Confluence vs Notion
When comparing Confluence vs Notion, the Slant community recommends Confluence for most people. In the question“What are the best multi-user wikis?” Confluence is ranked 3rd while Notion is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Confluence is:
Confluence offers a highly intuitive and user friendly experience without sacrificing the advanced feature set of a typical wiki.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to use
Confluence offers a highly intuitive and user friendly experience without sacrificing the advanced feature set of a typical wiki.
Pro Integrates well with other services
Confluence integrates well with other Atlassian offerings like Jira, a bug tracking system.
Pro Keyboard shortcuts support
There are a lot of shortcuts to speed up the interactions with the editor, viewscreen, workbox, etc.
Pro Hierarchical page tree
Most wikis don't have a page hierarchy, but Confluence has one, and this is very helpful for a lot of people.
Pro Great plugin ecosystem
Confluence offers a huge selection of paid and free plugins across all kinds of different categories that extend the functionality of the core software.
Pro Document and inline commenting offers low-commitment opportunities to contribute
Often someone that is not an expert/owner of a process is hesitant to edit documentation of someone that is. The ability to merely comment on the existing material helps elicit improvements without requiring as much boldness.
Pro LDAP integration
Confluence provides built-in connectors for:
- Microsoft Active Directory
- Apache Directory Server (ApacheDS)
- Apple Open Directory
- Fedora Directory Server
- Novell eDirectory
- OpenDS
- OpenLDAP
- OpenLDAP Using Posix Schema
- Posix Schema for LDAP
- Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE)
- A generic LDAP directory server
Pro Full-featured on desktop, mobile and web
Even the right-click menus on the web are the same as the app.
Pro Unlike anything else
One of the most complete applications one can use to build a personal dashboard (or professional) and migrate all other services to it. No more calendar, task, notes, financials, lists, writing and wiki apps, just Notion.
Pro Pages within pages within pages, to infinity
You can have a ridiculous amount of information within a single note. Look at how it works, you'll be surprised!
Pro Flexible contents storage and organization
You can upload files and embed online stuff in any hierarchical structure using pages, toggle lists, etc.
Pro Highly visual, with icons next to every new page and so on
This feature makes it very easy to find certain notes and such. And great for visual people as well. You could also add images as icons instead, if you like.
Pro Blocks offer incredible flexibility
The basic unit of organization in Notion is the block, which can be a chunk of text, an image, a bullet point, or even a link to another page. Each page consists of these blocks, which can be easily reorganized, moved to other pages, converted into other content types, or generally manipulated in many useful ways. Because of blocks, restructuring information in Notion is way easier than in any other wiki or notebook app.
Pro Does a great job with both notes and to-dos
To-dos in Notion aren't just dot point lists. You can drag and drop them into columns just like Trello (Kanban style), you can have sub-tasks, and you can easily mark things off as completed so they are no longer in your way. Notes are also powerful, with proper formatting and ways to manage and search for them, which makes it a great Evernote alternative.
Pro Cross platform
Works with Android, iOS, Windows, & Mac OSX.
Pro Awesome for wikis
You can easily start writing a bunch of web pages, share it with co-workers and choose whether to publicize or keep your contents private. It's also easy to hyperlink pages.
Pro Amazing view flexibility
You can create different views for a page's content and easily toggle between kanban, table, etc. (As long as the content is able to allow different views.)
Pro Quick and effective search
Just type in a word and you'll have results in no time at all.
Pro Attach files in tables
You can attach files in table cells, which is a feature missing in most spreadsheet-like applications.
Pro Great spreadsheet functionality
You can use calculation/formula, links, attachment, inter-referencing of data from other pages or tables, embed documents and images in the table cells.
Pro Renders Markdown Syntax
Add code blocks, Headers, bullet point, numbered lists, or To-Do boxes by typing using Markdown Syntax (instead of klunkily moving the mouse to formatting boxes)
Pro Less headaches when editing pages
Lets you restore your page to a past edit. Also works with sub-pages and databases. Though it is worth mentioning that it's a paid feature.
Cons
Con Pretty slow
The hosted version feels slow and can be annoying to use regularly.
Con Search is utterly terrible
It requires having to put in almost exactly what's needed to get a result on the front page. Defeats the purpose of the problem it's supposedly solving.
Con Many unresolved bugs
Atlassian is notorious for not resolving bugs for months or even years in Confluence.
Con Costs money
Although inexpensive, starting at $10/mo for 10 users, many other solutions are free.
Con WSIWYG editor is broken
Markup is not saved and complicated to use.
Not suitable for dev teams.
Con Redesigns are rolled out without thorough testing
There were two major redesigns for Confluence (cloud version) in the last couple of years, and both of them were released in a very immature state, causing a lot of trouble for existing clients.
Con No full Unicode support (no real emoji support)
Confluence has a limited number of "emoticons" but doesn't support emojis as defined in Unicode.
Con Not very fast using native apps
Can take time if you're switching between lots of pages often as it needs to load the data each time
Con Not always very intuitive
Column filters are not that intuitive to apply.
Con No true backup
True backup can only exist if it's automated and easily recoverable. Else, it's just an outdated copy or useless scrambled data.
Con Designed with teams in mind, and less formatting than Evernote
Evernote may be more individual-oriented and has more formatting and such options available, but whether that affects you is down to personal preference. Try both and see which you prefer.
Con Not yet a new protocol, as it could be! (or could it?)
Think of scuttlebutt or email. the best Evernote alternative would be a "web 3.0" of sorts. Something that would be just a simple file added to a computer and automatically replicated to other computers along with a website and any company could easily pick up the concept and make their own hosting, including some awesome google drive/host of sorts.