Migrating from Smartsheet to Confluence
Confluence and Smartsheet both handle product requirements documentation and team wiki, but they differ on pricing — Confluence comes in $2.95/user/mo/user/mo lower. This guide covers how to move your team across without losing data, context, or momentum.
At a Glance
- Spreadsheet-familiar interface makes adoption easy for teams transitioning from Excel — minimal training needed for basic use
- Extremely powerful Gantt chart and dependency tracking capabilities, ideal for traditional project management and waterfall methodologies
- Robust automation engine with conditional logic, approval workflows, and automated notifications that scale across the organization
- Deep native integration with Jira makes it the de facto documentation tool for teams already using Atlassian — Jira issues embed seamlessly in pages
- Extensive template library with 100+ templates for PRDs, meeting notes, retrospectives, decision logs, and more — accelerates team onboarding
- Real-time collaborative editing with inline comments, @mentions, and page watching enables asynchronous team communication at scale
You leave behind
- −Kanban boards
- −Gantt charts
- −custom fields
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Confluence, document what lives in Smartsheet: projects and tasks, custom fields, automations, integrations, and team permissions. Export a full CSV backup — most tools support this from Settings → Export. Pay particular attention to any custom fields and workflow automations that your team relies on daily.
Set up your Confluence workspace
Create your Confluence workspace and replicate your project structure using tasks and projects. Confluence starts at $6.05/user/mo/user/mo with a free tier available — $2.95/user/mo less than your current Smartsheet spend. Run with a single pilot team before migrating everyone.
Map your workflow equivalents
Find the closest Confluence equivalent for each Smartsheet feature your team relies on. projects and tasks in Smartsheet maps to tasks and projects in Confluence. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
Confluence supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 24+ native integrations. After importing, rebuild your key automations — Confluence's automation engine can replicate most rules you had in Smartsheet. Start with your most active project rather than importing everything at once.
Onboard your team
Run a 30-minute walkthrough covering the daily workflow: how to create tasks and projects, update status, and find your board. Expect a moderate ramp — most engineers and PMs hit their stride within a week. The biggest adjustment is usually the project hierarchy.
Run Smartsheet in parallel for two weeks
Keep Smartsheet read-only while your team works primarily in Confluence. This reduces risk and lets people reference historical context — old decisions, archived tickets, past sprint data — without slowing the migration. After two weeks with no new work going into Smartsheet, archive the workspace and make Confluence the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Confluence review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.