How can I restrict access of users without consuming a seat?

[Costin Bobirsc]

We want to publish application documentation using Confluence but we want only authenticated users to be able to read it.

We have 5 editors and we believe we will have 2000+ readers.  Can we setup this without buying a lot of user licenses? It does not make sense since the only can read.

Is there any way  to authenticate from the application with a "dummy" user?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

You can't do this in Confluence.

You can make a space anonymously accessible, which opens it up to the whole world, with people not needing to log in to see the pages.  But by definition, if you authenticate someone, they're known to the system and you have to grant them access via a Confluence account.