Written by
Stefana Nazare
, Product Owner Cloud & Pro Apps
Atlassian's announcement to end its Data Center products sparked concerns among IT departments worldwide. But for many, this wasn't the first shock. Over the past few years, the discontinuation of Confluence Server and a series of price increases had already left many organizations dissatisfied with Atlassian's product strategy. While life with Data Center was far from perfect, it still offered predictability and control. This made it easy to keep postponing difficult decisions.
Now, with support for Atlassian Data Center scheduled to phase out in March 2029, that sense of stability is disappearing. And the clock has started ticking.
Your path beyond Atlassian Data Center
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For many teams, this moment has arrived sooner than expected. If evaluating alternatives was easy to postpone until recently, migration has become inevitable. But here's the burning question: If you must switch, is Atlassian's cloud (or any closed, proprietary platform) truly the right move?
This forced transition brings more than just technical implications. It surfaces deep, valid concerns around loss of control, rising operational costs, compliance risks, and data security. For enterprises operating in regulated environments or valuing on-premises autonomy, surrendering control to a cloud provider is unacceptable.
However, this moment of disruption opens the door to something better: a chance to rethink your collaboration platform. If your organization is being pushed to migrate, you also have an opportunity to reclaim ownership, secure your data, and choose a platform that serves your long-term needs rather than the vendor’s roadmap.
The end of Confluence Data Center doesn't mean surrendering to the Atlassian Cloud
For organizations operating in highly regulated sectors such as defense, government, healthcare, and finance, shifting away from Confluence Data Center is not an ordinary IT project. It’s a compliance and operational milestone. When your work involves areas such as defense supply chains or public-sector programs, non-negotiable constraints are the starting point of the discussion.
Take privacy and data protection laws like the GDPR, for instance. They make cloud migration legally complex. Each plugin or integration can introduce new data flows and compliance risks. Many European organizations now prefer to host their collaboration platforms within infrastructure they already control to avoid this ongoing legal headache.
In air-gapped environments, such as nuclear research facilities, classified networks, and critical financial systems, connecting to a third-party SaaS provider is prohibited by design.
Once the Confluence Data Center product enters read-only mode, organizations will face security gaps from unpatched software and exposure to noncompliance with ISO 27001 or KRITIS standards. Meanwhile, migrating to Atlassian Cloud may mean losing the control, openness, and flexibility that enterprises have built their workflows around. Add this to the significant cost increase of up to 50% per year, if you have over 10,000 users.
This is precisely where XWiki can help you. Businesses don't seek open-source or on-premises solutions out of ideology. They seek them because these solutions address concrete pain points, such as compliance, cost predictability, and freedom of choice. XWiki’s open-source, self-hostable platform gives organizations control over where their data is stored, who can access it, and how their platform evolves. XWiki offers true openness, no vendor lock-in, transparent code, and full interoperability, as well as hosting freedom: on-premises, in a private cloud, or in a hybrid setup. In short, XWiki restores the control, security, and autonomy enterprises risk losing in Atlassian's Cloud-only future.
Lessons learned from helping organizations migrate from Confluence
Over the years, as we’ve supported companies moving from Confluence to XWiki, we’ve seen what makes a migration succeed and what slows it down. Below are some of the most valuable lessons and best practices to help you plan a smooth, efficient transition from the start.
#1 Dedicate time for planning to save countless hours later.
✅ List down how many users you have, how many spaces, how many personal spaces, and what plugins and macros you use.
✅ Decide how you’ll handle authentication, how many migration batches you’ll need, and which teams will move first.
✅ Identify alternatives for the plugins and macros you currently rely on. If needed, create step-by-step guides for achieving the same results in the new system.
✅ Moreover, decide if you wish to migrate blog posts, favorites, tags, and permissions.
#2 Do not expect the new product to be a copy of Confluence.
✅ While both platforms share similar capabilities, XWiki often offers them through its core features or recommended extensions, rather than third-party plugins.
✅ Take the time to learn how XWiki works and how it can support or even improve your workflows. You may discover more efficient, flexible ways to manage your content.
#3 Prioritize change management
✅ Involve your users early. Have them test migrated content, gather feedback, and communicate upcoming changes clearly.
✅ Provide an accessible channel for support and questions after the switch.
💡 When users feel informed and supported, adoption is faster and smoother.
#4 Consider expert help
⚠ Migration tools and the migration process are complex, but it's often easy to underestimate the effort and skill set required. XWiki has refined its expertise over many years through hundreds of successful migrations.
✅ For efficiency purposes, consider contracting a few consulting days with experts from XWiki or other companies specialized in migrations, rather than trying to do everything in house.
Why organizations choose to migrate from Confluence to XWiki
Migration is never easy when it involves tools used by many users. IT teams are right to worry about broken links, missing macros, and user disruption. Confluence has been part of daily operations for years, and change of any form, always carries risk. But at this stage, every organization will have to migrate. Whether you act now or later, the end of Confluence Data Center means the effort, time, and resources will be required either way.
Under these circumstances, companies are turning to XWiki because it offers a smoother, more controlled path forward. After migration, businesses keep intact what matters most: large volumes of data and their structure, while gaining the freedom, transparency, and flexibility they lacked before.
Organizations like the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Lorraine have already made a successful switch from Confluence to XWiki.
Why KIT chose XWiki as a Confluence alternative
In 2024, KIT migrated thousands of pages and documentation spaces without losing data integrity or productivity. The migration from Confluence to XWiki represented a significant enhancement in their Data Management System capabilities. By selecting XWiki, KIT transitioned fast to a more cost-efficient solution, while also benefiting from unmatched flexibility, security, and control over their data and hosting. The tailored intranet and documentation system allows KIT to manage and develop their knowledge base on their terms, free from the constraints of a cloud-only vendor platform.
Key benefits:
- Seamless migration: 9,431 pages, 50 spaces, and 250 users were migrated with full retention of structure, content, attachments, history, and permissions.
- Enhanced security: On-premises hosting ensures that KIT maintains full control over their data, aligning with their privacy requirements.
- Customized solutions: XWiki’s flexibility allowed for the development of custom features and enhancements, such as multilingual search and improved navigation, tailored to KIT’s needs.
XWiki was the most open alternative with the least amount of effort to change from our side. These were our 2 essential criterias for choosing the new tool. Wolfgang Mexner, KIT's Head of IT department
Why the University of Lorraine chose XWiki as a Confluence alternative
Following Atlassian's significant price increase, the University of Lorraine wiki team sought a new solution to replace Confluence. They needed a knowledge base that could also serve as an intranet for collaborative editing and documentation, ensuring smooth data transfer and accessibility for staff, teachers, and students. After evaluating various options, XWiki emerged as the only software capable of meeting their specific requirements amidst financial constraints. The transition from Confluence to XWiki took place in 2024 and it significantly improved the University of Lorraine's intranet capabilities. It provided enhanced data and hosting control, increased flexibility, customization, and full alignment with their academic and administrative needs.
Key benefits:
- Gradual migration: Over 145,000 pages, 315 spaces, and 17,000 users were migrated with full retention of structure, content, attachments, history, comments, and permissions.
- Customized solutions: The URL Shortener app and the Location Search macro enhanced the usability of University of Lorraine's intranet, streamlining navigation and easing data search.
- Comprehensive support and training: Users quickly resumed their activity in the new tool and for any issues and needs for their intranet, they benefit from professional support from XWiki.
The XWiki migration tool is constantly evolving and they are adding features requested by different customers. We appreciate how easy it is to understand the management of access rights, especially when compared to Confluence. Camille Herry, University of Lorraine's Systems and Network Administrator
These real-world projects show that with the right tool, you can look at a migration more as an upgrade and less as a disruption. With years of experience supporting enterprise transitions, XWiki helps organizations turn a forced migration into an opportunity to build a more open, future-proof knowledge platform.
XWiki's notable features for a smooth migration
In my own experience, I’ve assisted more than 100 clients with their Confluence migrations over the past 6 years, ranging from IT corporations to automotive and education organizations. Each project was different, but it confirmed the same truth: switching from Confluence to XWiki involves more than moving pages. It means preserving structure, usability, and continuity.
At XWiki, we built our migration tools with this in mind, to make the transition both predictable and also low-risk for administrators and users alike.
✅ Confluence Migration Toolkit: This is a bundle with all the necessary apps and services to quickly transfer your data. The toolkit also gives you access to long-term technical support.
What you'll find in the Confluence Migration Toolkit:
Confluence Migrator (Pro) for a seamless migration
Confluence-specific bridge macros for migration and long-term usage in XWiki
All the Pro Apps and Pro Macros that will ensure you and your team keep up your daily productivity immediately after the migration
Long-term technical support on the core product, all of the above apps, recommended extensions, and community extensions
You can purchase the package starting with Business or Enterprise level.
✅ Macros compatibility: Most Confluence macros have direct or equivalent counterparts in XWiki, and we're actively working on expanding the list. This compatibility reduces the risk of broken pages or lost functionality after migration.
✅ Additional consulting or migration services: Separate from the Confluence Migration Toolkit, you can choose to benefit from tailored services if you need extra assistance from our dedicated team.
✅ Flexible hosting options: Whether your organization prefers on-premises, private cloud, or hybrid setups, XWiki adapts to your infrastructure. This level of flexibility allows you to maintain full control over hosting, security, and compliance.
✅ Open and extensible platform: With its open-source nature, XWiki comes with complete transparency and the ability to extend or customize the platform to fit your unique business needs. There's zero risk for vendor lock-in.
XWiki and OpenProject, a future-proof Atlassian Data Center alternative
XWiki and OpenProject are working together to bring you a compelling Atlassian Data Center alternative. XWiki's flexible, extensible knowledge management platform helps teams document, share, and grow their knowledge collaboratively. It provides everything you’d expect from Confluence, but with full freedom and transparency.
OpenProject, on the other hand, offers robust project management and issue tracking that matches Jira’s depth while keeping your data yours.
By combining the 2, organizations get an integrated, open-source stack for collaboration and project delivery that’s privacy-respecting, vendor-neutral, and future-proof. It’s the ideal choice for teams ready to move away from proprietary tools without losing functionality or user experience.
The XWiki-OpenProject collaboration builds on the momentum of projects like openDesk, a flexible, open-source office and collaboration suite created through the joint efforts of Europe’s open-source community. Together, these organizations share a common goal: to strengthen digital sovereignty by helping people and institutions stay in control of their data and technology choices. The Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS) leads the openDesk initiative, promoting openness, collaboration, and innovation across Europe. It's the way open-source tool builders reclaim enterprise collaboration from tech giants.
Closing thoughts
Change is never easy, especially when it's imposed. As someone who’s guided organizations through their Confluence migrations, I’ve seen firsthand that disruption doesn’t have to mean disorder. Atlassian’s decision to retire its Data Center products is undoubtedly unsettling. But it also creates a rare window of opportunity: to break free from vendor lock-in, rethink long-term strategy, and choose tools that put your organization back in control.
Yes, migrations can be complex. But with the right partner and proven tools, the process can be smooth, transparent, and even empowering. Over the past 6 years, I’ve seen teams turn forced migrations into strategic upgrades. They discovered flexibility and long-term independence in the process, while benefiting from cost efficiency.
Atlassian’s announcement may have closed one door, but it has opened another, toward a more transparent, future-proof way of working. And that’s where XWiki can help you move forward with confidence.
Ready to take the next step? If you’re planning your migration or want to see how XWiki can make the transition smoother, our team is here to help. Reach out to us at contact@xwiki.com or schedule a call to discuss your migration strategy and explore how XWiki can support your organization.
