Notion is a flexible, all-in-one workspace with customizable building blocks ideal for small to mid-sized teams, while Confluence is a structured collaboration platform optimized for enterprise teams already using Jira. Confluence excels in organized documentation workflows, whereas Notion offers superior customization and lower costs for smaller teams.
Notion vs Confluence — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose Notion if you're a small team seeking flexibility, customization, and affordable all-in-one workspace capabilities. Choose Confluence if your organization uses Jira, requires enterprise-grade governance, needs structured documentation workflows, or has 50+ team members. Both are excellent platforms; the choice depends on team size, existing tooling, and organizational complexity.
All-in-one workspace platform combining notes, databases, wikis, and project management
Enterprise team collaboration and documentation platform by Atlassian.
Structured comparison data for Notion vs Confluence with 417 attributes.
Free Tier Monthly Recording/Creation Limit
Monthly Subscription Cost (Personal Plan)
Maximum Database Rows (optimal performance)
Real-time Simultaneous Collaborators (unlimited tier)
Native Data Visualization (charts, pivots)
Max Database Items Before Performance Degradation
Starting Price per User/Month (Annual Billing)
Base Monthly Cost Per User (Annual Billing)
Learning Curve (1-5 scale, lower is better)
Notion vs Confluence — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Notion vs Confluence.
Should we choose Notion or Confluence if we use Jira?
Confluence is the obvious choice if your team uses Jira. It has seamless native integration, making it easy to link documentation with your Jira issues and projects. Notion's Jira integration is basic and requires more manual setup. If you don't use Jira, Notion may be more cost-effective.
Which platform is better for small teams under 50 people?
Notion is generally better for small teams due to lower pricing (starting at $10/user/month vs Confluence's $10.44+), more customization options, and an excellent free tier. Notion's flexibility makes it ideal for teams still defining their workflows. Confluence's higher costs and enterprise focus make it less suitable for small teams.
Does Notion have a free plan that's actually usable?
Yes, Notion's free plan is fully functional and genuinely useful for individual users and small teams. It includes all core features like databases, pages, blocks, and team collaboration. The paid tiers add advanced features like unlimited file uploads and team analytics, but the free tier is legitimate for small team use.
What's the total cost of ownership for each platform at enterprise scale?
At enterprise scale (1,000+ users), Confluence's Data Center plan costs approximately $54,000/year, while Notion's enterprise pricing is custom but typically $24+/user/month. For 1,000 users, Notion would be roughly $288,000-360,000/year depending on discounts, making Confluence potentially cheaper at massive scales with specific licensing models.
Which platform is easier to learn and implement?
Confluence has a clearer, more structured approach with defined page hierarchies, making it faster to understand for teams accustomed to traditional documentation. Notion's customization flexibility gives it a steeper learning curve but provides more long-term power. Choose Confluence for faster adoption, Notion for more long-term customization potential.