What is the difference in types of spaces - team space, documentation space, knowledge base?

[Chris Worthington]

Newbie to Confluence. When I create a space, I'm given several options and I have no clue as to which to choose. 

We want to set up a basic Wiki for our company, so I figure each main dept will have its own space. Since this would entail basic info sharing, should I choose a "team" space, "documentation" or "knowledge base"? It seems like the latter two are quite similar and the former is ambiguous. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Think of the types more as templates - they determine the initial layout and default data (including local templates), but once created, they don't really have much effect.  The knowledge base flag can be useful if you are integrating with JIRA Service Desk.

As for your specific question, I would look at what each department is trying to use confluence for - if it's going to be mostly documentation on something, use documentation, if it's a space to do team activity (record meetings, blog about stuff, team updates, information on people and teams), use team.  Neither one will prevent you from creating pages of other types.

[Chris Worthington]

Great, thank you. That's the easiest to understand answer I've found. Thanks.

[Pete Peric]

Which space blueprint would be suitable for an HR space? Team, Documentation or Blank?

[Pauline Monroy]

Depending on the needs and goals of the HR team : I figure it would be Documentation space : share policies, contracts, etc. If the need is to on-board a new member, I believe the documentation space should be enough but in the scenario wherein you have to on-board a technical professional who needs a lot of questions answered, I believe a KB with inputs from the Tech Team would be more useful.