Notion vs Confluence in 2026

Notion vs Confluence at a glance

Notion and Confluence are the two tools most teams shortlist for a shared wiki. Both store pages in a hierarchy, have databases and built-in AI, and cost less than $25 per person per month on their self-serve paid plans. The differences are in how pages get published, how permissions are layered, which admin controls cost extra, and how each fits your stack.

Notion is an all-in-one workspace built from blocks. Pages, databases, wikis, forms and published websites all live in the same editor. It has a Free plan, then Plus at $10 per member per month and Business at $20 (billed annually; $12 and $24 billed monthly). Notion AI, including Notion Agent and Enterprise Search, is part of Business and Enterprise.

Confluence is Atlassian's wiki, organized into spaces with a page tree, and tightly tied to Jira. It is free for up to 10 users. Standard costs $7.15 per user per month and Premium $14.10 on monthly billing for 1 to 100 users, and annual billing is sold as a flat price per user tier (for example $720 a year for up to 10 Standard users). Atlassian's AI, Rovo, is included in all paid plans with a monthly credit allowance per user.

This comparison uses only what each vendor documents on its own site as of October 2026; where something is not published, we say so.

Feature-by-feature comparison table

Editor and page model

This is the difference teams feel on day one.

Notion treats everything as a block inside a page: text, headings, toggles, images, embeds, databases and sub-pages. There is no separate edit mode. Changes save as you type and every collaborator sees them live, with avatars of active collaborators at the top of the page. Pages nest inside pages, so a wiki, a meeting-notes archive and a project tracker can all sit in one tree. Linking is quick: type @ or [[ to link a page, and backlinks appear under the page title.

Confluence now has two content types, and you pick one when you create content:

• Pages are the classic Confluence model. A page starts as a draft and has to be published, and later edits are published too. View and edit modes are separate. This suits authoritative content such as policies, runbooks and specifications, where readers should see a finished version rather than someone mid-edit.
• Live docs work more like Notion. There is no draft: edits are saved automatically and visible to everyone with access in real time, with up to 40 people editing at once. A version is stored when editing begins and finalized about 10 to 15 minutes after the last edit. You can convert a live doc to a page and back, though footer comments on a page do not show in the live doc. Space admins have to enable live docs per space.

Confluence also has macros (included on every plan), which let you drop dynamic content such as Jira query results into a page. Notion's equivalent is embeds, link previews and synced databases.

Bottom line: Confluence pages give you a publish step and a clear official version; Notion makes every document live. Confluence's live docs now let one tool offer both modes.

Structure: teamspaces vs spaces and the page tree

Notion organizes a workspace into teamspaces. Each workspace has at least one teamspace that includes everyone, and admins can make teamspaces default so new members join automatically (Notion recommends no more than three defaults). Teamspaces come in three types:

• Open: anyone in the workspace can join and view.
• Closed: everyone can see it exists, but only invited people can join.
• Private: for invited members only, available on Business and Enterprise only.

Teamspace owners get full access to every page in the teamspace and its settings, and can set default permissions for new pages. Inside a teamspace, pages nest freely. Notion also has wikis: any page can be turned into a wiki with Home, All Pages and Pages I Own views and a named owner for each page. Wikis work on all plans; verified pages (a blue check in search and AI citations, with optional expiry and owner reminders) need Business or Enterprise.

Confluence organizes content into spaces, each with a structured page tree in the sidebar. Spaces have their own permissions, templates and admins. Pages, live docs and databases are created inside a space, and folders group content in the tree. Archiving pages starts on Standard. Premium adds analytics, a dynamic intranet and admin insights.

Bottom line: Confluence spaces are more formal (separate permissions and admins per space), which suits large organizations. Notion teamspaces are lighter, but private ones need Business.

Databases, whiteboards and smart links

Notion databases are the product's center of gravity. A database can be shown as a table, board, timeline, calendar, list, gallery or chart, and can take submissions through forms. Each row is a full page. Database templates pre-fill structure and property values with one click, and repeating templates can create a new page daily, weekly, monthly or yearly (for example, a weekly team meeting note). Custom database automations start on Plus. On Business and Enterprise you can also set row-level access, so people can edit only the entries they created, and the "Can create" permission for database pages.

Confluence databases arrived more recently. A database has fields (columns) and entries (rows), shown as a table, card or board view with filters and sorting. Its field types include Jira issues, Confluence pages and Smart Links, so a database can track which spec page goes with which Jira epic. Atlassian says entries and fields are unlimited but warns that "large databases can take longer to load and quickly become very complex". Permissions are set at the space level, and databases are not available in Atlassian's Government environment.

Whiteboards are a Confluence advantage. You can brainstorm on a whiteboard, select stickies or shapes and turn them into one or more Jira work items, or pull existing Jira work items onto the board by AI, text or JQL search. Whiteboards can be embedded as Smart Links in Jira, Confluence and Trello. Free allows 3 active whiteboards per user, Standard 10, and Premium and Enterprise unlimited. Whiteboards are not part of the Notion plans reviewed here.

Bottom line: For structured data (content calendars, CRMs, task trackers, request queues), Notion's databases have more views, forms, automations and row-level permissions. For planning that flows into Jira, Confluence's databases and whiteboards are built around Jira fields.

Templates

Confluence ships more than 70 built-in templates, from meeting notes to strategy documents. Space admins and users can create custom templates for a space, and site admins manage global templates and can install blueprints from the Atlassian Marketplace.

Notion's templates work at the database level. You can create as many templates per database as you like, including images, embeds, sub-pages and preset property values, nested up to three levels.

Permissions, guests and external sharing

Notion permissions work on every plan, including Free. Each page can be shared with people, groups, teamspaces or the public, at six levels: Full access, Can edit, Can edit content (databases), Can create (databases, Business and Enterprise), Can comment and Can view. Sub-pages inherit their parent's permissions unless changed. One rule matters for audits: Notion applies the broadest access a person has, so someone with "Can view" on a page but "Full access" at the workspace level gets full access.

Confluence permissions layer space permissions and page restrictions, but page restrictions need a paid plan: Atlassian's help center states "You can't restrict access to content on the free plan." On Standard and up, view restrictions are inherited by child pages (if you can't view the parent, you can't view anything under it), while edit restrictions are not inherited. Restrictions can target individuals and groups. Premium adds tools for admins: inspect permissions, copy space permissions, and an admin key that lets organization admins get past restrictions.

Guests are free in both tools, with different limits:

Confluence guests can view, add pages, comment and attach files, but not use analytics or space admin.

Bottom line: Notion gives small teams real permissions and guests on the Free plan. Confluence Free has neither, so any team that needs restricted pages or outside collaborators has to start on Standard.

Admin and security: SSO, SCIM, audit logs and Atlassian Guard

Notion:

• Business ($20 annual, $24 monthly): SAML SSO, private teamspaces, domain verification, granular database permissions.
• Enterprise (custom): SCIM provisioning, audit log, workspace analytics, advanced controls such as disabling guests or blocking external sharing, SIEM and DLP connections, custom data retention, and zero data retention with LLM providers.

Confluence:

• Standard: audit logs, data residency, space and page permissions, guests and public links.
• Premium: IP allowlisting, admin key, sandbox, release tracks, 99.9% uptime SLA and 24/7 support for critical issues.
• Enterprise: user-activity audit logs, multiple identity providers, up to 150 sites, 99.95% SLA, and Atlassian Guard Standard included.
• SAML SSO and SCIM on Free, Standard and Premium require a separate Atlassian Guard Standard subscription. Atlassian lists Guard Standard at $4.35 per user per month (enforced SSO, SCIM, mobile app management, API token controls and an organization audit log) and Guard Premium at $8.55 per user per month (data classification, threat detection, content scanning, SIEM). The Guard page does not say which user count those rates apply to, so treat them as list rates and confirm with a quote.

Bottom line: For a mid-size company that needs SSO but not SCIM, Notion Business includes it while Confluence Standard plus Guard Standard costs extra. Confluence, in turn, gives you an audit log on Standard, which Notion keeps for Enterprise.

Search and AI: Notion AI and Notion Agent vs Atlassian Rovo

Notion AI is included on Business and Enterprise. Free and Plus get only "a limited number of complimentary AI responses". On Business you get:

• Notion Agent, which Notion describes as "a customizable teammate" that can complete tasks across your workspace and connected apps, including creating and editing content.
• Enterprise Search (beta) across your workspace and connected apps. AI Connectors (Business and Enterprise) cover Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint and OneDrive, GitHub, Jira (beta), Linear, Gmail, Outlook and Google Calendar.
• Research Mode and AI Meeting Notes.
• Custom Agents are free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits. Premium models also spend credits and must be enabled by an admin.

Atlassian Rovo is switched on automatically for Confluence Standard, Premium and Enterprise. Rovo Search, Chat, Agents and Studio all draw on a monthly credit allowance per user: 25 credits on Standard, 70 on Premium and 150 on Enterprise. Allowances from several Atlassian products pool together and reset monthly. Extra usage costs $0.01 per credit ($10 per 1,000), and admins can turn overage off or buy prepaid packs. Rovo connectors bring in Google Drive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Figma, Notion, Zendesk Help Center, Outlook Mail, HubSpot, Dropbox and GitHub, and Atlassian states that "Rovo respects existing permissions set in third-party SaaS apps". Indexing connected sources does not use credits. Rovo is not available on Confluence Free.

Notion's security page states: "Customer data is never used to train AI models by Notion or its subprocessors."

Bottom line: Confluence puts AI into its cheapest paid plan, with a usage allowance. Notion keeps full AI for Business, but Business is also where Notion adds SSO and private teamspaces, so many teams that want AI end up there anyway. Heavy AI users should compare credit allowances: Notion and Atlassian both price extra credits at $10 per 1,000.

Jira, GitHub and other integrations

Confluence and Jira are built to work together. Paste a Jira URL into a page and Confluence inserts the Jira work items macro. The macro can show a table of results from a JQL search, a single work item, a count, or create a new work item. You can also create work items from highlighted text, create several from a table, or ask Rovo to draft them. Whiteboards convert stickies into Jira work items, and Confluence databases have Jira fields. Atlassian also sells Confluence, Jira, Loom and Rovo together as the Teamwork Collection.

Notion and Jira connect through a managed sync on Business or Enterprise. It creates two Notion databases (Jira Spaces and Jira Work Items) with status, assignee, priority, labels and dates. The sync is one-way and read-only: "Make changes to work items in Jira." Comments and attachments do not sync, and it supports Jira Cloud only, not Server or Data Center. Notion also notes that legacy syncs stop updating after October 30, so existing users have to set up the new sync. Link previews for Jira issues are available as embeds.

GitHub: Notion's managed GitHub sync (Business) pulls pull requests and/or issues into a database with title, number, state, author, labels and branches, again read-only. Confluence's documented GitHub route is the Rovo GitHub connector, which indexes repositories, pull requests, commits and branches for search and chat.

Other integrations: Notion has a public API and webhooks, Slack and Google Drive connections from Plus, and 1-way database syncs. Confluence lists apps and integrations on every plan, the Atlassian Marketplace, and data connectors from Standard.

Bottom line: If Jira is your system of record, Confluence is the natural partner. Notion can mirror Jira data, but you still edit in Jira.

Public sharing and publishing

Notion Sites turns any page into a public website. You can publish unlimited pages, claim notion.site domains (1 on Free, 5 on paid plans), turn on search engine indexing, and add a custom domain for $8 per month per domain billed annually ($10 monthly). Visitors can switch database views, search the site and, if you allow it, duplicate the page as a template. Publishing a page also publishes all its sub-pages, and password protection is not supported. Enterprise admins can disable publishing.

Confluence public links share a single page with anyone on the internet who has the link, on paid plans only. Only pages can be shared this way, not whiteboards or blogs. A public link overrides all page restrictions, and Atlassian says it takes steps to keep public links out of search engine indexes. Anonymous access is also listed on the paid plans.

Bottom line: Notion suits public pages that should rank in search; Confluence public links suit one-off sharing with a customer or partner.

Version history and recovery

Notion keeps page history for 7 days on Free, 30 days on Plus, 90 days on Business and without limit on Enterprise. You can restore a whole version or copy blocks from it. Deleted pages stay in Trash for 30 days, and Notion support can restore a snapshot from the past 30 days.

Confluence lists page versioning on every plan, including Free, and live docs save versions automatically as described above. Atlassian does not publish a retention limit for Cloud page versions in the pages reviewed, so ask if compliance needs a number.

Import and migration in both directions

Both vendors have built importers aimed at each other.

Confluence to Notion. Notion's Confluence importer works with Confluence Cloud and Server/Data Center and offers three routes:

1. ZIP importer: imports part of a workspace from a Confluence export, up to 5GB (15GB on request).
2. API importer: imports the whole workspace, up to about 50,000 pages or 30GB, and keeps comments and user mapping.
3. URL or page ID: for individual pages.

On Business and Enterprise you can import up to 10 spaces at once from the interface. Notion lists what does not come across: permissions (imported pages land private to the person importing), most macros and plugins (flattened to text, images or links), table styling, private pages, custom emojis, charts, page history and folder structure. Notion's advice: "Users are expected to clean up and set up the workspace architecture before inviting others."

Notion to Confluence. Confluence Cloud's Notion importer is generally available. A Notion workspace owner with permission to create spaces can import the entire workspace (each teamspace becomes a space) or a selected page with its sub-pages. With OAuth it carries over @mentions, creators and editors, permissions and user groups, and it keeps hierarchy, formatting, images, attachments and page comments. You choose whether new spaces are restricted to you, follow your organization's defaults, or copy Notion's original permissions. Unsupported items include equations, Mermaid diagrams, custom text colors, database child page properties, buttons, synced blocks, reminders and inline comments, which arrive as plain text or not at all. Notion guests are not imported; they have to be invited separately.

Bottom line: Neither direction is lossless. Moving to Notion means rebuilding permissions and replacing macros; moving to Confluence carries more of the permission model, but some block types need cleanup.

Offline, mobile and desktop

Notion works offline in its desktop and mobile apps. Free users choose which pages to download; on paid plans, Recents and Favorites download automatically. Notion's offline guide notes that only the first 50 rows of a downloaded database are fetched automatically and that sharing changes need a connection.

Confluence Cloud has iOS and Android apps for creating and editing pages, browsing the page tree, commenting and getting notifications, though "some page macros won't display in the app or mobile web". Atlassian's mobile documentation does not describe offline access, so teams that need to read runbooks without a connection should test this before committing.

Data residency and compliance

Notion encrypts data with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit, and lists SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27018, ISMAP and BSI C5, plus GDPR and CCPA. Data residency is free but Enterprise only, in the US (Oregon), the EU (Frankfurt) or Asia-Pacific (Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul). Without a request, data stays in the United States, and Notion Calendar, Notion Mail and beta services are not covered. HIPAA with a BAA is also Enterprise only.

Confluence offers data residency on Standard, Premium and Enterprise, with locations in Australia, Canada, the EU, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US, plus a Global default. Moving data can mean up to 24 hours of downtime. Atlassian signs HIPAA BAAs on Standard, Premium and Enterprise (not Free or trials), and its trust site lists SOC 2 and ISO 27001 among its certifications. For organizations that cannot use the cloud, Atlassian also sells Confluence Data Center (self-managed).

Bottom line: Regulated teams under a few hundred seats will find Confluence easier to approve, because residency and BAAs come with the standard paid plans rather than a custom Enterprise contract.

Pricing at 10, 50 and 100 users

Both vendors charge per person. Notion bills per member (guests are free); Confluence bills per user, with guests free up to 5 per paid user. Confluence's annual prices are flat amounts for a user tier, and its monthly rate is $7.15 (Standard) or $14.10 (Premium) per user for 1 to 100 users.

Annual billing, cost per year

Per user per month on annual billing, Confluence Standard works out to $6.00 at all three sizes ($720 / 10 / 12, $3,600 / 50 / 12, $7,200 / 100 / 12). Premium works out to $11.67 at 10 users, $11.83 at 50 and $11.67 at 100.

Monthly billing, cost per month (and per year)

What the numbers mean:

• Confluence Standard costs less than Notion Plus at every size. At 50 users on annual billing it is $3,600 against $6,000, a $2,400 difference.
• The fairer comparison for many companies is Notion Business vs Confluence Premium, since those are the tiers with full AI (Notion) or advanced admin (Confluence). At 100 users on annual billing that is $24,000 against $14,000.
• SSO changes the math. Notion Business includes SAML SSO. To get SSO on Confluence Standard or Premium you add Atlassian Guard Standard, listed at $4.35 per user per month. At that list rate, 50 users would add 50 x $4.35 = $217.50 a month, or $2,610 over a year. Atlassian does not say which user count that rate applies to, so get a quote.
• Free plans: both are $0. Confluence Free covers up to 10 users but has no page restrictions, guests, public links or Rovo. Notion Free has permissions and up to 10 guests, but blocks are limited once a workspace has 2 or more members.
• AI overage: both vendors charge $10 per 1,000 extra credits (Notion Custom Agents and premium models; Atlassian Rovo beyond the plan allowance).

Choose Notion if

• You want docs, databases, project tracking and a public website in one tool, and you value database views (timeline, calendar, chart, gallery), forms and automations.
• Your team writes collaboratively and does not need a draft and publish step.
• You need SAML SSO but not SCIM, and would rather pay for Business than add Atlassian Guard.
• Small teams need page permissions and guests on a free plan.
• You publish public pages (help centers, roadmaps, job boards) that should be indexed by search engines.
• Your team works offline on laptops or phones.

Choose Confluence if

• Your teams use Jira and want to create, embed and report on work items from documentation and whiteboards.
• You want a lower per-seat price than Notion ($6.00 per user per month on Standard annual billing at 10, 50 or 100 users).
• You want AI in the entry paid plan, with Rovo Search, Chat and Agents on Standard.
• You need an audit log, data residency or a HIPAA BAA without negotiating an enterprise contract.
• You prefer formal, published pages for official knowledge, with live docs available for drafts and meetings.
• You might need a self-managed option later (Confluence Data Center).

Other options worth a look

Prices below are as published by each vendor in October 2026.

Coda (Superhuman Docs)

Coda is now sold as Superhuman Docs; coda.io/pricing redirects to Superhuman's plan page. You pay only for Doc Makers (people who create docs): Editors, Viewers and Guest Editors are free. Pro is $12 per Doc Maker per month billed annually ($15 monthly) and Business $33 ($40 monthly). Docs combine pages with tables, formulas, buttons and Packs (integrations), which makes Coda closer to Notion than to Confluence. Business adds databases (beta), unlimited automations, unlimited version history and private folders; SAML SSO and SCIM are Enterprise. It has importers for both Confluence and Notion. Pick it if only a few people build docs and many people just use them.

Slite

Slite is a focused team knowledge base with no free plan (14-day trial). Basic is $10 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly) and Pro $20 ($25 monthly). It is built around keeping docs current: doc verification and ownership, a Knowledge Management Panel for bulk cleanup, and AI answers inside Slite (30 questions per seat per month on Basic) and in Slack. Pro adds the Slite Agent across connected tools and OpenID SSO; SCIM and audit logs are Enterprise. Data is hosted in the EU (Belgium), with SOC 2 Type II. It imports from Notion and Confluence. Pick it if you want a simpler wiki with stronger upkeep tools than either Notion or Confluence.

GitBook

GitBook is built for product and API documentation. Pricing is per published site plus per user: Essential is $65 per site per month billed annually ($79 monthly), Ultimate $249 ($299 monthly), and each additional user $12 per month annually ($15 monthly). The Free plan covers one user. Every plan includes Git Sync with GitHub or GitLab, change requests, OpenAPI docs and an auto-generated MCP server for published docs; team collaboration starts on Essential, and authenticated (private) access is listed on Ultimate and Enterprise. Imports cover Confluence and Notion, though a single import is capped at 20 pages. Pick it if your docs live next to code and are mostly public.

Guru

Guru has no public pricing: it sells a tailored package (platform, Knowledge Agents and a team of solution engineers) through a sales call, with reduced pricing for eligible nonprofits. Its strength is delivery and upkeep: cited, permission-aware answers in Slack, Microsoft Teams and a browser extension, 100+ connectors that inherit source permissions, and automated verification that Guru says handles about 80 to 90% of verification. Its pricing page lists SSO, SCIM and audit logs, plus SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA. Pick it if you need verified answers delivered where support and sales teams already work, and budget is less of a constraint than accuracy.

Nuclino

Nuclino is the lightweight option. Free covers up to 50 items and 3 canvases; Starter is $6 per user per month billed annually ($8 monthly) and Business $10 ($12 monthly). Every user counts, including guests and read-only members. Starter adds unlimited items, roles, private workspaces and publishing; Business adds Sidekick AI, an audit log, SAML SSO and unlimited version history. It imports Confluence HTML space exports with structure, links and attachments. Pick it if you want a fast, simple wiki for a small team and find both Notion and Confluence heavier than you need.

Conclusion

Notion and Confluence have moved closer in 2026, and the decision usually comes down to three things.

First, Jira. If your company runs on Jira, Confluence's two-way links (create work items from pages, embed live JQL results, turn whiteboard stickies into tickets) are hard to match with Notion's read-only sync.

Second, where admin features sit. Notion includes SAML SSO at Business but keeps SCIM, audit logs, data residency and HIPAA for Enterprise. Confluence includes audit logs, data residency and HIPAA BAAs from Standard but charges separately for SSO and SCIM through Atlassian Guard unless you are on Enterprise.

Third, what you will build. For a broader workspace with databases, forms, automations and public pages, Notion does more in one place. For a structured, published knowledge base, Confluence's spaces, page restrictions and lower per-seat price make it the practical default.

For most software teams already using Atlassian, Confluence Standard is the better value. For teams outside the Atlassian ecosystem that want one flexible workspace, Notion Plus or Business is the stronger choice.