Confluence Alternatives for Efficient Knowledge Management

Confluence is a popular and widely used web-based collaboration and knowledge management platform, yet not every company wants to rely on a proprietary system.

Open-source solutions are often more cost-effective, transparent, and adaptable. In this post, we present the best open-source alternatives to Confluence.

Target audiences include, among others, software teams documenting their applications, HR departments onboarding new employees, and project managers maintaining project plans, schedules, and progress reports.

One advantage of Confluence is its easy integration with other Atlassian products such as Jira, Bitbucket, and Trello.

Due to the costs and vendor lock-in problems in the Atlassian modules, more and more users are searching for alternatives.

Why switch from Confluence?

Although Confluence is a powerful tool, many companies look for alternatives because storing all organizational knowledge in an external proprietary system comes with risks and limitations.

Data sovereignty and vendor lock-in

• Relying on a third-party tool exposes your company’s critical information to risks, such as service outages, policy changes, or price increases.
• If you want to discontinue the service, it can be difficult to extract the data in a usable format, effectively binding you to the Atlassian ecosystem.
• Migrating data to another platform can be complex, time-consuming, and sometimes incomplete, potentially resulting in data loss or corruption.
• Companies often prefer more open solutions that let them independently decide on updates, integrations, and extensions.

Costs

• The cost of Confluence subscriptions is based on the number of users in your company.
• For smaller companies, costs are often predictable and easy to overlook. However, as your team grows, prices can increase significantly.
• Additional costs can arise from integrating Confluence with other tools or purchasing premium features not included in the basic plans.
• Atlassian regularly adjusts prices, causing licensing costs to rise for many companies. Due to vendor lock-in, they have to accept and pay these higher prices.

Data protection/GDPR

• Storing sensitive business or personal data on Confluence’s cloud platform carries data protection risks, especially if the servers are located outside your jurisdiction.
• Complying with strict data protection regulations like the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) can be challenging since you must rely on Atlassian’s assurances.
• There is limited control over how data is stored, processed, and managed, posing a risk of non-compliance with local or industry-specific data protection requirements.

Flexibility and independence

• Open-source solutions can be better customized to meet individual requirements.
• The source code is freely available, so companies can quickly integrate or develop specific features.
• Switching hosting providers is much simpler with open-source solutions.

User-friendliness

• Some teams find Confluence complex and cumbersome.
• Simpler open-source wikis or knowledge management tools can facilitate onboarding and promote team acceptance.

Open-Source Alternatives

Over time, numerous open-source alternatives to Confluence have emerged. While they may not always be as comprehensive, they still offer all the key features for teamwork, knowledge sharing, and document management.

In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of our personal favorites. All are open source, easy to manage, and may be just what you need in an online collaboration tool.

All these products are available as hosted solutions with support through our services.

BookStack

BookStack is a wiki system based on Laravel that organizes content into “books,” “chapters,” and “pages.” This structure is particularly user-friendly for teams wanting to maintain documentation in thematic units. By representing books on shelves in a visual concept, BookStack is one of the rising stars in the world of knowledge management software.

Advantages of BookStack:

• Intuitive WYSIWYG editor that displays page changes immediately.
• BookStack is 100% free and open source and offers a sleek, fast interface for your documentation.
• Features granular permission and access controls as well as a powerful REST API, allowing seamless integration with other services.
• Supports various authentication methods and can easily be integrated into your company’s security policies, whether you use Microsoft Entra ID, Keycloak, or another single sign-on service.
• Can be visually customized to match your corporate identity.
• If you decide to move away from BookStack in the future, that’s no problem—the contents are stored as simple HTML files and can easily be imported into other collaboration software.

Here you can find more information on BookStack hosting by peaknetworks.

Wiki.js

Another player in this field is Wiki.js, which recently received a major update to version 2.0, modernizing and modularizing its backend. With a clean user interface and many integration options, Wiki.js is perfect for teams that value a visually appealing design.

Like BookStack, Wiki.js is fast, flexible, and open source.

Advantages of Wiki.js:

• Offers a range of built-in integrations with services like Git, S3 storage, and various enterprise authentication providers.
• Thanks to its modular architecture, you can enable only the features you need.
• Also supports custom themes and plugins, allowing you to tailor it to your company’s needs.
• Supports databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB.
• Markdown-based content for quick editing.
• Seamless integration with third-party services like GitHub or GitLab.

Here you can find more information on Wiki.js hosting by peaknetworks.

XWiki

If you need more extensive enterprise features, XWiki might be the right choice for you. Compared to BookStack and Wiki.js, it’s a more heavyweight alternative, offering a high level of functionality for collaborative knowledge software.

XWiki uses a data-based approach to documentation. Similar to a CMS, you can define structured objects in your wiki that can be reused on other pages. It also includes powerful collaboration tools like a forum for every page, a meeting manager, and many more features.

Advantages of XWiki:

• Lets you create structured data pages using forms and templates, allowing you to clearly define and evaluate information (e.g., product data, customer data, project overviews).
• The integrated Extension Manager enables you to add new functions with a single click or develop your own plugins. There is also a large pool of community extensions, such as for diagrams, Gantt charts, workflow management, and more.
• Offers various ways to embed or edit Office documents (e.g., Collabora Online or OnlyOffice), so your team can collaborate on documents directly in the wiki.
• XWiki supports multiple languages within a single installation, allowing you to maintain pages in different languages simultaneously—ideal for internationally operating teams.

Here you can find more information on XWiki hosting by peaknetworks.

DokuWiki

DokuWiki is a PHP-based wiki system known for its simplicity and resource-friendly operation. Unlike many other wiki solutions, DokuWiki doesn’t require a database but stores content in text files. This makes it especially lightweight and easy to install, even on inexpensive shared web hosting environments. DokuWiki is straightforward to install, configure, and maintain—even for teams without extensive technical expertise. It also has a remarkable community that has developed numerous plugins and themes.

Advantages of DokuWiki:

• Since DokuWiki doesn’t require a database, setup is especially simple. This makes it appealing to smaller teams or individuals who want to launch a wiki quickly.
• The DokuWiki community provides numerous plugins (e.g., for diagrams, tables, syntax extensions) as well as templates, making it easy to extend the wiki’s appearance and functionality.
• DokuWiki uses a simple markup language based on plain text. Non-technical users can therefore create and edit content quickly.
• All changes are automatically versioned, making it easy to see who edited what and when. Older versions can be restored as well.
• Because it uses a file-based storage system, backups and restorations are very straightforward: just copy the relevant folders.
• DokuWiki is known for its high stability and has a manageable codebase that is easy to maintain.

Here you can find more information on the official DokuWiki hosting by peaknetworks.

Important:

This blog post is designed to give you an overview of the best open-source Confluence alternatives.

For more information about our hosting services, feel free to visit our corresponding product pages—there you’ll find all the details you need to make an informed decision.

• BookStack Hosting
• Wiki.js Hosting
• XWiki Hosting
• DokuWiki Hosting

Would you like to learn more about our hosting services or receive personalized advice?

Send us an email at support@peaknetworks.net and find out how peaknetworks can support your company in successfully implementing open-source knowledge management solutions!