Key takeaways
- Notion suits small teams that want docs, wikis and lightweight databases in one flexible workspace. Confluence suits software teams that work in Jira and need structured spaces and permissions.
- For a team of up to ten, Confluence's free plan goes further. Notion's free plan is built for individuals, and teams of two or more quickly hit its limits.
- Confluence includes its Rovo AI on every paid plan, with a monthly credit allowance. Notion's full AI features, including agents and enterprise search, sit on its Business plan.
- A wiki fails on ownership, not software. Give every space an owner and a review date, whichever tool you choose.
- For most small teams outside software development, Notion is our pick. If your team already lives in Jira, choose Confluence.
Every team wiki starts with good intentions. A few people write onboarding notes, a process page and a list of tools. Six months later nobody trusts it, because half the pages are out of date and the real answers live in chat threads. Notion and Confluence both promise to fix this. They take very different routes.
The short answer: for most small teams, especially outside software development, Notion is easier to adopt and more flexible. For product and engineering teams that already work in Jira, Confluence is the better home for their knowledge.
Notion and Confluence at a glance
| Notion | Confluence | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per member | Per user |
| Free plan | Built for individuals; limits for teams of two or more | Up to ten users, with limited storage |
| Structure | Pages and databases you design yourself | Spaces with page trees and templates |
| Permissions | Page sharing; finer database permissions on Business | Space and page permissions from Standard |
| AI | Limited trial on Free and Plus; full Notion AI on Business | Rovo included on every paid plan, with credits per user |
| Integrations | Broad, with connectors to common tools | Deep Jira integration and the Atlassian Marketplace |
| Best for | Small teams, startups, mixed docs and tasks | Software teams, larger organisations, Jira users |
Writing and day-to-day use
Notion's editor is fast and forgiving. Anyone can create a page, drop in a table or a checklist and turn a list into a database with views. That makes people more likely to write things down, which is the whole point of a wiki.
Confluence's editor has improved a lot, but it still feels more like a document system than a notebook. Pages live in a clear hierarchy, which helps later and slows people down now.
Winner: Notion.
Structure, permissions and scale
Confluence was built for organisations with many teams. Spaces, page trees, templates, page-level permissions and detailed history keep large knowledge bases in order, and it handles hundreds of spaces without falling apart.
Notion can be structured just as well, but nothing forces it. Without a clear owner, Notion workspaces tend to sprawl into duplicate pages and half-finished databases. Finer permissions sit on the Business plan.
Winner: Confluence.
Search and AI
Both now lean heavily on AI to answer questions from your knowledge. Confluence includes Rovo, Atlassian's AI for search, chat and agents, on every paid plan, with a monthly credit allowance per user. Notion's full AI features, including agents, meeting notes and enterprise search across connected tools, are on its Business plan; Free and Plus get a limited trial.
For a small team that wants AI answers from its wiki without upgrading to a higher tier, Confluence offers more at its entry price. Notion's AI is excellent once you are on Business.
Winner: Confluence, on value at the entry level.
Free plans and price
Confluence's free plan covers up to ten users with a storage cap, which is enough for a small team's wiki. Notion's free plan is built for individuals, and teams of two or more quickly run into its limits, so most teams move to Plus. Both charge per member or user on paid plans.
Winner: Confluence, for teams of up to ten.
Fit with the rest of your tools
If your engineers live in Jira, Confluence links specs, release notes and retrospectives directly to issues and sprints, and that connection is hard to replicate. If your team works across marketing, operations and product with no single system of record, Notion's flexibility and broad integrations fit better.
Tie, depending on whether you use Jira.
Moving an existing wiki
Most teams aren't starting from zero. If you are moving from Google Docs, an old Confluence or a folder of files:
- Don't import everything. Move the pages people opened in the last six months and archive the rest.
- Rebuild the top level by hand. Five to eight clear sections beat a copy of your old folder tree.
- Fix links and owners as you go. Every moved page gets an owner and a review date on the way in.
- Run both for a short time only. Make the old wiki read-only after two weeks, or people will keep editing it.
Choose Notion if… / Choose Confluence if…
Choose Notion if:
- your team is small and works across functions;
- you want docs, wikis and light project tracking in one place;
- ease of writing matters more than strict structure;
- you are happy to name an owner who keeps the workspace tidy.
Choose Confluence if:
- your team plans and ships software in Jira;
- you need space and page permissions for different teams;
- you want AI answers from your knowledge on an entry-level paid plan;
- you expect the wiki to grow to many teams and hundreds of pages.
Notion, Confluence and two alternatives
Ranked for small teams of two to fifty people, on ease of writing, structure and permissions, search and AI, free and paid plans, and how well each keeps knowledge current.
Notion combines pages, wikis and databases that can become task boards, calendars or timelines, so specs, meeting notes and projects live side by side. Writing in it is fast and pleasant, and templates cover most team needs. Plus removes the free plan's team limits, and Business adds full Notion AI, SAML SSO and finer permissions.
Why we like it
- Fast, pleasant editor and flexible databases
- Docs, wiki and lightweight project tracking in one tool
- Huge template library
Watch out for
- Full AI features need the Business plan
- Flexibility means you have to design and police the structure yourself
Confluence organises knowledge into spaces with page trees, templates and page-level permissions, and it connects tightly with Jira issues, sprints and releases. Every paid plan includes Rovo, Atlassian's AI for search, chat and agents, with a monthly credit allowance per user. The free plan covers up to ten users.
Why we like it
- Strong structure, permissions and page history
- Deep Jira integration for product and engineering teams
- Rovo AI included on all paid plans
Watch out for
- The editor feels heavier than Notion's
- Large instances need regular gardening to stay useful
Coda, now part of Superhuman and sold as Superhuman Docs, mixes docs with tables, formulas and automations, so a wiki page can also be a working tool. It bills only for the people who create docs, while editors and viewers are free, which suits teams where a few people build and everyone else updates.
Why we like it
- Billing only for doc makers, with free editors
- Powerful tables, formulas and automations inside docs
Watch out for
- Takes more effort to learn than Notion
- Recent rebrand means some help content and integrations still use the old name
Obsidian stores notes as plain Markdown files on your own devices, with links, graphs and a large plugin ecosystem. The app is free, a commercial licence is encouraged for work use, and Sync and Publish are paid add-ons. It works for small technical teams that are happy to share a vault through Sync or Git, not as a company-wide wiki.
Why we like it
- Plain files you own, which work offline
- Free core app with a huge plugin ecosystem
Watch out for
- Not built for permissions, comments or non-technical colleagues
- Team sharing needs Sync, Publish or your own setup
Keep any wiki alive
- Give every space an owner. One name, not a team.
- Add a review date to policies, processes and onboarding pages.
- Archive aggressively. Anything nobody has opened in six months goes.
- Link to the wiki from where people work: chat answers, tickets and project tasks should point to the page, not repeat it.
If your wiki also feeds customer-facing answers, read how to build a help center customers actually use. For tasks and projects, see our best project management tools for small teams or browse the docs and wiki category.
Frequently asked questions
Is Notion or Confluence better for a small team?
For most small teams outside software development, Notion is easier to adopt and more flexible. Confluence is the better choice for engineering and product teams that already use Jira, and its free plan covers up to ten users.
Do Notion and Confluence include AI?
Confluence includes Rovo AI on every paid plan with a monthly credit allowance per user, but not on the free plan. Notion offers a limited AI trial on Free and Plus, and full Notion AI, including agents and enterprise search, on Business and Enterprise.
Can I move from Confluence to Notion?
Yes. Notion has a Confluence importer, but complex macros, page permissions and Jira links don't carry over cleanly. Move one space at a time and clean up as you go rather than importing everything at once.
How do we stop our wiki from going stale?
Give every space an owner, put a review date on important pages, and delete or archive anything nobody has opened in six months. Link to the wiki from the places people already work, such as chat and tickets.