A recent study shows that 79% of employees were using collaboration tools for work, which is a 24% increase compared to only four years ago, and this trend keeps growing.
While many teams choose Confluence as their preferred collaboration tool, there are also a lot of users who complain about its lack of customization and pricey payment structure.
That's why we've selected a couple of Confluence alternatives for you, focusing on team management tools that can help you assign tasks and manage projects while also having advanced collaboration features. Keep reading to find the right Confluence alternative for you.
The best Confluence alternatives & competitors: selection criteria
Choosing the best workflow management software isn’t easy. Apart from the size of your team and the types of projects you're working on, you should also consider features, integrations, and pricing.
Features
The essential features include:
Workflow management
Task management
Time tracking
Document management
Team collaboration
Internal knowledge base
Integrations
Some of the must-have integrations include:
Communication tools (such as Slack and Microsoft Teams)
Calendar
Trello
Gmail
Other industry-specific tools
Pricing
It's essential to find a platform that has the perfect balance of features, integrations, and prices. Most Confluence alternatives offer a free plan, with a free trial usually lasting between 14 and 30 days. Paid plans differ in many ways, mostly based on the number of team members and features or integrations.
6 best Confluence alternatives & competitors: a detailed overview
workstreams.ai
workstreams.ai is a team management tool for companies looking to boost their productivity, efficiency, and manage their knowledge base in one place.
The platform is both practical and creative, allowing you to build your workflow from scratch. This further helps to standardize business plans and procedures, leaving plenty of room for customization and workflow optimization.
Automated workflows can save you a lot of time, considering that 51% of employees reported spending at least two hours daily on repetitive tasks.
Although project management platforms are most popular among IT and development teams, even non-technical users agree that workstreams.ai has a very intuitive user interface, making it suitable for the following industries:
You can check out workflow examples for different industries here or read this article on workflow mapping to understand which workflows you need most.
The platform offers integration with apps that support teamwork and make project management and knowledge sharing effortless. Integrating workstreams.ai with Slack or Microsoft Teams boosts communication to another level. This helps teams collaborate in real time and edit technical documentation simultaneously.
You can also integrate this platform with your Google Calendar or Gmail. Furthermore, by connecting it with Trello, you can track team tasks and make sure that every member follows their assignments.
Another valuable integration is Webhook. This app helps you establish connections between different tools and apps, combining data from different sources to get up-to-date insights.
Regarding features, it offers:
Time allocation: This tool enables not only precise time-tracking but also allows you to estimate how much time a particular task requires and see which ones need more time than others.
Task enrichment: You can add details about every task, enriching your company’s knowledge base and sharing valuable information with other team members.
Frozen tasks: This feature informs you about the time that has passed since you have last been working on a particular task – it serves as a reminder not to forget your assignments, even if you're caught up with work.
Auto-forwarding: This feature establishes forwarding rules that enable tasks to move according to plan after reaching a specific step in the process.
Pricing:
Free plan: free, including all workstreams.ai features just like the Pro plan, but limited to three team members
Pro plan: $7.99 per user per month, unlimited workflows, unlimited automation, unlimited tasks
Enterprise plan: custom price available upon request
Jira
Image source: G2.com
Initially developed for bug-tracking and software development, this Confluence alternative has, over time, turned into an environment that supports teamwork.
With around 3,000 integrations divided into 35 distinct categories, Jira's Atlassian Ecosystem team brings together some of the most popular apps, such as:
Slack
Microsoft (Microsoft Teams, Excel, and Outlook)
Google (Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets)
Confluence
When it comes to core features, apart from bug-tracking, this Confluence alternative offers:
Agile development: Agile frameworks enable you to effectively plan, track, and collaborate on the implementation of different features during the whole development cycle.
Role assignment: This applies to the paid plans where each employee gets a role, such as a developer, viewer, or reporter.
Roadmaps: A visual representation of goals and priorities that you can export to other formats for easy sharing.
Reporting: It can make reports for any planning stage, allowing project managers an insight into the team’s progress.
On the con side, Jira doesn't have a user-friendly interface for people who aren't developers. If you're in a different industry, we highly recommend checking out other Jira alternatives.
Pricing:
Free plan: for up to 10 users, ideal for one-team collaboration
Standard plan: $7.75 per user per month for up to 35,000 users
Premium plan: $15.25 per user per month for up to 35,000 users, with unlimited data storage
Enterprise plan: price on request, annual payments only possible, for unlimited number of sites
Basecamp
Image source: G2.com
As a combination of team communication and project management software, Basecamp offers a variety of features that boost collaboration within a team. It is excellent for businesses of all sizes, as it supports both real-time and asynchronous communication. Although the platform might be a bit pricey for smaller businesses, it pays off well for bigger companies.
This Confluence alternative comes with 72 integrations, but it's worth noting that some of them aren't mainstream options. Some of the integrations include:
Ganttify (with Gantt charts)
Time tracking (such as Calamari and Everhour)
MinterApp (for invoicing)
Feedback collecting (such as AssessTEAM and Saber Feedback)
Here are the features that stand out:
Communication: Teams can communicate in multiple ways, either by sending a direct message, posting comments on project boards, or having a real-time discussion in Campfire.
Timelines: All team members have milestones and deadlines visually represented, making them easier to track.
Knowledge management: Basecamp offers an easy way to manage academic or organizational knowledge, which could be why many teachers choose to use it as their knowledge management tool.
Card Table: A great visual tool for organizing assignments.
On the con side, there's no easy way to tag team members or label tasks, and that's why some people may consider Basecamp alternatives.
Pricing:
Free plan: for teachers and students
Basecamp plan: $15 per user per month, unlimited users
Basecamp Pro Unlimited plan: $299 per month (when billed annually), unlimited users
ClickUp
Image source: G2.com
ClickUp is a popular task management platform for both small and large companies. It unites collaboration and tracking tools, document management, and reporting dashboards.
Project tracking comes with different views, such as a list view, a board view, and a Gantt view. The list view is a sort of to-do list, the board view is reserved for workflows, and the Gantt view is for scheduling projects.
It's highly customizable, and users can personalize their workspace in terms of color, themes, and corporate branding.
You can connect over 1,000 apps with ClickUp, including:
Slack
HubSpot
Gmail
ClickUp’s key characteristics are more or less similar to other teamwork platforms. However, one additional aspect regarding the video clips stands out. The main features are listed below:
In-app video recording: This unique feature allows team members to send screen recordings, enabling them to update your internal knowledge base in real time.
Task management: Great for organizing tasks and tracking changes by building workflows using one of 12 views.
Time management: Time-related features enable users to track time, create schedules, and organize calendars.
Collaboration tools: They include real-time chat, document management, and adding comments.
On the con side, these features come with a relatively high learning curve, and the platform lacks some functions, such as a project message board and managing task dependencies from your mobile app. If you want something simpler, check out ClickUp alternatives.
Pricing:
Free plan
Unlimited: $7 per user per month
Business: $12 per user per month
Enterprise: custom price upon request
Asana
Image source: G2.com
If you're looking for user-friendly software packed with numerous features, Asana is a great platform for your business. It started as one of the first project management tools and is still very popular and widely used.
Like ClickUp and Basecamp, it has many different views, such as Kanban-style cards and calendar views, that you can customize according to your preferences. Users can switch between these views, giving all team members a sense of flexibility.
Its diverse integration ability allows easy file sharing and productive team collaboration and communication. Some integrations include:
Microsoft Teams
HourStack
Adobe Creative Cloud
This task-planning software could be an excellent project management tool for businesses of all sizes. Its main features include:
Milestone tracking: This productivity-oriented feature lets you track team members’ progress and set critical date reminders.
Task dependencies: You can use them to make connections between tasks and ensure one is complete before moving to another.
Budgeting: This feature allows you to monitor project expenses and set and adjust budgets if needed.
Guest/Client access: Invite external stakeholders for real-time collaborative editing on your shared tasks.
Some teams may consider Asana too expensive, and in that case, we suggest checking out Asana alternatives.
Pricing:
Basic plan: free
Premium plan: $10.99 per user per month
Business plan: $24.99 per user per month
Enterprise plan: custom price upon request
monday.com
Image source: Capterra.com
When talking about creativity, monday.com is a great alternative to Confluence and the first one that comes to mind. This is because you can create customized tools and applications.
Although it started as an exclusively work collaboration tool, it has since expanded to include many other workflows, from customer relationship management and human resources to marketing and others.
monday.com has a long list of available integrations. It means that you can transfer information between these apps automatically, saving time and unnecessary copy-pasting. Some of the integrations include:
Google Calendar
Jira
Dropbox
Microsoft Teams
This Confluence alternative has a wide variety of features simply because it applies to so many different workflows. Features such as dependencies and budgeting have similar functions to Asana's features.
However, it's worth mentioning that features differ when we talk about different workflows.
Project management: It includes all the classic features, such as project planning, tracking, and reporting.
Industry-specific workflows: This tool offers plenty of templates for different industries that can save time and help with industry-related knowledge management.
CRM Features: You can use monday.com for lead management, contact management, deal management, reporting, and analytics, and you can also pair it with an external customer knowledge resource.
Content marketing: Marketing teams love this software as they can also use it for content planning, creation, and curation.
On the con side, pricing plans might be a bit confusing and limited. For example, time tracking is only available in the Pro Plan, and if that's too expensive for you, you may want to check out monday.com alternatives.
Pricing:
Free plan
Basic plan: €8 per user per month
Standard plan: €10 per user per month
Pro plan: €19 per user per month
Enterprise plan: custom pricing available upon request
The best Confluence alternatives & competitors: Comparison table
Platform | Key features | Pricing | Best for |
Confluence |
|
| Remote teams communication |
workstreams.ai |
|
| Workflow automation |
Jira |
|
| Software development teams |
Basecamp |
|
| For teachers and students |
ClickUp |
|
| Task management |
Asana |
|
| Collaboration with external stakeholders |
monday.com |
|
| Marketing teams |
Conclusion
As you can see, choosing the best Confluence alternative depends on many factors, such as whether you're looking for simple knowledge management software or a versatile tool with different features.
If you're looking for a tool with an intuitive interface that your team can use for collaboration and task management, workstreams.ai could be the right solution for you.
Sign up today to see how you can streamline your workflows and save valuable time.
FAQs
What is the alternative to Confluence?
Some tools that would make a great Confluence alternative include workstreams.ai, Jira, ClickUp, and monday.com.
Does Microsoft have a Confluence alternative?
According to some, Microsoft Teams could be considered an alternative to Confluence, but unfortunately, it can't replace all the features of this tool, and you need to combine it with some other software.
Is Jira better than Confluence?
It depends on what you are looking for. Jira has a more extensive feature set, making it suitable for managing more complex projects, especially in the software development industry. However, some say that Confluence has a more intuitive user interface, making it more suitable for new users.
What are the disadvantages of Confluence?
Two main disadvantages are a lack of customization and the pricing structure that quickly becomes expensive if you want to unlock more than its basic features.
