Comparison
Baalda vs Confluence: which second brain fits your team?
Atlassian's cloud company wiki and knowledge base.
Pick Confluence if you want a heavyweight enterprise wiki tightly integrated with Jira and Atlassian. Pick Baalda if you want a lightweight, local-first, open-source team knowledge base where every page is a markdown file you own, edited live, with AI over MCP.
At a glance
| Feature | Baalda | Confluence |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time multi-user editing | Yes — CRDT, keystroke-level | Yes |
| Notes are plain markdown files on your disk | Yes | No — cloud pages |
| Local-first (works offline, you own the files) | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes — Apache-2.0 | No |
| AI reads & writes your files (MCP) | Yes | No |
| Per-file permissions | Yes | Yes — space/page |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Data Center (being phased down) |
| Price | Free + Team plan | Per-seat |
Where Confluence is the better choice
- Deep Atlassian/Jira integration for enterprise processes.
- Mature admin, governance, and space permissions.
- Built for large-org documentation at scale.
Where Baalda wins
- Lightweight and fast, with notes as plain markdown files you own.
- Local-first and open source, versus a cloud wiki you rent.
- AI over MCP on your real files, and no per-seat lock-in to an enterprise suite.
Can you switch?
Export Confluence pages to markdown and import into Baalda. Your wiki becomes plain files your team edits live and truly owns.
Frequently asked questions
Is Baalda a Confluence alternative?
Yes, for teams that find Confluence heavy or cloud-locked. Baalda is a lightweight, local-first, open-source knowledge base where pages are markdown files you own.
Can Baalda replace a team wiki?
Baalda works as a live team wiki and second brain: shared markdown with backlinks, graph, search, per-file permissions, and real-time editing, all on files you own.