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Atlassian Confluence vs IBM FileNet comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.4
Atlassian Confluence centralizes knowledge, reduces onboarding time, and offers cost-effective advantages by enhancing information sharing and process management.
Sentiment score
6.5
IBM FileNet boosts productivity and efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances document management, yielding significant financial gains and competitive advantage.
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Atlassian Confluence support is responsive but seen as limited, with premium support and a strong online community aiding users.
Sentiment score
7.1
IBM FileNet's support is praised for responsiveness and partnerships, despite occasional delays and challenges like database implementation issues.
This team manages all queries and uses various plugins, such as Tempo for time tracking.
People come from all over the world, and they have specialists at the other end of the world to help if needed.
IBM has a different division that provides consultation to end users, and most customers utilize consultation from IBM, which costs approximately $100k USD to $200k USD.
The product-level support is better now than before.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Atlassian Confluence is praised for effective scalability, handling growth smoothly, though some cost and performance issues may arise.
Sentiment score
8.3
IBM FileNet excels in scalability and adaptability, supporting extensive users and data, suitable for multinational enterprises with diverse needs.
With Kubernetes, we can simply add instances of the worker, CPU, or memory without needing deployment.
The bigger products like IBM FileNet can handle billions of documents and thousands of users.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Atlassian Confluence is stable with rare issues, usually due to hardware, memory, or storage constraints, rated highly by users.
Sentiment score
7.7
IBM FileNet is valued for its reliable performance and stability, with improvements noted in recent upgrades and infrastructure configurations.
In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet.
FileNet was restricted to DB2's enterprise edition instead of the standard edition, causing complications.
 

Room For Improvement

Atlassian Confluence struggles with search, pricing, user interface, editing, integration, administrative roles, and reporting features needing improvement.
IBM FileNet needs enhanced hybrid cloud support, integration, automation, analytics, mobile experience, simplifying APIs, and reducing costs.
The software does not currently have any kind of AI integration.
This chart used AI to offer users the option to create it based on the data.
From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.
The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement.
There are only a few products large enterprises can choose from, and it doesn't really matter which one as it often depends on the consultants and the team implementing the solution.
 

Setup Cost

Atlassian Confluence's pricing varies by setup choice, user licensing, and plugins, with potential annual increases of 5-10%.
IBM FileNet's high pricing affects licensing, with costs manageable for large enterprises but challenging for smaller businesses.
It streamlines license management and renewal processes, which can otherwise lead to complications or lapses in access.
Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable.
The price is high, with yearly subscriptions increasing day by day.
FileNet and similar enterprise-level tools require substantial costs, starting in the millions.
 

Valuable Features

Atlassian Confluence offers intuitive navigation, flexible collaboration, JIRA integration, and plugins, making it a versatile document management tool.
IBM FileNet provides scalability, robust document management, and seamless integration with extensive automation, governance, and workflow tools for efficient operations.
This tool provides a single repository for interacting with the entire team.
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
At this level, companies don't buy a ready-made solution.
The best part of FileNet includes its advantages and most valuable features, which are its scalability and stability.
 

Categories and Ranking

Atlassian Confluence
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (2nd), Enterprise Social Software (3rd), Knowledge Management Software (1st)
IBM FileNet
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Atlassian Confluence and IBM FileNet aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Atlassian Confluence is designed for Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) and holds a mindshare of 15.1%, down 18.2% compared to last year.
IBM FileNet, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Content Management, holds 9.4% mindshare, down 10.2% since last year.
Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Rabindra K Maharana - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Emad Rizki - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless integration for large enterprises with strong deployment capabilities
FileNet was scalable and could be implemented into big multinational organizations. However, it has become very expensive recently. Compared to low-code solutions such as Appian and outsystems, FileNet has gaps, mainly because it requires coding, which is not preferred by clients due to pricing concerns in Pakistan. We transitioned clients to cloud solutions, although FileNet has been strongly integrated with on-prem deployments.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
32%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
With Atlassian, the costs are reasonable. Although higher than before when we used multiple platforms and licenses, having a collaborative platform like this is advantageous. It streamlines license...
What needs improvement with Atlassian Confluence?
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 foru...
What do you like most about IBM FileNet?
The product is robust and can process a lot of documents for enterprise content management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
From the company's perspective, the licensing cost for IBM FileNet is still affordable. Though the license cost is somewhat expensive, it remains manageable. The company rates it between 3 and 5 be...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
The API provided by IBM FileNet is a very out-of-date implementation. From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.
 

Also Known As

Confluence
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Skype, Microsoft, NASA, Netflix, Adobe, Bonobos, LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Atlassian, Liferay and others in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals). Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.