Limiting Confluence space access (view-only) to registered users

[Morgan D_]

Hello!

I am evaluating different knowledge base solutions for our small company. We're already using Jira and Confluence for internal work, but we want to create client-facing documentation. We do not want to allow anonymous users to access the spaces -- it should be limited only to specific clients we give access to. In sum, we want to provide invite-only, view-only access to Confluence pages to external users.

From what I can tell, guest users are free to a point -- "up to 5 guests per paid user." So if we have 8 people on our team, that's a max of 40 guest users before we have to pay for seats. Source.

Is this correct? Or am I misunderstanding a way we could provide access only to specific users without having to worry about paid seats? 

Thanks for your help and insight!

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

@Morgan D_ Welcome to the Atlassian community

That is correct.  You would be allotted 40 guest user accounts.  The other way to provide access to client facing documentation is through the Jira Service Management.  You can setup a service desk that is invite only and have a knowledge base that serves it.  Then only customers invited to that service desk would be able to see the KBs.  The number of clients you can add is not limited.  You might want to take a look at that.  You can then also setup a support portal where they can submit issues if they need help.

[Morgan D_]

Thank you so much for confirming that, Brant! I had actually considered whether using JSM would be an option, but I'm not sure if we want to use JSM for managing tickets. Is it possible to hide or change any links that would direct users to submit a support request into JSM? (e.g. if I wanted to instead link users to our support email or to ZenDesk or something)

[Brant Schroeder]

@Morgan D_ You could create a desk that has no request types in it, but it would not be the greatest user experience, not bad but not great.  

[Kristian Klima · Accepted solution]

Hi @Morgan D_ 

You can create a proper documentation site from a Confluence space and control access with your company's SSO.

We're using an app called Scroll Viewport by K15t.

This is our public site made with the app but we also have a sister site with internal only content that's behind our SSO.

If you're exploring using Confluence as a basis for you KB/Docs, then you might find my Community article useful.

The alternative app is Instant Websites by Glintech.

[Morgan D_]

Thanks, Kristian, these links are super helpful! I'll definitely take Scroll Viewport under consideration.

[Morgan D_]

I'm also wondering, and cannot find a clear answer anywhere -- if we need to pay for additional guest users (over the free guest limit), what is the cost per each paid guest user?

[Kristian Klima]

I don't think you can pay for a guest - they're are free until they have to become regular users :) 

[Shannon S]

Hi Morgan,

As Kristian confirmed, guest users are always free.

From the document you mentioned, Invite guests to Confluence

Guests are free of charge (up to 5 guests per paid user). Total number of users (paid + guests) can't exceed the current Confluence site user limit.

In your example, you're on a monthly plan with 8 paid users, so you can have up to 40 guests. Once you reach 40 guests you can't have any more guests. 

The reason this is specified is due to user tiers. Annual plans have user tiers. So for example, say you're on an annual plan with a 200 user tier. That means if you have 150 users on a 200 user tier, you can't have 750 guests since that's over the 200 user tier limit.

I hope that's clear, but let me know if you have any questions about that.

Shannon S | Atlassian Cloud Support