Atlassian Confluence vs. Slack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Confluence
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Confluence is a collaboration and content sharing platform used primarily by customers who are already using Atlassian's Jira project tracking product. The product appeals particularly to IT users.
$0
Free for 10 Users
Slack
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Slack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020. The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls. The…
$0
Pricing
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Free for 10 Users
Standard
$6.40
per month per user
Premium
$12.30
per month per user
Data Center
220,000.00
40,001+ Users - Annually
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Free
$0
Pro
$7.25*
per month per user
Business+
$12.50*
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConfluenceSlack
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices shown here reflect prices for deployments with 100 users or less. The prices decrease wien the user base surpasses 100.*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year. Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Considered Both Products
Confluence
Chose Confluence
We choose Atlassian Confluence because it is the reference for managing a SAAS wiki service. And having such a solution in our company to manage the knowledge and especially the knowledge transfer is crucial.
Chose Confluence
It's good if you're using Atlassian products, the other ones provide different connections and better UX for documentation in different ways.
Chose Confluence
We find Atlassian better for its ease of use, real time editing, integration with Jira for bug tracking, stores our security compliance documents in structured way, it is feature rich and have lots of capabilities.
Chose Confluence
Atlassian Confluence is better suited for documenting and acting as a repository for information than the more immediate what is currently being worked on things that are better suited for in Jira. In my opinion, Atlassian Confluence certainly has it's short comings but it is …
Chose Confluence
We used to use a Wiki site, but that was locally hosted, and when the server was powered off, you could not access it. Moving to Confluence in the cloud is much easier. Also, the interface is much easier to use and expand.
Chose Confluence
Organisations might have chosen to Procure Atlassian Confluence because JIRA is integral to software development. Notion or Google Docs do not work seamlessly with JIRA. Also, Atlassian Confluence has a much higher perceived seriousness about a document as compared to Google …
Chose Confluence
I prefer Notion, but the company’s policy doesn’t allow its use, so we rely on Atlassian Confluence instead
Chose Confluence
Confluence smashes competitors out of the ballpark. There is no compromise for quality and great product design with Atlassian
Chose Confluence
Atlassian Confluence is better than all Google Drive, Dropbox as we can just store files in them without specific versioning, but with Atlassian Confluence file is stored in versions.
It is easily integrated with other softwares like Jira so one can keep track on all the …
Chose Confluence
It's quite famous and consistency and alignment are what we're after with using Confluence and all of Atlassian's products. This has helped us to be more transparent with out product and development teams as well.
Chose Confluence
There are complementary and we are in fact using both of them in out organisation. We are using Google Drive for advanced real-time cooperation when creating documents, since Google Drive can handle this in a more streamlined and easier way than Confluence. Still, Confluence …
Chose Confluence
I have used other tools that allow for documentation and housing of other business-related documents but none that I used had the same integration or general ability to add and edit information. I am also a general user so I don't know how easy/difficult the backend is, but …
Chose Confluence
To keep the user stories together, we used the Microsoft Office tools. It took a lot of time to search for the relevant stories, so we moved to Atlassian Confluence which is now saving a lot of time.
Chose Confluence
SharePoint is great, I use it and I love it. Confluence is a lot like SharePoint with a more modern look and a fancy suit. If you have the skills for implementation, it is great and developers will enjoy it more.
Chose Confluence
I think the only comparable product is Google docs. Google docs is a much simpler product, however, it doesn't have all of the features that confluence has. I think if confluence improved their UI to make it a little better, it can really improve.
Chose Confluence
Although similar in the way in which they can be used, Atlassian provides great archival and search features, as well as editing capabilities that set it apart. Security through 2-step verification is an important feature often overlooked, being tested now in beta. Overall it …
Chose Confluence
With this tool, everyone is in the same place. You and your teams will have the information that is usually lost in email inboxes as well as shared network drives. Data become much easier to find, use, and update with Atlassian Confluence.
Chose Confluence
For our needs, Confluence absolutely blew both SharePoint and Google Docs out of the water. We were able to get more granular security than with SharePoint while maintaining the collaborative tool sets found in both SharePoint and Google Docs. Additionally, the integration into …
Chose Confluence
The Knowledge Base was something we created. We found Confluence to be a superior tool. The fact that Atlassian is constantly working to make it better continues to be a bonus.
Chose Confluence
We really only use Confluence because we use JIRA and Hipchat and it seemed to work well within the suite of Atlassian products. I would personally prefer a custom made internal website for our organization plus the integration of google docs/hangouts (or the use of something …
Slack
Chose Slack
I think obviously Slack is much much better than Google Chat, in my previous organisation, we used to communicate everything via Google Chat or email or Google meet, it was difficult to manage because those application combined had less options and features than Slack.
Chose Slack
Slack: It's easy to strike up a chat right away with one-click calls or huddles. By simply pressing the call button, both users are involved without the need to arrange a meeting. Microsoft Teams: With calendar invites, time slot choices, and numerous confirmation processes, …
Chose Slack
The UI is difficult to understand and also to find a particular chat it is difficult to search in Teams. Also Slack has cool features like Slack Workflows and To do lists and Slack Canvas which makes life more easier. Slack apps to integrate existing app and also I use Slack to …
Chose Slack
Slack complements our current technology stack. We use Microsoft products for most tasks, but we have found Teams and Slack to be more user-friendly and reliable than Microsoft Teams. It is easy to manage and add/remove users. It is easy to search and find answers to questions …
Chose Slack
My company selected Slack and my previous company too. As Enterprise architect this tool is perfect to me. It goes straight to the point, it's fast, it's light and clear on the purpose. You can prepare your message without anoying others. You can format your text with enough …
Chose Slack
Having used these 3 software, I believe Slack covers a much wider use case scenario, the user onboarding experience is seamless, the platform is very user friendly and intuitive, very well organized as compared to the other competing software that's out there in the market. …
Chose Slack
While teams is better for conference calls and telephony, Slack surpasses it with it's ease of use, integration possibilities and search capabilities. Having one place where all your collaboration takes place, together with notifications and alerts from all other portals is …
Chose Slack
Slack is much more modern and sleek compared to both Webex Chat and Microsoft Teams. Slack is specific for what the purpose is, and it doesn't over engineer too many other features.
Chose Slack
I think Slack is very straight to the point and a tool you can't live without. It is where you find light, info, share and build results as a team player.
Chose Slack
- MS teams Vs Slack - Slack athread View is incredible - API integration helps with our product - Multiple Domains Login is seemless - Google Chat Vs Slack - google is too messy. Great for chatting and productivity as individual tools. But as integrated productivity …
Chose Slack
Provides the huddle feature, sending attachments and get integrated with the meetings scheduled.
Chose Slack
I would say slack outperforms Microsoft Teams in many areas. The big one would be ease of use and user interface. I strongly prefer Slack's interface and the ease to switch between conversations and calls very quickly. Slack also seems to run a lot better on Mac computers, …
Chose Slack
Easy to setup and use compared to other similar products.

Screen sharing makes the discussions a lot more effective.
Chose Slack
Slack is more user-friendly than Microsoft Teams, at least in my opinion. Microsoft Teams integrates natively with Office 365 tools. Microsoft Teams has a limit of five users on paid plans unless you buy more licenses, whereas Slack allows unlimited external collaboration with …
Chose Slack
We used Spark Instant Messenger before and Slack blew them out the water with a wealth of features we hadn't used before. We didn't need to be on the VPN to communicate and we could do video calls and make our own groups. Everything was better with Slack, as it kind of merges …
Chose Slack
We felt Slack [had] more community friendly tools to share thoughts and an individual view to achieve better and bigger goals. It is also easier to browse and search compared to our previous HipChat tools. It encourages more IT people to get involved in ongoing discussions.
Chose Slack
Having had to use Skype/Lync in a former life as a Fortune 100 contractor, I can say that Slack's ease-of-use, customizability, and solid integrations with online tools puts it far ahead. It's nice to not be beholden to the Microsoft Stack for every little thing, as well. …
Chose Slack
Slack blows Skype out of the water. It is a new, quicker and more efficient instant messaging tool. The capabilities are continuously being updated and can be configured to protect your organization. Slack emojis bring color to your messages and help you feel closer to the …
Chose Slack
Slack is a bit more simplistic than the other pieces of software, but creates more meaningful conversations. The other programs create more of a forum based platform, than a social network like Slack. Slack encourages everyone to get involved with the conversation as opposed to …
Chose Slack
Slack is definitely the marketplace leader for chat / digital communication. Overall Slack has done a very good job of making communication and collaboration easy and non-disruptive. The biggest feature that sets Slack apart from the other tools is the clean interface and …
Chose Slack
The applications i have used earlier is not much user friendly, I can not do video calls in groups and tagging system is not available accross the company. Feedback and survey or process updated delivery feature makes Slack different than other companies. Slack is really time …
Chose Slack
Teams is better to schedule meetings with and integrates with Outlook well, but that leads to duplicate notifications for things, which is distracting and a waste of time. Messaging in Teams not great compared to Slack, and has the potential to have people outside your …
Chose Slack
To me, there is no competition between Slack and Microsoft Teams. In my opinion, Slack crushes MS Teams in every regard and is a pleasure to use. I think MS Teams on the surface looks like it has a comparable feature set, but when you actually USE the app, there's no question: …
Features
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
5.3
Ratings
37% below category average
Slack
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management6.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.90 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Scheduling7.20 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Workflow Automation4.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Mobile Access3.90 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Search5.70 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Visual planning tools2.40 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
6.9
Ratings
14% below category average
Slack
8.8
Ratings
10% above category average
Chat6.40 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Notifications5.20 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Discussions3.90 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Surveys7.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase7.70 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting6.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts9.30 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook9.60 Ratings8.90 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
5.9
Ratings
29% below category average
Slack
8.7
Ratings
10% above category average
Versioning6.40 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Video files4.20 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Audio files3.70 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Document collaboration6.50 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Access control8.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Advanced security features7.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive5.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Device sync5.60 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Small Businesses
Stackby
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.8 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
6.7
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.6
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.4
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Atlassian ConfluenceSlack
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian Confluence is a great tool for housing important information and resources across the organization, as it's very easy to search and find content across different teams and departments. The search function is mostly very accurate and the additional tagging with keywords also helps in the search experience. It's also good at tagging other team members, which triggers an automated email to them. Atlassian Confluence also has an extensive template library for all kinds of purposes like project management, etc., which saves time overall.
Read full review
Slack is really effective for smaller teams to use as an internal communication platform. I think that it's still suitable even for companies of up to 500-1000 employees, but for larger teams it's less appropriate (or would require more aggressive organization, e.g. keeping channels protected and on an invite-only basis). It's really helpful for small team-to-small team communication too (like in our case where we create external channels to support POCs/business partnerships). It's not great for direct collaboration (e.g. it's hard to iterate on a project spec or a document together, directly in Slack) but it's well suited for conversational coordination, like planning meetings or asking informational questions.
Read full review
Pros
  • Its integration with Jira for tracking development and the bugs and work linked to detailed Confluence documentation.
  • We use it extensively for writing Software Product Requirement Documents, feature specs, architecture designs, and retrospectives.
  • Our company follows compliance very seriously, so it helps in streamlining all documentation for ISO27001/27017 compliance and security-related information.
  • Its integration with various tools allows us to create flow diagrams which are often required to make client and customer understand the overall flow of interactions across various modules of the design architecture
Read full review
  • Huddles Run smoothly without any interferences.
  • Smooth individual calls quick and easy without any interruptions.
  • seamless notifications across multiple devices
  • The ability to easily tag a team member to urgently attend to a specific escalation.
  • Slack being user friendly and able to integrate easily with other platforms and apps.
  • How to easily open up different channels for different escalations and needs.
  • a safe direct messaging option.
Read full review
Cons
  • You need to watch over the structure of the content yourself. if not you can get information added anywhere so nobody can find it.
  • Top search field is hard to set to only search a section of pages.
  • You really need to think your structure through before starting. a guide when setting up at the start could help in that perspective.
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  • Undoubtedly Slack’s search function is powerful but sometimes it is difficult to find specific messages or files in very active channels with high message volumes. This needs an improvement.
  • I have experienced notification issues on my phone. I am not receiving notifications and have missed important updates as a result. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but the problem still persists.
  • The Business Plus plan does not include support for data loss prevention or offline backup providers.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
I am confident that Atlassian can come with additional and innovative macros and functions to add value to Confluence. In 6 months, Atlassian transformed a good collaborative tools into a more comprehensive system that can help manage projects and processes, as well as "talk" with other Atlassian products like Jira. We are in fact learning more about Jira to evaluate a possible fit to complement our tool box.
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Slack sitll lacks in functionality. It's better than Skype for Business in many ways, but it is still another chat/message board app. It has limits in free version and paid versions. Also Windows app has errors that bother me, for example, I see number on one of my team's icons. It suggests that one of channels has unread messages; I check all channels - no unread messages, but that "1" still appears
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Usability
It's very intuitive for most things, making it easy to jump in and start creating pages and collaborating. This makes it ideal for onboarding new members to the team. There are a few areas that could be a little smoother, but overall it's a great experience.
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The product is fantastic, it keeps everyone connected and ensures detailed connection.
User interface of Slack software is very is very straightforward no need for training.
Availability of unlimited tutorials and demos.
Slack can be easily tailored to perform specific tasks.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
I do not recall having outages or applications error so far, very reliable and available.
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Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.
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Performance
We never worked against the tide while using Confluence. Everything loads considerably fast, even media components like videos (hosted on the platform or embed external videos from Youtube, for example). We are not using heavy media components a lot, but in the rare occasion we happen to use one we have no problems whatsoever.
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Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.
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Support Rating
This rating is specifically for Atlassian's self-help documentation on their website. Often times, it is not robust enough to cover a complex usage of one of their features. Frequently, you can find an answer on the web, but not from Atlassian. Instead, it is usually at a power user group elsewhere on the net.
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Whenever I've had to troubleshoot an issue with Slack (which, to be honest, has not happened very often), their online documentation has been easy to locate, easy to understand, and effective in resolving my issue. Slack's ever-growing popularity also means that there's a large community of practice out there that can be depended upon.
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Implementation Rating
Overall, I am very satisfied with the initial implementation (and the subsequent upgrades and implementations made over the years).
This product has never rose to the level of being an major issue at an executive level. It has quietly and valiantly done it's job for our company!
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I was not part of the implementation team, but I recall being 100% happy and excited to learn and use a new tool. I'm still am to be honest.
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Alternatives Considered
Atlassian Confluence is a super handy hub for sharing ideas and keeping all your docs in one place. While Jira Service Management is more about handling tickets and support issues, Atlassian Confluence really makes teamwork easy. I feel Atlassian Confluence is user-friendly, integrates smoothly with other Atlassian tools, and helps everyone stay in sync. It's great for brainstorming, and project planning as well. Overall, it is a great way to boost collaboration and ensure all team members are on the same page.
Read full review
I like Slack better than ClickUp, because I would spend 30-60 minutes a day updating my ClickUp tasks. The way ClickUp was used was very micromanaging. I billed by the hour, so I was willing to put in the time to alert the boss what tasks I was working on.
One of my jobs used Hive - I mostly just ran it in the background in case anyone messaged me. I did not use it often.
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Scalability
This tool is very adaptable. So much so we use it for three completely separate projects, in three very different ways.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Merging instances has saved search time - We used to have several instances of Atlassian Confluence, which means they're separate and so can't communicate with each other. We've since merged into one instance and now with the help of the search feature can find the documents you're looking for in seconds rather than several minutes.
  • Cross linking product assets streamlines following paper trails - Being able to click on a BitBucket link from a Confluence page which then links to a JIRA ticket means you can follow paper trails really easily; seconds rather than several minutes.
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  • Slack has been incredibly helpful in connecting various tech apps and ecosystems, creating a more streamlined and responsive process.
  • Slack has made it significantly easier to communicate with our team members across multiple time zones, creating a more engaging environment for our all-remote team.
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ScreenShots