Comparisons / Confluence
ilumd vs Confluence
Confluence is where a lot of company knowledge officially lives — and for org-wide wikis, meeting notes, and process docs owned by non-technical teams, it does the job. But for engineering and client-facing docs it's a heavyweight, seat-priced silo: every doc is a copy pulled out of the repo, every reader who logs in is a paid seat, and nothing tells you when the code moved underneath it. ilumd keeps those docs in Git and adds the governance, freshness, and portals on top.
Credit where it’s due
Confluence is a capable enterprise wiki, deeply tied into the Atlassian and Jira world. For company-wide documentation that non-technical teams own and edit — and where you're already all-in on Atlassian — it's a reasonable home.
Where ilumd is different
Where Confluence stops, and ilumd keeps going.
Engineering docs stay in code
Confluence lives outside your repo, so technical docs are copied in and drift from the source. ilumd keeps the doc in Git as the single source of truth.
You don't pay per reader
Confluence licenses per user — everyone who needs to read a page is a paid seat. ilumd charges per workspace; staff, clients, and the public read for free.
Real client isolation and portals
Sharing Confluence outside your org, to clients, is awkward and coarse-grained. ilumd gives each client a branded, isolated self-serve portal by default.
Freshness the wiki can't see
A Confluence page happily sits stale for years. ilumd flags freshness and code-change drift, so shared docs stay trustworthy.
Docs where developers already work
Devs won't keep engineering docs current in a wiki — they live in the repo. ilumd meets them there instead of pulling everything into Confluence.
Side by side
ilumd vs Confluence, feature by feature.
| Capability | Confluence | ilumd |
|---|---|---|
| Docs live as Markdown in Git | No | Yes |
| Readers free (no per-user license) | No | Yes |
| Auto-discovery from your repos | No | Yes |
| Freshness & code-drift signals | No | Yes |
| Client-facing branded portals | Awkward | Yes |
| Client isolation enforced at the data layer | Limited | Yes |
| Non-technical editing | Yes | Suggest → PR |
| Pricing model | Per user seat | Per workspace · readers free |
This reflects how each tool is meant to be used, as of today. Confluenceis good at what it’s built for; ilumd solves a different problem over the same docs.
Reach for Confluence when…
You're standardized on Atlassian, your documentation is company-wide wiki content owned by non-technical teams, and everyone who reads it already has a Confluence seat. It's a sensible home for that.
Reach for ilumd when…
Your engineering and client-facing docs live in the repo, you don't want to pay per reader, and you need them governed, current, and shared to clients as branded portals — without copying everything into a wiki.
ilumd vs Confluence · FAQ
Common questions.
Is ilumd a Confluence alternative?
For engineering and client-facing documentation, yes — ilumd keeps those docs in code and governs them instead of duplicating them into a Confluence wiki. For internal company-wide wikis owned by non-technical teams, Confluence and ilumd can coexist.
Do readers need a paid seat like Confluence?
No. Confluence licenses per user, so every reader is a paid seat. ilumd charges per workspace and never charges for readers — staff, clients, and the public read for free.
Can I share docs with clients outside my org?
That's exactly where ilumd shines. Instead of Confluence's awkward external sharing, ilumd gives each client a branded, isolated self-serve portal of only the docs they're allowed to see.
Do I have to migrate my docs out of Git into ilumd?
No — the opposite. ilumd reads the Markdown already in your GitHub repos. There's no import and no separate copy to keep in sync, unlike moving docs into Confluence.
How does ilumd keep docs current versus Confluence?
Confluence has no idea when your code changed. ilumd flags freshness and detects when nearby code moves, so a doc you share is one you can trust is current.