Confluence vs XWiki

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

XWiki

• Organizations that want an open-source alternative to Confluence
• Teams that need structured data and small apps inside a wiki
• Companies that have to host their wiki on their own servers

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.

XWiki

• Paid plans are priced in euros by a calculator that scales with team size; Starter stops at 25 users and runs on XWiki Cloud only.
• The free Community version comes without vendor support, and the XWiki Pro applications start on the Basic plan.
• OIDC, Entra ID, CAS and SAML sign-in need the Business plan, and SCIM needs Enterprise.
• Support hours on every paid plan are 09:00 to 17:00 CET.

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.

XWiki

WYSIWYG editing with history

Pages are edited in a WYSIWYG editor with link and macro editors and in-place editing. A full history of changes is kept, alongside comments, annotations and user mentions.

Structured data and apps

AppWithinMinutes builds custom data structures by drag and drop. Entries are edited through forms and browsed in filterable tables that XWiki calls livetables.

Permissions and sign-in

User and group management and an advanced permission system are built in. Paid plans add LDAP and Active Directory, then OIDC, Entra ID, CAS and SAML, and SCIM on Enterprise.

Extensions

More than 700 extensions are available: about 600 from the community plus 60 recommended and Pro extensions such as diagrams, task management and calendars.

Office and PDF handling

Office documents can be imported or previewed, images and other attachments previewed in the page, and pages viewed and exported as PDF.

Cloud or on-premises

From the Basic plan up, the same subscription price covers XWiki Cloud or your own servers; Starter is cloud only. One instance can hold several sub-wikis.

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.

XWiki

• CommunityFree

  The open-source software and community extensions, set up and run on your own servers without vendor support.

• Starter309 €

  per year for 10 users, the smallest team size

  XWiki Cloud only, for up to 25 users and ordered online: early security patches, the antivirus application, one sub-wiki and portal support.

• Basic5,796.84 €

  per year for 100 users (4.83 € per user / month)

  Cloud or on-premises for up to 1,000 users: XWiki Pro applications, LDAP and Active Directory sign-in, a custom domain on XWiki Cloud and 25 sub-wikis.

• Business11,216.70 €

  per year for 250 users (3.74 € per user / month)

  Up to 10,000 users: adds OIDC, Entra ID, CAS and SAML sign-in, IP allowlisting, the Confluence migration toolkit and faster support response times.

• Enterprise33,990 €

  per year for 500 users (5.67 € per user / month)

  Unlimited users: adds SCIM, Kubernetes, Windows and clustered installations, a dedicated account manager, AI integration in beta and 100 sub-wikis.

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.

XWiki

• Other savings

  20% off with a 3-year subscription

  The pricing calculator offers a 3-year subscription period that saves 20% compared with the yearly price.

• Other savings

  5% off for ordering online

  The Basic, Business and Enterprise plans list a 5% reduction when the subscription is ordered online rather than manually.

• Nonprofit

  50% off for NGOs

  The special discounts on the pricing page give NGOs a 50% discount on support, hosting and apps.

• Education

  50% off for academic institutions

  Academic institutions are listed for a 50% discount on support and hosting.

• Other savings

  Free cloud hosting for open source projects

  Open source software projects get free cloud hosting at the Starter level and Pro Apps licenses, plus a 50% discount on support.