Confluence vs Outline

Confluence

• Teams that run Jira and want documentation linked to their issues
• Company wikis and intranets organized into spaces per team or project
• Small teams: the Free plan covers up to 10 users

Outline

• Teams that want a fast, Markdown-friendly internal wiki
• Organizations that need to host their knowledge base themselves
• Small teams: cloud hosting is a flat $10 a month for up to 10 members

Confluence

• The Free plan stops at 10 users and 2 GB of storage and has no space or page permission settings.
• The pricing page's default prices ($5.42 Standard, $10.44 Premium) are per-user averages for a 300-user team; the first 100 users cost $6.70 or $13.20 each.
• Enforced SSO and SCIM need a separate Atlassian Guard Standard subscription on every plan except Enterprise, which is sold on annual contracts only.
• The self-managed Data Center edition reaches end of life on March 28, 2029, when its subscriptions expire and it becomes read-only.

Outline

• The cloud version has no free plan: after the 30-day trial the workspace is read-only until a payment method is added.
• Cloud pricing goes by team-size tier, so an 11th member moves a team from $10 to $79 a month, and teams over 200 need a quote.
• The free Community Edition lacks AI answers, guest users, SAML 2.0 and the audit log; paid self-hosted licenses need at least 10 users.
• The download page offers desktop apps for macOS and Windows only; no mobile apps are listed.

Confluence

Pages and spaces

Pages hold project plans, meeting notes and policies, and are grouped into spaces with a page tree. Several people can edit at once, with inline and page comments and version history.

Whiteboards

Freeform canvases for brainstorming and diagrams, with built-in links to Jira. Free allows 3 active whiteboards per user, Standard 10, and Premium and Enterprise have no limit.

Databases

Structured collections that gather information from Jira and other apps and can be laid out as tables, cards or boards.

Rovo AI

Rovo Search, Chat and Agents come with paid plans and are metered in monthly credits: 25 per user on Standard, 70 on Premium and 150 on Enterprise.

Automation

Rule-based automation with templates and a low-code builder. Monthly allowances run from 50 steps per subscription on Free to 500 steps per user on Enterprise.

Permissions and external sharing

Paid plans add space and page permissions, view-only public links, anonymous access and up to 5 free guests per paid user, each limited to a single space.

Outline

Markdown-friendly editor

The editor supports Markdown, slash commands and interactive embeds. Documents and their version history are unlimited on every tier, including the free Community Edition.

Real-time collaboration

Several people can edit a document at the same time, and comments, threads and @mentions keep the discussion attached to the text.

Search and AI answers

Search covers the whole workspace, and questions about your documents get direct AI answers. AI answers are in every cloud tier but need a paid license when self-hosting.

Permissions and public sharing

Read and write permissions, user groups and guest users control access. Documents can be shared publicly by link, with your own brand colors, logo and domain.

Self-hosting

Outline can run on your own infrastructure, either as the free Community Edition or with a paid Business or Enterprise license that adds features such as SAML 2.0.

Integrations and API

More than 20 integrations cover tools such as Slack, Figma, GitHub, GitLab and Zapier, and an API with webhooks is included on every tier.

Confluence

• Free$0

  Up to 10 users on one site with 2 GB of file storage, 3 active whiteboards per user and community support.

• Standard$6.70

  per user / month, billed monthly (first 100 users)

  250 GB of storage, page permissions, guests, public links and 25 Rovo credits per user. Annual billing is $680 a year for up to 10 users.

• Premium$13.20

  per user / month, billed monthly (first 100 users)

  Unlimited storage and whiteboards, analytics, company hub, 24/7 critical-issue support and a 99.9% uptime SLA. $1,300 a year for up to 10 users.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Annual contracts through sales: Atlassian Guard Standard included, up to 150 sites, Atlassian Analytics and a 99.95% uptime SLA.

Outline

• Community Edition$0

  Self-hosted on your own server: unlimited docs, real-time editing, SSO, integrations and the API, with no AI answers, guest users or support.

• Cloud, 1–10 members$10

  per month for the whole team; annual pricing available

  Hosted by Outline with every cloud feature: AI question answering, SSO, templates, groups and permissions, API and webhooks, and a security audit log.

• Cloud, 11–100 members$79

  per month for the whole team; annual pricing available

  The same features as the smaller tier. A team moves to this tier automatically once it has more than 10 members.

• Cloud, 101–200 members$249

  per month for the whole team; annual pricing available

  The same features for 101 to 200 members. Larger cloud teams are asked to contact Outline for pricing.

• On-Premises Business$4

  per user / month, billed annually, 10-user minimum

  Self-hosted license that adds AI question answering, guest users, SAML 2.0, extra security controls, a Confluence importer and the audit log.

• On-Premises Enterprise$5

  per user / month, billed annually, 100-user minimum

  Everything in On-Premises Business, plus removal of Outline branding and a support contract.

Confluence

• Annual discount

  Save up to 17% with annual billing

  The pricing page's billing toggle states a saving of up to 17% on annual plans. Annual prices are set by user tier: Standard is $680 a year and Premium $1,300 a year for up to 10 users.

• Nonprofit

  75% off for eligible nonprofits

  Atlassian's licensing page offers Confluence Cloud at 75% off to eligible Community customers: registered nonprofits and social enterprises, verified through Goodstack.

• Education

  75% off for academic institutions

  Academic licenses give eligible schools, colleges and affiliated research institutes 75% off the list price of Confluence Standard, Premium and Enterprise.

• Education

  75% off Classroom licenses

  Eligible college students, graduate students and teachers using Confluence for classroom or learning activities get 75% off Standard and Premium.

Outline

• Nonprofit

  30% off for non-profits

  Outline's pricing FAQ offers non-profits a 30% discount on request, and says it will sponsor accounts for non-profits working directly on climate change.

• Education

  30% off for educational institutions

  The same pricing FAQ extends the 30% discount to educational institutions that contact Outline.