Do Confluence support anonymous access to sites ?

[vijay.devaraj]

I am looking to provide a user guide for my product on the confluence page which should support anonymous access to sites(open to the Public). I would like to know do the cloud version provides this option?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Yes.  You need to enable anonymous permission in the global settings, then your space administrators will be able to let in anonymous users for their spaces in the space permissions.

[vijay.devaraj]

Thank you for the timely response @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Since we now have this option I will recommend my management to take up confluence. 

[Jana Rasmussen]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  Can you walk me through how to enable anonymous permission in global settings?  I am a site admin on Confluence Cloud but can't see to find that option under Global Permissions. I thought that is where it would be...

Note: until recently, we had "Anonymous" appearing at the bottom of all of our space settings. I have probably had the most active involvement in learning and using Confluence in our company so far, but I don't know that I turned it off.  What I do know is that our CISO advised that we turn off anonymous access to certain spaces (it wasn't activated - all the boxes had red Xs for all functions), but I went to several spaces (not all of them) and in updating the space permission, I somehow removed the Anonymous from the list of those spaces. But now "Anonymous" is gone from all of our spaces - even ones I didn't edit space permissions for.  I tried creating a new space and it is set to default settings, which doesn't include Anonymous. How do I bring this back so that spaces can choose to have anonymous access or not?  We have one space that is going to be used a knowledge base page for customers so we need to be able to grant public access to that space.  Thanks for your help! I am getting frustrated trying to find where to change this!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That sounds like you turned off the global anonymous access.

You will still find that under Admin -> Global permissions, it's the last in four sections (users, groups, unlicenced and anonymous) but my guess is that you are not a Confluence admin, so it may be being hidden from you.

If it has been turned off globally, the option disappears from space admin.

[Jana Rasmussen]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

I am a Confluence site admin. I also asked our Organization Admin to check and she said she doesn't have the option either.  I had gone to Global Permissions but our global permission section only has Users and Groups - no unlicensed or anonymous options.  We have a paid Confluence Space, according to our Billing, so we should have an anonymous access option, but don't seem to.  And we used to until pretty recently.  I'm not the Organization Admin, and our Org Admin doesn't know Confluence (I had to help her navigate to the Global permissions page to check as she didn't know how to get there).  Here is what I saw on our global permissions page (that's as far down as it scrolled before it got to the "Save or Cancel"

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think you are mixing up "site admin" and "confluence admin". 

I get the anonymous section when I log into (most of our) client sites, because they have made me a confluence admin.  Not site admin. I have a load more where I am site admin, but not confluence admin, and I can not enable anonymous in those.   

[Jana Rasmussen]

What is the exact difference between a site admin and a confluence admin? Can you help me understand please?

How is someone assigned to be a Confluence Admin?

Thanks for your help so far.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

A site admin administrates the whole Cloud suite (which may well only be one system, but is usually several)

A Confluence Admin can administrate Confluence.  You get that by being in one of the groups named for it in the global permissions.

However, I notice you have your site-admins group enabled for this, so that would be working. 

But the other stuff in the screenshot you've given us actually screams that you are on the free plan, not the paid one you think you are, which would explain why the anonymous access has vanished. 

How many active users do you have?

[Jana Rasmussen]

I agree with your assessment that we are on the "free" plan.  However, I was told we were on a paid plan and in looking at the billing, we are paying a $10 flat fee per month and the details say we are on a standard plan.  However, just $10 per month doesn't seem right when I look at the current cloud pricing structure (https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/pricing) which shows that the standard plan is $5/user.  We have added 10 users to the system so far, but not all of them are active on it.  The gal who signed up just told me she "Signed up for the cheapest option." This was back in September. Perhaps the pricing structure was different back then? So this has led to my confusion about whether or not we are on a free plan or not. I hope that makes sense. 

Also, just a few weeks ago, I was working in several of our spaces and the "Anonymous Access" option was listed at the bottom of the Space Permissions. When I made changes to the space permissions for 2 spaces, the "anonymous access" section in each of those spaces disappeared (I didn't do anything to that section - just adding individuals or groups).  Now, it seems that the Anonymous Access section in all of our spaces (which showed it in the space permissions a few weeks ago) has disappeared.

In attempting to understand how to bring that back (so that we can make some of our spaces public as knowledge spaces), I have learned where to go to fix it, but don't have access to it, which, as you say, "Screams" that we are on the free plan.  But then why are we still being charged $10 per month?  The gal who originally set us up says she thinks that it's always been a $10/user/month cost, but the billing shows different.  I"ll have to get in touch with them I guess to ask some questions.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think this definitely needs to go to Atlassian, I can't see why you're getting the free options only when you're paying for more.

[Jana Rasmussen]

I submitted a separate ticket for the payment issue. BUT...

I discovered why my Anonymous options were missing... I (or someone) had enabled Public Links in the last few weeks.  I don't remember doing it, but I may have done so without realizing it or understanding the ramifications.  Support explained that if Public Links are enabled, it automatically disables Anonymous Access options.  https://confluence.atlassian.com/ge/public-links-979425312.html

Thanks for dialoging with me and trying to help me figure it out!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Argh, I'm so sorry, I have read that Public Links does that, but it obviously has not stuck, and it did not cross my mind at all!

I'm really glad you got there, and thank you for telling us what it was too!