We MUST have the ability to create themes in Confluence Cloud

Question

We are working on testing moving from Confluence Server to Cloud.

As you know the CSS style capabilites have been removed from Cloud.

(Just bring them back. Yes, I've upvoted other requests)

But the choices Atlassian are making with their new formatting in Confluence Cloud simply do not work for us. We need to be able to style our pages differently.

So I started looking into themes. And came across this page:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/theme-properties/

To my horror, at the top it says that the current Theme API is not compatible with the new UI being rolled out.

And they haven't decided if they will make it compatible.

Atlassian, you have to make it possible for us to format our pages however we need.

Make Themes compatible with whatever the new UI is.

Norman Cates_nl434h · Answer

I cannot find ANY references to site level customisation in any of the roadmap for Confluence.

The category dropdown doesn't even have topics related to UI or customisation or anything similar.

They don't even have any mention of these new UI changes that are in progress, on the roadmap.

I'm sure they are working on things that SOMEONE wants. At this point its a mystery who.

@Utkarsh Agarwal Thank you for your replies and trying to help. And your efforts to publicise the Confluence requests in the JIRA site.

But those of us who have been using Server are used to a more flexible product that works more how WE need it to. Its Atlassians job to provide a product that works for us, not one that works exclusively for them.

The feature request has been open for 5 years now. Clearly no one is finding it because there's no connection between these community forums search and the JIRA system.

And no way for anyone to know they need to go there to add to requests.

Utkarsh Agarwal · Answer

I understand the frustration—many of us would love to see deeper theming options in Confluence Cloud. However, Atlassian’s move to Cloud has been focused heavily on scalability, security, and performance improvements, which often take priority over UI customization.

That said, Atlassian has not ignored customer feedback. The feature request CONFCLOUD‑71225 remains open for voting, and Atlassian does consider votes and comments when prioritizing work. The newer Cloud architecture also means feature rollouts often happen in phases, as seen with recent improvements in branding options and site-level customization (Atlassian Cloud Roadmap).

Norman Cates_nl434h · Answer

Given that desire for theming in the cloud has been expressed strongly by many people, since 2020, and yet nothing has been done, Atlassian seems to not care.

https://community.developer.atlassian.com/t/is-creating-a-theme-for-confluence-cloud-still-possible/36460

I'm CERTAIN there are more than 20 people who want theming in Cloud but no one can find those requests to add their voice. Because no one knows to go there and search.

I thought that Atlassian was a good sized company. But based on their glacial changes to Conflluence, and complete lack of interest in giving their customers any control, I can only assume its 5 people in a basement somewhere.