Ease of use

The niceties and annoyances of everyday use.

One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of choosing a new tool, particularly one meant to be the connective tissue for your team, is evaluating the day to day experience of using the tool. While Coda and Confluence may solve a variety of the same use cases, there are significant differences in their user experiences. While some things may seem small to begin, they compound over time—annoyances add up when they slow you down each and every day. Something as simple as a cumbersome or distracting interface can add meaningful strain and delay to your team’s daily functioning.

Many of the key differences between Confluence and Coda stem from their fundamental design choices. Coda is a collaboration-first platform built for teams to live in. Confluence was designed as an internal wiki/intranet for users to access as either a publisher or a reader, but generally not both.

Importantly, some tradeoffs are acceptable depending on your intended use. For example, if you only intend on editing Confluence pages in your company wiki every few weeks, then an outdated or difficult to use interface isn’t much of a bother. But if you are taking meeting notes every day, paper cuts become unacceptable.

I’ll break down what I see as the three primary categories of difference when it comes to the day to day experience of using these two tools below.

⁠

Collaboration Confluence's publishing model limits how teams collaborate.⁠

⁠

Interface aesthetic A side-by-side comparison of Confluence and Coda's interface.⁠

⁠

Automations and integrations Comparing Confluence macros to Coda's native automations and integrations.⁠

⁠

⁠
⁠
⁠
`Integrations Connecting with the rest of your tools and data.`⁠

`Cost How much will an all-in-one workspace cost, or save, your team.`⁠

⁠
⁠

⁠

Gallery

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.

Ease of use

⁠⁠⁠IntegrationsConnecting with the rest of your tools and data.⁠ CostHow much will an all-in-one workspace cost, or save, your team. ⁠ ⁠⁠

⁠
⁠
⁠
`Integrations Connecting with the rest of your tools and data.`⁠

`Cost How much will an all-in-one workspace cost, or save, your team.`⁠

⁠
⁠