How to Migrate from Confluence to Outline

Outline has a native Confluence importer — making it the easiest Confluence migration path among open source wiki tools. Export your Confluence spaces, upload to Outline, and your pages transfer with formatting intact.

What Transfers

Content	Status
✅ Pages and hierarchy	Native import
✅ Text formatting	Well preserved
✅ Images	Imported
✅ Tables	Supported
✅ Code blocks	Supported
✅ Links between pages	Internal links mapped
⚠️ Macros	Some need manual cleanup
⚠️ Attachments	Most import, large files may need re-upload
❌ Comments	Not preserved
❌ Page history/versions	Not preserved

Step 1: Export from Confluence

Go to your Confluence space → Space Settings
Click Content Tools → Export
Select HTML or XML export
Choose Full Export
Download the ZIP file

Repeat for each space you want to migrate.

Step 2: Deploy Outline

git clone https://github.com/outline/outline.git
cd outline/docker
cp .env.sample .env
# Configure: DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, SECRET_KEY, URL, AUTH provider
docker compose up -d

Requirements: PostgreSQL, Redis, S3 storage (MinIO), auth provider (OIDC/Google/Slack).

Step 3: Import via Native Importer

Open Outline → Settings → Import
Select Confluence as the source
Upload the exported ZIP file
Outline processes the export and creates documents

Pages maintain their hierarchy as nested documents within a collection.

Step 4: Organize Collections

Map Confluence spaces to Outline collections:

Confluence	Outline
Space	Collection
Page tree root	Top-level documents
Child pages	Nested documents
Labels	Tags (manual)
Templates	Document templates

Step 5: Set Up Auth and Permissions

Configure OIDC (Keycloak, Authentik, Google):

OIDC_CLIENT_ID=outline
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=your-secret
OIDC_AUTH_URI=https://auth.yourdomain.com/authorize
OIDC_TOKEN_URI=https://auth.yourdomain.com/token
OIDC_USERINFO_URI=https://auth.yourdomain.com/userinfo
OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME=SSO Login

Set collection-level permissions for team access control.

Step 6: Handle Confluence Macros

Confluence Macro	Outline Handling
Code block	✅ Preserved
Info/Note/Warning	Convert to blockquote or callout
Table of contents	Auto-generated sidebar
Jira links	Convert to plain URLs
Page include	Link to document instead
Draw.io	Export as image, embed
Expand	Not supported (flatten)

Cost Savings

Team Size	Confluence Standard	Outline Self-Hosted	Savings
10 users	$61/month	$15/month	$552/year
50 users	$303/month	$30/month	$3,276/year
100 users	$578/month	$50/month	$6,336/year

Migration Timeline

Week	Task
Week 1	Deploy Outline, import Confluence spaces
Week 2	Clean up macros, organize collections, set up auth
Week 3	Invite team, run both platforms
Week 4	Primary docs move to Outline, sunset Confluence

Compare wiki platforms on OSSAlt — editing experience, import support, and self-hosting side by side.