Confluence vs Outline
Confluence and Outline are both note-taking & docs tools. Confluence is aimed at enterprise and developers, while Outline is aimed at developers and small businesses. Confluence costs less, from $7.15/mo versus $10/mo for Outline. Both have a free plan.
Team wiki tightly integrated with Jira
Fast, self-hostable team knowledge base
| Pricing | Freemium · $7 | Freemium · $10 |
| Starting price | $7.15/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | 30 days |
| Built for | Enterprise, Developers | Developers, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | AU · 2004 | US · 2017 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Confluence if
Organizations already standardized on Jira that need a governed knowledge base.
- Deep Jira integration and shared admin
- Mature permissions for large organizations
- Free for small teams up to 10 users
Look elsewhere if: Teams without Jira or those who value writing experience; Notion, Slite or Outline.
Choose Outline if
Engineering-led teams and companies wanting a fast wiki with predictable pricing or self-hosting.
- Flat per-workspace pricing by team size
- Open source and self-hostable
- Very fast and clean
Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting all-in-one workspaces or non-technical setups.
Confluence vs Outline pricing
Confluence
- Free$0Up to 10 users, 2 GB storage, community support
- Standard$7.15/user/mo1-100 users monthly; tiered lower ($5.78 avg at 300); 250 GB
- Premium$14.10/user/mo1-100 users monthly ($11.16 avg at 300 users); 30-day trial
- EnterpriseCustom801+ users, advanced analytics, scale and security
Outline
- Starter$10/moCloud, 1-10 team members; annual pricing available
- Team$79/moCloud, 11-100 team members
- Business$249/moCloud, 101-200 team members
- Community Edition$0Self-hosted, limited features, no support
- On-prem Business$4/user/moSelf-hosted, billed annually, 10 user minimum
Confluence · Key features
- Spaces, page trees and templates for specs, runbooks and meetings
- Live Jira issue embeds and requirement linking
- Whiteboards, databases and inline comments
- Rovo AI search, chat and writing
- Granular space and page permissions
- Marketplace apps for diagrams, forms and macros
Cons
- Editor and formatting can be frustrating
- Search quality is inconsistent
- Feels heavy compared with modern wikis
Outline · Key features
- Markdown editor with slash commands and real-time collaboration
- Collections with nested documents and permissions
- SSO via Slack, Google, Microsoft, Okta and OIDC
- Fast full-text search and AI question answering
- Public sharing and publishing of docs
- Self-hosted or hosted; REST API and webhooks
Cons
- Wiki only; no databases or tasks
- Small team; features ship slower than big players
- Self-hosting requires Postgres, Redis and S3
Confluence vs Outline: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Confluence or Outline?
Confluence starts at $7.15/mo and Outline at $10/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Confluence and Outline have a free plan?
Yes, both Confluence and Outline have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Confluence or Outline?
Outline lists small businesses as a core audience, while Confluence is aimed more at enterprise and developers.