The best Confluence alternative for your team, and how to move your wiki
Nine destinations, what each importer keeps and drops, and an eight-step migration plan.
Short answer: pick Notion for a flexible wiki with databases and the most complete importer, Slite for a simple wiki the whole company will actually open, XWiki or BookStack if you need to stay self-hosted now that Data Center is winding down, ClickUp if you're leaving Jira too, and GitBook if your docs are public. One thing to know before you pick: no importer carries over your permissions, and almost none keep comments or macros. Choosing the tool takes an afternoon. The migration needs a plan. We compared all nine destinations in this guide and checked their prices and importers in 2026.
Rankings are editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams are moving off Confluence
Confluence is still a solid pick if your team lives in Jira, and the free plan covers 10 users. People leave for other reasons: the end of self-hosting, a bill that climbs every year, and a product many find slow and hard to search. These six come up again and again.
Self-hosting has an end date
Server lost support in 2024. Data Center stopped selling to new customers in 2026, gets no new apps or extensions after 2028, and goes read-only in 2029 with no more security fixes. Atlassian's only remaining path is Cloud. If your company has to keep data on its own servers, you need a different tool.
Prices go up every year
In 2025, Atlassian raised Cloud prices: +5% on Standard, +7.5% on Premium, 7.5% to 10% on Enterprise. Standard runs around $6 per user per month and Premium around $11, before tax. For 50 people on Premium, that's already over $6,000 a year for a wiki.
Useful features sit behind Premium
Team Calendars, automation, page analytics and 24/7 support aren't in Standard. On Atlassian's own forums, small teams say they went back to Google or Outlook calendars rather than pay for Premium just to share a calendar.
Search that can't find things
It's the oldest complaint. Multi-word queries are treated as OR, the page you want ranks below old meeting notes, and stemming mangles technical names. Deleted pages can linger in results because the index updates in batches. If you stay, put a "+" before each word to make it required.
A sluggish editor in Cloud
Users describe a backspace taking several seconds to register in Cloud, while the same page was fast on their old on-prem install. Others call it "slow, out of date, convoluted and noisy", with a space structure non-technical teams struggle to follow.
Marketplace apps: the hidden cost
Diagrams, advanced tables, macros: many teams pay for apps on top of their seats. Those apps pad the bill and don't migrate anywhere, since every importer drops macros. Before renewal, check how much of your invoice is apps. That's often where the gap is.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Confluence alternative depends on what's pushing you out. Usually one row fits. Each card jumps to the full write-up below.
Open source, on your servers, with a Confluence migration toolkit on Business and Enterprise.
Small team, one server, zero budgetBookStackFree, visual editor, granular permissions, runs on a small VPS.
Nobody but engineers opens the wikiSliteA simple company wiki with an official Confluence importer.
You want docs, databases and AI togetherNotionThe most complete importer, the only one keeping comments via API.
You're dropping Jira tooClickUpTasks and docs in one place, built-in Confluence import.
Your docs are public or technicalGitBookBuilt for published docs, Confluence import on every plan.
Confluence alternatives, one by one
For each tool: why switch to it, who it's for, its limit, how to migrate from Confluence, and what it costs. We read each importer's documentation to see what makes it through and what gets left behind. Prices come from official pricing pages, in US dollars.
Notion: the most complete importer, for a wiki that doubles as a database
Most completeWhy switch. Notion mixes pages, databases and AI in one workspace. Your runbooks become pages, your project directory becomes a filterable database. It also has the best Confluence importer on this list: it's the only one that keeps comments and maps users, as long as you go through the API.
Who it's for. Teams from 10 to a few hundred people who want a living wiki with templates and views, and have no on-prem requirement.
Who it's not for. Organizations that rely on complex Confluence permissions. They don't come across, and every imported page lands as private.
Its limit. The HTML ZIP import caps at 5 GB (15 GB on request) and drops comments. The API import handles up to 30 GB, but importing several spaces at once (up to 10) is limited to Business and Enterprise. Most macros fail, Gliffy diagrams break, and complex table formatting doesn't survive. Past roughly 50,000 pages or 30 GB per import you have to split, and past 100 GB Notion asks you to contact them. Three imports can run at once.
How to migrate. Use the API import if comments matter. It works from Cloud and Server. Connect Jira to Notion before importing, or Jira links arrive broken. Pilot one representative space first, then reset access by hand.
Price. Free to start, Plus at $10 per member per month billed annually, Business at $20 with full AI. Our full Notion review rates it 4.0 out of 5.
- Free
- yes, to start
- Paid
- Plus $10, Business $20 per member/mo (annual)
- Import
- 5 GB ZIP or 30 GB API with comments
- Limit
- permissions dropped, pages private
Slite: the simple wiki the whole company actually reads
SimplestWhy switch. If your Confluence only gets used by engineers because everyone else gets lost, Slite fixes that. It does one thing: a clean, readable team wiki. Fewer settings, fewer nested spaces, more people reading.
Who it's for. SMBs and product, sales or support teams that want to document processes without training everyone on a heavy tool.
Who it's not for. Teams that want a permanent free plan. Slite has none, only a 14-day trial with no card. Not built for public docs either.
Its limit. Users aren't imported, so mentions arrive as plain text. Macros need rebuilding, and Confluence comments and blog posts don't come through because they're not in the HTML export. Viewer seats, SCIM (automatic account provisioning) and migration help are Enterprise only, on a quote.
How to migrate. Export each space as HTML from Confluence (Space settings, Manage space, Export space), then import the file into Slite. Structure, bold, checkboxes, tables, images and links are kept. The importer handles large spaces of 1,000+ docs.
Price. Basic at $10 and Pro at $20 per user per month, billed annually. Enterprise on a quote.
- Free
- no, 14-day trial, no card
- Paid
- Basic $10, Pro $20 per user/mo (annual)
- Import
- HTML export: structure, tables, images kept
- Limit
- mentions and comments lost
Outline: a fast wiki, cloud or self-hosted, priced per team
Team pricingWhy switch. Outline is a modern, fast wiki with a Markdown editor that works just as well with a mouse. It comes as a cloud product and as a self-hosted install. The twist: in the cloud you pay a flat fee for the team, not per head. For 11 to 100 people, that often lands far below Confluence.
Who it's for. Engineering and product teams that want a pleasant wiki, and teams that want to choose between cloud and self-hosting without switching tools.
Who it's not for. Teams that want the free self-hosted edition and a migration: the Confluence importer isn't in Community.
Its limit. The importer drops macros, plugins, column layouts, comments and authors. Simple tables come through, complex ones less so.
How to migrate. Export the space as an HTML zip, then run Outline's Confluence importer (Cloud, Business and Enterprise). It keeps formatting, links, lists, callouts, code, attachments, images, page tree and simple tables.
Price. Cloud: Starter $10/month for 1 to 10 members, Team $79/month for 11 to 100, Business $249/month for 101 to 200, with a 30-day trial, then read-only. Self-hosted: Community free, Business $4 per user per month (10 minimum), Enterprise $5 (100 minimum). Nonprofits and education get 30% off.
- Free
- self-hosted Community (no importer)
- Paid
- Team $79/mo for 11 to 100 members
- Import
- HTML: tree, images, code kept
- Limit
- comments, authors, macros lost
XWiki: the natural exit from Data Center if you must stay on-prem
Self-hostedWhy switch. XWiki is an open source wiki you can run on your own servers or use in the cloud. It's the most direct landing spot for a Data Center team that can't go to Cloud: spaces and nested pages, granular permissions, extensions. On Hacker News, one admin describes running a full Confluence-to-XWiki migration.
Who it's for. Companies with an on-prem requirement and a team that can run a server.
Who it's not for. A small team with no admin. Installs and upgrades take time, and the interface is plainer than Notion or Slite.
Its limit. The Confluence Migration Toolkit, which brings your spaces over, is only included in Business and Enterprise, not Starter or Basic. With the free software alone, you migrate without it.
How to migrate. Take a Business plan for the migration window, run the Toolkit on a pilot space, compare pages, then do the rest. Common Confluence macros often have an XWiki equivalent, but check anything that came from a Marketplace app.
Price. The software is free. Pro support plans (Starter, Basic, Business, Enterprise) are billed per user per year, same price in the cloud and on-prem, with 20% off for three years. XWiki doesn't list the amounts openly: ask for a quote for your headcount.
- Free
- yes, open source software
- Paid
- support per user per year, 20% off over 3 years
- Import
- Migration Toolkit on Business and Enterprise
- Limit
- needs an admin
BookStack: free, fast, on a small server
FreeWhy switch. BookStack is an MIT-licensed open source wiki that runs on a small VPS. It organizes everything into shelves, books, chapters and pages, a model anyone gets without training. In developer threads it keeps coming up as the one that "checked all the boxes": WYSIWYG editor, permissions, OAuth login. And pages load instantly.
Who it's for. Teams of 5 to 50 coming off Confluence Server, with someone to look after a server, who are done paying for licenses.
Who it's not for. Teams that mostly write on phones (mobile editing is weak) or need real-time co-editing.
Its limit. No official Confluence importer. You move pages by hand or with a script: doable for a few hundred pages, painful beyond that.
How to migrate. Export your spaces as HTML, rebuild the tree as books and chapters, then paste or script the content. A manual move is a good moment to leave dead pages behind.
Price. Free. You only pay for hosting and upkeep. It runs on PHP and MySQL.
- Free
- yes, open source (MIT)
- Paid
- none, hosting only
- Import
- no official Confluence importer
- Limit
- weak mobile editing
ClickUp Docs: when you're leaving Jira and Confluence at once
Tasks + docsWhy switch. Plenty of teams pay for Confluence because they pay for Jira. If both are going, ClickUp puts tasks and docs in one tool: a process doc links to the tasks it describes, and the other way around. Docs live in a Docs Hub with nested pages and multi-user editing.
Who it's for. Project, agency and ops teams that want one subscription for project management and documentation. Our guide to leaving Jira covers the task side.
Who it's not for. A large knowledge base with a deep tree and tight permissions. ClickUp is a project tool first.
Its limit. Imported content is shared with the whole workspace by default, so check sensitive pages right after import. Layout, comments, metadata, labels, the table-of-contents macro and mentions are lost. Data Center exports can differ from Cloud ones.
How to migrate. Run a normal HTML export of each space (zip up to 2.5 GB), then use ClickUp's Confluence import into Docs Hub. Start with a pilot space.
Price. Core at $9 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly), Business at $17 ($25), Enterprise on a quote. Our ClickUp review rates it 4.2 out of 5.
- Monthly
- Core $12, Business $25
- Paid
- Core $9, Business $17 per user/mo (annual)
- Import
- HTML zip up to 2.5 GB
- Limit
- shared with whole workspace by default
Docmost: the newer open source option closest to Confluence
New open sourceWhy switch. Docmost is a newer open source wiki that pitches itself as a Confluence alternative, with spaces and nested pages. It keeps showing up in developer threads from people who want Confluence's layout without the weight, on their own servers.
Who it's for. Teams that want to keep Confluence's space model and self-host without paying for the software itself.
Who it's not for. Teams under 10 people hoping to migrate for free: the importer is paid and Business has a 10-seat minimum.
Its limit. Confluence import exists only on Business and Enterprise. The project is young, with fewer extensions and a smaller community than BookStack or XWiki.
How to migrate. Take Business for the import, bring over a test space, then the rest. You can drop back to Community later if you don't need the paid features.
Price. Community is free. Business is $6 per seat per month billed annually, 10 seats minimum, so at least $60 a month. Enterprise on a quote.
- Free
- open source Community
- Paid
- Business $6/seat/mo, 10 seats min.
- Import
- Business and Enterprise only
- Limit
- young, few extensions
GitBook: when your Confluence is mostly public docs
Public docsWhy switch. Lots of software companies publish product or API docs on Confluence because nothing else was set up. GitBook is built for exactly that: a clean documentation site made for readers outside your team.
Who it's for. Product and developer teams publishing docs for customers or partners.
Who it's not for. An internal company wiki. Pricing is per site, and it lacks Notion's flexibility for internal processes.
Its limit. Cost climbs fast because the site fee stacks on top of the per-user fee. The free plan has a single user.
How to migrate. Confluence import is on every plan, free included, so you can check how your pages render during the 14-day trial before paying anything.
Price. Free at $0 per site for one user, Essential at $65 per site per month plus $12 per user, Ultimate at $249 per site per month plus $12 per user, billed annually.
- Free
- 1 site, 1 user
- Paid
- Essential $65/site/mo + $12/user
- Import
- Confluence on every plan
- Limit
- pricey for an internal wiki
Nuclino: a light, fast wiki for a small team
LightweightWhy switch. Nuclino takes the opposite bet from Confluence: few features, a clean interface, fast pages, and canvases to map ideas. For a team that finds Confluence too heavy for what it actually does, it's a relief.
Who it's for. Small teams (startups, agencies, product squads) that want a quick wiki with no admin work.
Who it's not for. Organizations with hundreds of spaces, fine-grained permissions or an on-prem requirement.
Its limit. The free plan stops at 50 items, 3 canvases and 2 GB of storage. Enough to try, not enough for a real company wiki. You'll need Starter or Business as soon as the base grows.
How to migrate. Start from the HTML export of your spaces and check the result on a pilot space during the trial before moving everyone. Plan to rebuild macros and diagrams by hand, as everywhere.
Price. Free up to 50 items. Starter and Business are billed per user: check the amount for your team size on Nuclino's pricing page.
- Free
- 50 items, 3 canvases, 2 GB
- Paid
- Starter and Business, per user
- Import
- via HTML export, pilot first
- Limit
- free plan too small for a real wiki
The 9 alternatives side by side
Our default pick: Notion if you can go cloud and care about comments, XWiki if you have to stay on-prem. Beyond that, it depends on team size. For scale, take a 25-person team: Confluence Standard runs around $150 a month, Notion Plus $250, Slite Basic $250, Outline Team $79 for everyone, Docmost Business $150, BookStack $0 plus your server. Each row shows the entry price on the left and what the importer keeps or drops on the right.
| Entry price | Confluence import | |
|---|---|---|
| ConfluenceStarting point | Free up to 10 users and 2 GB; Standard around $6, Premium around $11 per user/mo | HTML export per space, no comments or blog posts in Cloud |
| NotionMost complete | Free; Plus $10, Business $20 per member/mo | 5 GB ZIP or 30 GB API; comments kept via API; permissions lost |
| SliteSimplest | Basic $10, Pro $20 per user/mo; no free plan | Structure, tables, images kept; mentions and comments lost |
| OutlineTeam pricing | Starter $10/mo (1 to 10 members), Team $79/mo (11 to 100) | Tree, images, code kept; macros, comments, authors lost |
| XWikiSelf-hosted | Free software; Pro support per user per year | Migration Toolkit on Business and Enterprise |
| BookStackFree | Free, you pay for the server | No official importer: manual or scripted |
| ClickUp DocsTasks + docs | Core $9, Business $17 per user/mo | Zip up to 2.5 GB; layout, comments, mentions lost |
| DocmostNew open source | Community free; Business $6/seat/mo, 10 seats min. | Import on Business and Enterprise only |
| GitBookPublic docs | Free 1 user; Essential $65/site/mo + $12/user | Confluence import on every plan |
| NuclinoLightweight | Free up to 50 items and 2 GB; Starter and Business per user | From HTML export, macros to rebuild |
Annual prices before tax, in US dollars, subject to change. Always check against your own headcount.
Migrating off Confluence in eight steps
Order matters. Each step protects something: your pages, access rights, links between docs, and the history you may need to dig up one day.
Inventory spaces, macros and apps
Day 1List your spaces with page count, owner and last edit. For each, note the macros in use (table of contents, Jira, excerpts, Gliffy or draw.io diagrams), the Marketplace apps it depends on, and who has access.
Macros and permissions don't travel. This sheet becomes your rebuild list and tells you which spaces aren't worth moving.
- Output
- one row per space
- Skip it and
- diagrams vanish
Archive what's dead, keep what's used
SavingsA wiki that's a few years old is full of meeting notes and orphan pages. They're what clutters Confluence search. Don't bring them: export them separately as HTML for the archive and only migrate living spaces.
You save import time, stay under importer size caps, and your new search starts clean.
- Gain
- shorter import, cleaner search
Pick the right export method
MethodThe common route is HTML export per space: Space settings, Manage space, Export space, HTML (normal or custom). In Cloud, it includes neither page comments nor blog posts. If you're going to Notion and comments matter, use its API import instead.
On Data Center, Atlassian advises backing up your data before end of life. Take a full backup on top of the space exports. It's your safety net.
- HTML export
- no comments or blogs in Cloud
- Notion API
- keeps comments
Run a pilot import on a representative space
TestPick a space with a bit of everything: tables, images, attachments, macros, links to other spaces. Import it alone, then open ten pages side by side with Confluence. Both Notion and ClickUp recommend this step.
This is where you spot broken tables, missing images and links still pointing at old Confluence. Fix your method before importing the rest.
- Effort
- one space, one day of checks
- Skip it and
- errors repeat across the wiki
Split big spaces under the caps
SizeEvery importer has a limit. ClickUp takes a 2.5 GB zip. Notion takes 5 GB as ZIP (15 GB on request) and 30 GB via API, around 50,000 pages per import, with at most three imports running at once. An oversized space fails or stops halfway.
Split by space or subtree, and move heavy attachments (videos, archives) to file storage.
- ClickUp
- 2.5 GB per zip
- Notion
- 5 GB ZIP, 30 GB API
Rebuild permissions by hand
SecurityNo importer brings Confluence permissions. Depending on the tool, the mistake goes one way or the other: in Notion, imported pages land private and nobody sees them; in ClickUp, they're shared with the whole workspace, HR and finance pages included.
Work from your inventory and set access on each sensitive space right after import, before inviting the team.
- Notion
- imported pages private
- ClickUp
- shared with whole workspace
Rebuild macros, diagrams and Jira links
FinishingGo back to your macro list. A table of contents takes one click almost anywhere. Gliffy diagrams need exporting as images or redrawing. Jira links need Jira connected to the destination before import (Notion works this way), or they arrive broken.
Fix lost mentions too: in Slite, Outline and ClickUp they arrive as plain text.
- Rebuild everywhere
- macros and diagrams
Cut over, then keep a read-only archive
FinishAnnounce a date, freeze edits in Confluence the day before, export the last changed pages, then redirect bookmarks and internal links to the new tool.
Keep an archive people can browse. Careful: dropping to Free means getting back to 10 users, and a Free site can be deactivated for inactivity. For long-term archives, keep your HTML exports and backup rather than an abandoned Free site.
- Archive
- HTML exports + backup
- Trap
- Free sites can be deactivated
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a Confluence migration fail
The same mistakes show up in vendor import guides and in threads from teams who've done it. None is really technical. They're oversights, and each one costs more than the time it would have taken to avoid it.
Assuming comments come along
Confluence Cloud's HTML export doesn't include page comments. Slite, Outline and ClickUp all start from that export, so the discussions under your pages stay behind. Only Notion's API import keeps them. If a key decision lives in a comment, copy it into the page before export.
Forgetting permissions
The riskiest one. HR pages imported into ClickUp are visible to the whole workspace; pages imported into Notion are invisible to the team. Either way, set access before you open the new tool.
Finding the macros too late
Macros, plugins and Gliffy diagrams are lost everywhere. A runbook built from included excerpts arrives empty. A day-one inventory saves you the surprise.
Picking a tool with a paid importer
Outline has no importer in Community, Docmost only on Business and Enterprise, XWiki only on Business and Enterprise. Budget the paid plan for the migration window, even if you plan to drop back later.
Waiting until 2029 on Data Center
After 2028, no more apps or extensions. In 2029, read-only and no more security fixes. A last-minute move means a frozen wiki and unpatched holes. Run the pilot while you have time.
Migrating all the noise
Hauling ten years of meeting notes recreates the search problem you're running from. Sort first, archive separately, migrate only what's used.
- Inventory of spaces, macros, Marketplace apps and access
- Dead spaces archived separately as HTML
- Key decisions copied out of comments
- Full backup if you're on Data Center
- Pilot import on a representative space
- Big spaces split under importer caps
- Jira connected to the destination before import
- Permissions rebuilt before inviting the team
- Diagrams and macros rebuilt
- Read-only archive kept outside a Free site
Confluence alternative: common questions
Is Confluence Data Center going away?
Yes. It stopped selling to new customers in 2026, gets no new apps or extensions after 2028, and goes read-only in 2029 with no more security fixes. Confluence Cloud itself continues. If you're on Data Center, you're choosing between Atlassian Cloud and another tool, and the 2028 apps deadline comes first.
What's the best free, open source Confluence alternative?
BookStack for a small team: free, fast, visual editor. XWiki for a larger organization that wants a Confluence-like structure. Wiki.js suits developers who write in Markdown and want Git in the loop. On all of them, the Confluence importer is missing or paid, so a free migration is a manual one.
How much does Confluence cost now?
Free covers up to 10 users and 2 GB. Standard runs around $6 per user per month and Premium around $11, before tax, with volume discounts as headcount grows. Prices rose in 2025 (+5% Standard, +7.5% Premium). Before renewal, ask for a quote: it often shows how much of the bill is Marketplace apps.
Is there a Confluence alternative in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?
On the Microsoft side, SharePoint plus Loop acts as a company wiki. On Google, it's Workspace with Docs and Drive. The upside: you probably already pay for them. The catch: no official Confluence importer. Our guides to leaving SharePoint and leaving Google Workspace cover their strengths and gaps.
Can I keep Jira and drop Confluence?
Yes. Notion links Jira issues if you connect your Jira account before import, and most wikis accept Jira links. You lose dynamic Jira macros (live issue lists), which become plain links. If you want out of both, ClickUp covers tasks and docs.
How long does a Confluence migration take?
Time depends less on page count than on macros and permissions. The import itself runs fast. The pilot, checks and rebuild are what take time. Plan a day of checks per pilot space, plus time to reset access on each sensitive space.
Is the Confluence Free plan enough?
For up to 10 people, yes, but with 2 GB of storage, no custom permissions and no anonymous access. And a Free site can be deactivated for inactivity, so don't use it as an archive. If you trial Standard and go back to Free, you have to get down to 10 users.
Which Confluence alternative works for non-technical teams?
Slite, then Notion. Slite is the easiest to pick up, with no deep page tree. Notion takes a bit more learning, but its templates help fast. For personal notes rather than a team wiki, see our guide to leaving OneNote.
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