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Atlassian Confluence vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Atlassian Confluence is a cost-effective tool improving time efficiency, knowledge sharing, and quality of life for users.
Sentiment score
6.2
Zendesk delivers cost savings and efficiency with flexible pricing and integration, addressing operational needs despite ROI measurement challenges.
I can tell you that we probably saved at least three employees full-time with the ticket management and the automation and the macros and the user follow-up being built in.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
I feel that Zendesk helped us set up our platform for providing support way faster than other platforms due to its easy configuration.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
We were able to offer a seamless 24/7 support experience and meet all our SLAs due to the robust nature of the platform.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Atlassian Confluence support is responsive but limited, with users often seeking help elsewhere due to cost and complexity issues.
Sentiment score
6.4
Zendesk support is generally responsive and professional, with some users experiencing delays and a lack of 24/7 chat support.
This team manages all queries and uses various plugins, such as Tempo for time tracking.
Manager QA at [x]cube LABS
The Atlassian technical support team is reachable through different platforms.
Project Manager at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
There appears to be a lack of connection between the bot and the agents, making it feel scripted rather than helpful.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Atlassian Confluence scales efficiently for diverse organizations, though cloud performance and cost concerns exist; integration boosts flexibility.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zendesk scales well across team sizes, despite challenges in backups, updates, customization, and larger organization's specific scalability needs.
We have not hit a peak or a turn yet that Zendesk has not been able to go with us or been able to grow with us in the process, change or pivot that the company is making.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Zendesk's scalability is excellent.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Atlassian Confluence is reliable and stable, despite occasional server-related disruptions, with performance improving consistently over time.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zendesk is stable and reliable, with occasional outages swiftly resolved, making it ideal for small businesses and startups.
They are always informing us with a status update and an ETA, and the turnaround time is usually within the same day with no extended downtime that would cause a detriment to our company.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
Zendesk is quite stable; we experience major outages only once or twice a year, making it very reliable.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The stability has been quite reliable.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
 

Room For Improvement

Atlassian Confluence faces criticism for poor search, inadequate editing features, inflexible pricing, and scalability issues for large enterprises.
Zendesk users seek improved usability, better integration, enhanced reporting, customization, mobile support, streamlined management, and communication tools.
The software does not currently have any kind of AI integration.
Manager QA at [x]cube LABS
This chart used AI to offer users the option to create it based on the data.
Sr Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
Zendesk is missing an AI aspect that could help provide quick answers based on the knowledge housed within the platform.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Zendesk is amazing, and because they are always working on a new upgrade or a new integration, they are very forward-thinking from an engineering perspective.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
 

Setup Cost

Atlassian Confluence costs vary by users and add-ons, potentially increasing annually, with complex licensing affecting price perception.
Zendesk's pricing can be high, impacting decisions, but offers flexibility and valuable CX features if negotiated effectively.
It streamlines license management and renewal processes, which can otherwise lead to complications or lapses in access.
Manager QA at [x]cube LABS
Money is a factor because Atlassian Confluence is not free.
Project Manager at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
 

Valuable Features

Atlassian Confluence enhances collaboration with customizable templates, content sharing, and secure integration with Jira and external tools.
Zendesk excels in integration, user-friendly ticket management, automation, customization, and robust analytics to enhance productivity and user experience.
This tool provides a single repository for interacting with the entire team.
Sr Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I use Atlassian Confluence for task management and other project management tasks, such as reporting, visualization of tasks, tracking the progress of tickets, and understanding how work is progressing.
Project Manager at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Zendesk is way cheaper than other ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow, providing a good platform at a lower price so we could offer good support with a low budget for the license.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
Being able to put response counters on certain tickets and have certain ones that are high priority and have a tighter SLA than lower priority items, being able to categorize them as a question versus an urgent request, and being able to bucket them as feature requests or product enhancements.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
 

Categories and Ranking

Atlassian Confluence
Ranking in Knowledge Management Software
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (2nd), Enterprise Social Software (3rd)
Zendesk
Ranking in Knowledge Management Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th), CRM (8th), Help Desk Software (4th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (6th), Sales Force Automation (4th), Reporting (10th), Community Platforms (1st), AI Customer Support (7th), AI IT Support (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Knowledge Management Software category, the mindshare of Atlassian Confluence is 8.9%, down from 23.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 10.3%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Knowledge Management Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Atlassian Confluence8.9%
Zendesk10.3%
Other80.8%
Knowledge Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Rabindra K Maharana - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Editing features improve document accessibility
There is a holiday calendar, however, I need to install an app or add something to it. The add-on feature is not readily available or well-documented. Guidance on this should be available in a forum. Recently, I used a feature in another tool—perhaps GitHub—where it helped prepare a chart. It involved listing resources, like having fifteen people in the X team, ten in the Y team, and seven in the Z team. It created a bar chart showing these numbers. This chart used AI to offer users the option to create it based on the data. It was then created on a separate page and made available.
AmandaSanchez - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams
The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
9%
Performing Arts
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise52
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Atlassian Confluence?
The most valuable feature of the solution stems from its document-controlling feature. In Atlassian Confluence, controlled documents cannot be edited by anyone else.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlassian Confluence?
Money is a factor because Atlassian Confluence is not free. I need to purchase extra components when adding new projects or employees.
What needs improvement with Atlassian Confluence?
Currently, I have no suggestions for improvements. There are no issues with stability or downtime with Atlassian Confluence.
What do you like most about Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more o...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
As of right now, I have nothing that comes to mind as an improvement needed or a feature that could work differently or be enhanced. I think across the board, Zendesk is amazing, and because they a...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Confluence
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Skype, Microsoft, NASA, Netflix, Adobe, Bonobos, LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian Confluence vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,443 professionals have used our research since 2012.