What is the most Secure way to share specific Confluence pages with the public?

[Jill Vieregge]

Thinking of starting a separate Confluence Cloud instance just for public information. Is there a very secure way to share pages with public within a Confluence instance? I see lots of options but am unsure as to the most secure one.

[Angela Thomas_Seibert Group · Accepted solution]

Hello @Jill Vieregge 

Public links and anonymous access are two different methods for sharing content with users who do not have access to Confluence or an Atlassian account.

• If your intention is to share 'specific pages' then Public links are lower risk because only a single page at a time gets shared. The public user only sees a very limited read-only version of the real page.
• Anonymous access is higher risk because it exposes an entire space and therefore needs to be managed carefully. If you don’t want the public reading your page comments, you have to delete them. If you don’t want the public to access a specific page, you have to restrict the permissions on that page.
  
  Here's a guide for you to decide what is best for your scenario. It includes a detailed comparison. 

[Kristian Klima]

Hello @Jill Vieregge 

The safest way to make Confluence pages public is to show the Confluence content ...OUTSIDE of Confluence using ... a Confluence app :) 

Let me explain. 

This is our documentation - https://docs.emplifi.io/ 

All our writing and content management takes place in a Confluence space.

We do not allow anonymous access and public links (there are many reasons and security is a major one).

So we use an Confluence app called Scroll Viewport (by K15t) that takes our Confluence content and builds a static documentation website.

If it hadn't been for a tiny disclaimer, you'd never know you're looking at site that originates in Confluence. Your Confluence, your site's URL adress etc. are not exposed to the public.

As an alternative, there's Instant Websites by Glintech.

As far as I know, those are the only two apps that can create a bona fide public site from Confluence without the need for anonymous access.

It's like having your cake and eating it. Totally private Confluence and public doc site.

(The added benefit is that you can use those apps on Confluence free which does not allow public access :) )

[Humashankar VJ]

Hi @Jill Vieregge 

When it comes to sharing Confluence pages with the public, security is vital.

The most secure approach is to create a separate Confluence Cloud instance dedicated to public-facing content. This eliminates the risk of exposing internal information and allows for anonymous access to be enabled solely for public content. This option is ideal for organizations with high security needs or large volumes of public content, such as product documentation or knowledge bases.

• To learn more - What are the types of access in Confluence Cloud? - TecnoFor
• Solved: Difference between public link and anonymous acces...

If using a separate instance isn't feasible, there are other options within a single instance. These include enabling anonymous access at the space level, restricting public pages to specific users through guest access, publishing pages as static PDF or HTML files, and using Atlassian's public links feature. Each of these options carries varying levels of risk, with public links offering a controlled and secure method for sharing specific pages.

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!
Thank you very much and have a great one!
Warm regards