Atlassian Confluence vs. Microsoft 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Confluence
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Confluence is a collaboration and content sharing platform used primarily by customers who are already using Atlassian's Jira project tracking product. The product appeals particularly to IT users.
$6.40
per month per user
Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Pricing
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Free for 10 Users
Standard
$6.40
per month per user
Premium
$12.30
per month per user
Data Center
220,000.00
40,001+ Users - Annually
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices shown here reflect prices for deployments with 100 users or less. The prices decrease wien the user base surpasses 100.*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Considered Both Products
Confluence
Chose Atlassian Confluence
Overall, Atlassian Confluence is a user-friendly tool and offers such a vast array of capabilities for project and knowledge management purposes and beyond. Other tools listed above have much more limited capabilities, although they are great tools for very specific needs and …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
Atlassian Confluence is better suited for documenting and acting as a repository for information than the more immediate what is currently being worked on things that are better suited for in Jira. In my opinion, Atlassian Confluence certainly has it's short comings but it is …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
There are similar products to Confluence - for us, being a big automotive company, it was important that the tool was scalable and easy to roll out to the different departments and branches of the company. Confluence was the best in that regard and was very quickly accepted in …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
TopTeam is one tool which is also evaluated while purchasing this. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Atlassian Confluence was rated little higher because it is user friendly, and is easy to integrated with JIRA( which is our project management tool). Easy to …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
The way the knowledge is stored and indexed in Atlassian Confluence is very advanced so that it can be easily accessed. It supports including images, links, etc so that we can convey the idea very well. Overall it's very useful for organizations where new features are rolled …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
To keep the user stories together, we used the Microsoft Office tools. It took a lot of time to search for the relevant stories, so we moved to Atlassian Confluence which is now saving a lot of time.
Chose Atlassian Confluence
We used to use shared spreadsheets but that was not very efficient due to frequent locking of files and getting them corrupted. Confluence is by far a more user-friendly and efficient solution for sharing information.
Chose Atlassian Confluence
We were using MS SharePoint which was integrated with TFS for managing our developer workflow and it was quite clunky. We had to be signed into the VPN to access any of it and it relied upon Internet Explorer for access. It felt slow and sometimes you could use other browsers …
Chose Atlassian Confluence
We mostly used Alfresco as a central content repository system (write once, read many) versus Confluence for team collaboration tool (write many, read many). Whereas Alfresco is simpler to use and admin, it lacks the powerful team syncing features that make Confluence strong
Microsoft 365
Chose Microsoft 365
Confluence is much easier to use and is less clunky than MS. Specifically comparing Confluence to SharePoint, the main advantage SP has is the ability to check in docs, you can't do this as well in Confluence. The SP sites are tough to admin and figure out where all the backend …
Chose Microsoft 365
Google Sheets is better for sharing and collaborative editing. Versioning of the same file is also one of Google Sheets strong points.
Microsoft 365 is better for working with local files. It is much easier to store the file in multiple places and backup multiple versions in …
Chose Microsoft 365
Compared to Docs & Sheets, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Sheets offer more functionality. Notepad is almost always pre-installed on Microsoft Word-enabled computers. This alternative to Microsoft Word isn't as robust, but it's free. Microsoft Publisher is incompatible with Adobe …
Chose Microsoft 365
Personally I would prefer Google Workspace because it integrates better with the Android based tools that I already use. I also like how Google's Docs, Sheets, and Slides online functionality is their focus rather than an addon to get to the cloud. Google Workspace's sharing …
Chose Microsoft 365
We actually use all those other tools that I selected simultaneously with Microsoft 365 because of different customers we work with who utilize different sharing/collaborative tools. I think all are equally comparable but Microsoft 365, especially Word, provides the …
Chose Microsoft 365
G Suite is too difficult to manage in a growing org.
Chose Microsoft 365
Was a company wide decision, but both of the products are well designed for thier purpose. I quite like the integrated calendar of Office 365 however I used Gmail at most of my previous workplaces.
Features
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.0
157 Ratings
9% below category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Task Management7.1125 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.912 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling7.221 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation6.289 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access6.8116 Ratings00 Ratings
Search6.8155 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools7.2126 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.9
157 Ratings
0% below category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Chat6.415 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications8.2154 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions7.6147 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys7.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase9.0148 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts9.37 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.7
156 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Versioning8.1135 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files6.8104 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files6.896 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration8.3151 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control8.6146 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.3113 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive5.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync8.384 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.1 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(173 ratings)
8.1
(242 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(21 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(61 ratings)
7.8
(11 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.4
(25 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(4 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian
I would recommend Atlassian Confluence for companies that want to have internal documentation and minimum governance processes to ensure documentation is useful and doesn't have a lot of duplicated and non-updated content. I wouldn't recommend Atlassian Confluence for companies with a low budget since this product might be a little costly (especially with add-ons).
Read full review
Microsoft
Office everyday things since time immemorial. It's hard for Google Suite or any other to compete with Microsoft. They have everything, and it all works great, with incredible tools and capabilities. The new integrations work seamlessly most of the time, such as embedding a Power BI in a PPT. Expecting too much AI, like note taking, or LLM-based PPT, is not available in my tier at least, so depending on the budget, you won't get all you may expect from an AI leader. For diagramming and process maps, you're better off with other tools like those above.
Read full review
Pros
Atlassian
  • Cross product linking - If you use other Atlassian products then Atlassian Confluence is a no-brainer for your source of documentation, knowledge management etc. You can show previews of the linked asset natively E.g. showing a preview of a JIRA ticket in a Atlassian Confluence page.
  • Simple editing - Though the features available may not be super complex right now, this does come with the benefit of making it easy to edit and create documents. Some documentation editors can be overwhelming, Atlassian Confluence is simple and intuitive.
  • Native marketplace - If you want to install add-ons to your Atlassian Confluence space it's really easy. Admins can explore the Atlassian marketplace natively and install them to your instance in a few clicks. You can customise your Atlassian Confluence instance in many different ways using add-ons.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • It allows us to keep our email organized. I like the fact that I can create folders in Outlook, and they replicate on my mail server.
  • Excellent for drafting and saving those documents as PDFs without needing PDF editing software.
  • Spreadsheets - what more is there to say?
Read full review
Cons
Atlassian
  • UI Design is very simplistic and basic could make use of more visually interesting colour choices, layout choices, etc.
  • Under the 'Content' menu, it defaults to having a landing page for all L1 and L2 category pages. Meaning as long as the broader content category has a sub-category, it still creates a separate landing page. In my team's case, this often creates blank pages, as we only fill out the page at the lowest sub-category (L3).
  • Hyperlinks are traditionally shown as blue, however, this results into very monotonously blue pages in cases where a lot of information is being linked.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft 365 really needs to work on protection part. In complex environment it is not reliable as compared to its competitors like Proofpoint. There are many instances where it fails to perform effectively.
  • In SharePoint Online the versioning feature of the document needs to be improved by Microsoft. Sometimes when we have to roll back to the previous version it does not work as expected.
  • In Teams messaging and app permission policies can be improved. There are some settings where we have to add a lot of things manually.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Atlassian
I am confident that Atlassian can come with additional and innovative macros and functions to add value to Confluence. In 6 months, Atlassian transformed a good collaborative tools into a more comprehensive system that can help manage projects and processes, as well as "talk" with other Atlassian products like Jira. We are in fact learning more about Jira to evaluate a possible fit to complement our tool box.
Read full review
Microsoft
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
Read full review
Usability
Atlassian
Great for organizing knowledge in a hierarchical format. Seamless for engineering and product teams managing software development. Helps in formatting pages effectively, reducing manual work. Tracks changes well and allows for easy rollbacks. Granular controls for who can view/edit pages. Search function is not great which needs improvement. Hire some google engineers
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Microsoft
It works mostly, but sometimes it doesn't. And, as previously stated, when you have outages I have to scramble and let people know that your systems are down, and take calls from C-levels asking "well why is Microsoft having an outage??????" That is undue stress on me, but since I don't decide these things, I just have to roll over and spread 'em.
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Reliability and Availability
Atlassian
I do not recall having outages or applications error so far, very reliable and available.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Atlassian
We never worked against the tide while using Confluence. Everything loads considerably fast, even media components like videos (hosted on the platform or embed external videos from Youtube, for example). We are not using heavy media components a lot, but in the rare occasion we happen to use one we have no problems whatsoever.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Atlassian
This rating is specifically for Atlassian's self-help documentation on their website. Often times, it is not robust enough to cover a complex usage of one of their features. Frequently, you can find an answer on the web, but not from Atlassian. Instead, it is usually at a power user group elsewhere on the net.
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Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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Implementation Rating
Atlassian
Overall, I am very satisfied with the initial implementation (and the subsequent upgrades and implementations made over the years).
This product has never rose to the level of being an major issue at an executive level. It has quietly and valiantly done it's job for our company!
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Microsoft
Everything works and I use it all the time.
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Alternatives Considered
Atlassian
We chose Atlassian Confluence over SharePoint because it's much more user-friendly and intuitive. Atlassian Confluence makes collaboration and knowledge sharing easier with its simpler interface and better search. While SharePoint can be powerful, it often feels clunky and complex, making it harder for our team to actually use it.
Read full review
Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
Read full review
Scalability
Atlassian
This tool is very adaptable. So much so we use it for three completely separate projects, in three very different ways.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Atlassian
  • The AI feature which lets me find relevant documents while reading one document is really beneficial.
  • Centralising of knowledge systems is one of the key differentiators for large organisations.
  • As long as folks keep using Google Docs and Atlassian Confluence, there is going to be a challenge in building a continuum.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • It has helped keep the high-energy culture my company has since it allows easy communication and calls.
  • Positively impacts responses from clients, since we can see how many times they have been contacted. (the more someone is contacted, the less likely they are to respond. Microsoft helps make sure we all know who and who not to contact)
  • positively impacts my ability to focus, since you can mute notifications. Since I look at my computer all day, it is helpful to lock in and not get distracted by the many emails I receive a day. You can also change preferences, so emails with high urgency are still seen.
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ScreenShots