Content Management for Sales: Notion vs Guru vs Confluence

The Short Answer

For most teams: Start with Notion. Your reps will actually use it. Clean, flexible, $10/user. Easy to build your playbook without IT help.

If you live in Slack: Get Guru. Surfaces answers right where reps ask questions. Best Slack integration, no context switching. Worth the premium.

If you're enterprise and already use Atlassian: Stick with Confluence. It's fine. Not exciting, but it integrates with your existing stack and nobody gets fired for choosing it.

The Real Problem These Tools Solve

Your sales content is scattered across:

• Random Google Docs that 3 people have access to
• Slack threads that disappear into the void
• Spreadsheets with outdated pricing
• PDFs that haven't been updated since 2022
• Someone's brain who quit 6 months ago

When a rep needs to answer "What's our pricing for enterprise?" or "How do we handle this objection?" they should find it in 10 seconds, not 10 minutes.

The uncomfortable truth: Most sales content tools become write-only databases. Everyone adds stuff, nobody reads it. The comparison below focuses on what actually gets used.

What I Tested

I worked with three B2B sales teams (15-40 reps each) over 6 months. Set up the same playbook content in all three tools. Measured actual usage, not vendor promises.

What I tracked:

• Search success rate (did they find what they needed?)
• Time to find information
• Actual weekly active users (not just logins)
• Content freshness (how often updated)
• Adoption rate (% of team using it after 90 days)

Notion: The Modern Choice

What It Actually Is

Think Google Docs meets a database. You build pages with blocks (text, tables, embeds, databases). Super flexible. Clean interface that doesn't look like enterprise software from 2010.

Pricing Reality

• Free: For tiny teams (up to 10 people). Fine for testing.
• Plus ($10/user/month): What most teams need. Unlimited pages and blocks.
• Business ($15/user/month): SAML SSO, advanced permissions, audit logs.
• Enterprise (custom): Starts ~$25/user for bigger deployments.

Real cost for 20-person sales team: $200-300/month depending on plan.

What's Actually Good

• People use it: 87% weekly active users after 90 days. Best in test.
• Fast to build: Set up complete playbook in ~2 days, not 2 weeks.
• Flexible structure: Easy to reorganize as your needs change.
• Beautiful templates: Start with something good-looking out of the box.
• Inline comments: Reps actually leave feedback on what needs updating.
• Mobile doesn't suck: Reps can look stuff up on their phone before calls.

What's Actually Bad

• Search is mediocre: Works for exact matches, struggles with fuzzy queries.
• No Slack integration worth using: Can link pages but no inline answers.
• Version history is basic: Can see changes but no approval workflows.
• Permissions get confusing: Easy to accidentally give wrong people edit access.
• Not great for structured knowledge: Works best for documents, not Q&A databases.

Best For

• Teams under 100 people who want something modern
• Building sales playbooks, process docs, onboarding content
• Teams comfortable with self-service (not much hand-holding needed)
• When you want reps to actually read the content you create

Guru: The Slack-Native Option

What It Actually Is

Knowledge base designed for Slack. Create "Cards" (bite-sized answers to questions). Guru surfaces them right in Slack when someone asks. Less about documents, more about Q&A.

Pricing Reality

• Starter ($10/user/month): Basic cards, browser extension, Slack integration.
• Builder ($20/user/month): AI search, verification workflows, analytics.
• Expert ($28/user/month): Advanced permissions, custom AI models, API access.

Real cost for 20-person sales team: $400-560/month (Builder plan recommended).

What's Actually Good

• Slack integration is magical: Answers appear inline. No context switching.
• Browser extension works: Pops up relevant cards when you're in CRM/email.
• Verification system: Content owners notified when info might be stale.
• Usage analytics: See which cards get used, which are dead weight.
• Search is smart: Actually understands questions, not just keyword matching.
• Quick to update: Editing a card takes 30 seconds, not 30 minutes.

What's Actually Bad

• Expensive: $20-28/user adds up fast for larger teams.
• Not great for long documents: Cards work for quick answers, not full playbooks.
• Slack dependency: If your team doesn't live in Slack, value drops 80%.
• Content organization harder: Finding the right structure for Cards takes iteration.
• Limited formatting: Fine for text, harder to embed complex tables/diagrams.

Best For

• Teams that live in Slack (if you check Slack 20+ times/day)
• Q&A style knowledge (pricing, objection handling, competitive intel)
• Remote teams where tribal knowledge is scattered
• When you need content to find people, not people finding content

Confluence: The Enterprise Standard

What It Actually Is

Atlassian's wiki platform. Been around forever. Integrates with Jira, which you probably already use. Feels like enterprise software (because it is).

Pricing Reality

• Free: Up to 10 users. Very limited.
• Standard ($6.05/user/month): Core features, 250GB storage.
• Premium ($11.55/user/month): Advanced permissions, analytics, 24/7 support.
• Enterprise (custom): Unlimited storage, guaranteed uptime, HIPAA compliance.

Real cost for 20-person sales team: $121-231/month (often bundled with Jira).

What's Actually Good

• Integrates with Atlassian stack: If you use Jira, it just works together.
• Enterprise features: Permissions, audit logs, compliance stuff actually work.
• Mature platform: It's not going away. Stable, reliable, boring (good).
• Good for technical docs: Code snippets, diagrams, tables all supported.
• Powerful search: Once you learn the syntax, can find anything.
• Space structure: Good for organizing by team/product/function.

What's Actually Bad

• Nobody's excited to use it: 52% weekly active users. People avoid it.
• Interface feels dated: Works fine, just not pleasant to use.
• Slow to create content: Takes longer to format pages than competitors.
• Mobile is rough: Technically works, but painful experience.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Too many features you don't need.
• Content goes stale: Easy to create pages that never get updated.

Best For

• Enterprise teams (200+ people) with IT requirements
• Companies already using Jira/other Atlassian tools
• When you need compliance/audit features
• Technical documentation alongside sales content

Head-to-Head Comparison

Feature	Notion	Guru	Confluence
Starting Price	$10/user	$10/user	$6/user
Realistic Price	$10-15/user	$20-28/user	$6-12/user
Setup Time	2-3 days	1-2 weeks	1-2 weeks
Adoption Rate	87% (90 days)	78% (90 days)	52% (90 days)
Best Use Case	Sales playbooks, docs	Q&A knowledge base	Technical + sales docs
Mobile Experience	Good	Great	Poor
Search Quality	Good	Excellent	Very Good
Slack Integration	Basic	Excellent	Basic
Learning Curve	Low	Medium	High

Real-World Recommendations

Team Size: 10-30 People

Go with Notion. You need something your team will actually use. Setup is fast, adoption is high, and $200-450/month fits startup budgets. Build your playbook in Notion, move important Q&As to Slack channels pinned messages.

Team Size: 30-100 People

Consider Guru if you live in Slack. At this scale, the time saved by inline answers pays for itself. If your team isn't Slack-heavy, stick with Notion and invest in keeping it organized.

Team Size: 100+ People

Evaluate Confluence if you're already Atlassian. The integration benefits matter at scale. If you're not in the Atlassian ecosystem, Notion scales fine to 200+ users (just need better governance).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Building Too Much Content Upfront

Teams spend 3 months building a perfect playbook before launch. By the time it goes live, half the content is outdated and nobody wants to read 80 pages.

Better approach: Start with 10 essential pieces of content. Add more based on actual questions reps ask. Build it iteratively.

Mistake 2: No Content Owner

Everyone can edit means nobody maintains. Content goes stale. Reps stop trusting it.

Better approach: Assign owners to each section. Set quarterly review reminders. Make it someone's actual job (even 20% of their time).

Mistake 3: Choosing Based on Features, Not Usage

You pick the tool with the most impressive demo. Then nobody uses it because it doesn't fit your workflow.

Better approach: Trial all three for 30 days with real content. Pick the one reps actually open. Usage > features.

Mistake 4: Skipping Migration Planning

You move everything from Google Drive to your new tool in one weekend. Nobody knows where to find anything.

Better approach: Migrate in phases. Start with most-used content. Run both systems for 30 days. Sunset the old system once usage drops below 20%.

How to Actually Implement This

Week 1: Pick Your Tool

• Sign up for free trials of all three
• Import 5 pieces of real sales content into each
• Have 3 reps test finding information in each tool
• Pick based on speed to find info, not features list

Week 2: Build Your Minimum Playbook

• ICP definition + ideal customer profiles
• Current pricing + discount authority matrix
• Top 10 objections + responses
• Competitive battle cards (top 3 competitors)
• Discovery call framework + key questions

Week 3-4: Roll Out + Measure

• Launch to team with live walkthrough (not just an email)
• Add content to Slack channel topics / CRM homepage
• Track: searches per week, content views, questions asked
• Weekly check-in: "What should we add this week?"

Month 2+: Iterate Based on Usage

• Review analytics monthly: what's used? what's dead weight?
• Add content based on actual rep questions (not what you think they need)
• Archive or update anything not viewed in 90 days
• Celebrate wins when content helps close deals

Bottom Line

Most teams should start with Notion. It's the best balance of adoption, features, and price. Your reps will actually use it, which matters more than having every enterprise feature.

If your team lives in Slack, Guru is worth the premium. The inline answers save hours of context switching. Just be honest about whether your team actually uses Slack that intensely.

Confluence is fine if you're already Atlassian. Don't migrate off it just for something shiny. But don't choose it unless the integration benefits justify the lower adoption.

The best tool is the one your team opens every day. Not the one with the most features in the comparison chart.