Has anyone built their customer-facing knowledge base on Confluence?

[Jess Katz]

I am looking for examples of knowledge bases that are external/customer-facing that have been built on Jira/Confluence for some inspo. I am revamping our Help Center and we use Jira.

[Zoriana Bogutska_Adaptavist_]

Hi @Jess Katz 

Here are some sources that might be useful for you on this stage:

- article about how to create a Knowledge base in Confluence https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central-articles/How-to-create-a-knowledge-base-in-Confluence/ba-p/2291458 

- guide from Atlassian about how to open your Confluence pages for anonymous access https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/make-a-space-public/   and share content externally with public links https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/share-content-externally-with-public-links/ 

- also you can consider third-party apps e.g. Mosaic for improving your content page design and structure and to use its templates for the Knowledge base

Hope it will help :) 

[Dirk Lachowski]

Not Confluence alone, but we’re using the Scroll Viewport plugin by K15t ( https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211636/scroll-viewport-for-confluence?tab=overview&hosting=cloud ). You just point it to one or more Confluence spaces and it generates a searchable, static hosted site from it, complete with SSL certificate. Super easy to use. Get’s you sites like this: https://help.cobai.com/store-admin/latest/

[Nils Bier _K15t_]

Hi @Dirk Lachowski - thanks for mentioning Scroll Viewport here :)

I just had a look at your site and it looks like your language picker doesn't work - it shows the German content, no matter if English or German is selected in the picker.

Not sure if you're aware of this, so I wanted to let you know real quick :)

Cheers,
Nils

[Dirk Lachowski]

@Nils Bier _K15t_ Thank’s for the heads up, I indeed didn't notice that there's a language selector in Scroll sites. Interesting.

[Kristian Klima]

@Dirk Lachowski 

It's optional - you need Scroll Documents with Translations add on to make use of it. Other swtichers include versions (as in 'semantic versioning) and variants (conditional content).

Scroll Docs can turn Confluence into a genuine product documentation tool.

[Yulia Lenina _AppFox_]

Hi Jess and welcome to the Community!

Confluence is an excellent choice for creating a structured and secure customer knowledge base. You can see how we use Confluence and Scroll Viewport for our own product documentation here - https://docs.appfox.io/.

Based on best practices from our and our customers experience, I’d recommend:

1. Using Separate Spaces : Create a dedicated Confluence space just for your customer knowledge base. This ensures customers don’t have access to internal or sensitive information.
2. Setting Permissions Carefully: Use Confluence’s permission settings to control access so customers only see what’s intended for them.
3. Structuring Content for Easy Navigation: Organise pages using a clear hierarchy (FAQs, user guides, troubleshooting, etc.), and use labels/metadata to improve searchability.
4. Managing Content with Workflows for Confluence – our app can help automate content approval and ensure only reviewed and up-to-date documents are published. You can:
   • Set up approval workflows before content goes live.
   • Automatically publish approved documents from an internal space to the customer knowledge base.
   • Track document status to ensure outdated information is reviewed and updated.
   • And much more
5. Publishing with Scroll Viewport: If you want a more polished, website-like experience, Scroll Viewport by K15t can turn your Confluence space into a professional customer portal.

[Jess Katz]

Thank you so much this is very helpful!

[Kristian Klima]

Hi @Jess Katz and welcome to the Community

Yes, you can!

This is our site https://docs.emplifi.io/ that's based on Confluence and created with Scroll Viewport by K15t that @Dirk Lachowski mentioned.

We also have an internal site protected by SSO (can be access by people who are under our SSO but don't have a Confluence seat). Both sites originate from a single Confluence space and share about 80% of the content.

If you want to learn more, you can read my Community articles on the subject:

• How to build a product documentation solution in 30 minutes
• Conditional content and why you should use it

[Jess Katz]

Thank you so much Kristian - I had no idea this existed. We use Confluence Standard - does Scroll Viewport work with the standard plan? Also if you're open to connecting via Zoom please let me know! Would love to learn more.

[Kristian Klima]

Hi Jess, yes, it works with any Confluence tier.

Feel free to contact me on LinkedIn :) 

[Dirk Lachowski]

@Kristian Klima Looks amazing. How did you make those topic tiles on the landing page?

[Kristian Klima]

@Dirk Lachowski Thanks, I'll pass it on to our VP of Product Design who loves to fiddle with Viewport in his spare time :) 

[Angela Thomas_Seibert Group]

Hello,
Here are some knowledge bases for you to browse:

• https://nesa.wikipage.io/
• https://onoranzefunebricloud.wikipage.io/
• https://aipama.wikipage.io/
• https://primedocsen.wikipage.io/
• https://spacecraft.wikipage.io/

They were made with the Spacecraft app that turns any ordinary confluence space(s) into a brand conform public site with the possibility to hide native confluence elements like comments, contributors, etc.,