Confluence vs Notion

It can be complicated to find one's way around the industry of project management tools, which is so competitive. The objective here is to zoom in on two tools that are at the forefront of the scene to better guide you in your choices: Confluence and Notion.

Both SaaS (Software as a Service) enable efficient communication within a company thanks to their task creation, file sharing, knowledge management and content management tools. Notion and Confluence simplify user sharing and collaboration in real time through comments and notifications.

However, each of these two project management tools also has characteristics that make it more relevant to different types of businesses. In the Confluence vs. Notion competition, who is the great champion?

What is Confluence?

Confluence is a collaborative workspace that helps teams organize and share information efficiently.

Developed by the Australian company Atlassian (also behind Trello and Jira), Confluence allows users to collaboratively create, edit and comment on all kinds of documents. In addition, the platform is supported by a multitude of templates and applications that exploit its full potential for creating wikis, blogs and other types of content.

Confluence allows users to include videos, images, text, lists and more. This all-in-one solution also includes features that allow users to assign tasks and track project progress in real time.

What is Notion?

Notion is a Nocode tool also designed to facilitate collaboration within teams. Designed in 2016, this California-based software works with an intuitive drag and drop editor that allows you to quickly build workspaces with any type of content (text, lists, images, tables, emojis...).

As a collaborative platform, Notion allows multiple users to create and edit databases, wikis, calendars and more. With features such as Kanban boards for task management and project tracking, as well as a powerful search engine to find the content you need, Notion is an all-in-one and flexible Nocode solution.

Confluence vs. Notion: Advantages and disadvantages

Benefits of Confluence

Confluence is a highly regarded collaborative software that has been chosen by 54% of Fortune 500 companies.

Companies such as LinkedIn or Airbnb appreciate the ease of use and some of the benefits that this project management tool offers:

• Integration with other Atlassian suite software: As you can imagine, the other software developed by the Australian company also integrate perfectly with Confluence. You will be able to benefit from Jira's abilities to manage technical projects and Trello's ability to distribute and organize tasks.
• The various applications and plug-ins: in addition to the integration of Atlassian software, users benefit from thousands of applications and plug-ins. All these tools allow users to benefit from the functionalities of other software to optimize the versatility of Confluence. Among the most popular are Google Drive and Docs, Scroll PDF Exporter and Microsoft Teams.
• Quick to learn: Confluence is a project management tool that is easy to learn thanks to its many templates. In addition, the slash command "/" allows you to select a table, an image, a link, a task list and these elements are also accessible via the menu at the top of the page. Are you a bit lost? Type the command "/help" to get help.

Disadvantages of Confluence

More rigid than Notion, Confluence is not without its flaws either:

• No database integration: unlike Notion, Confluence does not offer the possibility of creating and developing databases. This is a significant disadvantage for companies that use it to manage projects, documents or meeting notes.
• Lack of flexibility: in addition to the absence of databases, Kanban boards and Gantt charts are also missing. Although these can be integrated via Trello or Excel, this is still a less efficient way of working than Notion, which integrates them without using third-party applications.

Notion vs Confluence: advantages and disadvantages

Benefits of Notion

Notion offers the main advantage of being a versatile Nocode solution that does not require any technical knowledge. Used by renowned companies such as Pixar or Capgemini but also by many freelancers, startups or SMEs, its visual interface allows to create workspaces in record time.

Other benefits of Notion for project management include:

• Task organization: with Kanban boards and tracking options, Notion helps teams break down projects into smaller tasks that can be easily managed in the workspace.
• Database integration: Notion offers native database integration, which makes it very easy to store and organize all types of content.
• Flexible workspace: Notion provides quick access to all the tasks and projects you are working on. You can also drag and drop items from one page to another for optimal workflow.

Disadvantages of Notion

Here are the main drawbacks of Notion:

• More complex to learn: Notion's excellent flexibility and versatility means a longer learning curve. As a new user, you'll need to take some time to familiarize yourself with its almost limitless possibilities and minimalist interface. Implementation in a large enterprise will require even more organization before optimal performance is achieved.
• The price is higher: although it offers a free personal subscription, the Plus plan is $8/month per user and the Business subscription is $15/month and per user. For comparison, Confluence's free subscription already allows up to 10 users (though it only includes 2GB of storage) and the standard subscription is $5.75/month per user. A notable difference, especially for larger organizations.
• Complexity in managing large projects: Notion is appropriate for small projects, but can also be challenging when it comes to larger projects. It is not uncommon to end up with several small pages instead of one large page that gives an overview of your entire project.

Confluence or Notion: comparison table

If you are still hesitating between Confluence and Notion, this comparison table will help you make the right decision by providing an overview of their main features:

Conclusion: what is the best tool for project management?

In all cases, Confluence and Notion are complete solutions for project management.

Until now, Confluence was more suitable for large companies since it offers more advanced features for project management. But since 2022, Notion has made significant progress and has nothing to envy to tools like Confluence or Asana.

The challenge will be to properly frame the processes in Notion so as not to accumulate too much clutter - given the flexibility of the tool.

The ideal is to be accompanied by an agency at the beginning to frame its implementation and to train the teams.