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What Can You Share with External Share for Confluence?

What Can You Share with External Share for Confluence?

Externally Share Your Confluence Content

External Share for Confluence helps you share the right Confluence content with the right people, without exposing your entire Confluence space.
Instead of giving access to your space or creating external user accounts, you can simply share what you choose through secure external links.

Why would you use External Share?

  • Sharing approved documentation with clients without exposing internal drafts or spaces.

  • Sending files (PDFs, designs, reports) without sharing full Confluence pages.

  • Publishing customer-facing documentation with your brand applied.

  • Collaborating securely with partners or vendors without creating Confluence accounts.

What Can You Share?

With External Share for Confluence, you can share different types of Confluence content externally while staying fully in control. Sharing is not limited to view-only access. You can also let your external clients and collaborators work together at the same time.

Content Type

Features

Content Type

Features

Confluence Page(s) or Entire Confluence Space

Share single or multiple Confluence pages, including blog posts. Pages can be shared with or without child pages.

You can also share Smart Links, which embed external content directly within Confluence.

Note on Folders: You cannot share Confluence folders directly. However, any folder structures contained within your shared pages will be displayed to external viewers.

Attachments

Share one or multiple attachments from Confluence pages. Only the selected files are accessible to external users.

Macros on Confluence Pages

Share pages containing Jira macros and supported third-party macros. Macro content is rendered correctly on shared pages. See the list of supported macros.

Branded Shared Pages

Share pages with custom branding and design applied, such as visual customization and access controls.

Viewing Shared Pages

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External viewers can check collapsible details sidebar on the right side of externally shared Confluence pages, allowing them to quickly check page information.

 

Previewing Files

External viewers can open files without downloading them first. Clicking a file opens a full-screen preview, whether the file sits in the page content, in the attachments section, or in a comment.

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The preview shows the file type, name, and size in the header, and viewers can move between all the files on the page using the arrows on either side or the left and right arrow keys. Images can be zoomed in and out, videos play and pause with the spacebar, and pressing Esc or clicking outside the file closes the preview.

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A download button appears in the preview only when you have enabled View attachments on the share. Files that cannot be previewed are shown as a card with their details and a download action instead.

 

Mobile Experience

When external users open your shared links on a phone, they will experience a fully responsive, native-app-like mobile interface rather than a scaled-down desktop view.

 

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A floating bottom action bar provides quick access to search, page navigation, comments, and display settings (such as Dark Mode). Actions open in smooth, full-screen panels that can be easily dismissed by swiping down. The mobile layout is also heavily optimized to prevent awkward horizontal scrolling, even on pages with wide tables or code blocks.

Learn More

For real-world examples and best practices, these articles may be helpful:

Full Control and Security

External users only see what you explicitly share.

With External Share for Confluence:

  • You decide which content is visible externally and editable by external user

  • Protect shared links with passwords or SSO settings

  • Shared links can automatically expire

  • External users do not need a Confluence account

  • Internal spaces, permissions, and navigation remain inaccessible

How Attachment Downloads Work

When an external user clicks to download an attachment, they are redirected directly to the Atlassian download URL instead of going through the External Share backend.

What this means for you:

  • The Atlassian download URL will be visible in the browser when downloading a file.

  • Download links are valid for 24 hours. After this period, the link will expire. Note that this validity period is determined by Atlassian and may change in the future.

  • Changing share settings does not immediately invalidate existing download links. For example, if you add a password to a share after someone has already accessed an attachment link, that link will remain accessible until the 24-hour Atlassian URL expires.

This behavior applies to both shared pages with attachments and attachment-type shares.

How Internal Links Work on Shared Pages

When you share pages containing internal Confluence links, External Share ensures a seamless and secure experience for external viewers:

  • Automatic Link Resolution: Standard page links, tiny links (/x/...), and legacy "pretty" URLs (/display/...) pointing to other shared pages will automatically resolve and open directly within the external share.

  • Clean Display: If a raw legacy URL is pasted as text, it will automatically be replaced with the linked page's actual title for a cleaner reading experience.

  • Secure Unshared Links: If a link points to a Confluence page that is not included in your share, its behavior depends on your security settings. If Hide direct links is enabled, the link automatically becomes non-clickable text, preventing external users from being redirected to your internal Confluence login page.

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