How Confluence is Structured (Orgs, Sites, Apps, Spaces and Content!)

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tl;dr

1. Confluence has a few main layers - Organization, Site, App, Space, Content
2. Each layer offers different features and challenges
3. Understanding the layers is important to understanding how to use Confluence (and avoid frustration)

There are a ton of features and capabilities in Confluence. They all, however, sit on top of some structure that helps define how they work and what they can do. Here I'll dig into how Confluence is structured and point out how different layers of this structure impact our ability to use this system.

Organization ("Org")

At the very top of every Atlassian product is the Organization (or "Org" for short). Typically, any given company will only have a single Organization - however - this is not true in all cases!

See more here

How it impacts you & what you need to know

1. At their core Orgs provide a host of access and security controls. For example, this is where you get a license to use a particular product and where groups are maintained.
2. For most users most of the time the Org is essentially invisible and they don't even know it exists.
3. Groups are maintained here
4. An "Org Admin" manages these

Site ("Instance")

Beneath the Org is one or more sites. Each site can have up to one copy of any Atlassian product (e.g. Confluence) and the site is typically where any given user interacts with the system. It is possible for one Org to have multiple sites - you can tell which site you're on by looking at the URL when you log into Cloud (e.g. "some name" is the site name in  [some name].atlassian.net)

How it impacts you & what you need to know

1. Each site is its own copy of Confluence with its own settings, permissions etc
2. A "site admin" can maintain this layer
3. Most users most of the time will only interact with a single Confluence site and won't even realize this exists.
4. A site can contain multiple Atlassian products (e.g. Jira and Confluence) - this allows for easy integration/linking
5. Most company's using Atlassian products may have a single site - but they could have more (e.g. one for European and one for Asian workers).

Application ("App")

This is your version of Confluence - what you log into and maintain your content in. An App always lives in one, and only one, site - although your organization may have several sites, each of which may have a different copy of Confluence within it.

To use an analogy the "App" would be like a physical library building. This building houses everything within the library.

How it impacts you & what you need to know

1. This is what people log into
2. "App Admins" maintain settings for the app
3. Lives in one, and only one, site
4. Most company's using Confluence will have a single App - but they could have multiple apps (but each one is in its own site).
5. Contains all the information/pages/content/settings for that copy of Confluence

Space

This is a container with the App and houses between 0 and many pieces of content (pages,blogs,databases, etc, more on this below).

To use an analogy the Space is like a room in a library. Each room can contain different type(s) of information or content.

See more here

How it impacts you & what you need to know

1. "Space admins" maintain spaces (including permissions)
2. Most people most of the time will work in a small number of spaces
3. Spaces can be organized by department, project, or anything else
4. Spaces can be archived and/or deleted

Content

This is the actual stuff found within Confluence - the pages, blogs, whiteboards, smart links and databases that your team uses. The exact type of content available is controlled at the space level, and content can be restricted (only specific groups or people can view and/or edit it).

To use an analogy content is like the books, magazines, etc. in a library.

See more here

How it impacts you & what you need to know

1. Most people most of the time interact with this level
2. This is what most people think of when they think of Confluence
3. There is no effective limit to how much content you can create
4. Content can include attachments, links, videos, images and almost anything else
5. The ability to create, edit, archive and delete content is controlled at the space level

Conclusion

It does feel like there's a lot of layers - but keep in mind most of the time you'll mainly be working with Content or Spaces. The other 3 (Org, Site, App) are just something to know about in case it comes up.

Hope you found this useful (if so hit the like button!) and please comment with your questions. Some more links below, and have a great day!

Resources

1. Check out this discord server for live chat
2. Check out some great learning courses here
3. Check out the videos below for a deeper look at some of these layers

[Stavros_Rougas_EasyApps]

Robert makes good Confluence videos https://www.youtube.com/@Hean-Tech. Not just for admins, in my view he's one of the best discussing Confluence you can find online (in English).

Confluence has had a major design change, tricky for long time users, but as someone building apps for Confluence and as an admin underneath the hood lots of smart changes.