Atlassian Confluence vs. Microsoft Exchange

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Confluence
Score 8.0 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 Exchange
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A
Pricing
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
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.—
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
Considered Both Products
Confluence

No answer on this topic

Microsoft Exchange
Chose Microsoft Exchange
In comparison to Amazon SES, Microsoft Exchange was significantly more flexible and customizable. Amazon SES seems more complicated from an administrative standpoint. It became more difficult for us to consider migrating to a new platform since our workers were more comfortable …
Features
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.0
157 Ratings
9% below category average
Microsoft Exchange
-
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 Exchange
-
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 Exchange
-
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
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
-
Ratings
Microsoft Exchange
8.1
80 Ratings
3% below category average
Anti-malware00 Ratings8.163 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings7.975 Ratings
Data Loss Protection00 Ratings8.665 Ratings
Threat Detection00 Ratings8.064 Ratings
Sandboxing00 Ratings7.444 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings8.364 Ratings
Management Tools00 Ratings8.477 Ratings
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Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
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User Ratings
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(174 ratings)
8.8
(98 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(21 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(61 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
5.4
(25 ratings)
9.9
(12 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(4 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Atlassian ConfluenceMicrosoft Exchange
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
You can use Microsoft Exchange Server with peace of mind for e-mail, calendar, communication, scheduling, and collaboration services. Microsoft's Exchange Server is a product designed to provide users with access to the messaging platform from mobile devices, desktops, and web-based systems. Telephony features in Exchange Server support voicemail. Exchange Server successfully offers high availability service with Microsoft Exchange Database availability groups.
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
  • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
  • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
  • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
  • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
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.
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Microsoft
  • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
  • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
  • Security remains a major concern.
  • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
  • Hardware and license costs are high.
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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.
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Microsoft
It is the best, and perhaps only, email solution worth considering.
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
Microsoft Exchange is well suited for inexperienced Messaging Admins and veterans alike. If you have no idea of the fundamentals of modern email (SMTP, mail headers, MX Records, SPF/DKIM, Encryption, etc.) and just need to get people's mailboxes and calendars the support they need, you can use it with confidence. If you are an old pro and want to leverage and dovetail your Powershell and AD with Exchange, you will be rewarded for your efforts.
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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
Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
Read full review
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.
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Microsoft
I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
Read full review
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
We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft 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
Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
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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.
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Microsoft
Most of the 365 subscriptions include desktop and cloud versions of Microsoft programs. These "traditional" software may be installed on a desktop computer and used offline without any problems, as long as you have a working Internet connection. Because so many firms still transmit each others file's developed locally using these applications, despite this being an era of cloud computing– there is a strong case for keeping desktop versions available.
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Scalability
Atlassian
This tool is very adaptable. So much so we use it for three completely separate projects, in three very different ways.
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Microsoft
The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
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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 been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
  • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
Read full review
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