Can I turn read only access to confluence users within my organisation?

Question

Hi,

We've had Confluence server for internal use until last year, and we're slowly moving to your cloud version.

Our issue is understanding the pricing model...can we have "read only" users within our organisation and only pay for the one adding and contributing informasjon into Confluence?

When we had a server internally, that wasnt a problem...but "anonymous access" gives everyone in the itnernet access....which is not what we're after.

We need only our organisation (we have turned SSO on) to have read access + 100 to edit. We're going to increase the numbers eventually if this works. We've asked for a quote.

/Anwar

Florian_8erf7n · Answer

As you statet: There is a backdoor in the licence agreement. Confluence allows anonymous access (can be turned on in system configuration). Anonymous users cannot be counted and therefore they don't eat expensive licences.

I am not an expert in legal documents. But this backdoor may allow you to use a shared account for all your internal users. This solution has two drawbacks. First: you may violate the licence agreement. Ask your lawyer. Sencond: It's difficult to keep the password of a shared account secret.

Other way - technically more complex but safe: Buy a second licence for 10 Users. Setup a second installation which is available behind your firewall only. Allow anonymous access to this installation. Replicate your content once a day. That's similar to what Darryl suggested but it keeps all your formatting, attachements etc. as you will stay in the same ecosystem.

Darryl St. Pierre · Answer

Hello Anwar,

Technically based on the licensing agreement, anyone who uses Confluence consumes a license regardless if it is for adding/editing content or simply viewing.

It's a common question here in the forums, but unfortunately the answer stays the same. One suggestion might be to create your content in Confluence, but publish it or make it available on your Intranet if you have one.

Darryl