Page Comparison

A SAAS product integrating Atlassian Tools

• Refined for Confluence Cloud is an app connected to Confluence. It reads the API’s from Confluence Cloud and pulls in the data. This means on Cloud you will always have native Confluence existing in parallel with the Refined version of Confluence. Whereas on Server you switch on or off Refined to activate it on Confluence.

An app installed onto Confluence

• On Refined for Confluence Server and DC the app is installed onto Confluence. Refined sits on top of Confluence, like a skin that changes the structure, navigation and look and feel. This means you need to switch off Refined if you wish to go back to the standard Confluence. Whereas on Cloud the two exist in parallel.

Hosted by Refined

• Refined for Confluence Cloud is hosted by Refined at refined.site.

Hosted On-Premise

• Refined for Confluence Server DC is hosted in the same place as Confluence.

An independent Refined platform pulling in external data from multiple data sources

• On Refined for Confluence Cloud you can select Atlassian content from Jira, Jira Service Desk and Confluence and expose the content on Refined’s interface.

• You can choose to activate only Confluence as the source of content to display in Refined. Or you can choose to activate both Jira/JSD and Confluence. Please note, you will need to purchase both Refined for Jira and Refined for Confluence Cloud to display both Jira and Confluence content.

• Once the content sources are activated, you can add in Jira projects and Confluence spaces to your site builder.

• The admin section of Refined Cloud is its own tooling platform.

• Think of Refined as a CMS or website content builder for Atlassian Tools.

Embedded on Atlassian Jira’s customer facing portals and projects

• On Refined for Confluence Server DC you can add links to Jira and Jira Service Desk but these will not display in-frame. However from Refined for Jira Server you can display Confluence KB articles in-frame.

• The admin section of Refined for Confluence is within the Confluence admin section.

A Confluence space becomes a page dashboard in Refined Cloud to build on.

• On Refined Cloud, Confluence spaces work differently to on Server. On Cloud a space home is a page you build up using sections and content modules in the inbuilt layout editor.

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A Confluence space keeps the standard Confluence space but cleans up the look and feel

• On Refined for Confluence Server DC a space home is a Confluence space but with a cleaner and customizable side bar. The space itself functions very much the same as a native space.

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Edit a Confluence page from a new tab

• When editing a Confluence page in Refined for Confluence Cloud the page editor will open in a new tab, opening Confluence itself. Changes will take effect as you would expect on the Refined page.

Edit a Confluence page in-frame

• On Refined for Confluence Server/Data Center the page editor will open in the same window and frame.

Site Builder on Cloud

• Think of Refined as a CMS or website content builder for Atlassian Tools. The site builder is where the majority of the site configuration is done.

• Use the site builder to organize the site structure and navigation. Once the data sources are activated, you can add Confluence spaces, Jira projects and Jira Service Desk portals to a site using the plus symbol.

• Rearrange Confluence spaces, Jira projects, and JSD portals (if Refined for Jira is also connected) into pages and/or sites.

• Navigate to sites using the custom URL.

• Navigate to pages from the top navigation menu (dropdown menu).

Learn more on the Cloud site organization.

Site Builder On-Premise

• Similar to Cloud, Refined can be thought of as a CMS builder for Atlassian tools. Like on Cloud, the site builder is where the majority of the site configuration is done.

• Use the site builder to organize the site structure, navigation and view permissions. Any existing Confluence projects will automatically sit in the ‘Uncategorized’ section of the site builder. Confluence spaces can dragged and dropped into categories and sites.

• Rearrange the Confluence spaces into categories and/or sites.

• Navigate to sites using the top hamburger menu.

• Navigate to categories and spaces from the top navigation menu (dropdown menu).

Learn more on site organization.

Terminology and navigation

• On Cloud we call the menu items in the top navigation ‘pages’. Confluence spaces are organized into Refined ‘pages’. ‘Pages’ are the same thing as ‘categories’ on prem.

• On Refined Cloud, you can create ‘pages’ and sub Refined ‘pages’ in the site builder. Both have ‘page homes’ (dashboard/layouts) by default.

• Each Refined ‘page’ that groups content in the top navigation menu has a page home (dashboard). On Refined Cloud, you cannot deactivate the ‘page homes’ (dashboard). However you can add custom links to the top navigation menu. This is a good workaround if you want to deactivate the dashboard. 

• Use the layout editor ‘modules’ to add further navigation on your page homes including links, Confluence content, images and more.

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Terminology and navigation

• On Prem we call the menu items in the top navigation ‘categories’. Confluence spaces are organized into Refined ‘categories’. ‘Categories’ are the same thing as ‘pages’ on Cloud.

• On Prem, you can create categories and subcategories in the site builder. Both have dashboards by default.

• Subcategories are a good way to create a column feel.

• Each Refined ‘category’ that groups content in the top navigation has a category home (dashboard). On Prem, you can deactivate the ‘category homes’. Meaning when you click the category you will be shown the dropdown menu only, and not view a dashboard. Customers often deactivate the dashboard on subcategories.

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Permissions set in Confluence

on spaces and pages. You cannot set permissions on a Refined landing page or site (for now). On both hostings you can assign Refined Admin Permissions.

• On Refined for Confluence Cloud page and space permissions rule. Permissions cannot be added to a Refined site or Refined page (a Refined page is

• equivalent to a category on Server).

• You can add view permissions to content sections in page layouts.

• You can promote Confluence users to be “Refined admins” like on-prem. Meaning they can manage all Refined elements on the site without being a Confluence admin.

• On Cloud you can direct users to the right site by simply linking them the URL for a site.

Permissions set in Confluence

on spaces and pages. Additional permissions can be set in Refined including Site and Category Permissions. On both hostings you can assign Refined Admin Permissions.

• Confluence space permissions rule, but additional Refined permissions can be added on a site, category and Refined admin level.

• You can promote Confluence users to be “Refined admins”. Meaning they can manage all Refined elements on the site without being a Confluence admin.

• See View permissions in Refined here

• Learn about Manual Category Permissions

• On

• -prem you can set start sites for users. E.g., ‘employee user group’ can be set to start at the ‘intranet site’ when they login.

Not compatible with 3rd parties and most but not all macros will render

• Refined for Confluence Cloud is generally not compatible with 3rd party apps. We are continually adding support for Confluence page items. Most (macros and mark-ups) will render but not all.

• See the list of supported Confluence macros here

• Got a macro you really need rendered for a client? Get in touch with support.

If 3rd party compatibility is a non-negotiable, you might want to consider Refined Toolkit for Confluence Cloud.

Compatible with 3rd party apps and all macros should render

• Refined for Confluence Server DC is compatible will the most popular 3rd party apps and all macros and markups render as you would expect.

Custom Cloud URL for each site

• Unlike on native Confluence Cloud On Cloud you can add custom domains to individual sites. Giving you the option of having multiple use cases connected to the one Refined platform.

Same as native Confluence

• On Server you can configure custom domains for Refined just as you would when configuring the domain for native Confluence.

• See the list of 3rd party apps here