Confluence has hosted and downloadable options
Atlassian’s enterprise wiki, Confluence is designed for business use. The downloadable version puts it behind your firewall. It gives you full control over customisation and extendability. The hosted version relieves you of the responsibility that goes with running a server. Currently Atlassian are offering a free personal licence for their Confluence wiki to download to your own server.
Confluence provider statement
“Confluence is an enterprise wiki that makes it easy for your team to collaborate and share knowledge. Adding, sharing and finding content has never been easier. These benefits come with all the additional features needed to make it a part of your business”
Range Confluence plans
If you are looking for a free wiki to run on your own server, the current offer from Confluence might be the option for you. It allows you to:
- Deploy a single instance of Confluence wiki onto a single server in a non-commercial environment;
- Full access for up to two registered users;
- Unlimited anonymous visitors - allow as many people as you want to read and comment on your pages;
- Unlimited pages, spaces and comments;
- Perpetual Confluence use; and
- Software updates for 12 months.
The hosted option starts at $49 per months and gives you up to 15 registered users and 10GB of storage for attachments. Hosting can be shared or dedicated.
The prices for a licence for the downloaded option starts at $1,200 and allow up to 25 registered users. It gives you greater options for customisation, plug-ins and integration with other collaborative software such as mail.
The unlimited edition Confluence wiki software is free of charge for charities and open source projects and includes full support and upgrades.
Domain names
You use your own domain name in the downloadable versions.
Permissions for page access are individually defined
Access to Confluence pages can be defined by individual pages or groups of pages known as spaces. Registered users decide who can view, edit, remove, restrict or create pages.
Confluence Security
On the download option Confluence sits behind your own firewall and you are in charge of security.
Keeps out spambots - You can require registration
Blocks vandals - Required registration
Lockable pages - Yes
Can review changes to pages - Yes
Can revert to a previous edition of a page - Yes
Can restore your site from a local back up - Yes
Censored word list - No
Privacy policy - No
Secure information transfer - Yes in hosted option
Secure attachments - Yes
Confluence language options
The confluence interfact can be translated into a number of languages by installing a language pack. These are avialable in French, German, Russian, Spanish and Japanese. Other translations are in progress or you can produce a language pack in your own choice of language.
Translations - No
International characters - Yes, including Chinese and Japanese
Right to left writing - Yes
Help language - English
Editing in Confluence
Confluence has a markup language that is easy to use and a simple WYSIWYG editor. An Add-in allows you to convert and upload Word and Excel documents.
WYSIWYG - Yes
Markup - Yes
HTML - Download option
CSS - Download option
javascript - Yes
Spellcheck - No
Content supported
You can upload images and incorporate them into pages or use them to create a gallery. In the downloadable version you can add pre-existing plug ins or create your own which allows you to do almost anything you want. You can visit the Confluence wiki plugin Library
Images - Yes
Flash - Plug in
Audio - Plugin
Video - YouTube macro
Chat - Not supported
Instant messaging - Not supported
Mathematical notations - LaTex plug in is supported for the display of mathematical notations.
RSS feeds -Yes
Diagrams - Chart plug in
Attachments - Yes - attachments are searchable in both options
Task lists - Macro
Calendars - Plug in
Maps - Via Plug in
Shopping basket - No
Content restrictions - No
Confluence is designed with the business team in mind
Confluence is easy to use and designed to facilitate the work of business teams. For this reason spaces can be set up for individuals or for teams, mail is closely integrated and accessible to team members. Navigation can be by keywords tags, hierarchy or the very useful ability to search content of both attachments and pages.
Confluence has to be well managed to meet its aim of supporting the business community.
Search engine friendly - Tags
Access by mobile - No
Looks match topic - Limited customisation in hosted option
Easy to read - Yes
Provider placed Ads - No
Clear navigation - Hierarchy, keyword tags and search
Effective wiki search - Yes
Recent activity list - Yes
Wanted pages list - No
Custom template for new pages - Not in hosted option
email pages to friends - Yes
RSS feeds - Yes.
Easy to make and read comments - Yes
Page history available - Yes
Revert to previous versions - Yes
Wiki Management
Automatic save - Yes
Site statistics - No
email notifications - Yes,
Income from Ads - Up to you
Technical support - Yes
Server support 24/7 - Your server on download option
Stable provider company - Yes
Help and support for Confluence
Confluence prides itself on its customer support.
Loyal wiki community - Yes
Community forum - Yes, with good online discussion
FAQs - Yes
Help - Yes, via help desk
Confluence is a service you need to check out if you are looking for a business solution. The extendability of the download option means you can almost do what you like if you have a good IT department.
Here is the Confluence home page.
Tagged with: Atlassian Confluence • Review • Wiki
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