Confluence Vs Jira (2024): A Complete Guide

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Jira is a software designed to track project management activities, whereas Confluence is developed to help teams collaborate. Both tools are offered by Atlassian, a B2B company that helps teams achieve their goals through technological applications and innovation. While Jira and Confluence can be used independently, many companies prefer using them together to achieve collaborative work while enhancing their issue-tracking abilities. Due to the inherent differences between the two, the topic of Confluence Vs Jira is often debated by professionals and teams.

Understanding the differences between Jira and Confluence is essential to understand their strengths and shortcomings. Comparing one against the other makes it possible to determine the better tool per a company’s requirement.

What is Confluence?

Confluence was designed to help teams collaborate from any part of the world. While it is relevant for remote working teams, its ability to integrate apps and tools to boost a team’s productivity makes it useful for any team.

It was developed by Atlassian to provide a user-friendly software documentation tool to development teams. It allows organizations to create an employee handbook, set up information on their website, or seamlessly manage blogs and quarterly plans.

Its ability to connect with other collaboration tools like Trello, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc., makes it a handy resource for any company. Likewise, it can also be connected with Jira software. These capabilities of Confluence allow teams to use it for project management on a smaller scale. For example, teams that don’t need a specialized tracking tool that encompasses software testing and scheduling capabilities can do with Confluence alone.

What is Jira?

Jira is developed for software teams that have integrated Agile technologies into their processes. It is essentially a project management tool that enables teams to define user stories, manage software testing, and prioritize tasks. Jira can be the best solution for software teams that handle critical and complex projects. However, non-technical teams or startups may find it too complex or over-engineered per their requirements.

Differences between Jira and Confluence

Here is a detailed comparison of Confluence vs Jira based on different aspects:

Confluence vs Jira: Which is the better product?

Confluence and Jira are exceptional products developed by the same company. Therefore, teams that used these tools might stumble upon a few similarities. However, Jira is used for tracking software bugs and issues while managing different functions of projects. On the other hand, Confluence is also a collaboration tool, but it is specifically used for storing and managing critical content or documents of projects.

Confluence vs Jira: Purpose of use

Jira uses Agile methodologies to manage projects of software development teams. It is a part of the larger Jira products group like Jira Service Desk and Jira Core. Confluence plays the role of a knowledge base that teams can use to store, create, and share details smoothly so that they can make better decisions and meet customer requirements effectively.

Confluence vs Jira: Uses

Jira is mostly used by internal team members to find bugs and report them. However, it can also be used by other stakeholders through Kanban. If team members need an update or detail regarding an issue, they can tag the relevant member and seek help.

In Confluence, team members can directly discuss an issue with other members using @mentions. If a team member requires someone to share content, they can mention them directly and get the important details instantly.

Confluence can be used to monitor the teams’ overall progress and find general information about a project. Companies can create how-to guides and store them in Confluence so that team members can utilize them upon requirement. Team members can make their schedules accessible to other members through Confluence. However, Jira does not have this function.

Confluence vs Jira: Platform Support

Both tools can be accessed via web and mobile browsers. Therefore, they are also compatible with iOS and Android devices.

Confluence vs Jira: Pros & Cons

The biggest benefit of using Confluence is that it empowers team members to collaborate efficiently based on knowledge. Apart from standard Atlassian offerings, Confluence also allows third-party app integrations. These integrations can be useful to add analytical charts, add pictures to documents, or connect to a suite of products.

Jira can be used to view all user stories at once and provides the support required to manage multiple sprints. Like Confluence, it also helps teams integrate third-party applications. It enables them to customize workflows that can meet any specific requirements. Jira is mostly used by developers, engineers, managers, and senior managers to keep track of their team’s progress and activities.

The major drawback of Confluence is its search option, which is quite complicated. It is also dependent on plugins for the integration of third-party apps.

Although Jira is a complete solution, users aren’t very happy with its mobile app. They prefer the web version because of its user-friendly interface. Jira is mostly meant for professionals, whereas even a regular user may start understanding the features of Confluence after using it a few times.

Confluence vs Jira: Features

Features of Jira

Agile is an application in Jira that allows users to use Kanban boards and Scrum boards without any hassles. Teams can track ongoing projects easily via Jira. JQL (Jira Query Language) can be used and customized to plan, release, track, and report activities.

Report generation is another key feature in Jira that provides a clear picture of different situations.

The permission scheme of Jira allows teams to limit the use of bugs only to specific team members. This improves it on a security level.

The workflow in Jira is managed by Jira Issues. As issues get updated, email alerts get issued to the related members. These alerts are customizable and can be used to send reminders to team members regarding tasks that are due.

Features of Confluence

Discussing and sharing documents become seamless with Confluence. Files or documents can be edited on the go. The updates are automatically saved, and therefore, there is no need to download them separately.

Confluence provides refined filters that can help members search for any type of content.

It is available as a mobile app that allows team members to receive, edit, create, and send alerts to stay connected with their respective teams.

Confluence vs Jira: Which tool should you use?

There is no standard answer to the above question. It all depends upon a team’s needs, budget, and scope of projects. Teams that are not bound by budget and prefer Atlassian products can try both to streamline their projects and documentation work.

Jira allows teams to manage their project management lifecycle and manage tasks, reports, and workflows together. Team members have access to a shared platform to closely monitor software updates and modifications. It helps teams to deliver their projects on time by allowing them to collaborate with clients and stakeholders smoothly.

Confluence is a Java-based web application that only requires a compatible browser to function. Being developed by using Java open libraries and standards, it is compatible with most application servers, databases, and OS. Apart from managing and tracking small-scale projects, Confluence enables teams to assign tasks to individual members, create HR policy documents, and establish standards for best procedures and practices.

Also Read: Difference between JIRA and TFS

Is it worth taking a Jira certification course?

Most medium and large software teams working on Agile methodologies already use Jira as a powerful project management tool. Enrolling in a Jira course is helpful as it makes candidates aware of the best practices. Jira is an extensive platform and needs professionals to undergo extensive training to use the available tools and resources. They must enrol in an institute that provides comprehensive training and study materials to clear the Jira course certification on the first attempt.

StarAgile is one of India’s most recognized institutes that offer Jira certification and training. Instructor-led online training sessions are available so candidates can get practical training from any corner of the world. Besides the live training session, aspirants also get lifetime access to self-paced eLearning materials. Lab sessions are also provided for practical training. Aspirants are trained by experienced Jira experts and have access to a 24/7 support team that addresses their queries and concerns. Join StarAgile’s Jira Certification Training today and become a Jira expert!

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