documentation. 

Also, it comes with dozens of modules in several categories, including analytics, database, editors, etc., that you can use to improve the functionality of your wikis depending on your requirements. 

Features that make Wiki.js a better alternative to Confluence:

• Markdown and visual builder functionality, suitable for both developers and non-technical users. 
• Version tracking with a side-by-side comparison. 
• Asset management to edit and manage media files.
• Advanced search functionality with elastic search. 
• Administrative controls to set granular permissions. 
• Customization option with functionality to override CSS.

What users have to say about Wiki.js

“Wiki.js: A powerful documentation tool” (Source: G2)

“More improvements required on the UI and defect fixes” (Source: AWS Marketplace)

7. Quip

Starting at $10/user/month

Quip is a productivity solution offered by Salesforce that offers a platform to collaborate on spreadsheets, slides, and documents simultaneously, making it a suitable confluence alternative for accounting and sales teams. 

Its integration with chat allows for seamless communication while working on documents. 

Also, with Quip’s ‘Smart Inbox’ interface, users can create edit, filter, and star documents, spreadsheets, and checklists in real-time, for faster workflow. 

Features that make Quip a better alternative to Confluence 

• Seamless cross-device user experience.
• Unlimited document and folder storage.
• Integration with other essential business apps, such as Salesforce CRM, Slack, and Dropbox. 
• Admin controls to set permissions and restrictions
• Advanced security with SAML SSO & SICM provisioning.

What users have to say about Quip

“Quip UI is really smooth, and feels new! It has a good functionality to provide the revision history for the document, which I think is very useful.” (Source: Capterra)

“It’s not easy to track who changed what over time in a shared document.”- (Source: G2)

8. Helpjuice

Starting at $120/month for up to 4 users

Helpjuice is a knowledge management system that comes with a Google-like search bar for both customers and employees to jump directly to relevant documents. In comparison to Confluence, Helpjuice comes with a native document tracking feature that allows users to track page views and searches. One of its standout features is its flexibility. Apart from corporate branding, it can be used as an internal knowledge base or as an external customer knowledge resource. 

Features that make Helpjuice a better alternative to Confluence

• Custom-made templates to fit your brand’s unique style.
• Intuitive interface for getting started quickly.
• SEO-optimized knowledge base
• Proactive customer support 

What users have to say about Helpjuice: 

“A good KB platform” (Source: G2)

“Importing data into Helpjuice can be tricky at times.” (Source: Capterra)

9. SharePoint

Starting from $5/user/month

If your teams rely heavily on Microsoft apps for their day-to-day work, Microsoft Sharepoint is a great replacement for confluence in your organization. You can seamlessly share your files and documents through SharePoint and co-author them in real time. 

Also, it offers great search functionality for jumping directly to people or particular content. Sharepoint offers more flexibility and configuration options than Confluence, allowing you to customize it on a granular level. On the other hand, its extensive feature set comes at the price of a fairly high learning curve and a cluttered, complex interface. 

Features that make Sharepoint a better alternative to Confluence 

• Seamless integration with other Microsoft Office 365 tools. 
• MinRole topology for simplified deployment and admin controls.
• Microsoft Intelligent search for content processing automation.
• More advanced customization and document version management than Confluence.
• Integrated chat for seamless communication and collaboration.
• Advanced search functionality for easy access to information.

What users have to say about Sharepoint: 

“Excellent tool for team collaboration” (Source: G2)

“The learning curve needs to be planned in advance because the way of working does not change on its own.” (Source: Capterra)

10. Tettra

Free plan up to 5 users; paid plan starting at $8.33 per user per month.

Tettra is a powerful knowledge management software that helps you centralize your business-related information in an intuitive manner, and make it easily accessible through integrations like Slack, MS Teams, etc. 

Unlike Confluence, Tettra keeps things straightforward, allowing your team to store and share organizational knowledge hassle-free. The “Categories” feature helps you organize and navigate your knowledge base effortlessly. The robust search function quickly finds the information you need, and its clean interface boosts user engagement for effective knowledge sharing. 

Features that make Tettra a better alternative to Confluence 

• QnA workflow format to directly route the questions to subject matter experts.
• Content suggestions for optimizing the stale, over-dated, and unverified content.
• Simplified editor to create and edit content.
• Easy clean-up to reduce content clutter.

What users have to say about Tettra

“Tettra makes it simple for our company to develop material that can be shared and approved by our whole team.” (Source: Capterra)

“Tettra may be too simplistic. There is no option to create a folder within a folder, which can help others navigate the resources in the library.” (Source: G2)

11. Basecamp

Starting at $15/user/month

Basecamp is a vividly popular collaboration tool among remote teams and provides all the essential features Confluence offers for knowledge management. It provides a centralized space to create, store, and organize files, docs, and images. Team members with access can easily discuss and collaborate on a particular topic. 

While not as feature-rich as Confluence, Basecamp provides its users with great customization options to store the information the way they see fit.

Features that make Basecamp a better alternative to Confluence

• An intuitive and user-friendly interface for easy onboarding and setup.
• In-built messaging with Campfire for real-time conversation.
• Admin controls for editing and viewing permissions. 
• Keyword search functionality to simplify the document search process.

What users have to say about Basecamp: 

“All high-quality projects benefit from an efficient and collaborative project management center” (Source: G2)

“Occasional performance lags, particularly when the platform is accessed by multiple users simultaneously.”  (Source: Capterra)

💡Read more: In-depth review of Basecamp project management software.

How I picked these 11 confluence alternatives

Choosing the right knowledge management tool is already a daunting task. Add the complexity of comparing with one benchmark tool, the task becomes virtually impossible. 

Nonetheless, I have done the heavy lifting, so you don’t have to do it. My approach was to first segregate the tools available in the market based on their unique values, and then find the best use cases within each category. 

I thoroughly went through the trial version and dozens of user reviews to measure the potential of each individual tool and then decided to assign weight to each one based on the following factors:

1. Ease-of-use: 

Apart from the design visibility of a tool, I considered user control freedom to make mistakes without ruining the whole network of information. I also considered the intuitiveness of the tool so that users do not have to remember the steps to perform a particular action.

2. Pricing & Scalability:

My criteria for comparing prices is based on the robustness a tool offers with the capability to scale in the future. Since you can’t get enough information about scalability from free trials, I relied on user reviews for this attribution.

3. Features: 

It’s not “The more, the Merrier” for me. I have relied on a list (mentioned below) of essential features that my experience as a CMO tells me a confluence alternative must have. Nonetheless, other good-to-have features make a good case for preferable user experiences, and I recommend users align those features with their own business needs.

Features to consider when choosing confluence alternatives

While choosing any software depends primarily on the specific problems you want to solve with that particular software, there are a few things that a knowledge management software alternative to confluence must have.

A central repository: It should be able to store all your knowledge, including documents, files, and wiki pages, in one place, making it easy to find and share information.

Collaboration features: The software must include some collaboration features, such as comments, discussion, file sharing, or a messaging option, to share thoughts and feedback. 

Search and filtering: As the amount of information eventually increases, the software must have search and filtering functionality for easy access to relevant information. 

Customization: You should be able to create custom workflows, templates, and permissions, to fit your specific business needs. 

Security:  More often than not, knowledge management software contains sensitive information about your business that can be exploited, making it necessary to invest in a secure KMS. 

Getting started with ProofHub

Finding a suitable Confluence alternative may appear challenging at first, but the process becomes simpler when you explore available options that align with your organization’s specific needs. I hope that this list enables you to make an informed decision that benefits your business and team.
However, if you are seeking a comprehensive all-in-one tool that offers not only document management but project management and team collaboration too, ProofHub is the default choice. It will help you efficiently handle documents, control versions, and share them quickly among team members. This way, you can manage your knowledge base effectively and ensure smooth collaboration within teams.

Confluence alternative FAQs