Confluence Self-Hosted: The Cost of DIY and the Case for Managed
Confluence Server died in February 2024. Data Center starts at $27K/year and climbs fast. Docmost on Opsily gives you the same collaboration features without the infrastructure headaches. Real-time editing. Spaces. GDPR compliance. And one flat price.
Confluence Server is dead. Data Center is expensive.
Atlassian discontinued Confluence Server in February 2024. That left teams two choices: migrate to expensive Cloud or step up to Data Center (their on-premises licensing model).
Here's what Data Center actually costs for a 500-person company:
- License: ~$27,000/year
- Infrastructure (servers, database admin, backups, monitoring): +$10,000-15,000/year (30-50% uplift)
- IT staff allocation (updates, patching, troubleshooting): ~$40,000/year
- Marketplace apps (plugins for diagramming, reporting, compliance): $5,000+/year
- Total TCO: ~$72,000-82,000/year (~$12-16/user/month)
Confluence Cloud looks cheaper at first: $10.44/user/month for Premium. But add in Atlassian Access ($4/user/month for SSO), marketplace apps ($3-12/user/month), and Rovo AI overages ($2-5/user/month), and your real all-in cost climbs to $20-24/user/month ($240-288/user/year).
Both paths, Cloud or Data Center, lock you into Atlassian's pricing treadmill. Data Center in 2026 is 15-25% more expensive than in 2024. There's no reason to expect that trend to stop.
What if you could self-host without the infrastructure burden?
Confluence vs Docmost vs BookStack: An Honest Comparison
Three self-hosting paths. Very different realities.
Data Center pricing as of Feb 2026. Infrastructure costs from ONES.com TCO analysis. Community Edition included with Opsily managed hosting.
Why Docmost Outpaces Other Self-Hosted Alternatives
BookStack is free and simple. It's PHP-based, runs on a Raspberry Pi, and has zero per-seat pricing. It's great for small teams and lightweight documentation.
But BookStack lacks the features teams migrating from Confluence actually need: real-time collaboration, spaces, page verification workflows, and an automated migration tool. You'd be scripting Confluence imports manually.
Wiki.js is modern and extensible (Node.js backend, multiple storage options). But it's still a DIY project: you're managing infrastructure, backups, SSL certificates, and scaling.
Docmost splits the difference. It has:
- Real-time collaboration with live cursors (like Confluence)
- Spaces for team organization (like Confluence)
- A direct Confluence import tool (Business/Enterprise plans)
- Enterprise security: SAML/OIDC, MFA, audit logs, page verification workflows
- 21.7K GitHub stars and 1,141 active commits—proof of ongoing development
- Trusted by governments, NGOs, and enterprises (Australian Government, Red Cross, Vilnius City, Bechtle)
With Opsily, you get Docmost Community (free, unlimited seats) or Business/Enterprise ($6/seat/month, min 10 seats) without managing infrastructure, backups, SSL, or updates. We handle all of it.
Why Opsily for Docmost
Escape Confluence costs and complexity without building another DevOps project.
Real-Time Collaboration Without the Bandwidth Costs
Docmost on Opsily gives you live cursors, instant page sync, and a Notion-like block editor. Your team gets the same collaborative feel as Confluence, without Atlassian's price. Scale from 10 to 1,000 users on one predictable bill.
Complete Data Control and GDPR Compliance
Confluence Cloud data lives on US servers. That's a compliance blocker for EU teams and regulated industries. Docmost on Opsily runs in German data centers with full GDPR data sovereignty, audit logs, and ITAR/FedRAMP readiness. Your data never leaves your jurisdiction.
No Infrastructure Burden
Self-hosting Confluence means managing servers, backups, SSL certificates, database updates, and scaling. Opsily handles all of it. No IT staff allocation. No 3 AM alerts. Focus on documentation, not DevOps.
Built for teams who need reliability
Migrate from Confluence to Docmost on Opsily in 4 Steps
Your data. Your timeline. Our infrastructure.
Sign up, choose Community or Business Edition, and your instance is live in minutes. No servers to provision, no databases to configure.
Use Docmost's built-in Confluence importer (included in Business/Enterprise plans). Spaces, pages, attachments, and formatting migrate automatically. No manual scripting.
Enable SAML/OIDC for single sign-on, configure permissions, and invite team members. Opsily handles backups, SSL, and compliance automatically.
Sign up, choose Community or Business Edition, and your instance is live in minutes. No servers to provision, no databases to configure.
Use Docmost's built-in Confluence importer (included in Business/Enterprise plans). Spaces, pages, attachments, and formatting migrate automatically. No manual scripting.
Enable SAML/OIDC for single sign-on, configure permissions, and invite team members. Opsily handles backups, SSL, and compliance automatically.
Create your Opsily account and deploy Docmost
Sign up, choose Community or Business Edition, and your instance is live in minutes. No servers to provision, no databases to configure.
Import your Confluence pages
Use Docmost's built-in Confluence importer (included in Business/Enterprise plans). Spaces, pages, attachments, and formatting migrate automatically. No manual scripting.
Set up SSO and invite your team
Enable SAML/OIDC for single sign-on, configure permissions, and invite team members. Opsily handles backups, SSL, and compliance automatically.
Shut down Confluence and forget about it
Cancel your Data Center license. Opsily manages updates, security patches, and scaling as your team grows. You focus on content.
Enterprise-Grade Trust and Compliance
Docmost is trusted by governments, NGOs, and enterprises. Opsily's infrastructure meets every requirement.
GDPR Data Sovereignty
Data lives in German data centers. No transfers to US servers. Full audit trails and data residency guarantees for regulated teams.
ITAR and FedRAMP Ready
Docmost supports air-gapped on-premises deployment and enterprise-grade access controls. Used by Australian Government, Red Cross, and Vilnius City.
Nightly Backups and 99.9% Uptime SLA
Encrypted backups, automatic failover, and redundant infrastructure. Opsily's monitoring never sleeps.
Open-Source with Active Maintenance
21.7K GitHub stars, 1,141 commits, and 1.6K forks. AGPL-3.0 licensed. Community-driven development with enterprise deployment options.
SSO, MFA, and Granular Permissions
SAML 2.0 / OIDC / LDAP integration, multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and page verification workflows for compliance teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Confluence Server (the old self-hosted option) reached end-of-life in February 2024. Atlassian no longer sells or supports it. Your only self-hosting path is Confluence Data Center, which starts at $27,000/year for 500 users and requires you to manage infrastructure, backups, SSL, and updates. That's not really self-hosting in the spirit you mean: it's expensive on-premises licensing with full infrastructure OpEx. Docmost gives you actual self-hosting: open-source code, on-premises deployment, real-time collaboration, and with Opsily managing the infrastructure, zero headaches.
Explore Related Documentation Platforms on Opsily
Docmost isn't alone. Migrate to any open-source wiki or documentation platform and we'll host it, manage it, and keep it running.
Open-source, collaborative wiki and documentation platform
Stop Paying for Confluence. Start Using Docmost.
Escape Atlassian's pricing treadmill. Deploy Docmost on Opsily today and take back control of your documentation, your data, and your budget.