Confluence Data Center End of Life 2029: Migrating to XWiki, BookStack, Docmost or Wiki.js

Replacing Confluence Data Center before March 2029? WZ-IT's wiki selection compares XWiki, BookStack, Docmost and Wiki.js against your spaces, permissions and identities. You try all four systems in your own demo instances during the selection. The result is a decision paper with a migration path, from €3,900 excl. VAT. Book a free initial consultation

Atlassian is ending Data Center. On 28 March 2029 all Data Center subscriptions expire and Confluence Data Center becomes read-only (Atlassian, Data Center End of Life). The only path Atlassian offers after 2029 is its own cloud. For organizations that run Confluence in their own data centre precisely because content must stay there, that is not an option. What remains is a move to a self-hosted open-source wiki.

This guide covers that move: which deadlines apply, what the Confluence export contains, how migration to XWiki, Docmost, BookStack and Wiki.js works for each system, and where licence costs arise. Which wiki generally suits which organization is compared in the post BookStack, Wiki.js, XWiki or Docmost. As of October 2026.

The three dates at a glance:

• 30 March 2026: New customers can no longer buy Data Center.
• 30 March 2028: Last day for existing customers to buy subscriptions, apps and expansions.
• 28 March 2029: End of life, Confluence Data Center becomes read-only.

Table of Contents

1. From 28 March 2029 Confluence Data Center is read-only
2. Atlassian's only vendor path is the cloud
3. What the Confluence export includes and what it does not
4. XWiki migrates permissions, history and users with the Migration Toolkit
5. Docmost imports Confluence only from the Business tier
6. BookStack and Wiki.js have no Confluence import
7. Outline imports only with a licence and cannot be run as a service
8. Migration path per target system at a glance
9. Licensing: where the free editions end
10. Timeline working back from the deadlines
11. Common misconceptions about the Data Center end
12. Our approach at WZ-IT
13. Further guides

From 28 March 2029 Confluence Data Center is read-only

Atlassian announced the end of Data Center on 8 September 2025 (Atlassian, Ascend). The phase-out has three fixed dates, each at 23:59 PST (Atlassian, Data Center End of Life):

Affected products are Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, Bamboo and Crowd Data Center, plus the Atlassian and Marketplace apps for them. Bitbucket Data Center is excluded and receives a hybrid licence.

What read-only means in practice. In Atlassian's words, you will be able to access your data, but you will not be able to add new data or perform new actions. Until 28 March 2029 there is technical support and security bug fixes for critical vulnerabilities, after that there is not. Atlassian strongly advises against keeping a read-only instance running while connected to the internet and recommends backing up the data.

Renewals end on 28 March 2029. Data Center subscriptions can still be renewed, but not beyond the end-of-life date. The last renewal is prorated. Atlassian mentions extended maintenance beyond 2029 only as an exception for certain customers, without publishing conditions or prices. That is not a reliable basis for planning.

For data protection this creates a checkpoint: in a system that allows no new actions, rectifications and deletions can no longer be carried out in the application. How to assess this in an individual case is a matter for your data protection officer. This post is not legal advice.

Atlassian's only vendor path is the cloud

For all affected products Atlassian states: to continue using them, you will need to move to cloud (Atlassian, Data Center End of Life). Organizations with 1,000 or more users receive free support through FastShift. Atlassian says FastShift shortens such migrations from 12 to 16 months to 2 to 6 months (Atlassian, Ascend).

The cloud offers data residency, for Confluence on the Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans. That does not pin all data to one location:

The cloud is the shorter path when Marketplace apps and Jira integration are deeply embedded in daily work and a US provider on AWS is compatible with your own requirements. Organizations that run Data Center for data sovereignty, such as public authorities, healthcare, professions bound by confidentiality or companies with export-controlled content, do not solve the question that led them to self-hosting by moving to the cloud. The situation for Atlassian's AI Rovo, which likewise only runs in the cloud, is covered in the post Atlassian Rovo alternative, self-hosted.

What the Confluence export includes and what it does not

Every migration starts with an export. Confluence Data Center exports spaces as PDF, HTML or XML, and single pages additionally as Word. A space export requires the "Export Space" permission (Atlassian, Export content). What each format contains:

Source of the table: Atlassian, Export content (Confluence Data Center 10.2).

Three points determine the migration path:

• Users and groups are only present in full site export packages, not in space exports. If you export spaces one by one, users and groups are matched via the directory, for example LDAP, Active Directory or Entra ID (XWiki Store, Confluence Migration Toolkit).
• Large instances often cannot be exported as a whole. According to the XWiki documentation, site exports of larger sites will likely fail, possibly after hours or days; space backups, by contrast, can be scripted and imported in batches (ibid.).
• The XML export is meant for Confluence. Atlassian describes it as the format for importing into a Confluence instance running the same or a newer version. Any other wiki needs its own importer.

According to Atlassian, Team Calendars are not included in XML exports. Data from other Marketplace apps stored outside pages, such as approval workflows or calendars, has to be checked app by app.

XWiki migrates permissions, history and users with the Migration Toolkit

XWiki is licensed under LGPL-2.1 (GitHub, xwiki-platform) and has the most complete Confluence import of the systems covered here. It runs through Confluence Migrator Pro, part of the paid Confluence Migration Toolkit (XWiki Store, Confluence Migration Toolkit).

Macros are the real limit. In October 2026 the macro table in the XWiki Store lists around 650 Confluence macros: 78 are supported, 7 partially, 562 not. Most of the unsupported ones come from Marketplace apps. Supported macros include expand, toc, panel, code, include, excerpt-include, status, drawio and gliffy; unsupported ones include table-filter, chart, calendar and roadmap. A macro without a counterpart is not lost: the content is imported, the view shows an error message, and the macro syntax remains visible in the editor. XWiki recommends converting Gliffy diagrams in Confluence beforehand with the draw.io "Gliffy Mass Import" feature.

Besides the toolkit, there is a free importer under LGPL-2.1 in the xwiki-contrib/confluence project. XWiki needs no additional licence for authentication and groups: the extensions for LDAP and OpenID Connect are also under LGPL-2.1. XWiki offers convenience features for Active Directory and Entra ID as a Pro app.

XWiki is the obvious choice when there are many spaces with finely graded permissions and page restrictions, when history has to move over, or when structured data and forms are in use. How to extend XWiki with AI search is shown in the post XWiki AI setup.

Docmost imports Confluence only from the Business tier

Docmost is licensed under AGPL-3.0 at its core, with the ee directories under a separate enterprise licence (GitHub, docmost). The Confluence import belongs to the licensed part and is implemented in the code as the feature flag import:confluence (GitHub, features.ts).

What the HTML path leaves out. The HTML export contains no blog posts and only the pages the exporting user can see; the page restrictions themselves are missing (see the export table above). Docmost does not list page history, permissions or users as migrated content. Permissions are set anew in Docmost, and users come via SSO or LDAP, which also requires the Business tier.

Example calculation: 50 users with SSO cost 50 × USD 6 × 12 months = USD 3,600 in licence fees per year. Docmost fits when teams want to edit pages simultaneously, the Confluence content is mostly text with standard formatting and the permission concept is being reorganized anyway. Which features are in which edition is shown in the post Docmost Community vs. Enterprise Edition.

BookStack and Wiki.js have no Confluence import

BookStack is licensed under MIT and has no paid edition (GitHub, BookStack). BookStack can only import its own "Portable ZIP" format (BookStack, Exporting and Importing). Moving from Confluence runs through the REST API with your own or community scripts that work with the HTML export. Authentication via OIDC, SAML2 and LDAP is included without an additional licence (bookstackapp.com). The current version is v26.09.1 of 29 September 2026 (GitHub Releases).

BookStack organizes content in a fixed hierarchy of shelf, book, chapter and page, and permissions can be set at each of these levels (BookStack, Roles and Permissions). A Confluence space becomes a shelf or a book. Page trees nested deeper than book, chapter and page have to be flattened. A migration to BookStack is therefore a cleaned-up move, not a 1:1 copy. That suits handbooks, process and IT documentation that are due for a clean-up anyway. A feature comparison with Confluence is in the post BookStack vs. Confluence.

Wiki.js is licensed under AGPL-3.0, also without a paid edition (GitHub, requarks/wiki). There are two lines (GitHub Releases):

Wiki.js 2.x includes LDAP, SAML, OIDC and other authentication methods without an additional licence. The path from Confluence runs through your own conversion of the HTML export to Markdown and an import via the API or Git sync. Anyone migrating to Wiki.js 2.x today should plan the later move to 3.0 once it is released as stable.

Outline imports only with a licence and cannot be run as a service

Outline appears in many lists as a Confluence alternative. Its licence is the Business Source License 1.1. The Additional Use Grant excludes operation as a "Document Service", and on 9 September 2030 the code changes to Apache 2.0 (GitHub, Outline LICENSE). Outline explicitly states that selling, reselling or hosting Outline as a service is a breach of the terms (Outline, License restrictions). The Confluence importer is part of the paid self-hosted licence, together with SAML and the security audit log; Outline does not publish a price (Outline, Business and Enterprise).

For a migration this means: Outline is only an option if your own IT runs it. Operation by a service provider is ruled out by the licence. Beyond the systems covered here, others have their own tooling, for example BlueSpice, based on MediaWiki (GitHub, hallowelt/migrate-confluence).

Migration path per target system at a glance

As of October 2026, sources in the sections above. The more permissions, history and blog posts have to survive from Confluence, the more the path leads to XWiki. The more the move is seen as a chance to clean up, the more BookStack, Docmost or Wiki.js come into question.

Licensing: where the free editions end

Open source does not always mean that every feature is free. For a Confluence replacement two points matter most: authentication against the existing directory and the import.

Licences for Docmost Business or the XWiki toolkit are bought directly from the vendor. They come on top of operating costs and belong in the budget, just like the last, prorated Data Center renewal.

Timeline working back from the deadlines

The timeline follows from two dates: 30 March 2028, after which no licence expansions are possible, and 28 March 2029, from which Confluence is read-only. Working backwards:

The order matters more than the calendar: a pilot with a real space from your own content shows early which macros and permissions need rework. Anyone adding users before 2028 must decide before 30 March 2028 whether to expand Data Center once more.

Common misconceptions about the Data Center end

Our approach at WZ-IT

WZ-IT supports the replacement of Confluence Data Center in three steps, from the decision to operation.

1. Wiki selection with a defined scope. The wiki selection costs from €3,900 excl. VAT. It covers the inventory of your spaces, macros, apps, permissions and identities, weighted criteria agreed with business units and IT, a review of the licence and operating limits of the candidates, demo instances of XWiki, BookStack, Docmost and Wiki.js with sample content that your staff try themselves for the duration of the selection, and in addition a demonstration of two finalists with your own content. The result is a decision paper with migration path, licence costs from vendor information and an operating model. The amount is credited against the rollout if you order it within 6 months on the same topic.
2. Rollout and migration. You receive the proposal for this together with the decision paper. It covers the structure and permission concept, a pilot with single sign-on via your directory, the migration from Confluence to XWiki, Docmost, BookStack or Wiki.js, and training for key users and administrators. Licences such as Docmost Business or the XWiki Confluence Migration Toolkit are bought directly from the vendor.
3. Operation in Germany. We run the new wiki through Managed Open Source in German data centres, from €129.90 excl. VAT per workload and month, with updates, backups and monitoring. Alternatively it runs on your own infrastructure.

Once the new wiki is in place, it can be extended with AI search that cites sources and checks permissions. A defined first content set is tested in the RAG Proof of Value from €9,900 excl. VAT; the long-term setup is described on the page for the internal AI assistant.

Further guides

• BookStack, Wiki.js, XWiki or Docmost, which wiki suits which organization.
• Open-source Confluence alternatives, Docmost, BookStack and Wiki.js at a glance.
• BookStack vs. Confluence, features and data protection side by side.
• Docmost Community vs. Enterprise Edition, which features sit behind the licence boundary.
• Atlassian Rovo alternative, self-hosted, AI search across your own wiki without Atlassian Cloud.
• XWiki AI setup, connecting the LLM Application to a local model.
• Knowledge management: wiki selection and rollout, WZ-IT's package for the replacement.

The decision has to be made before 30 March 2028. We review your Confluence content, compare the suitable wikis using your own pages and plan the migration so that permissions and history move over where they need to. Book a free initial consultation

Sources

• Atlassian, Data Center End of Life
• Atlassian, Ascend: announcement of 8 September 2025
• Atlassian, Server end of support
• Atlassian Support, Understand data residency
• Atlassian Trust, Cloud architecture and operational practices
• SEC EDGAR, Atlassian Corp
• Atlassian, Export content to Word, PDF, HTML and XML
• XWiki Store, Confluence Migration Toolkit
• XWiki Store, Confluence Migrator Pro
• XWiki Pricing
• GitHub, xwiki-platform
• GitHub, xwiki-contrib/confluence
• GitHub, xwiki-contrib/ldap
• GitHub, xwiki-contrib/oidc
• Docmost Pricing
• Docmost, Import and export
• GitHub, docmost
• GitHub, Docmost features.ts
• GitHub, Docmost releases
• BookStack, Exporting and Importing
• BookStack, Roles and Permissions
• bookstackapp.com
• GitHub, BookStack
• GitHub, BookStack releases
• GitHub, requarks/wiki
• GitHub, Wiki.js releases
• GitHub, Wiki.js 3.0.0-beta.617
• GitHub, Wiki.js AdminUtilities.vue (branch scarlett)
• GitHub, Wiki.js modules v2.5.315
• GitHub, Outline LICENSE
• Outline, License restrictions
• Outline, Business and Enterprise
• GitHub, hallowelt/migrate-confluence