Mahfouz vs Confluence
Mahfouz vs Confluence
Confluence keeps your team's knowledge inside Atlassian's cloud, and self-hosting is closing to new customers. Mahfouz needs no cloud, no server, and no subscription — just plain Markdown files and Git, wherever you choose to keep them.
Feature comparison
| Compare | Confluence | Mahfouz |
|---|---|---|
| File format & ownership | Proprietary storage format inside Atlassian's cloud — pages aren't files you can open elsewhere. | Plain .md files in a folder you choose — open, edit, or grep them with any tool. |
| Where it runs | Confluence Cloud. Self-hosted Data Center stopped taking new customers on March 30, 2026 and reaches end of life on March 28, 2029. | Nowhere but your computer. No account, no server, no Mahfouz cloud — ever. |
| Version history | Built-in page versioning, but it lives in Atlassian's cloud and isn't something you can take with you. | Full history in a real Git repo you own — cloneable and portable like any other. |
| Offline use | None — Confluence Cloud requires a connection to read or edit pages. | Fully local-first. Works offline by default — there's no "download for offline" step. |
| Real-time collaboration | Built in, within Atlassian's hosted workspace. | Git-based: share a vault the way you'd share any repo, and everyone works from their own full copy. |
| Price | Free plan caps at 10 users; paid plans start at $5.42/user/month (Standard), rising to $10.44 (Premium), billed per seat. | Free and MIT-licensed, forever. One download, no seats. |
| Data export / lock-in | Space exports exist, but day to day your content lives only inside Atlassian's cloud. | Nothing to export — your notes were never anything but files. |
Confluence pricing and plan details shown as published on atlassian.com; check their pricing page for current figures.
Questions
Confluence, answered.
What's happening to Confluence's self-hosted option?
Confluence Data Center stopped accepting new customers on March 30, 2026, and reaches end of life on March 28, 2029 — existing self-hosted customers are being moved toward Confluence Cloud. Mahfouz was never tied to a server in the first place, so there's no migration to plan for.
Can I use Mahfouz without any hosting?
Yes, always. A Mahfouz vault is a folder of Markdown files on your machine. Git history is local by default; pushing to a remote — GitHub, GitLab, your own server — is optional, never required.
Is Confluence's version history the same as Git?
No. Confluence's page versioning lives inside Atlassian's cloud and isn't something you can take with you. Mahfouz's history is a real Git repository you own.
See the rest of what Mahfouz can do.
Vaults, Markdown editing, Git sync, history, and more.